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David is an occasional blogger, software engineer, Nintendo fanboy, liberal, news magazine addict, voracious TiVo user, and bibliophile. He was born in St. Louis, grew up in southern Indiana, and returned to St. Louis to attend Washington University. He hasn't managed to escape yet. He's a fan of free wine tastings, too many tv shows to name, and eating out. David makes his living developing web applications used internally by his employer. He doesn't blog about work because he's heard too many stories about that causing workplace troubles. There's more on the about page. |
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22 May 2006 - 6:27 pm
The Ozzie Smith - Tony LaRussa feud has made it into the national spotlight (see here for Ozzie's initial comments and here for Tony's response). This can only be a good thing. Tony platooned Ozzie and Royce Clayton in Ozzie's final year in the big leagues, and Ozzie has never accepted the fact that his body had made him a part-time player by that point. The goal of baseball teams is to win games. That was Tony's goal. Ozzie thought the club "owed him" the starting role. Tony thought that the platoon situation would be best for the club. It probably was. The previous year Ozzie batted .199 and missed extensive time because of a shoulder injury. In 1996 -- in the platoon situation -- Ozzie batted .282. Clearly, the platooning worked. And the following year Ozzie justified Tony's assumption that he wasn't able to carry a full-time load any longer by retiring.
Ozzie has held a grudge against LaRussa for 10 years now, and it's time he grew up and got over it. Jeff Gordon summarizes both sides pretty well here.
Posted by on 22 May 2006 at 6:19 PM
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