The Only Rule Is It Has to Work
Page 38
Sean Conroy, the first openly gay player in professional baseball, was the starting pitcher on Pride Night on June 25.
Many of the players wore rainbow sleeves to support Sean on Pride Night. Here Joel Carranza bumps arms with Isaac Wenrich as Mark Hurley looks on.
Sean does a TV interview after the Pride Night game, with second baseman Sergio Miranda standing beside him.
Isaac and Sean pose in Cooperstown in front of a Hall of Fame display case containing the scorecard from the Stompers’ Pride Night game.
Player/manager Fehlandt Lentini pleads his case to an unsympathetic umpire.
Daniel Baptista watches the flight of the ball he’s just hit.
Shortstop Gered Mochizuki was one of “Fehlandt’s guys,” and his attitude sometimes rubbed teammates the wrong way.
The Stompers (and an unsmiling Fehlandt Lentini) celebrate clinching the Pacific Association’s first-half championship. Front row (from left to right): Tommy Lyons, Andrew Parker, Gered Mochizuki, Matt Hibbert, Kristian Gayday, Mike Jackson Jr., Jeff Conley. Middle row: Yuki Yasuda, Joel Carranza, Takashi Miyoshi, Erik Gonsalves, Mark Hurley, T. J. Gavlik, Matt Walker, Mac Sweeney, Paul Hvozdovic. Back row: Ryusuke Kikusawa, Daniel Baptista, Jon Rand, Gregory Paulino, Sean Conroy, Fehlandt Lentini, Eric Schwieger, Isaac Wenrich, Aritz Garcia.
Outfielder Taylor Eads, another player unearthed from our spreadsheet, hits a ball to the opposite field.
The big bat of San Rafael Pacifics first baseman Matt Chavez put the Stompers’ scouting to the test. Here he admires another deep drive as Isaac Wenrich watches.
The grind of the summer wore on Sam, seen here capturing Stompers hitters with a camera perched above the home dugout at Arnold Field.
The Stompers deploy a five-man infield against Scott David of the Pittsburg Diamonds.
Andrew Parker connects for the Stompers’ biggest hit in the championship game against San Rafael.
The official team photo, taken during the last week of the season. Front row (from left to right): Takashi Miyoshi, Ryusuke Kikusawa, Yuki Yasuda, Taylor Eads, Mark Hurley, Matt Rubino, Eddie Mora-Loera, Santos Saldivar, Gered Mochizuki, Sean Conroy, Dax Adams, Dr. Laurence Adams, Sam Miller. Middle: Marley Miller, Jason Masciorini, Ben Lindbergh, Kristian Gayday, Andrew Parker, Dan Morgan, Tommy Lyons, Erik Gonsalves, Matt Walker, Peter Bowles, Jack Burkam, Mac Sweeney. Back row: Theo Fightmaster, Tim Livingston, Gregory Paulino, Daniel Baptista, Eric Schwieger, Mike Jackson Jr., Cole Warren, Connor Jones, Dylan Stoops, Eric Gullotta.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It took a lot of people saying yes to convince us to take this fantasy seriously: Dan Evans was the first, followed by Joe Hamrahi, Theo Fightmaster, Eugene Lupario, Jonah Keri, Sydelle Kramer, Eric Gullotta, and our editor, Paul Golob.
Once we got to that point, it took a lot of people’s help to make us sometimes seem smart. Chris Long gave us big league credibility (and a big league spreadsheet), and knew the mistakes we were going to make way before we did. John Choiniere brought order to our data. Ryan Zander and Graham Goldbeck at Sportvision made our PITCHf/x dreams come true, and Harry Pavlidis and Dan Brooks made those dreams useful. Ben Schroeder at Sydex Sports Software, and Zepp, Motus, Axe Bats, and Ultimeyes gave our players the equipment and resources to feel like big leaguers for a summer.
Our scouts—Leland Bailey, Noah Clark, Michael Conlan, Brett Handerson, Kortney Hebert, Tom Keown, Mark Reynolds, and Spencer Silva—spent as many hours watching bad baseball as we did. Each brought something irreplaceable to the Corduroy Crew, and the only thing more valuable than their scouting was their ever-cheerful company. Zak Welsh and Michael Rosen were part of our team when we needed them most.
We relied on the intelligence and counsel of so many baseball friends, among them Russell Carleton, Bradley Ankrom, Chris Carminucci, Hans Van Slooten, and Mitchel Lichtman. Ken Maeda, Scott Kramer, and everybody at Banished to the Pen made the project feel special, which some nights we needed. Everybody associated with the Stompers was generous with time, insight, and encouragement: Jack and Andy Burkam, Mac Sweeney, Sean Boisson, Tommy Lyons, and the Stompers’ host families. Commissioner David Alioto was a great ally. Chris Prete was a great landlord.
Thanks to Mallory Rubin and Dan Fierman at Grantland, and Jim Walsh, Stephen Reichert, and Sean Neugebauer at Baseball Prospectus, for letting us disappear for the summer. Jason Wojciechowski, Bret Sayre, and Patrick Dubuque cleaned up the mess Sam left behind at BP. Thanks also to Daniel Mahan, Alex Rubin, Steven Goldman, Gary Kershner, Jim Hinch, Eric Marsh, and Rod Miller.
Fehlandt Lentini and Takashi Miyoshi let us onto their turf and, on balance, both were open, supportive, and great to be around. It was a privilege to learn from them. Tim Livingston let us onto his turf, too. His invitation to come out to the park is the best email our little podcast ever got. Tim, Feh, and Yoshi get such different things out of baseball, but watching them all summer made it obvious that there’s no wrong way to love the game.
Lastly, thanks to our families: to Betty and Jit Fong and Jane, and to Doris and Sam and Jessie.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
BEN LINDBERGH is a staff writer for FiveThirtyEight and, with Sam Miller, the cohost of Effectively Wild, the daily Baseball Prospectus podcast. He is a former staff writer for Grantland and a former editor in chief of Baseball Prospectus. He lives in New York City. You can sign up for email updates here.
SAM MILLER is the editor in chief of Baseball Prospectus, the coeditor of Baseball Prospectus’s annual guidebook, and a contributing writer at ESPN The Magazine. He lives on the San Francisco peninsula with his wife and daughter. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
The Sonoma Stompers: Opening Day Roster
Prologue
1. Not Joking at All
2. Sonoma Dreaming
3. Modern Baseball
4. Tryouts
5. Spreadsheet Guys
6. No Feel
7. Taking the Field
8. Technical Difficulties
9. Breaking Barriers
10. Fehball
11. Pulling the Trigger
12. Evidences
13. Sands of Time
14. Burn the Ships
15. It Is High, It Is Far…
Epilogue
The Sonoma Stompers: Final Team Statistics
Photos
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Copyright
The Only Rule Is It Has to Work. Copyright © 2016 by Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller. All rights reserved. For information, address Henry Holt and Co., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.henryholt.com
Cover design by Rick Pracher; cover photographs © _mentat (ball field), marcos77 (baseball), and blueringmedia (line graph), courtesy of iStock
The Library of Congress CIP data for the print edition is available.
e-ISBN 9781627795654
First Edition: May 2016
Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.
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