Have you ever read the short story, "Flowers for Algernon"? It's a fictional diary of a retarded guy who takes some experimental drugs that make him smart, then the drugs kill him. He suddenly gets smart and then, just as suddenly, gets retarded again. Algernon is the mouse.
For some reason, I thought of this story as I read Mike Lupica's latest "Shootin' From The Lip."
"Somebody explain to me once and for all what sort of magic Tony Womack is bringing to this struggling team. He's not a great outfielder, a great hitter, a great disrupter of the game on the bases. He is a professional journeyman."
It took 61 games for Lupica to realize Womack stinks, which is about 60 games later than everybody else. But it is definitely a step in the right direction.
"For now, Bernie should be the Yankee center fielder until he shows he can't be. He can't throw? When could he?"
Exactly! Bernie has a bad arm, but he has always had a bad arm. It's not as if Matsui or Womack have cannons.
Maybe Lupica is joining the rest of us in the post-Neanderthal world.
What next? Can Lupica bring himself to praise ARod, for example? That would be a sign of intelligent behavior.
Alas, it can not be so.
Sometimes, a step forward is followed by two steps backwards.
Instead of continuing his intellectual evolution, Lupica conjures up the preposterous notion that ARod will be moved to first base:
"Maybe next year A-Rod can take fly balls in center in the spring, see if he can catch them better than he can catch pop flies in the infield. Because more and more, it looks as if A-Rod, first-to-400 homers A-Rod, will eventually be something other than the Yankee third baseman of the future. He goes to center, or he goes to first. Maybe first is more likely."
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