The next page reveals that La Russa misheard the phone call and thought Andrew Lincoln won the Cy Young. He was fine with Lincecum.

If Keith Law had voted Wainwright second or third, instead of leaving him off the ballot, he would still have finished behind Lincecum. Tweren't one writer who cost him the Cy.

It wasn't Law that cost him the Cy Young. It was the fact that Lincecum was more deserving. Honestly no matter how I wanted to vote, I couldn't find a way to justify Adam as first on a ballot. If you go by Rate, Carpenter deserved the first spot, if you go by overall value, then Lincecum deserved that spot, Wainwright didn't have an argument over Lincecum that wouldn't vault Carpenter ahead of him, and he didn't have an argument over Carpenter that wouldn't have vaulted Lincecum over him. Law was pigheaded, but the right man won the Cy Young.

My guess is that critics of TLR are going to find and highlight passages to "prove" something.

Weird that he would be so upset that Wainwright didn't win considering he finished 3rd behind one of his teammates.

Lincecum only won 15 that year for the Giants despite the Giants' gargantuan offense of Emmanuel Burriss, Travis Ishikawa and Fred Lewis.

Funny thing is that from that excerpt, it's not clear whether TLR was unjustly really ticked at Law(who voted Wainwright 3rd behind Lincecum and Vazquez and no Carpenter on the ballot) or Will Carrol (who voted for Wainwright, Lincecum, and Haren again with no Carpenter)

When he didn't get the Cy Young in 2010?

anyway, yes, it was Carpenter who got "screwed" by being left off two ballots. Still, if you gave him Vazqez's 2nd place vote and Haren's 3rd place vote then he still ends up two points shy of Lincecum. Amazingly close race, virtually a 3-way tie. Wainwright actually had the most 1st place votes but was obviously listed 3rd on almost every other ballot. (Vote points were 5/3/1 in those days.)

My only quibble with those two years is that Lincecum was a VERY close candidate in either year.
I'd be happy if he won once, and unhappy if he didn't win - but also unhappy that he won both.

Not that he was so undeserving in either year, but I can't remember another repeat winner who didn't have an absolute lockdown hold on either season....

The book cover indicates that TLR is the author "with Rick Hummel." Could be a MSM salvo that TLR was willing to put out there to give his ghostwriter some trash-talking largesse.

Such a scenario would probably better explain why the reference is so shoddy.

He left the park and drowned his sorrows in alcohol. Plenty of strong alcohol.

Has TLR ever had an incident with alcohol? I can never tell from the comments from any article associated with him.

Has TLR ever had an incident with alcohol? I can never tell from the comments from any article associated with him.

Spring training DUI in 2007. Supposedly he fell asleep at a traffic light and then it turned green.....and then red.....and then green.

Yea, I had never heard about that because no one ever brings it up ever.

I'm willing to bet that #12 was sarcasm.

The dead horse nature of the alcohol comments is pretty tedious.

#14 -- Boy am I dense

The dead horse nature of the alcohol comments is pretty tedious.

Agreed. Especially considering that AFAIK he's never had another such incident in his life, and that he was tested at .08-something, which wasn't even over the limit in a lot of states until the feds pushed for .08 limits in the last couple of decades.

Good riddance.

The book cover indicates that TLR is the author "with Rick Hummel."

I would love to get my hands on an original TLR manuscript before edits and polish. Based on his usual interviews and responses to reporter queries, we could use such a sample to test aspiring cryptologists for generations.

Don Malcolm, #10, says "The book cover indicates that TLR is the author "with Rick Hummel." Could be a MSM salvo that TLR was willing to put out there to give his ghostwriter some trash-talking largesse.

Such a scenario would probably better explain why the reference is so shoddy."

That's not unlikely at all. However, there are other possibilities. The book was obviously written in a hurry. I mean, TLR hasn't even been retired for a whole year yet. So there may be some shoddy fact checking just because of the rush. I know I had that problem a lot when I was trying to do annuals in the 1990s. Also, with the deaths of Bob Broeg, Bob Burnes and Jack Hamm, Rick Hummel is now the elder statesman of baseball writers in STL. He is not a young man, although he's not senile or anything, at least that I know of. For a man of his age to attempt a ghost-writing gig with a man who is still working (for the commissioner) and so not always available to his ghost, under a tight deadline, is asking a lot. It's very possible that the book just got rushed, and the ghostwriter wasn't able to keep up as well as he had been able to when he was younger. That is, sigh, true of me, too. - Brock Hanke

If Keith Law had voted Wainwright second or third, instead of leaving him off the ballot...

Law didn't leave him off his ballot. He voted Wainwright third. It was Carpenter who he left off his ballot.

Honestly, there is so much that LaRussa has wrong here that it's pointless paying any attention to his rantings. First off, he says it was 2010. But when Wainwright finished 2nd in the Cy voting in 2010, it was Halladay who won it, not Lincecum. Now, if he really meant to say 2009, that's when Lincecum won his second in a row. But it was Carpenter who came in second, not Wainwright (he finished third) in '09. And even if Law had voted Wainwright first, Lincecum would still have won.

Law didn't leave him off his ballot. He voted Wainwright third. It was Carpenter who he left off his ballot.

Honestly, there is so much that LaRussa has wrong here that it's pointless paying any attention to his rantings. First off, he says it was 2010. But when Wainwright finished 2nd in the Cy voting in 2010, it was Halladay who won it, not Lincecum. Now, if he really meant to say 2009, that's when Lincecum won his second in a row. But it was Carpenter who came in second, not Wainwright (he finished third) in '09. And even if Law had voted Wainwright first, Lincecum would still have won.

That point has been brought up, just like it's been mentioned that in that excerpt it never mentions Law as the writer that TLR is ticked off at.