The importance of being different

I wasn't going to post on this article published earlier this week by Dejan Kovacevic, but Charlie made a great post about it at Bucs Dugout and then Wilbur Miller followed it up with a great comment. Their two points in tandem jogged my memory a bit and it gives me an opportunity to talk about something I've been meaning to talk about for some time. What both Charlie and Wilbur reminded me of was a Sports Illustrated column written by Joe Posnanski about two months ago in which he discussed the plight of the Royals with Bill James, who grew up a Royals fan. You should read the whole thing, if you've got the time, but what really resonated with me was James' point that teams like the Pirates and Royals and Reds have failed so consistently over the past fifteen years because they're terrified of doing anything that might be perceived as "amateur," given the small-market reputations of the franchises. In baseball, he thinks the pursuit of professionalism ...