B4B

Matt Sisson sits down with Rob Neyer, to discuss baseball, and Neyer’s latest book: Big Book of Baseball Legends (The Truth, the Lies, and Everything Else)

Here are some of my favorite parts:

(Q) What record in baseball history would you say is the most unlikely to be broken?

(RN) Anything related to starting pitchers’ workloads: starts, innings, complete games, wins, losses, etc.

These statistics are so era-dependent, that you’d have to imagine some kind of adjustment made–in the official record books–to give the 21st century major leaguers a chance.

(Q) First word or words that come to mind when you think of these players:

Q Ted Williams

(RN) Hitter

Q Joe DiMaggio

(RN) Graceful

Q Bert Blyleven

(RN) Terribly, terribly unappreciated

Q Derek Jeter

(RN) Terribly, terribly overrated … but still great

Q Barry Zito

(RN) Toast

Q David Ortiz

(RN) Best free agent signing, ever

We definitely agree on Zito. And the David Ortiz signing back in 2003 (1 year 1.25 million), is the single biggest reason the Red Sox have won 2 world series championships recently.