SI tries cloning

I immediately thought of last year's version when I opened my mail today.

 

I'm not a Dodgers fan, but for longevity alone, that group of Garvey, Lopes, Russell and Cey deserved the title of Best Infield Ever (mined from the minors).

 

No such cover. You have to settle for this:

 

surely you jest. those guys were defensive clowns. ???

 

Where are their hats?

 

I pulled it out of the mailbox, saw the cover and, like others, immediately thought of the one last year. Saw the story was about Omar Minaya, and I was certain it was more of the same, to the point that I was mildly pissed. I mean, the Brewers ... the F-ING MILWAUKEE BREWERS ... are in first place in mid-June, and we get another Omar Minaya story. And yet, I read it anyway, and it was very well done. Gary Smith could probably rewrite Shakespeare and make it better, but damn, how many Mets stories does a national audience have to be subjected to?

 

Mets are pondscum.

 

One word would have made that cover inarguable: Defensive.

Those guys did some amazing things in the field.

 

Personally, I enjoyed Smith's piece. In terms of where it ranks, to me it's genius (what happens when you've got God-given talent like that), but it seemed like batting practice to him. Still top-notch, but not an out of the park bomb like the h.s. basketball coach who coached in Amish country, or his old Ali stories, or the one on Jimmy Valvano (my very favorites).

 

Best Infield Ever? Now that I think about it, this is typical overblown hype where editing staffs with short memories always think the current star or stars is/are the best over. Frankly, I"m tired of that.

Best infield ever? How about the Cubs of the late '60s that had Santo, Banks, Beckert and Kessinger? Or the Dodgers anchored by Cey and Garvey? Big Red Machine with Morgan, Concepcion, etc.? That's just off the top of my head and probably skips over at least a half-dozen others that were better.

Quick aside relevant to the gist of my point: It's just like those who call Barry Bonds the greatest player ever? Never won a Triple Crown. Never hit 50 HRs without the juice. Never led a team to World Series title. Not half the fielder his dad was. Longest hitting streak? Six MVPs is meaningful, but it doesn't make him the greatest player ever.

 

Hey, lets not forget the Cooper-Gantner-Yount-Molitor infield here.

I thought it was a decent story by Smith's standards, but it definitely wasn't at the "Oh. My. God." level we've all come to expect from Smith.

 

Same here. Although in fairness I didn't read either story. If I wasn't interested the first go-round, the second wasn't going to be any better.