Chili-Fest Short on Good Taste

This we know: The CHB can't praise one person without putting someone else down.

Which is why today's love letter to Chili Davis rips new ones for Ted Williams, Maury Wills and Joe Kerrigan.

But there's those pesky details.

The CHB says Williams "could never understand why his young hitters had difficulty with Teddy Ballgame’s Science of Hitting."

Fact? The data say no.

When Williams managed the 1969  Washington Senators, they finished fourth in the AL (12 teams) in batting average and OBP, and five of their top seven hitters were 27 years of age or less.

The next year, they finished last in average and 7th in OBP with only two of their top seven hitters aged 27 or less. And in 1971 they finished second-to-last in average and seventh in OBP, again with two of their top hitters aged 27 or less.

What I love about this is how The CHB rambles on and on about Chili Davis'communication skills, yet there's this garbled line: "I talk to our hitters about my failures more than my sucesses [sic]," he said. “I talk about why I sturggled [sic] and how I got out of my struggles."

Wow. In a column about quality, you'd think they'd get the little details right.

Bonus: Larry Bird Watch!