Juice

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DOUGHBOYS
Posts: 13088
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:00 pm

Juice

Post by DOUGHBOYS » Mon Apr 27, 2020 9:47 am

It has been 140 years since 1880. Before you say, "No shit, Dan", there's a reason I bring this up.
In 140 years of baseball, there have only been three players who have totaled more hits than all other players in baseball.
THREE!
From 1880 to 1922, Cap Anson was the leader in hits when baseball was a 'choke up' game.
From 1923 to 1984, Ty Cobb was considered the best singles hitter in baseball.
From 1984 to 2020, Pete Rose has and probably always will be, the hit King.
(Don't think so? A player would have to have 21 200-hit seasons to break Rose record. In this day and age, a 200 hit season is considered rare in and of itself. Last year, only Merrifield and Devers reached 200 hits. and only LeMahieu and Bogaerts reached 190. Rose record will never be beaten.

All three of these players resemble us, as fantasy players, more than today's player.
That's right.
Us.
While today's player is driven by the big paycheck, these three hitters were driven by the same thing that draws us to fantasy baseball.
Juice.
We like to have something riding on the game.

Anson, Cobb, and Rose were all gamblers.
They played the game hard. They bet hard.
So hard, that reporters would relay to the fans just how much victory meant to these players.
Anson intimidated umpires and bullied players.
Cobb sharpened spikes and threatened players.
Rose would just as soon knock over catchers than slide to avoid a tag.
They played the game with a little extra zest because they had more on the line than most other players of their time.

Most of the time, this hitting trio would bet on what they knew best.
Themselves.
They knew that in betting on their own teams that at least one player would play harder.
A bet on another team held no such guarantee.
When Anson played, it was totally acceptable to bet on one's own team.
As Cobb played, folks started realizing that betting was hurting baseball.
Cobb's gambling was well known by other players and even commisioners, but were ignored or swept under the rug.
By the time Rose played, it was well known by every player that gambling on baseball could result in losing their livelihood.
Rose bet that he wouldn't get caught and lost that bet too.

As fantasy players, we want our players to play a little harder than others as well.
Not hard enough to get hurt, but we want them having our best interests at heart.
Jose Canseco did. Canseco did anything to get attention.Juiced more than any other player.
Including piling on stats like going for a 40-40 season.
We love that!
The great Willie Mays said that if 40-40 was such a big deal, he would have done it a few times.
And that's the difference, although Mays was clearly the more superior player, Canseco had OUR best interests at heart.

One of my favorite all time fantasy players is Alfonso Soriano.
I would try and draft Soriano just about every year when we only had one team.
Soriano was powerful and speedy, traits we adore in a fantasy player.
But above that, Soriano WANTED to help us.
Soriano, unlike most players then and most players now, admitted to looking at statistics every day.
He wanted his name to be among leaders.
It pushed him.
It also pushed teams that had Soriano to victory.

I miss these types of players.
Anson, Cobb, and Rose each bet on themselves.
More juice in the game.
Canseco wanted to do something that baseball had never seen. Be a 40-40 player.
Only four players in history have done it with Canseco.
Canseco, 1986
Bonds, 1992
ARod, 1998
And my friend, Alfonso Soriano in 2006.
By the way, Soriano had 46 homers that year, the most of any 40-40 player.

It's a little funny.
A lot of baseball fans would only like to talk about Anson, Cobb, Rose, Canseco, and Soriano's on-field achievements.
In their eyes, the personalities of these players were a detriment to baseball.
Not to us.
They needed the juice and we drink the kool aid.
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!

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