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Two Baseball Writers Discuss the World Series

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from: Rob Neyer
to: Rany Jazayerli

Fitting Brenly for the Horns

Posted Friday, Nov. 2, 2001, at 1:15 PM ET

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Rany:

I love baseball. That's no secret to anyone who knows me or anyone who reads me. But if there's one thing about baseball that makes me question my love for the game, it's what the game sometimes does to young men who aren't prepared for the worst. Right there in front of the whole world—including perhaps millions of South Koreans, watching on television on the other side of the globe—Byung-Hyun Kim did something that no pitcher has done in World Series history, blowing a two-run lead for the second straight game.

There are people who think baseball players make too much money. Well, I'd like to ask those pinheads, "Do you want to pitch in the bottom of the ninth in the World Series and risk embarrassing yourself in full view of many millions of people? Do you want to be in a position to let down many thousands of fans, not to mention your 24 teammates? Do you want to risk being remembered as a failure for the rest of your life?"

I'm not sure that I would. I think that I prefer my happy, low-pressure occupation, even if ballplayers make more in a year than I'll make in my life.

Even if the Diamondbacks win the Series, Kim will always be known for his failures in Games 3 and 4, rather than whatever successes he's had and will (we can only hope) have. But if they lose, he's going to go down as perhaps the biggest goat in baseball history, supplanting candidates like Fred Snodgrass, Bill Buckner, and Mitch Williams. If there's a bright spot here—and there isn't, really—it's that Phoenix isn't New York or Boston. Because if it were, Kim would probably not be able to continue living in the United States.

Yes, he'll be remembered for blowing two World Series games, and to a point that's fair, because of course he did blow two World Series games. But, you know, if there's any justice at all in this world, Bob Brenly will take his share of whatever blame history metes out, too. Because he didn't have any business asking a 22-year-old Korean relief pitcher to throw 61 pitches in a World Series game at Yankee Stadium, and he certainly didn't have any business asking that same 22-year-old Korean relief pitcher to come back the next night and do it all over again.

They say that every World Series has a goat. Well, I nominate the manager.

sports nut
entries
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425
from: Rob Neyer
to: Rany Jazayerli

Fitting Brenly for the Horns

Posted Friday, Nov. 2, 2001, at 1:15 PM ET
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Rob Neyer is a senior baseball writer with ESPN.com and his latest book is The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers. Rany Jazayerli is a writer for the Baseball Prospectus.
Photograph of Bob Brenly by Mike Blake/Reuters.
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