Moneyball’s Nick Swisher: ‘Most players were signing cards, we were signing books’

outfielder and first-baseman. “A bunch of scouts would come to watch you play – ‘Can the kid play or can you not?’ So I’m glad a bunch of those guys thought I could actually play. The night before [the draft], I received a phone call from Billy Beane telling me, ‘Swish, if you’re there at 16, we’re taking you.’ I got goosebumps.

“People have always told me that they broke the mould when they made me,” says Swisher, who will be taking part in MLB’s newon 9 July. “My personality and my outgoingness is very new-school, but the way I play the game is very blue collar. I didn’t have the Mike Trout talent. I didn’t have the Aaron Judge power. I didn’t have the Yasiel Puig arm. Just because you don’t have all those skills doesn’t mean that you don’t provide value and you’re not able to compete at a high level.

“The one time that really stuck out to me was when we were in the minor leagues,” he says. “Most people were signing baseball cards. We were signing books. That was when it really clicked – ‘Wow, this book is very influential.’ It gave such a different perspective of the game. It was kind of the first time that people really got that inside look on how organisations that don’t have all the money have to find talent.

“The first person I ran into [at the World Series celebrations] was Jay-Z. I’m just like, ‘You know this is gonna be a big party!’ But I’ll never forget, we were doing the ticker-tape parade. We were driving down and there are people 10, 20, 30, 40 storeys up, launching paper out the window. It looked like it was snowing in November. It was one of the more magical things that my eyes have ever seen and something that I hold near and dear to my heart.

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