Another Side of Coppolella

Via BBTF, a scout sends a letter to the media praising disgraced Braves GM John Coppolella:

In all of the criticism he has received for his conduct, which I won’t try to defend or even address as I don’t know nearly enough about them to have an opinion, I thought people should know how good Coppy was to people like me. There are hundreds of people out there who have wanted to get into baseball operations and sent emails to Coppy asking for advice, and each one has a thorough reply from him, with specific suggestions tailored to that person’s background, along inspirational words of encouragement. He took the time to send me an email that was over two full pages long that addressed every little question I had. I’ve run into several other people with similar stories, and am sure there are plenty others who have had email exchanges similar to ours. When I was scouting for the Braves, we had to send an email report to (various Braves officials) after finishing our coverage of a given affiliate, with a one sentence blurb on each player from that team who we thought could play in the MLB. Without fail, within an hour of sending that email, Coppy sent an email back saying thanks, asking about your family, making the extra effort to know how appreciative he was of your hard work.

Fairly or unfairly, the coverage of the scandal has painted Coppy as this heartless cheater, but to kids like me who just loved the game and wanted more than anything to be a part of it, he was a godsend.

I’m sorry, but reading this reminds me of the Bill James essay on Hal Chase in the Historical Baseball Abstract:

With the greatest of effort, personalities cannot be photographed and preserved. Chase’s lost charm is something which can be forever speculated about. When it was alleged that he paid a teammate $25 after the teammate had lost a game, he said it was just a gift. And he made people believe that. Was that how he did it — did he come bearing gifts? He was known as a generous man. Bob Hoie writes that “He apparently would befriend the young players, was one of the few veterans to invite them home to dinner, etc. Many of them were almost worshipful of him. This appeal carried over to his days of outlaw ball in Douglas, Arizona, where men whose wives and girlfriends had been seduced by Chase were still in awe of him 50 years later.”

Beware charming people.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2z4kD8p