The professional sporting world is a tough place for a true eccentric. A true sense of individuality is hard to achieve when so much uniformity, hard work, and achievement is expected out of the world's highest echelon of athletes. But that doesn't stop some smart baseball players from trying to have a little bit of fun with the game, and it also doesn't stop the dumb ones, either.
The latest athlete to hit the spotlight and earn the descriptive word "eccentric" near his name is the closer for your National League Champion Giants, Brian Wilson. Oh what a crazy guy! Look at that beard! Haha, let's get a silly quote from him and scratch our heads!
But really, is Brian Wilson's bizarre behavior born and bred, or is he just putting on an act? To wit, Brian Wilson has made many nutty appearances on Walkoff Walk over the past three seasons, including one of our very first posts back in Feb 2008. Here's just a selection of the wackiness:
- Admitted to Jesse Spector that he can levitate a full eighteen inches off the ground using only his brain power
- Singlehandedly created the phenomenon of baseball players tweeting some pretty crazy oddball stuff about white mocha fraps and linen pants.
- ...and then suddenly closed off the Twitter pipeline into his brain after getting too much attention.
- Appeared on a cable television show where he regaled us with tales of visiting Shamu's sister Shampoo at Sea World
- Started fashion trends by wearing snappy orange cleats on the mound and gotten opposing managers all in a tizzy about it.
Then, in perhaps Brian Wilson's most egregious moment of affected oddball-ness, he had a very special friend, "The Machine", walk through the background of a television interview, and feigned ignorance. Check the 43-second mark of the video of this interview with FOX Sports' Chris Rose:
Clever! Funny, even. But eccentric? Far from it. Brian Wilson is just a smartass prankster with an audience primed on "Jackass" and "Punk'd". He's no poet, he's no genius, he's just a refreshingly hilarious guy with a wicked cutter and a desire to entertain.
Kookiness is always endearing in closers. Just ask Papelbon.
Brian Wilson is a human meme.
Blowing a couple of saves in Beantown, however, takes you from endearing kook to Judas in a creepy field w/ one tree very quickly...
He is from New Hampshire so his kookiness might be legit.
That reminds me: I need to get to the dry cleaners.
Brian Wilson could up the kooky factor by a million if he comes out of the bullpen wearing that gimp mask.
Lyin' in bed
With a guy in a gimp mask
Nah nah nah
Also, the first (and only?) MLBer to travel to India for THE MILLION DOLLAR ARM HELLOOOOO???
http://www.themilliondollararm.com/blog/?p=486
100% agree. I went to college with too many of Wilson's brand of polished-humor New England prep school kids to think that he's "eccentric" per se. Funny? Yeah. An American Original? Sure. Eccentric? I'll take Bill Lee any day to fit that bill.