“Kerry Wood,” writes Buzz Bissinger in tomorrow’s Play Magazine, “has become less a real ballplayer than a cautionary tale.”
Based on Bissinger’s conversation with 790AM’s Jon “Boog” Sciambi (above), the former has become less a investigative journalist than someone willing to parrot what he’s been told by “people in the game who I think have some respect.”
Fascinating to think the “3 Nights In August” author considers Nolan Ryan to be a useful source on this subject seeing as he “owns a couple of minor league clubs.” And he spends how many days a year actually watching either club? Ryan must be the only owner of an MLB affiliate team who has some role in the training regiment of his teams’ players (despite their salaries being paid by the parent club)…unless Bissinger is just making it up as he goes along.
Challenged by the host, Bissinger abruptly changed the subject, declaring Sciambi’s radio colleague Sid Rosenberg to be “the worst slimebucket who ever existed.” At which point, the Boogster hung up on him.
“Wow…really enjoyed that. Good, information based stuff from Buzz.” sighed Sciambi.
(UPDATE : A bit of actual research on the topic, as provided by Baseball Prospectus’ Will Carroll)