What is the fascination with David Eckstein?

Yes, I know there's an MLB playoffs thread... but I wanted to break this out.

Over the last few days, the Fire Joe Morgan blog (firejoemorgan.blogspot.com) has had some pretty funny stuff about the constant Brown Bunny-ing that this guy receives. Now, I know a lot of people here aren't fans of this site, but I think they're dead on here. Eckstein's a below-average MLB player, but people love him because he's small, and white, which causes them to make up shit about his ability.

Like the author who says Eckstein may have sucked at the plate, but at least he's making the pitcher work (which isn't even close to the truth).

Are we so desperate for a feel-good story that we have to grossly embellish this guy's talents? Or am I missing something? And honestly, would Eckstein be receiving this treatment if he was white?

 

AP ran a feature on him today. Wheeeee!

 

He's "gritty" and wee. And drives an old Ford Taurus. And during spring training went to the public library to use the Internet because he doesn't own his own laptop.

 

He's about to win the WS MVP award. If you think there's fascination, just wait.

But, granted, he is a good story. He's 5-foot-nothing, 100-and-nothing, and he hung with the best college football team in the land for two years. Maybe they should make a movie ... :

 

If David Eckstein was a cartoon character...

 

Sheesh, there's no reason to compare the guy to the character that ruined Scooby Doo cartoons.

FWIW, this line on his Wikipedia entry made me laugh...

 

The guy's an OK player who's helped some pretty good teams win games. He's having a good World Series. Guys who have good World Series tend to get hyped in the process. The firejoe folks, whose work I like, HATE guys like that as irrationally as some writers prefer Eckstein types to superior players.

 

I'm guessing the fact that Eckstein isn't a major douche (like Pujols), helps his rep with the StL media.

 

WHAMMY!

 

Dear Buckweaver: Geno was a man ahead of his time. All he could do was draw walks and hit the occasional homer. If only they'd known about OBP back then.

 

He may one of the nicest guys on the face of the planet.
Too bad Bud couldn't pronounce his name correctly when giving him the MVP award.