Of course I [Buzz Bissinger] asked for it by saying in Three Nights that sabermetricians don't love the game of baseball. That set their hair on fire. So did a theory I posed (I emphasize theory) that young pitchers get hurt because they don't pitch enough in the minors. It was four paragraphs in a 7,000-word piece about Kerry Wood for Play, and Wood himself agreed with the theory. What they really hated was that one of my sources was Tony La Russa, whose performance over the past four years, including this one, makes Billy Beane look like a Little League GM."
So much to love about this -- the Beane-LaRussa comparison, the notion that he was unfairly attacked, and more. My favorite is that Mr. Journalistic Responsibility neglects to mention that the "attacks" on Three Nights in August showed that he didn't even bother to do a basic Google search or consult the easily-accessible information that could have established the historical point about innings in the minor leagues once and for all. You see, Buzz, one of the requirements for something called a "theory" (as you so cleverly try to qualify it) is that it can be confirmed or disconfirmed.
As I've said before, I suppose he didn't have any money left for an expensive phone call or email to Stats, Inc. or wherever after picking up LaRussa's bar tab for a night or two.
