Between the entries for A.J. Preller and Albert Pujols in the index of Molly’s Knight’s new book, “The Best Team Money Can Buy,” there are 42 sub-headings for the search term, “Puig, Yasiel.”
An alphabetical listing can be quite helpful, and is here, with “anger issues of” in the leadoff spot, followed by “awards and honors of” and “beaning of,” with “benching of” cleaning up. Skipping merrily along, we come to “brawls and,” “in brushes with law,” “chronic tardiness,” “disappearance of,” “discipline issues of,” “Gonzalez episode of,” “pickoff tutorial of,” “private security for” and my personal favorite, “in relationships with women.”
With Knight’s book scheduled for an All-Star Tuesday release, Yahoo’s Jeff Passan got the jump on most of us with a copy, by picking out some choice items concerning L.A.’s mercurial right fielder and penning a Puig-centric piece, which is either entertaining or disheartening, depending on your perspective.
Twitter blew up within minutes of Passan’s article going live at 6:00 p.m. EST Tuesday, as you might expect, with the usual choosing up sides in support of and finger-wagging at the unfortunate Puig.
As Knight will tell you – and she found it necessary to tweet the thought precisely – her book is not a “NOT a Yasiel Puig pile-on,” and it’s not all about Puig. If his is the only name that’s used in a chapter title (and it is, in “Puigatory”) and if that chapter is the longest of 10 (and it is, at 36 pages), it’s because Puig is a compelling character, one worthy of attention.
Puig is, as I once wrote, the most interesting man in the baseball world.
There’s no mention of race in this new book, but much of the divide is between the black Yasiel Puig and his white teammates and the white rules of decorum.
Anglos tend to have a stricter sense of time and of decorum than most members of tribes (Jews, blacks, etc).
Many of the problems between Puig and his teammates are common problems between whites and blacks. How many whites have you heard complain about black arrogance, black tardiness, black sexuality? How many blacks have you heard complain about white uptightness and white prissiness? Our different groups tend to have different norms and different levels of empathy and intelligence and social pathology.
Yahoo: Inside the Los Angeles Dodgers’ clubhouse, the contempt some teammates hold for outfielder Yasiel Puig is no longer a secret limited to whispers. They discuss it openly, resigned to the fact that the Dodgers don’t plan to trade their mega-talented right fielder no matter how deep the animus runs.
“We’ve talked about this,” one Dodgers player told Yahoo Sports. “At this point, it would be addition by subtraction.”
Stories of Puig’s ability to infuriate teammates have percolated through baseball since he shot to fame as a rookie in 2013 and cemented himself last season as one of baseball’s greatest talents. Now, in “The Best Team Money Can Buy,” a fascinating new book that explores the inner workings of the Dodgers’ clubhouse, author Molly Knight delivers anecdote after Puig anecdote that illuminates what makes him so off-putting to so many.
The idea of trading Puig – a notion the Dodgers have never seriously entertained, according to sources – comes down to a simple question: Would Los Angeles really be better without him? And even if some players believe that might be the case, none of the past incidents have convinced the Dodgers that Puig’s harm today goes beyond occasional annoyance.
While some issues, like his habitual tardiness for games, have abated this year, according to sources, Puig’s work ethic in batting practice and the weight room continue to bother some teammates. Much of the hostility stems from a general sense of entitlement shown by the 24-year-old. During spring training this year, as Knight writes and multiple sources confirmed to Yahoo Sports, Puig argued with teammates over who should be allowed on a plane ride that typically includes wives and girlfriends. The subject of someone from Puig’s entourage joining the traveling crew came up, and sources told Yahoo Sports that Puig argued with pitcher Zack Greinke and nearly came to blows with infielder Justin Turner over the matter.
Greinke, the National League ERA leader and one of the game’s best pitchers, was at the center of another memorable Puig moment related in Knight’s book. In 2014, during the Dodgers’ annual trip to Chicago, the team bus stopped downtown to allow rookies undergoing hazing to walk into a pizza place and emerge with food for the veterans. Some Dodgers players, not wanting to wait, skipped off the bus. When the bus was ready to leave, Puig was outside, looking for his luggage inside of the bay underneath the bus. After Puig ignored multiple requests to close the luggage bay, Greinke hopped off the bus, grabbed the suitcase in front of Puig and chucked it onto Michigan Avenue. Puig stepped toward Greinke and was restrained by reliever J.P. Howell.
Word of the incident spread quickly, those there giddily recounting it to those who got off the bus, and highlighted the chasm between Puig and his teammates.
Puig’s reputation preceded his time with the Dodgers. During spring training 2013, Mitch Poole, the Dodgers’ longtime clubhouse manager, assigned Puig’s jersey number on a lark. “I thought it’d be funny to give him number 66 to reference 666, like he was Diablo,” Poole told Knight. During the spring, Puig cottoned to the number and asked to keep it because he thought it was good luck.
Upon his debut, Puig already made teammates wary by engaging in a relationship with a minor league coach’s daughter. His inability to show up on time was another constant problem. Puig was chided by veteran Skip Schumaker during his rookie season for coming to the stadium 20 minutes after he was expected to arrive. Manager Don Mattingly benched Puig opening day when he was nearly an hour late.
