Pitcher and Poet

pitchers & poets

Celebrity Rogue #2: from Paul Catalano - Jobawacky and the Curse of the Giambino

22 Sep 2009 by Ted

Rogue's Baseball Index - The inside the park home run of words.

Two RBI entries this go round, this time from Paul Catalano of the blog And A Player To Be Named Later. Paul brings us one term to describe a franchise gone over-protective, and another to describe the personal favorite who lets you down.

Jobawacky

Jobawacky is a state of being that surrounds treatment of the pitcher-as-long term investment. All of the worst traits of pitch-counting and arm-swaddling and New Age crystal-reading come to bear in the early career of this Bonus Baby. When a team goes Jobawacky, the pitcher in question has his innings pitched and daily velocity and injury history scrutinized and deconstructed by fans and the media to the point of absurdity. The pitcher will start games upon the harvest moon but never after the hunter's moon, and he may only throw the number of pitches that equals the square root of his birth date cubed.

The inevitable erratic performance of the pitcher will lead said pitcher to act strangely. When the pitcher throws a strike, for example, or gets lazy can of corn with one out and none on, he may react as if he just struck out Lou Gehrig, Stan Musial and Ted Williams on nine pitches to win the World Series in four games single-handedly. Such behavior, and the overall ineffectiveness of the pitcher, will call into question the future of the franchise. The manager gone Jobawacky will demand a recalibrated horoscopic inquiry, and the pitching coach will angrily snap his diviner's rod in half.

The term derives from the New York Yankees' treatment of young pitcher Joba Chamberlain.

The Curse of the Giambino

The Curse of the Giambino occurs when you like a baseball player simply because you and he share a cultural heritage, hometown, high school, tattoo, etc. You tout this player up to all of your friends like crazy. Then he turns out to suck and be a disgrace.

For more of these gems, don't forget to visit the Rogue's Baseball Index.

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