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[melack]

True enough but... like...

That's then an above-average corner outfielder. The cannon arm makes you more than a defensively-neutral player.

Whole 'nother set of beans. The spectacular defensive abilities go outside of this discussion.

It is VERY hard to play first base as well as Kevin Youklis does, for example, no matter what your athletic skills.

But if you're a decent athlete it is relatively easy to play a PASSABLE firstbase.

Ditto for the outfield corners. If you have the cannon, bonus points abound.

But if you can hit and you can't even play an ACCEPTABLE first or left or right, you aren't a baseball player, you're a carnival act.

Boo to the DH. Booooooo.

The thing about 1B/LF/RF is that if you're playing reeeaaally great there, you probably shouldn't be playing there. For example, the only reason Youk plays first is because the Red Sox have Mike Lowell at third, an elite defensive player. On most other teams, Youk would be playing third. That's why he's such a great 1B is because he belongs higher up on the defensive spectrum.

It's a similar situation with Ichiro. He played RF for all those years before switching to center when that was his natural position all along.

[JorgeFabregas]

True, except for the throw from left to third for preventing a sacrifice fly from advancing a running from 2nd to 3rd.  When there's a right fielder with a cannon arm, that can be one of the most dramatic plays in baseball.

More often than that a good right fielder can keep a runner from going first to third on a single.

[JorgeFabregas]

IMHO

Right. At least at this point in time--left field is the haven for the butchers when DH and 1B are unavailable. Chicago's got two of them in Alfonso Soriano (good athlete, good arm, bad fielding instincts) and Josh Fields (not as fast, but otherwise ditto).

[jaydub]

More often than that a good right fielder can keep a runner from going first to third on a single.

More often, perhaps, but I was speaking of drama.  Keeping a speedy hitter honest is blue-collar RF play.  Killing a sacrifice fly advance is heroic.

[RMJ12345]

I am certain you get this all the time, Rumjay, and I am certain that it has gotten annoying over time.

However, I mean this genuinely and as a genuinely huge compliment:

By right of lineage alone and also more, you are one of the very few people I internet-know who I could possibly imagine being more correct about a baseball thing than I am, on some given baseball topic.

If I met one of Kurt Vonnegut's children, I would feel the same about them and writing or et-cetera.

As I go to a women's college, people rarely care about Dad's occupation (except for the fame quotient), so it's not a tiresome question. But I'm afraid that while I know the game and perspectives of looking at it fairly well, I don't know a whole lot about the current game, if that makes sense.

What I can offer you is this: Biggio is (was) one of Dad's favorite current players. I'm not sure why, but that much I know is true.

[melack]

Wait, what is this about your dad?

[RMJ12345]

Wait, what is this about your dad?

This is my dad. Short version: he's a well-known baseball expert.

[melack]

What the shit! How did I not know this already? I'm a pretty huge Bill James fan. Hell, I just mentioned the "defensive spectrum" a few posts ago.

I feel I should have known this already. I feel ashamed for having not.

Edit: Please don't tell me this means you're rooting for the Red Sox in the playoffs.

[pmcd9]

What I can offer you is this: Biggio is (was) one of Dad's favorite current players. I'm not sure why, but that much I know is true.

Which leads to my follow up question.  Regardless of the opinion of this message board whether he should he make it (a unanimous no).  Do you think that he will?

I don't know how membership in the hall of fame is decided, but I think it's a panel of experts.  My guess is that Pops has a say in the matter.

[littlefallsmets]

:: As I go to a women's college, people rarely care about Dad's occupation (except for the fame quotient), so it's not a tiresome question.

Plus, I suppose, the fact that it's a fairly common last name helps.

If someone in my family got famous, there aren't a whole lotta Cecconis in America. Most of 'em either stayed in Italy or somewhere else in Europe, like England or Germany. If a Cecconi got real famous, even one I wasn't related to in any way, I'd probably get it a lot.

Hell, people ask me if I'm related to Madonna fairly often, just because my last name sounds very close to hers in pronounciation, despite being transliterated to English with a different spelling.

:: But I'm afraid that while I know the game and perspectives of looking at it fairly well, I don't know a whole lot about the current game, if that makes sense.

To be fair, there are stretches of time where I wasn't paying attention to the entire game, just to my Mets.

