I’m not given a commission by anyone for selling subscriptions to The Athletic. I mean, sure, for a lot of reasons I want that publication to do well. I have many friends who work for it and I think, for the most part, it does good work. But on some level they’re my competition, so I’m not gonna lay my life down for them to succeed or anything.
But I will link a story that, if you have sort of heart and brain, you will want to read. You will want to read it because it deals with some cosmic issues that all of us wrestle with on a daily basis.
Well, most of us.
Some of us.
OK, maybe just Indians pitcher Mike Clevinger.
Zack Meisel writes the story which is, ostensibly, about pitcher fielding drills. About how pitchers need to do them all spring, over and over again, in order for them to become automatic. Pitchers hate them, but they know how necessary they are. To deal with it all, they make a competition out of it. They go for bragging rights about who is the best athlete among the pitchers and all of that.
As athletes, they are super competitive. So even if they are outclassed in one area of competition, they may argue that, in reality, they are the best. To that end, Clevinger responded to teammate Shane Beiber’s claim that Beiber, and not Clevinger, is the best athlete because Beiber is the better hitter. Here’s Clevinger’s response:
Makes you think.
Anyway: subscribe to The Athletic. It’s worth it for that kind of stuff.