Aug 04 2013 04:58 AM
Saber Rattler
In search of Mike Gimbel, the Moneyball revolution's forgotten man
Lengthy Grantland piece on sabermetrician Mike Gimbel, the eccentric college drop-out and self taught rocket scientist who once had a tryout with the NY Mets. Gimbel was Moneyball before Moneyball. As Dan Duquette's secret weapon in Montreal during the 1990's, never earning more than $25,000 a year, Gimbel helped assemble one of the most awesome collections of talent in modern baseball history. Gimbel is credited as the man who scammed Tommy Lasorda out of Pedro Martinez.
excerpts:
| I had come to listen to a paper being presented by Mike Gimbel. In the 1990s, Gimbel put together a nice side career advising major league teams on player transactions. He had a day job working for the New York City water department, and in his free time he sat in front of his computer, inputted stats, and came up with what he believed was a unified theory of player value. He talked his way into a part-time gig evaluating talent for Dan Duquette, soon to become the general manager of the Montreal Expos.... Local papers described him as crazy, arrogant, a "homeless computer geek," an eccentric stats hobbyist. He was ridiculed for his unkempt beard, his yellow teeth, and the heavy coat he wore despite the Florida heat. |
| #hottake from the March 20, 1997, Patriot Ledger: "It turns out the notion of George Costanza being the assistant GM of the New York Yankees on TV's 'Seinfeld' is not so far-fetched. The Boston Red Sox have their own offbeat character making decisions in the front office, only he's not supposed to be funny, and he looks more like Kramer." |
| From [Gimbel's] 1994 book: "The 'Lords of Baseball' are killing the game by protecting the big market teams from so-called 'socialistic' methods. It's ridiculous to term the needed reforms 'socialist' since we are talking about multi-millionaire owners even in the case of the very smallest of the small-market teams. All that's involved is making a modest effort at creating a level playing field for all the franchises. Without this level playing field why would a fan continue to have loyalty to our beautiful game? Instead it seems that the 'Lords of Baseball' are more interested in protecting the profits of a few wealthy investors than in providing quality competitive baseball at all 28 Major League stadiums." |