Bill James is not wrong. He struck a nerve. He shot a dead-aim arrow straight at the insecurities most athletes keep hidden. But he was mostly right. The vast majority of baseball players and by extension people paid to play any sport are replaceable. They are just pieces rolling through town on an assembly line.
The exceptions stand out and matter so much largely because they are so exceptional. They are generational icons who transcend time, from Babe Ruth to Michael Jordan to Tom Brady. Every city has a few. Miami has Dan Marino and Dwyane Wade — the present tense intentional even though Marino has now been retired longer than he played, with Wade in his final season before lapsing into the embrace of our collective memory.