Chaz Scoggins Interview

Fascinating interview of the official scorer for the Boston Red Sox. Must reading for any Red Sox or baseball fan. My favorite tidbit:

A couple of years ago, when Jim Rice was the hitting coach for the Red Sox, he called me after a game and asked me to change a call that would give John Valentin a hit. I immediately told him I would. "Don't you want to know the reason I'm asking?" he asked. "No," I replied, "and I'll tell you why. I was the official scorer here during the last 11 years of your career, and not once in those 11 years did you ever ask me to change a call. There are always balls that are in gray areas, and many nights I came down here expecting that would be the night you'd ask me to change my call, and you never did." "That's right. I never did, did I?" he chuckled. "You never did," I said, "So you have a lot of credibility in the bank with me. So if you think that's a hit, it's a hit."

Later it occurred to me that if Rice had asked me to change one or two calls a year during those 11 years, and I had done so, he would have hit .300 lifetime instead of .298. Those two points might have made the difference whether or not he gets into the Hall of Fame.

Hat tip to Baseball Musings