Last month ESPN.com’s Rob Neyer wrote about Bill James’s comments during an interview with Dugout Central. Asked if he was concerned about “the steady decline of the American-born Black player in the big leagues over the last decade,” James replied that as long as they were being given an equal opportunity as everyone else to play ball, that it didn’t matter one bit. To his credit, James said, “I don't see what difference it makes what color the players are.” But I’m going to have to disagree.
Bill James
2 January 2009
3 July 2008
rsquo;s team scores another run in the eighth or ninth inning, putting that elusive S out of reach. Bill James and other sabermetricians argue against the closer’s sudden importance for this and other reasons: sometimes, a game is decided in the sixth or seventh inning, but no self-respecting manager today would “waste” his closer to “save” the game at that point—and the saves stat wouldn’t recognize it if he did.
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