Gorgui Dieng, Big Man, Is Master of the Little Things

Do you remember David Eckstein? Yeah, Eckstein, the 5’6” shortstop who looked more like his team’s secondary mascot—The Rally Monkey—than an All-Star-caliber baseball player. You may remember Eckstein from the early 2000’s Anaheim Angels that knocked off the Minnesota Twins in the 2002 American League Championship Series on their way to winning the pennant.

The scrappy infielder was the embodiment of the guy who did the little things or the proverbial dirty work. There was no shortage of media-driven platitudes used to reference Eckstein’s intangible value; “Makes a Little Go a Long Way,” “A Small Wonder,” and of course “The ‘Ecks’ Factor.