Moldy Peaches

When Texas Ranger General Manager John Hart stepped down Tuesday it cleared the way for 28-year-old Jon Daniels to become the youngest GM in major-league history. Daniels, at 28 years, 41 days, is about 10 months younger than Theo Epstein was when he became Boston's GM on Nov. 25, 2002. Daniels joined the Rangers operations department in 2002 and was promoted to assistant GM two years later. Hart will, however, remain a team consultant.

This hiring continues a trend from baseball clubs to promote young, brilliant baseball minds in their organizations. In fact, the recent trend is to follow a template laid out in the best selling book "Money Ball." This trend involves statistics wizards (baseball encyclopaedias) named to their dream posts. Daniels, like most young Gm's (Epstein, Brian Cashman, JP Riccardi, Billy Beane, etc...) is an Ivy League graduate (Cornell University) and has worked under another young GM, Dan O'Dowd, in Colorado.

"The last four years have just been a whirlwind learning curve for me, and John has made it a lot easier," said Daniels, who as a kid read transactions before looking at the box scores in the newspaper. "It didn't take me long to realize my future wasn't going to be on the field. So this is what I have aspired to for quite a while."

Daniels just proves there is hope for us sports statistics junkies after all. If, and when, the Blue Jays need help, I am available.

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