David Laurila: Who is Lars Anderson?

Lars Anderson: In what part of life? I can have a lot of personalities. I think there are periods in my life when I'm really confident and outgoing, where I have that feeling of invincibility; I can talk to anybody and kind of dictate where the conversation goes, and I can dictate how my at-bats go and how the game goes. I can control myself emotionally. But there are also times in my life when I'm pretty insecure and need assurance, because I'm not really comfortable with how my life is going; I feel like I need to make improvements constantly. It can almost be like a roller coaster. I was talking to my dad about my feelings the other day, about how I have this longing for something but can't really pinpoint what it is. When you're playing pro ball, you don't really have a home, because you're always in transit, so I'm trying to find a place in my mind that I'm comfortable with. He told me not to worry about it, that it's something that all 20 year olds go through; I'm not the first one, it just happens to be what I'm struggling with right now. So I'm like everyone else, going through periods where I'm feeling great, and others where I'm feeling not so great. I'm a pretty curious person about life—about other people and other things. I'm searching a lot, and searching leads to questioning. Sometimes that questioning is self-directed, about what I'm doing and what my motives are—a lot of stuff that can lead to some interesting realizations.

I don't know—money seems to cause an awful lot of problems. You always want to live comfortably, but if I was in a position where I could choose comfort or lots of money, in regards to a place to play, I'd definitely choose comfort. Especially with the minimum salary—if you can't live comfortably with $400,000 dollars, you've got some issues.

I hope this quote doesn't get thrown in his face as we tear down the monsters we build in Boston. He sounds like a great guy who will be an asset in Fenway.

A friend had sent me the link a week ago or so, he called him Lars Anderson Sarte. My friend did raise the point that despite how intelligent Lars came off, perhaps the intelligence could be a negative as a ballplayer, ie overanalization. My friend remarked that he'd almost rather Lars was like Matt LaPorta, big simple guy who just plays ball and thinks about Jesus. Sometimes this game is easier if you don't think.

A friend had sent me the link a week ago or so, he called him Lars Anderson Sarte. My friend did raise the point that despite how intelligent Lars came off, perhaps the intelligence could be a negative as a ballplayer, ie overanalization. My friend remarked that he'd almost rather Lars was like Matt LaPorta, big simple guy who just plays ball and thinks about Jesus. Sometimes this game is easier if you don't think.

I don't want to rip on Lars or David, both me and my friend loved the interview, and loved finding a sophisticated ballplayer, but I thought his point was interesting. I sure hope he's wrong because Lars seems like a kid to root for.

I'm really disappointed in this interview. I didn't learn anything about Anderson's views on Foucault, Derida or nature-vs.-nurture.