Lars Anderson Is the New Brian Bannister
A pitcher with lousy peripherals who seems to get by in the major leagues on smarts? No. But he does appear to be one of the more intellectual ballplayers around.
Says Anderson in an interview with Baseball Prospectus’ David Laurilia of his reading habits:
Reading is exercising a totally different part of the brain, and for me it’s kind of an outlet from baseball. I’ve rarely read books about baseball; I like to read stuff that transports me to places of different thought. Right now I’m reading 1984, and other books I’ve read recently are Watership Down and Lonesome Dove. Probably my favorite authors are Charles Frazier, who wrote Thirteen MoonsCold Mountain, and Barbara Kingsolver, who wrote The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven, which I thought was pretty inspirational. It’s amazing to see how creative these people are; what they have in their minds is amazing. People like Tolkien and Orwell created languages to suit the characters in their books, and they’re able to put in multiple stories and tie them together in a non-clichéd, blockbuster-movie kind of way. I think it’s really cool, just how poetic they can be without being cheesy. I just really enjoy reading, man. It’s totally a good way to stay centered.
The whole thing is worth reading, and hey, there’s reason to be excited about Lars Anderson the player too, especially these days. He put up good, though not awe-inspiring, numbers at High-A Lancaster earlier this year and he’s been even better since being promoted to Double-A Portland, posting a .364/.457/.636 line despite facing much tougher competition and moving out of a hitting paradise in Lancaster.