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I can recall every story I've heard of a young, Black athlete told they were too raw and toolsy to excel at a thinking man's game; pushed off a mound, or baseball entirely.
But the entire sport has mythologized a six-foot-one UCLA recruit into Tony Stark because...he works hard. https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1326709912978812929
But the entire sport has mythologized a six-foot-one UCLA recruit into Tony Stark because...he works hard. https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1326709912978812929
You know what I think? Credentialed sportswriters, many of them nerds with diplomas (gang gang) but, critically, almost all of them white, see themselves in Bauer. Yes, he works hard, but that can't explain why he's embraced as a paragon of work ethic and self-made brilliance
There are so many underdogs in baseball that overcame incredible odds through their brilliance and hard work. But Bauer's story, and the way he tells it, speaks to every Medill grad's inner 10-year-old tired of getting picked last in recess.
Unable to see beyond themselves and measure the advantages Bauer had that most kids don't -- a public high school in a comfortably middle-class suburb that produced dozens of MLB stars (Glasnow, Shields) -- a moderately unconventional path is transcribed as a hero's journey.
anyway, I'm not beefing with Jeff (ask @mepaynl I've been trying to articulate this for years) nor am I calling anybody lazy. more weary of the game than the players
