Paschal: Of books and big-league dreams, the education of Greg Brady

From John Paschal at The Hardball Times on August 8, 2016, with mention of SABR members Ben Lindbergh, Frank Jackson, Eno Sarris, and John Thorn:

This is the moment, familiar to anyone who has watched this cautionary episode of The Brady Bunch, when the weighty load of reality comes crashing into the dream space of a young kid’s life. This is the moment — look back, reader, and you might remember yours — when Greg confronts the bleak probability that, contrary to his plan of quitting school in favor of the fabulous life of the bonus baby, he will not become a big league ballplayer.

Today, friends, we are all Greg Brady.

Indeed, at one time or another, be it in the cartoon stages of development or in the masculine phases of organized ball, we are confronted with the utterly convincing likelihood that major league baseball is in our future only insofar as we can afford to attend a game, or, if we can’t, only insofar as we are prepared to write about it. In the spirit of that grim realization, I asked nine baseball writers to expound upon their own epiphanies: When, and how, did you realize that you weren’t going to cash checks from a major league team?

Read the full article here: http://www.hardballtimes.com/of-books-and-big-league-dreams-the-education-of-greg-brady/



Originally published: August 8, 2016. Last Updated: August 8, 2016.