Six Degrees - Incest In Baseball

You ever play the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon?  I bet you have, you old dog!  I'll explain it with an example for you young dogs who've never played the game.  Here goes: Tie the actor Kevin Bacon to name another actor here.  The example here is Kevin Bacon and Fred Astaire.  You can't get too different from these two.  But I can do it in less than 6 steps, or degrees.  Watch:

1.  Kevin Bacon was in A Few Good Men with Tom Cruise.

2.  Tom Cruise was in The Color of Money with Paul Newman.

3.  Paul Newman was in The Towering Inferno with Fred Astaire.

See?  Three degrees of Kevin Bacon there.  It's a small world for actors.

It's also a small world if you've ever played in Major League Baseball.  I was interviewing Geoff Goetz yesterday, the former #1 pick of the NY Mets in 1997, #6 overall, 2 slots behind Jimmy Scott's new friend Jason Grilli of your Colorado Rockies.  Goetz, or Geoff if you prefer, was involved in one of the most famous trades in NY Mets history in May of 1998 when he was the famous "player to be named later" in their trade with the Marlins for future Hall of Famer Mike Piazza. 

You might already see where I'm going, but I'll elaborate.  I interviewed Geoff Goetz yesterday, who was chosen #6 in the '97 draft, 2 slots behind Grilli, who I interviewed two nights ago.  They become closer.  After Goetz was traded to Florida, so was Jason.  They re-habbed arm injuries together while with the Marlins.  They're old buddies.

Meanwhile, I interviewed former #1 Marlins pick Garrett Berger two weeks ago, the same Garrett Berger who hurt his arm while with the Marlins and rehabbed in their system: with Jason Grilli and Geoff Goetz.

Now I can tie Grilli and Goetz to Brian Boehringer, another recent interviewee.  Brian pitched for the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League.  So did Garrett Berger.  See the connection?  Their manager at Bridgeport?  Tommy John, who I interviewed last summer.  I can also tie Brian Boehringer to Chad Durbin, who's sizing up the World Series ring he's going to get for his pitching prowess with the Phillies this year.  Chad and Brian pitched together in 2006 with Toledo, the AAA affiliate of the Tigers.  And Chad and Jason Grilli were teammates with the TIgers.

There's a little more.  Tommy John was a teammate of Mike Marshall with the Dodgers.  Each played against Richie Hebner, who was a teammate of Dave Cash, who was the hitting coach this year for Hal Lanier of the Sussex Skyhawks in the CanAm league.  Tommy John also played against Ron Blomberg and Jim French, who was a teammate on the Senators with Dave Baldwin.

How many interviews have I tied into one another now?  That's 12 in just a few paragraphs.  I could go on about how Hal Lanier is the son of a former MLB player, and I've interviewed Brian McRae, son of Hal, Ed Sprague Jr., son of Ed Sr..  Jason Grilli's dad played for the Tigers and Blue Jays as well.

I will stop there.  I'm fairly certain I could tie Kym Byrd to Gabrielle Schoeneweis fairly easily, and Brian Jordan (who played with the Braves like Dale Murphy) to Mickey Morandini, who, by the way, was traded by the Phillies to the Cubs for Doug Glanville, who I spoke with two weeks ago.  See?  It's hard to stop.  The game built around Kevin Bacon goes on even if you're not trying.  See if you can do it at home with people you know.  Should make some great Thanksgiving conversation.