Bill James responds to Goose Gossage's anti-'nerds' tirade
Speaking from the capital of Nerdville on Friday, the 10th annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, Bill James responded to Goose Gossage's epic anti-"nerd" diatribe in which Gossage basically says analytics have poisoned the game of baseball.
"The game is becoming a freaking joke because of the nerds who are running it," the Hall of Fame relief pitcher told ESPN's Andrew Marchand on Thursday as part of an expansive verbal at-bat. "I'll tell you what has happened, these guys played Rotisserie baseball at Harvard or wherever the [expletive] they went and they thought they figured the [expletive] game out. They don't know [expletive]."
“That’s what’s changed since 2002,” James said, per The Boston Globe. “You used to have to have to pay attention to those guys [like Gossage]. Now you can just ignore them.”
Gossage also appeared on "The Michael Kay Show" on Thursday afternoon and I got to listen to him make his case against nerds, and voice his disdain for Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista, who famously flipped his bat after a 3-run homer to give Toronto a lead against Texas in Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS.
The 20-minute conversation made for some hilarious highway listening, but Gossage is so out-of-touch that it was also kind of sad. He's anti-intellectual and with his repeated cries of "nerd" he's also a bully. Overall his stance amounts to quintessential "back in my day" nonsense.
"[Bautista] is embarrassing to all the Latin players, whoever played before him," Gossage said. "Throwing his bat and acting like a fool, like all those guys in Toronto."
What exactly is respectable about a grown man having a temper tantrum before thousands of fans? Why should that be preserved? Sure it can be amusing but it's incredibly foolish.
Red Sox statistician Bill James.
What Gossage actually wants, he can't have: a time machine.
