Yes, that is how he was thought of by the press, but we never thought of him that way in the front office.  He was a very good player, good hitter, good fielder, good baserunner, he just (a) didn't have a great health record, and (b) projected a kind of laconic attitude.  But we knew what he was when we signed him, he helped us win at least one World Series, and we were never unhappy with him.  

 There was not an increase then and there is not a decrease now.   It's not a change in the underlying facts; it's a change in perception.  

 

Prior to the mid-1970s. . . .I have written this 100 times and I know people can't process it, but it's true. .  .prior to the mid-1970s there was no term in common usage, "serial killer", nor was there any other term in use for that kind of a person.   Police generally mocked the idea that there was any such thing as a kind-of-normal-seeming person who went around killing people because he just liked to do it.  They thought that it was a very rare thing that had happened a few times in history, but that it was basically just something that happened in fiction (although it happened fairly often in fiction.)  Not believing that any such creature existed, mocking and dismissing the idea, they did not identify and did not arrest serial murderers.  Probably SOME serial murderers entirely escaped punishment, and probably some were caught and punished for one murder, but were never connected to the other crimes that they had committed.  

 

When serial murderers became a recognized type of criminal, there was a fascination with them by press and public, and people like Dahmer, Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and David Berkowitz (the Son of Sam) became infamous public figures.  But for that to happen, it isn't enough that ONE journalist or reporter take an interest in the case; it is necessary that hundreds of journalists and reporters take an interest in the case.  That doesn't happen anymore; those stories have been told.   Another serial killer like Bundy is just a repeat of a story that's already been told.   

 

And also, you have to remember this:  that it takes time for those stories to surface.  Bundy, Gacy and Dahmer were killing people for years before anyone became aware of it, so the serial killers who are operating NOW, mostly you won't hear about until 2024, 2028 or 2040.   Some time in the future. Dennis Rader, who committed almost all of his murders in the 1970s (one in the 1980s and one in the 1990s) wasn't identified until 2005, and Joseph D'Angelo, who committed most of his murders in the 1980s, was not identified until 2017.   The real books about D'Angelo haven't been written yet; I have read three books "about" D'Angelo so far, but Michelle McNamara (I'll Be Gone in the Dark) died before D'Angelo was identified, the second book was by a detective and about his many cases, peripherally about D'Angelo, and the third book is a lightweight thing by an ex-brother-in-law who just gives us some reminicenses about him, no factual research.   The real D'Angelo book(s) is/are still to come.  

 

But if you do a few google searches, I am confident that you would find that there are at least 10 serial murderers who have been identified and arrested so far this year, more probably 25, and if you walk the stories back, they are every bit as terrifying and horrible as Dahmer, Bundy and Gacy.   They're just not giant public figures.    Samuel Little, who confessed to murdering 93 women and certainly did murder many of them, whether it is 93 or not. . . anyway, he was arrested in 2012, convicted in 2014, died in prison in 2020.  You've probably never heard of him; he's not that famous.  

 That's great, actually.   I'm done with that, because. . .you know, don't want to beat on people.  But that would have been better than the stuff I used.  

 Edgar Smith, after being released, attempted to murder another young girl, after which he confessed that he had killed Vicky Zielinski and went back to prison for the rest of his life, so everybody now has pretty much the same position on his guilt vs. innoncence.  

 

Referring to this part of your query;

 

I understand how the prosecution's requirement to provide exculpatory evidence, and the defense's ability to protest not receiving it, can slow down the process, but is this not something that has to happen for justice? 

 

Well functioning people and well functioning insitutions routinely deal with competing goals.  Married people have to spend time with their families; they also have to make a living.  Schools have to educate children; they also have to care for their needs, and they also have to respect the expectations of the children's parents. Politicians have to advocate for what they believe in; they also have to get elected.  Baseball managers have to try to win today's games; they also have to protect the health of their players.  Baseball owners need to make a profit, for the good of the game; they also need to spend enough money to put a competitive team on the field.  This is normal. 

 

When you start saying "But don't we have to do this FIRST; don't we have focus on this right now". . . .when you start saying those kinds of things, you're not really thinking, and you're losing balance on the competing goals because you're not really thinking.   And our justice system at this time has COMPLETELY lost the sense of balance in regard to the concept of a speedy trial, specifically mandated in the US Constitution.  

