How Do You Pick Your Favorite Player?
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by Ron Sen, MD
Talk about an inexact science...we choose our favorites based on our own irrational needs. In a world looking for existential choice (Field of Dreams - "What do you want?"..."dog and a beer."), we select our favorites, well, how?
My favorite player will always be someone 'real'. I can't relate to Barry Bonds or A-Rod, and I'm not arguing for Doc Medich, either. He can't be a self-promoter or guy whose existence hinges on cultivating a relationship with the media (e.g. a Steve Lyons fringe guy). He won't be the highest paid guy on the team, or the guy with the most ability. He must put the team before himself (like I'd know that) and have the common touch.
It helps if he's a pitcher...but he doesn't have to be. The Red Sox only have a few candidates - Alex Cora and Dustin Pedroia as position players, and Kason Gabbard, Hideki Okajima, and Manny Delcarmen as pitchers. Delcarmen almost had his head taken off by a liner last week, and got up chuckling. That makes me think Little Manny has some Jack Nicholson in him. How can Okajima be my favorite when I can't talk to him? So that leaves me with Gabbard, as in Kason goes rolling along.
First, he's making the minimum (more than I make, by a lot), but I could still buy him a beer without feeling ridiculous. Next, he looks as though he should be a landscaper or trash guy. Nothing wrong with that, and his pedestrian image works. Lastly, there's the story about how Francona didn't even know who he was in Spring Training. Yeah, the anonymous lefty, or grounds crew guy. Hey, you, can you rake the fungo circle?
So how do you choose? And don't say by how tight his pants are...puh-lease.
