People Are Basically Stupid
ESPN is dumb. Its internet fanbase is dumber.
ESPN is dumb because it posted a question about baseball players that even the extra-casual fan of baseball are clueless about:
2) Which player who spent most or all of his career in the pre-Rawlings Gold
Glove era was the best overall defensive player?
Its internet fanbase is dumber because they very clearly picked based on name recognition alone [as of 11:41 EST 8-22-07]:
17.4% Joe DiMaggio
15.7% Jackie Robinson
15.0% Honus Wagner
10.1% Phil Rizzuto
10.0% Pee Wee Reese
7.8% Roy Campanella
5.5% Tris Speaker
3.5% Buck O'Neil
2.8% Larry Doby
2.7% Dom DiMaggio
1.8% Joe Tinker
1.6% Johnny Evers
1.6% Rabbit Maranville
1.2% Frankie Frisch
1.1% Eddie Collins
0.9% Frank Chance
0.8% Oscar Charleston
0.7% Al Simmons
Also: c'mon. Tinker, Evers, AND Chance? I mean, that shit is all anecdotal, right? Someone wrote a goddamn poem and all of the sudden they qualify as the best glove-men in the history of the sport? What a fucking travesty of a toadshit butt-poll.
I voted for Rabbit Maranville, because that's the sweetest name of them all. Which I figure is just as good of a reason - in a poll that's based on defensive prowess - as voting for Joe D. because of a 56-game hit streak and a Simon and Garfunkle song (there's some pop-culture for you- it's just like the ESPN guys do it!).
"A panel of baseball experts chosen by Rawlings" is actually half-way intelligent because they left Craig Biggio off the 50 player ballot, realizing no doubt that he only won his 4 Gold Gloves because he was popular and a good hitter whereas 3 of those probably should have gone to pre-steroid Bret Boone who at the time was just a slick-incredible infielder who was busy setting fielding percentage records (0.997, 1997) and, irrelevantly, probably being a dick because that's what he was purported to be.
I know fielding percentage is a shitty way to measure defense, but here we go anyways:
Fielding Percentage 95-97
Boone: .994, .991, .997
Biggio: .986, .989, .979
AND, even though Biggio put up a respectable 13 FRAA in '97, Booney bested him with 17 FRAA.
Thusly, ESPN's fanbase is negative all-the-way intelligent because they voted Biggio as the biggest omission from the 50 player ballot.
Moving on.
"A panel of baseball experts chosen by Rawlings" loses all validity it may have gained by keeping Biggio off by placing Derek Jeter on the all time best 50 GG winner party ballot. Because the newest and hottest defensive metrics all indicate that Jeter is a piece of crap as a fielder. Look it up yourself.
ESPN's fanbase is negative at-all intelligent to the bajillionth power because Derek Jeter recieved any votes at all as the "biggest snub" from the All-Known-Mostly-For-Their-Offense team.
On the other hand, major kudos to those who voted for choosing some guy I never heard of - Wes Parker - at first base. Because I can only assume that if I haven't heard of him, he was probably legitimately good at defense.
I'm dumbest for hoping that the poll would yield historically accurate results.
