Notes from SABR 37 - Day Three (part one)
Today I learned two things: someone reading aloud, for thirty minutes, a paper about an obscure minor league executive from 1910 is so boring, even the guy wearing the Federal League jersey will get up and leave.
Secondly, I learned that Dr. Mike Marshall is about three degrees off of crazy. He spoke to a packed crowd of well over 200 people this afternoon.
Marshall, the 1974 Cy Young winner, was speaking about how his training system can completely eliminate all pitching injuries. Forever. Among the more controversial statements he issued while I was there:
- Marshall claims that he can take a kid who throws 90, and make him throw 103 with the added benefit of having no injuries in his career. He states that with his system and delivery style, 110 mph is well within reason.
- He’d teach an eight-year-old how to throw a curveball — with his delivery style — but wouldn’t allow kids to pitch competitively until they are 14 and their humurus growth plates are mature.
- Little League is ruining every arm in this generation, and he’s the only one trying to save them.
- Marshall kept referring to his videotapes, over and over. You can get his 2 1/2 hour tape from his website for only $100… quite a deal, if it will keep a pitcher from ever hurting himself.
- There’s a mass conspiracy to keep Marshall and his ideas out of Major League Baseball, to the point where he claims a team purposely destroyed an effective young big-league reliever because they heard that Marshall was training him.
After his time ran out, he spent more than an hour holding court (while standing on a table) in the lobby, answering questions, giving out his opinions on anything and everything, and preaching his new system of pitching.
I can’t say that I specifically disagree with anything Marshall said when it came to pitching, but the manner in which he presents his ideas, and himself, can easily put many people off.
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Oh, about those pictures of the vintage baseball game that I promised? Well, sorry, but it was held at 8:30 this morning, and I was still asleep due to the fact that I was writing for MVN and Catfish Stew late into last night.
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I met a couple of interesting folks this afternoon, before hearing Mike Marshall’s spiel. Bob Timmerman, a fellow Baseball Toaster author, was in town for the convention. His brother Tom is a sports columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Bob introduced me to Phil Birnbaum, who edits SABR’s “By the Numbers” newsletter (PDF of the newsletter).
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I saw Rob Neyer, whom I greatly admire as a baseball-writer, around the presentations quite a bit this afternoon, but didn’t bother him. He looked like he wanted to be left to his own thoughts as he listened to the presentations. He wasn’t wearing a nametag, either, so I supposed that he wasn’t looking to draw attention to himself. Which makes him the only person to work for ESPN with that quality.
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I’m now off to see Mike Maroth and the Cardinals host the division-leading Brewers and Claudio Vargas. I’m excited to see the interior of the new Busch Stadium; it really looks like a nice place to watch a game. I hope the rain misses us, though… It’s in the forecast.