SI on Brad Ausmus

Tremendous story on SI.com about Dartmouth graduate Brad Ausmus under the headline, "Ausmus' huge impact on Dodgers can't be measured by statistics."

From the story:

The reason that Ausmus has been a gainfully employed major leaguer for so long, and remained coveted even at his advanced age, is as simple as it is difficult to quantify: his skill as a catcher, a unique position that requires a rare and delicate blend of intelligence and athleticism, ranks him among the finest ever to have played there -- and in certain ways, as the finest, full stop.

As a writer, you live to have quotes like this in your stories:

...(N)o matter how Ausmus has contorted himself, he has never arrived at a batting stance from which he has been able to hit a baseball with any consistency. "At some point, around 2001," Ausmus says, "I cut the line and let the whale go free."

The story includes a wry quote from former Dartmouth baseball coach Mike Walsh, who recruited Ausmus but never coached him because the catcher signed with the Yankees and wore pinstripes instead of green:

"We arguably had the greatest catcher in the history of the Ivy League as our bullpen catcher."