 Why in the world would you say that?   What's the logic to that? 

"isn't the opposite true" is always an awkward construction, because it is rarely clear what the opposite a thesis would be.   But if what you are saying is that short-term star turns are indicatve of a weak league, yes, that's certainly true.  It's probably MORE true than my original assertion.  Easier to prove, I think.  

 Yeah, he's in the group.  Always hard to know where to stop.  Ryan Howard is in the group, but he struck out so much. . .

 That could be a good point.  An infield of four relief pitchers could be ugly. 

 

Your query excluded Shohei Ohtani and Madison Bumgarner, but there are a lot of good-hitting pithers in every era--Zack Greinke, whose career OPS is 75 points higher than Bumgarner's, Jacob deGrom Grom, Noah Syndergaard, Adam Wainwright.   It might come down to which pitchers you chose.  On the other hand, there are also a lot of position players who were pitchers (and good pitchers) in college--ie Bobby Dalbec, Jon Papelbon, Mark McGwire.  So I don't know.  

 

In re your argument. . . baseball is not 50% pitching; it is less than that.  It is 50% offense, 50% defense, but defense includies fielding, so the pitching is just 40-42%.   So the batters/fielders might win, 58-42.  

 

 

 No, I couldn't say that I have studied it systematically.   It's basically impossible to study weight records systematically, because a person's weight changes day to day, changes dramatically year to year.   Baseball Encyclopedias list a player's "weight" as if that was, like height, a permanent thing.   But of course it is WILDLY variable, and also the reports of it are not particularly accurate, so the same player will be listed at 170 in one source and 235 in another.  

 

David Wells was a freak of nature.   He kind of had what you could call a Babe Ruth/Tony Soprano body, with trim legs but carrying a certain amount of extra weight in his upper body--a certain amount of extra weight, along with a LOT of muscle.  A lot of muscle, starting at his shoulders and running down to about his belly button, and the extra weight was very high, not down around his waist line like most people, and not much on his lower body.  He was a phenomenal athlete, absoultely phenomenal, as well as a unique and sometimes annoying personality, but certainly unique.  When he was with us (the Red Sox) he was about 40 years old, and he threw 80 curve balls a game, and I never saw anything REMOTELY like it; he threw a big 12-to-6 curve ball, and he could drop that thing at the very bottom of the strike zone pitch after pitch after pitch.   Tremendous strength in his shoulders and in his hands, and just phenomenal balance.  

 

On the general issue. . .I don't know how you could study.   You name a few heavy guys who had good control, but I've seen 100 heavy guys who couldn't find the strike zone with a map, a compass and a geiger counter.  I really wouldn't know how to study it///resolve the issue.  

 I never suggested that it was. 

 Yes, I had heard about Jack's death, and was hoping to attend the funeral, although I didn't make it.  That was probably Phil who attended the funeral; Phil was Jack's roommate when he (Phil) was a freshman at KU.   

 

Jack when I knew him was.. . well, he is more or less my age, so we were both 25 to 30.  He was a highly competitive Ballpark manager.  Obsessive, and very smart.   We played in a league with a 42-game schedule: i remember he went 36-6 one year, 33-9 the next.  He was a nice-looking young man with a lot of charisma.  He was exuberant, a little loud, very enthusiastic.  He had always researched the league more thoroughly than anyone else, and he would call you with a trade proposal that had six paragraphs.   

 

That level of obsession isn't entirely healthy.  His Ballpark obsession interferred with his ability to launch his career, identify what he wanted to do, form relationships.   I think he finally realized this and quit Ballpark more or less cold turkey, devoted himself to the church, found a girlfriend who became a wife.   I did not know her, have never met her.   I just heard from Jack once or twice after that.   We were sorry to lose him, but understood that it was necessary for him to move on.   I was shocked to hear about his death.  He was just about my age, and. . .you know, they'll be five obituaries in the paper every day, two guys older than me and three younger.   It wears on you.   

 Yes.  

OK.  

 He was injured in spring training in 1979. . .or the next year after he hit .545, whatever that was.   As I recall he rounded third base (in a spring training game), tried to stop suddenly, and his legs just exploded, more or less.   He was a real prospect that the team was excited about, probably would have made the team in 1979.  

 He certainly didn't pitch in the white leagues.  I thought he pitched in the Negro Leagues, but if the record says he didn't, OK.