Perhaps Biggio had his best years when I was doing two-thousand-dollars worth of damage to my dormfloor's lounge after the Mets lost the Subway Series and so on. When you're a big guy but you're not prone to violence, boy oh boy, you really scare people the few times you show that propensity.

Pretty much, if your pop says Biggio deserves it, I gotta at least give Craig a second consideration.

I still say I know more about the current Mets than anyone alive, more than Willie Randolph or Omar Minaya, but for the other 29 teams, I'll have to reconsider my position.

As for P-Money's question:

The main inductees are picked by a vote by selected members of the Baseball Writer's Association of America... basically, the highest men on the totem pole in the "union" for baseball newspaper writers pick 'em.

The Veterans Committee... for picking old time players and so forth... are comprised of Hall of Fame players, though I think that's changed more than a few times.

How other type people get in... umpires, executives, owners, sports journalists... I dunno. I think they might form special committees or it's on a case by case basis or something like that.

I think that has changed a few times too.

[RMJ12345]

Plus, I suppose, the fact that it's a fairly common last name helps.

Also the fact that I go by my mother's last name as well as my father's (Mom kept her name when they married because she's a feminist like that).

I don't know how membership in the hall of fame is decided, but I think it's a panel of experts.  My guess is that Pops has a say in the matter.

The main inductees are picked by a vote by selected members of the Baseball Writer's Association of America... basically, the highest men on the totem pole in the "union" for baseball newspaper writers pick 'em.

The Veterans Committee... for picking old time players and so forth... are comprised of Hall of Fame players, though I think that's changed more than a few times.

How other type people get in... umpires, executives, owners, sports journalists... I dunno. I think they might form special committees or it's on a case by case basis or something like that.

I think that has changed a few times too.

QFT. Dad is not a fan of the people who do choose the player who get in, let's put it that way. He dislikes them enough to have written a whole book about what's wrong with them (which, btw, is dedicated to me).

[theinevitable]

If someone in my family got famous, there aren't a whole lotta Cecconis in America. Most of 'em either stayed in Italy or somewhere else in Europe, like England or Germany. If a Cecconi got real famous, even one I wasn't related to in any way, I'd probably get it a lot.

I always answer Yes when I am asked if I am related to a certain film director. "yeah, that's my dad." people freak out for like half a second and then realize I'm fuck*ng with them.
His name rhymes with Jim Hurton?

[littlefallsmets]

Y'see, I ain't got Cooperstown seniority around here anymore.

I grew up thirty miles north of Cooperstown and in most situations, that pretty much solidifies my seniority on that subject anywhere I wanna go. When I visited again this summer, while visiting my parents, people's kids would ask them questions and the dads would shrug and then the people working at the Hall would shrug and then I would blurt out the answers like a dork.

I was wearing my Reyes home jersey and upon my answering of a question, a dude in a Phillies hat said:

"I don't usually talk to Mets fans but you're all right."

My friend Amanda, who was with me, looked at me as if she realized that this was a place where I was Basically Awesome.

In the Hall of Fame, I was the coolest kid in school. If only she had seen me do that back in high school, before I had my steadylady  Adrian in my life, perhaps I would've had sex in high school. haha.

You now got the Cooperstown seniority here, Rumjay, having had a book about it dedicated to you.

I also hid one of the few remaining Little Falls Mets tickets I hold in my possession, in my wallet, in the one thing I'd probably still have with me if my apatrtment burned down, in the crack of an exhibit while I was there. I'm pretty sure it was the one I always kept in my hospital bracelet, when under surgery, when my heart stopped from anaphalatic shock... that I held in my hand and made myself stop, the one time I almost killed myself as a teenager.

There will be evidence that the place I grew up in mattered for a coupla years, when I was a kid, there in the Hall of Fame.

However hidden, however small, however easily overlooked.

[melack]

Your dad is Hallburton? No way!

Myself, I've really only seen my last name on NHL players. I don't know why that is.

[JorgeFabregas]

Guys, go here for geeking out on baseball stats if you don't already. When you tear yourself away sometime next week and your eyes unblur you'll thank me.

This page gives a nice Biggio/Alomar comparison for your reading pleasure.

Those numbers are surprisingly similar. The averages are all pretty much the same (except for the steals and triples), though Alomar broke in to the bigs younger.