Generally when someone says the words “kernel of truth” and they’ve been caught in a lie, that “kernel of truth” means “100% accurate”.
Keith Law did a neat two-step in wriggling his way out of the war of words he undertook with Michael Lewis following his negative review of the film, Moneyball.
In this piece on DrunkJays.com, Law acquits himself quite well following his clear backtrack regarding Lewis. I’ll function under the assumption that Law knew he was trapped when he accused Lewis of fabricating the bit about him in the book and did his best to extricate himself from the situation; there’s really nowhere for Lewis to go if he chooses to pursue it and embarrass Law and not look vindictive and petty.
I suppose Lewis can do that if he wants to. I’d let it go; his point has been proven that he had interviewed Law and Law had been pompous, obnoxious, arrogant and smug.
I said yesterday that I had my suspicions as to whom was telling the truth about the episode and it appears as if I was right—the facts were on Lewis’s side and were provable; Law had no other option but to explain himself.
What I find laughable and somewhat offensive is that people like Law and Paul DePodesta were more than happy to take advantage of the borderline drunken days of overt narcissism in Moneyball’s aftermath to advance themselves and be seen as all-knowing “geniuses” who were going to take over baseball and, as the story came apart and they were isolated and reviled for their part in the farce, they bailed.
DePodesta also “explains” himself in this piece by Adam Rubin on ESPN.
It’s going to get worse as the movie comes and goes from theaters, people take a closer look at the book and try to reconcile the overriding theme that Billy Beane is a genius and everyone else is an idiot with a current Athletics team that is a train crash.
They’re running. And they’re going to keep running because they have no other choice.
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