Jon Miller on stats, Joe Morgan, Jack Morris, Earl Weaver and more

David Laurila of FanGraphs did a Q&A with Giants broadcaster Jon Miller. It deals mostly with statistics and how he as a broadcaster understands and uses them. It also touches a lot on his former ESPN broadcast partner, Joe Morgan, and whether the book on him -- that he as perhaps the perfect sabermetric ballplayer yet, as an analyst, failed to grasp what made players like him great -- is fair or not. Miller goes on to talk about a couple other sabermetric causes, Bert Blyleven and Jack Morris.

I feel, overall, Miller was being a bit too charitable with Morgan and Morris. Miller is too nice to bury anyone, of course, and those guys are fellow broadcasters so perhaps that explains it, but I feel like he’s biting his tongue a bit. No way he believes that pitching to the score jive, right?

But if there are any flaws with what Miller has to say, they’re made up for with a great Earl Weaver anecdote:

I saw Earl Weaver put on a suicide squeeze bunt, in Milwaukee. It worked. Everybody asked him, ‘Wait, we thought you told us you didn’t even have a sign for a suicide squeeze, because you hated it so much.’ Earl said, ‘I still don’t.’ I asked him, ‘How did you put it on then?’ He said, ‘I whistled at Cal Ripken, Sr., my third base coach. Then I shouted at him, ‘Squeeze! Squeeze! Then I motioned a bunt.’ I said, ‘Paul Molitor was playing third. Didn’t he hear you?’ Earl said, ‘If he did, I’m sure he thought there was no way we were putting it on, or I wouldn’t have been yelling for it.’

Good read all around.