User talk:Aspall

Great contributions! Can you cite your sources though for some of the material? - --Mischa 19:13, 12 February 2007 (EST)

Glad you are enjoying my entries, Mischa. The stats come from baseball-reference.com and the rest is personal knowledge/recollection.

If you can find verification for some of the trivia, please include sources. All of us err from time to time. Keep up the entries! I think we can have 'brief bios' of every player like you and Randy are doing within a year or two at the rate things are going. - --Mischa 19:36, 12 February 2007 (EST)

The great thing about the Wikki format is that anyone is free to correct any such errors. Citing verification for every recollection would be prohibitively time-consuming, I'm afraid.  :) I don't put things in my bios unless I am quite sure of them, however. Oh yes, I do use www.japanbaseballdaily.com for the Japanese stats.

A word about "OPINIONS"

There seems to be some difference of opinion as to whether "opinions" should be allowed here in the Bullpen. From my standpoint, if you want pure facts with no opinions, you go to baseball-reference.com, not to the Bullpen. The Bullpen exists to add "flavor" to the players' careers. As such, some opinions are necessary.

What should be avoided is "personal opinions" that are purely impressions. An example of this type of opinion would be "Joe Blow was a jerk!" This should be avoided. On the other hand, if I say (based on my observation of his career), "Joe Blow was a slick-fielding shortstop" this is an opinion that should be allowed. Due to the imperfect nature of fielding statistics, it may not be verifiable statistically but it is still a valid opinion. Again, if you want pure facts, go to baseball-reference.com's main site.

In my "opinion" ;), "opinions" that are generally accepted as accurate ("Joe Pepitone was an underachiever") or "opinions" relating to baseball performance that are based on personal observation are not only allowable, but are vital to the Bullpen's nature. Aspall 11:42, 6 April 2007 (EDT)

A word about players' religious convictions

I recently removed a paragraph about Skip Jutze having converted to Judaism while with the Seattle Mariners. I did this because it seemed to me to be a matter of private religious conviction that was not of public interest. It was also worded awkwardly and would have required editing in order to be retained. Furthermore, with so little about his playing career on his page, it seemed out of balance to speak of his private religious convictions. I don't have any big objection to pointing out those prominent players who were ethnically Jewish because I see this as a matter of ethnicity rather than merely religion. Pointing out that Sandy Koufax is Jewish is akin to pointing out that Joe Pepitone is Italian. Jutze, however, apparently was not ethnically Jewish but rather a convert to that religion. If we start to point out private religious convictions, pretty soon we'll be saying of everyone, "so-and-so" is a Methodist pitcher, "so-and-so" is a Roman Catholic outfielder. It's just not necessary.

However, I did add a line on Lou Brock's page stating that he is an ordained Christian minister. I believe this is different. Since he is a minister, i.e., a public religious figure, this information does not merely pertain to his private religious conviction but is, in fact, of public interest. Brock's role as a religious leader has been in the St. Louis news in recent years. Furthermore, there was already a large section on Brock's page devoted to his "life after baseball" as well as much information about his playing career. What I added was small in proportion (unlike Jutze's page) to the total amount of information given. Thus I added it back when someone else deleted it.

I don't believe we should make in issue in the bullpen about players' private religious convictions. If a player or former player becomes a public religious figure, however, that may be noteworthy enough for a passing mention. But I want to make it clear that I am not attempting to give preference to one religion over another on the Bullpen website. Aspall 11:42, 6 April 2007 (EDT)

I had rolled back the Brock changes because a couple links had been removed, not realizing that I had also removed the note about his being a minister. I think it is very appropriate.

I think any religious information is fine and think the Jutze information was appropriate. I have added religious information for various players, such as the Buddhist activities of some Japanese players or about Steve Yeager being a convert to Judaism, as I think this fleshes out the bio. I was going to add (when time allows, if time allows) some information on John Grabow's religious heritage as this was discussed in a recent issue of the Jewish Chronicle. For many players, it is an important part of their lives and worthy of discussion. - --Mischa 12:04, 6 April 2007 (EDT)

The Jutze information was not inappropriate it was just out of proportion to the total amount of information given as it is not particularly of public interest. I probably would have left it if it were written better. Aspall 12:29, 6 April 2007 (EDT)