A commenter this morning said that the Cleveland Indians make sense for Nick Swisher because he?s from Ohio. I love that stuff.
Swisher was born in Columbus and lived here as a kid and then moved to his father?s hometown of Parkersburg, West Virginia where he went to high school.?But he did come back and go to Ohio State, so let?s give him Ohio as his home for argument?s sake. Columbus is about 135 miles away from Cleveland. Or roughly as far as Springfield, Massachuesetts is from New York City. Yet, for some reason, I don?t see anyone talking about guys from there being good fits with the Yankees.*
The point isn?t to pick on that commenter, though, as a lot of people say things like that. The point is to note just how useless it is to cite such things as where someone grew up as having significant influence on multi-million dollar free agent decisions.
CC Sabathia is from California. Mark Teixeira is from Maryland. Cliff Lee is from Arkansas. Roy Oswalt has a farm in rural Illinois. All of these were supposed to be factors in where they signed or where they steered trades, but none of it mattered. Indeed, I can?t think of a a major free agent or a player with no-trade protection for whom such geographical concerns were dispositive in recent years.
Griffey to?Cincinnati? maybe? Of course that was 12 years ago and probably had more to do with spring training homes than anything else. Javier Vazquez famously wanted to be east so he could fly to Puerto Rico easier. I recall Matt Williams needing to be in Arizona for family reasons at the end of his career. ?But apart from that stuff, I?m drawing a blank.
Add geography to state income taxes, where the player?s wife likes to shop, Johnny Damon?s love of octopus and any other number of soft factors like that to the pile of things that are fun to talk about as we fill the time during the hot stove season, but which really don?t matter.
It?s the money and the winning, usually in that order, which make the difference. Everything else constitutes about a half of a percent of the determining factors.
?
*Spare me your ?Massachusetts is culturally different than New York? stuff. I know it is. But Cleveland and Columbus are culturally different as well. Remarkably so, as are just about any two other places that are?separated?by that kind of distance east of the Mississippi river.
shell houston open mega millions winners anthony davis palm sunday toure patti smith lottery winners
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন