ESPN allowed alleged humorist Colin Cowherd to complain on Thursday’s “SportsCenter” that Major League Baseball had to stop the “drip drip drip” of slowly leaking names from the infamous gang of 104 PED users of 2003 by making the full list available (”the NFL would just release the entire list the day before the Super Bowl”, argued Cowherd). Presumably, someone at Bristol U. took time to explain to the network’s prized mental midget that MLB isn’t the party responsible for a few of the names ending up in the New York Times. In Chicago, Ozzie Guillen demanded “can somebody in baseball, please, we’re all begging people, get that stupid list out and move on. This is ridiculous. This is embarrassing.” To which Circling The Bases’ Craig Calcaterra replies, “Setting aside the fact that such a thing is practically impossible — actually releasing it all would require a court order itself, and no one else involved in the case has any incentive for it to be lifted — it’s also a horrible idea.”
The list, as everyone seems to be forgetting, would not have existed if the people whose names appear on it (and about a thousand others) hadn’t been promised that it would remain confidential while it existed and would be destroyed soon after it was created. Those promises were broken, first by the players’ own union, who violated the players’ trust, and then by the federal government, who, in the opinion of many, overstepped previously-established legal grounds to seize the information in the course of their BALCO investigation. An investigation, mind you, that had nothing to do with the vast majority of the players on the list.
The listed players have had at least two legal duties owed to them breached and two legal rights entitled to them violated: the fiduciary duties owed to them by their union, the contractual duties owed to them by baseball and the testing lab, their Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure, supposedly guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, and the right to have their medical information kept private, guaranteed by HIPAA. It’s too late for Manny, Papi, A-Rod, and Sosa, but around 100 other of these guys still have not been damaged by these egregious acts, though they will be if their names are released as everyone is so blithely demanding.
And what is to be gained by such a release? The satisfaction of the media, who would love to report and opine on this some more, and the satisfaction of the general public who either gets off on the salaciousness of it or, more commonly, simply wants this all to go away and thinks the quicker the names are out the more likely that is to happen. Call me crazy, but I don’t think my rights to privacy and to the security of my personal medical information are something to be preserved or denied based on how good a story this makes for someone.
Somewhat echoing the earlier comments of Murray Chass, add the New York Post’s resident conscience of all things sports media, Phil Mushnick, to the small chorus of those who find something slightly unseemly about the Daily News’ Adam Rubin receiving career guidance from Jeff Wilpon. While acknowledging Omar Minaya’s remarks Monday were “slathered with cheap desperation”, Mushnick protests “the sports media have a long and dishonorable tradition of trying to ingratiate themselves to the teams and people they cover in exchange for future considerations, be it access, a few bucks or a full-time job.”
The sports media know that “playing ball” can provide all manner of benefits, from regular paid writing gigs in team yearbooks and game programs, to team-site Internet gigs, to book deals, to front-office club and league positions, to full-time team TV and radio deals. Certain credentialed reporters, men and women, become looked upon by teams’ management and ownership as “our people,” often inexpensively compromised.
Just think of the beating a certain national all-sports network would daily be taking if so many big-time writers and columnists, throughout the country, weren’t on its payroll as contributors.
Does truth-telling suffer? Suffer? It’s often destroyed. And there’s no one who has spent more than a year on a sports beat who doesn’t strongly sense the co-opted among them.
That’s why some of the indignant and horrified fallout to Minaya’s ugly claim against Rubin was a bit much. Everyone knows half a dozen “house men” who trade on their media credentials. Make it a dozen.
Longtime England manager Bobby Robson (shown above in 1987, with Gary Linekar on his right and Bryan Robson to his left) passed away earlier today following a long battle with cancer. Though best known for a tumultuous spell managing the England team, Robson achieved considerable success at Ipswich during a club career that included tenures at Fulham, Newcastle, Sporting Lisbon, PSV Eindhoven, Porto and Barcelona. The following excerpt from the Telegraph’s Friday morning obit picks up around the time of England’s 1990 World Cup campaign, 4 years after Robson’s side was victimized by Diego Maradona in Mexico.
Robson again found himself pilloried by the newspapers. Not only had England performed wretchedly in the 1988 European Championships, but details of an alleged love affair had also surfaced, and the FA had crassly announced that whatever happened in the World Cup, Robson would be replaced at its end. Normally a genial man, for much of the tournament Robson wore the air of a man under siege.
The side was once more handicapped by the absence of Bryan Robson, and by the inexperience of some players caused by the ban on English clubs entering European competition after the Heysel disaster; but the emergence of David Platt, and Robson’s acceptance of the players’ wish to employ a sweeper system, brought the team through to a semi-final meeting with Germany in Turin. It was the first time that England had reached this stage since 1966.
Yet again, in a match that was always bound to be close, luck went against Robson. The Germans scored with a freak deflection off Paul Parker, and though Lineker equalised magnificently, the outcome fell to be determined by penalties. Waddle ballooned his over the bar, and England were out. They subsequently lost the third-place match to Italy.
There were many observers who felt that, had the result in Turin gone the other way, Robson’s side might well have prevailed in the Final against Argentina. Instead, the nature of his defeat haunted Robson for years afterwards, and he could never speak about it in a manner that implied he had come to terms with it.
Billy Joel (above right) during his less acquiescent period
Perhaps overstating the current state of the Phillies vs Mets rivalry, the Phillies and Billy Joel are nonetheless taking no chances of provoking any overeager or fighting drunk Phillies fans during his appearances with Elton John at Citizens Bank Park. from Philly.com
In a bid to keep the peace at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies wanted to cloak or replace the 16-by-16-foot Mets banner at the top of the set decoration at the Billy Joel/Elton John concerts tonight and Saturday.
Alas, they could not find anything suitable.
Joel will wear a Phillies jacket for at least part of the show and will make some sort of joking reference to the Mets and their 10-games-back status
My colleague Bob Ford and I hear that the Phillies had reached out to the “Face 2 Face” concert to express concern about Joel’s New York-theme set.
It’s not that the Phils are worried about any kind of baseball rivalry, we hear; they just don’t want some yahoo having too much to drink and throwing something at it or starting a fight. The Mets banner was visible at recent shows at Nationals Ballpark and Wrigley Field.
Perhaps Joel will sing “Philadelphia State of Mind,” as well.
“David Ortiz looks like one of the television evangelists who gets caught in a seedy motel with a hooker,” sneers the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy, adding, “the 2004 Red Sox really were Idiots. Just like the Yankees and everybody else.” Oakland’s Nomar Garciaparra — previously implicated by proto-sports blogger Bob Ryan — collected a ring for his half season + contribution to Boston’s 2004 title campaign, and unsurprisingly takes a different view than the C.H.B. To wit, Nomah would have us believe there are some players on the infamous List of 100 Offenders who intentionally flunked or failed the tests in order to usher in genuine penalties going forward.
In the wake of a quartet of players being suspended after a match fixing scandal stemming from a 2008 League Two contest between Accrington Stanley and Bury, When Saturday Comes’ Alex Wolstenholme stresses such news “is unlikely to halt the growing popularity of betting on football and the firm acceptance of the gaming industry into the sport.”
Once hidden behind the closed doors and frosted windows of the high street, the betting industry is now an increasingly familiar part of the sporting world in general and football in particular. Club websites have a link to an official betting partner, while bookmakers have sponsored teams, competitions and whole leagues such as the Blue Square Premier. This summer, Nottingham Forest and Wolves became the latest clubs to announce such sponsorship deals, with Victor Chandler and Sportingbet respectively. Meanwhile, former professionals and football presenters, such as Jeff Stelling, Chris Kamara (above) and Carlton Palmer, adorn the shop windows of the big betting companies, appear in television adverts and write columns in the racing press.
Until 2000, the Football League’s “minimum trebles” rule prevented betting on individual English games unless they were live on television, the presence of the cameras deemed enough of a deterrent to potential match-fixers to allow singles to be placed on a live game. The abolishment of the rule, coupled with the end of the ten per cent betting tax, provided a massive boost to football betting. Today a huge range of English games, including non-League matches, can be bet on individually. An astonishing array of markets at home and abroad is now on offer at the betting shop, at the other end of the phone and online.
Slow news days are often enlivened by stories claiming that a particular manager is under pressure after a bookmaker announces they have slashed their odds or closed the book on him being sacked. Often it can take only a small amount of money to change the odds and yet the story can grow a life of its own as a reaction is sought to the “news”. The only thing that bookmakers won’t be offering odds on next season is the number of matches that will be subject to official investigation.
This is what a baseball reporter looks like, i.e., a working man. This is not Michael S. Schmidt.
If it can still be called news, word comes from The New York Times’ Michael S. Schmidt today of two more names added to the list of those who allegedly tested positive for steroids in 2003. Today, Yankee fans will be happy to see Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz’ from the World Series Curse Breaking Red Sox. Curt Schilling haters can now sneer that his World Series ring was won with a needle. Unfortunately for Bosox haters and those hoping to read a credible story, Schmidt continues to base his allegations on discredited evidence. Like his Sammy Sosa story a few months back, Schmidt relies on the evidence thrown out of Federal court as inconclusive in the Barry Bonds case. If a Federal Judge threw the Bonds results out, why are results from the same batch of results now conclusive for The New York Times re Sosa, Manny, or Ortiz? They’re not, and one guesses the attorneys who fed Schmidt these stories, and Schmidt himself, hopes for an A-Rod style confession as vindication. If it’s not forthcoming from Sosa, Ortiz, or Manny, then Schmidt actually has some reporting to do, besides waiting for his phone to ring. As steroid fans will recall, at no time could the results said to belong to Bonds from this same batch of tests actually be proven to be Bonds’ results – it needed corroboration from his trainer, Greg Anderson, who refused to talk. It’s why the Federal case against Bonds fell apart in February ‘09, and exactly when the names of the 104 started to leak to the public – ie, February ‘09. Chasing after Selena Roberts’ A-Rod admission of PED use, Schmidt continues to play mouthpiece to lawyers familiar with the case who taint player reputations with No Credible Evidence. If I read Schmidt’s story correctly, he has not personally seen any evidence, shows no sign of making the link Federal prosecutors failed to make, and he has no other sources.
What’s getting so pathetic about The New York Times’ sporting coverage comes down to three current/former NYT staffers: Michael S. Schmidt, Murray Chass, and Selena Roberts. Chass’ “backne” fiasco re allegations of Mike Piazza and PEDs, and Schmidt’s threadbare accusations against Sammy Sosa, are equally ludicrous at this point. Roberts took heat for her anonymous sourcing, a standard if imperfect journalism practice, but guess what – she’s the only one proven correct. She certainly beat the Times out on this story, and Schmidt obviously hopes to catch up and score the same kind of admissions but with much weaker sourcing. There’s a difference between using anonymous sources and letting them use you. We’ll see if Ortiz or Sosa ever confess, as A-Rod did with Roberts, and save Schmidt’s rep from that of “backne” level journalism. Again, as I’ve said before, it wouldn’t surprise me these days if my three-year-old tested positive for steroids, much less a Sosa or Ortiz. Still, Michael S. Schmidt is getting played here. He needs to actually report something or forever look like what he is today, a shill.
As Schmidt relates here, his story is based on nothing but the following:
Baseball first tested for steroids in 2003, and the results from that season were supposed to remain anonymous. But for reasons that have never been made clear, the results were never destroyed and the first batch of positives has come to be known among fans and people in baseball as “the list.” The information was later seized by federal agents investigating the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes, and the test results remain the subject of litigation between the baseball players union and the government.
Five others have been tied to positive tests from that year: Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Jason Grimsley and David Segui. Bonds, baseball’s career home runs leader, was not on the original list, although federal agents seized his 2003 sample and had it retested. Those results showed the presence of steroids, according to court documents.
The information about Ramirez and Ortiz emerged through interviews with multiple lawyers and others connected to the pending litigation. The lawyers spoke anonymously because the testing information is under seal by a court order. The lawyers did not identify which drugs were detected.
While the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessey insists the mischief went down “before all the good stuff happened”, make no mistake — the Red Sox have lost whatever (nebulous) moral high ground they maintained over their ‘roid injecting rivals in the Bronx. The New York Times’ Michael B. Schmidt reports this afternoon that David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were amongst the 100 or so MLB players who tested positive for PED’s in 2003.
The information about Ramirez and Ortiz emerged through interviews with multiple lawyers and others connected to the pending litigation. The lawyers spoke anonymously because the testing information is under seal by a court order. The lawyers did not identify which drugs were detected.
Unlike Ramirez, who recently served a 50-game suspension for violating baseball’s drug policy, Ortiz had not previously been linked to performance-enhancing substances.
Scott Boras, the agent for Ramirez, would not comment Thursday.
Asked about the 2003 drug test on Thursday in Boston, Ortiz shrugged. “I’m not talking about that anymore,” he said. “I have no comment.”
The union has argued that the government illegally seized the 2003 test results, and judges at various levels of the federal court system have weighed whether the government can keep them. The government hopes to question every player on the list to determine where the drugs came from. An appeals court is deliberating the matter, and the losing side is likely to appeal to the United States Supreme Court.
Ortiz is in the lineup for Boston this afternoon against Oakland ; he doubled in his first at bat against the A’s Gio Gonzalez and presumably a home run will result in yet another Papi curtain call. If anyone’s paying attention, this is gonna put a real dent in the sales of “A-Fraud” tees around Kenmore Square.
If it happens to Bud Selig, it’s news. Just ask Selig, who turned his 75th birthday into an opportunity to “address the fans” and allow callers to celebrate Selig. Celebrating Bud, it’s the national pastime of the national pastime, and Bud has lots to boast about. This year, Selig recently beat back cancer, and while we wish him well, it’s also hoped that the every-three-months check-ups he receives will be available to everyone soon. So, while you may not have a job, healthcare, and fear of a black planet may have driven you to question whether your President is an American citizen, if he hates white people, or men actually walked on the moon, at least Selig is there for you to take some comfort in his success – even when attendance is actually down. Here, Selig reminds us how much money baseball is making, a predicted $6.5 billion this year – altho not how that might come back to fans whose towns pay tax breaks for new stadiums or endure high ticket prices. As for baseball’s drug policies, well, blame the unions entirely, of course.
“One of my proudest accomplishments has been watching this game grow to the heights that no one ever dreamed possible,” he said. “Attendance this season is down 5 percent, but if you take into account the reduced capacities of the two new ballparks in New York, it’s actually down only 3.8, 3.9 percent, which is amazing given the economy. I’ve had more people in the business world say to me, ‘You ought to announce that. What a dramatic story that is.’ You’re talking about other businesses that are off 30 percent to 40 percent. This may be our greatest year ever given the environment.”
As for the drug policy, Selig said: “We went through the cocaine era in 1980s, which was terribly significant. There were the Pittsburgh drug trials. Four people went to jail. They couldn’t get the Players Association to agree to a testing program. And [former union executive director] Marvin Miller says to this day that if he were still in charge, we wouldn’t have one. I’m proud of where we are. We’ve accomplished far more than anyone before me had ever done or anybody had any right to expect. This sport is being cleaned up. I understand the chemists are working hard on a test for human growth hormone. Believe me, once there is one, it will be there. We’ll put it in.”
Selig’s official MLB tenure began in 1970 when he headed an ownership group that bought the failing Pilots and moved the team from Seattle to his home town of Milwaukee just days before that season. He was named interim Commissioner in September 1992 and was elected by the owners permanently six years later.
Selig was slated to retire at the end of this season until the owners extended his contract last year through Dec. 31, 2012. As such he will outlast the heads of labor, the duo that made the MLB Players Association perhaps the toughest union in all of sports.
“That’s very interesting when you think about that,” Selig said.
You might think being 4-time New Hampshire Sportswriter Of The Year award winner and working the highly coveted Manchester Monarchs beat would constitute a full enough plate for the average guy, but the Union-Leader’s Kevin Provencher isn’t your run of the mill sports journalist. Granite State cops allege Provencher was the mastermind behind a Massachusetts/New Hampshire border prostitution ring, utilizing Craigslist and other internet fuck-sites. The following was penned, appropriately enough, by Provencher’s Union-Leader colleagues, Dale Vincent and Dan O’Brien.
Provencher, at his arraignment in Manchester District Court yesterday morning, waived extradition from New Hampshire. He was ordered held on $10,000 cash bail following afternoon arraignment in Lawrence (Mass.) District Court on two charges of deriving income from prostitution.
Massachusetts police said about five women worked for Provencher and two of them will be witnesses. Provencher allegedly recruited the women on Craigslist and arranged for them to meet him at a Manchester hotel, wearing specified clothing, where he would “audition” them.
During one of the auditions at the Fairfield Inn, Provencher allegedly provided a woman with black lingerie and photographed her in various poses, according to court documents. The woman allegedly agreed to have sexual intercourse with Provencher who later told her she was hired.
Police said he used the Marriott, Spring Hill Suites and Fairfield Inn for the operation until one prostitute complained about the long drive from Quincy to Manchester. Provencher then allegedly moved his operation to Andover, Mass.
Police said they set up a sting operation June 11 at the Andover, MA Spring Hill Suites and observed men coming and going from a room. Defeo said law enforcement authorities “could clearly hear activities consistent with sexual intercourse.”
While Philadelphia’s acquisition of Cliff Lee earlier today dealt a serious blow to J.P. Ricciardi’s hopes of trading Roy Halladay (above) outside of the AL East, there’s some question of whether or not Toronto can get their story straight. When Rogers Communications purchased the Blue Jays from Interbrew, the former understood “the ball club had value beyond its own bottom line” writes the Globe & Mail’s Stephen Brunt. However, “In the past year, the world economy collapsed and Ted Rogers died, and those two events have undeniably changed the operating environment for the Toronto Blue Jays.”
There is a reason the NFL forbids corporate ownership of its franchises. When the first duty is the protection of shareholders’ interests and a sports franchise is but a single cog in a larger machine, decisions that can dramatically affect the product on the playing field can be mandated by issues far removed from sports.
Right now, the squeeze is on at Rogers, as it is in so many places. It is the responsibility and fiduciary duty of those managing the company to do what they can to improve the balance sheets. And while, under Ted Rogers, some aspects of the company may have been more protected than others, now all are viewed equally – including a baseball team that by itself loses money every year.
“We remain obviously committed to the Blue Jays,” Nadir Mohamed, the president and CEO of Rogers Communications said yesterday during a quarterly conference call with analysts.
But that commitment isn’t romantic. It isn’t unconditional. It isn’t a fan’s commitment. It can’t include risking shareholders’ money in a terrible economy for what might be a once-a-decade chance to push the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, or to keep the best pitcher in baseball in the fold.
Before any offshore bookmakers begin posting odds on favorites to become the new General Manager of the New York Mets (Dan O’Dowd? John Hart? Sandy Alderson? Vickie Guerrero?), now would be a good to ask, “given Wallace Matthews‘ repeated bashing of the Wilpon family, can we really believe Jeff W. would confide in the Newsday shit-stirrer?” Said question comes to mind Wednesday after Matthews quotes the younger Wilpon as saying, “he’s this close to being out of baseball,” of Omar Minaya (”holding his thumb and forefinger a half-inch apart”). With or without the damning (and dubious) no confidence vote, Wally is slightly more entitled to wonder, “why is Minaya still in the Mets’ front office?”
It can’t be because he represents the organization so well – collateral damage, you know – or because of his silvery tongue, which the Mets fear so much they kept him locked away from the media Tuesday.
“He’s not going to be very good with you guys right now,” Wilpon said, knowing full well he couldn’t be any worse than he was Monday.
Which left only one feasible answer: Bernie Madoff.
More and more, it looks like Jeff Wilpon should have been allowed to deliver a victim impact statement in the sentencing of the Ponzi scammer who cost him and the Mets an estimated $700 million.
To that, add the salaries paid to Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo and Billy Wagner and Carlos Delgado. Plus, he’s committed to Minaya through 2012. In the current state of the Mets’ finances, you think he’s about to pay a guy nearly $4 million not to run his ballclub?
He’ll hold on to this guy if it kills him, because having to pay another guy to do his job might kill him worse.
Along with all the other damage the Madoff fiasco did to the Mets, add one more example: Omar Minaya. The Mets can’t win with him, can’t afford to let him go.
Scores of Houston restaurant owners received a letter from an Austin attorney last week offering them the “opportunity” to purchase one thing that all believed was already and irrefutably theirs — their name.
The letter, addressed “to whom it may concern,” informed the restaurateurs that their assumed names on file with the Harris County Clerk had expired. The new owner of all these names, a company called Chicksports Inc., was willing to sell each one back. The price? Some owners were told $25,000, others $20,000. The letter ended with what some considered a threat.
“If you have not contacted me by email or phone by August 14, 2009, Chicksports will explore its legal options for your use of the assumed name it now owns or contact other parties interested in owning the reservation of the right to this assumed name,” attorney Mina Brees wrote.
Jeffrey Horowitz, who represents the owners of Shade, a restaurant in Houston Heights, said the letter made little sense from a legal standpoint.
“It looks like a weak attempt to do something like cyber squatting, but the law in Texas is such that — with trade names and trademarks — first use usually prevails,” Horowitz said. “Why they would send a letter like that … doesn’t make any sense unless they were trying to take advantage of a restaurateur who does not know the law.”
The SF Chronicle’s Bruce Jenkins correctly reminds his readers that former Denver Post columnist Tracy Ringolsby has long stranding animosity against “Moneyball” — if not for the book’s author, Michael Lewis, than certainly for protagonist / A’s GM Billy Beane. As such, the man with the cowboy remains an ardent critic of Beane’s, with last week’s shipment of Matt Holliday to the Cardinals providing yet another opportunity to take a shot or 3. (link swiped from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory)
On Monday, Ringolsby (above) addressed the Holliday trade in his FoxSports.com column. The issue we’re all trying to evaluate is the matter of (a) acquiring Holliday for Huston Street, Carlos Gonzalez and Greg Smith; and (b) unloading Holliday for Brett Wallace, Shane Peterson and Clayton Mortensen. Some, including FoxSports’ own Ken Rosenthal, have called this exchange the latest measure of Beane’s genius.
Ringolsby, who has always been known for his extensive knowledge of the minor leagues, begs to differ. Of the three prospects acquired from the Cardinals, “none showed promise of having an impact in St. Louis,” he wrote. “It’s a gamble that backfired on Beane. His hope was that a strong first half by Holliday would perk the interest of contenders, but instead left him without a strong bidding war. Beane had to cut his losses and take what he could get for Holliday, even if it also required the tight-budgeted A’s to include $1.5 million to help offset what remains on Holliday’s $13.5 million salary in 2009.
“Beane went 0-for-3. Wallace is a DH-in-waiting, nothing more, and had only 35 RBIs this year in 94 games combined between Double-A Springfield and Triple-A Louisville. Mortensen, like Wallace, has been rushed in the minors, where he is a combined 16-19 with a 4.31 ERA. Peterson is considered a “tweener” among scouts, which means he projects as a possible backup outfielder, not having the speed to be a center fielder on a contender nor the power to play a corner position on a daily basis.”
Ringolsby went on to note Street’s value to the Rockies (”he has regained his late-inning magic) and adds that Wallace “is not in the same area code as Gonzalez in any category beyond power.” The truth is that nobody really has a clue how this will all turn out in the end. We certainly know, however, how Mr. Ringolsby feels about it.
Hey, the New York Mets might be 4th in the NL East, but they’re probably in first place when it comes to ferociously ugly merchandise no one in their right mind would purchase. Much as I’d rather focus on Tuesday’s 4-0 defeat of Colorado — the visitors stranded 9 and went 0 for 7 with RISP against Mike Pelfrey (6.1 IP, 5 K’s, 3 BB, 7 hits) — a sextet of Mets were inexplicably chosen by the MLBPA Players Choice fashion line to design their own swag. From MLB.com’s Tim Britton :
Daniel Murphy, Bobby Parnell, J.J. Putz, Omir Santos and Gary Sheffield were on hand to model their own gear. John Maine, the sixth Met to take part in the project, was not available due to his shoulder injury.
Murphy built off his Irish heritage by infusing the Mets’ classic road look with both the color green and a logo of a clover over his signature.
Parnell went with “earth tones” — brown with camouflage lettering — to give his merchandise an outdoors look that is big in his native North Carolina.
Putz strove for a patriotic feel, going with a camouflage jersey with red, white and blue lettering. Putz also produced an elaborate T-shirt design with his name in gothic letters above two eagles and a home plate bearing the Mets’ interlocking “NY” logo.
Santos paid homage to his native country with a Mets logo that integrated the Puerto Rican flag in the background. His T-shirt consisted of a big picture of Santos in catching gear.
Parnell and Putz’ designs sound terrific — if you’d like this place to supply your wardrobe. But best of luck to the MLBPA, who must presume the average NYC baseball fan to have a fashion aesthetic formed by years of shopping at Stuckey’s. Let’s hope there aren’t any funds for retired players in need riding on this.
It might be very fair to say that Theo Epstein and Terry Francona would prefer their (previously) rubber armed starter simply STFU, as there’s a world of difference between the Red Sox and Daisuke Matsuzaka over the toll taken by last spring’s World Baseball Classic, as WEEI.com’s Alex Speir explains with ample translation from this interview.
“If I’m forced to continue to train in this environment, I may no longer be able to pitch like I did in Japan,” Matsuzaka is quoted as saying in the article, which was written by Taeko Yoshii. “The only reason why I managed to win games during the first and second years (in the U.S.) was because I used the savings of the shoulder I built up in Japan. Since I came to the Major Leagues, I couldn’t train in my own way, so now I’ve lost all those savings.”
Matsuzaka still laments the fact that the Sox do not permit him to practice nagekomi, or marathon throwing sessions. The pitcher believes that such between-starts work increases arm strength and the touch for breaking pitches. The article suggests that Matsuzaka exhausted his shoulder in the WBC because the Sox would not permit him to practice nagekomi in his build-up to the tournament.
In the story, Matsuzaka articulates his belief that people of different ethnic, racial, and/or national origin have physiological traits that require distinct training programs. When he followed the same routines as his American-born teammates – which included more weight work than in Japan, but less throwing – the right-hander concluded that he was not realizing the same results. (It is worth noting that such perspectives about physiological difference and nationality, race and ethnicity, which are often treated as taboo in the U.S. due to their overtones of eugenics, are more common in Japan.)
The pitcher cited the history of Japanese starters whose careers have endured steep declines (Hideo Nomo and Kaz Ishii come to mind) — often accompanied by injuries — after just a couple of years of effectiveness in the U.S. Because of such examples, Matsuzaka said that he is emboldened about the need to return to the training techniques with which he grew up.
“Until now, many Japanese players have joined the majors, but they usually only lasted for two or three years. I realized from my own experience that this was not due to their individual abilities but because of the difference in training methods,” Matsuzaka told Yoshii. “If someone doesn’t act, the way people think in the Majors would never be changed. I want them to understand this, not only for my sake, but for the sake of future Japanese players in the Major Leagues…”
Responding to Dice-K’s charges, Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell took to the WEEI airwaves today, arguing, “we’ve got a $103 million investment in a guy that we’ve got to protect.” From the Boston Globe’s David Lefort :
“We have the utmost respect for the baseball norms and cultures that the Japanese baseball league has,” Farrell said. “We not only respect them but we acknowledged them at the time of signing Daisuke. When he came over, no changes were recommended. No changes were mandated by any means. The adjustments in throwing have been in response to the challenges that Daisuke’s faced here. …
“We know that there was a pretty substantial amount of fatigue in the second half of ‘07 that we had to give him a breather at the time, largely in part because of the differences in travel, differences in competition, differences in strike zone, a number of the on-field challenges that he faced. So any of the adjustments that we’ve encountered have been in response to how he’s adapted to the rigors of the schedule and the competition here.”
Hey, as long as Nash and The Big Show are still breathing, Shaquille O’Neal will never be the laziest big man to set foot in the squared circle. “Tonight was all about sitting back and letting the crazy wash over you,” observed Cavs The Blog’s John Krolik, “like you’re dealing with a pack of separatist wolverines with a firehose.” Needless to say, Mr. Krolik wasn’t attending the Stellastarr* show at the Parish.
Shaq comes out and says “My new teammate LeBron James says hi.” Hearty boos. So the elephant in the room has been discussed, I suppose.
-Chris Jericho, who at this point of his career has a “I am way, way too smart to still be a professional wrestler, but I’m just going to roll with it,” thing going, comes out in a blazer and starts telling Shaq that Shaq should respect him. Shaq responds by calling Jericho “Christina.” Max money, the Cavs are paying.
-Chris Jericho has “The Big Show,” who’s Shaq’s height but somehow has like 150 pounds on him, come out and get into a stare-down with Shaq. I must say, at this point I was happy about how in-shape Shaq looks.
-Shaq challenges Big Show to a fight. Big Show backs out, saying that he’d hurt Shaq but doesn’t want to have to deal with the wraith of David Stern and his lawyers. The crowd boos like they’re supposed to, but I’m actually surprised that didn’t go over better in an arena full of Wizards fans. (I kid, I kid.)
Shaq’s 2nd promo of the night: None of the following is exaggerated. Shaq is in a room with a mini-hoop, then starts joking with a mute midget dressed like a Leprechaun named Hornswoggle, saying they “went to high school together.” He offers Hornswoggle something called “Enlyte Energy Strips,” gives him a mini-ball and tells him to dunk on the mini-hoop, saying “‘come on, Nate Robinson.” Hornswoggle declines the energy strips, runs around the room, and gets rim-stuffed by the Nerf hoop. Shaq puts the energy strips on Hornswoggle’s chest. Someone says “That was Shaqalicious.” All of that actually happened.
“Adam Rubin said he had asked people from all 30 teams how one gets into the baseball business, but someone who has covered baseball for more than five years, as Rubin has, should not have to ask how. It has all been there in front of him.” So mused former NY Times baseball columnist Murray Chass (above), who observed yesterday’s circus at Citi Field and in taking a tact similar to that of Amazin Avenue, insists, “of course there’s a conflict of interest.”
I’m not suggesting that Rubin wrote the stories to undermine Bernazard, but whatever his intention was in speaking to Mets’ officials about working in baseball Rubin created a situation that raised questions about his motives. That’s certainly how Minaya saw it, and he was justified in thinking that way. Rubin was wrong for not understanding it.
I sent an e-mail to Leon Carter, the Daily News sports editor, asking if he thought Rubin was guilty of a conflict of interest. He did not reply. Instead I received the newspaper’s statement from the editor-in-chief, Martin Dunn.
“This was a well-reported, well-researched, exclusive story, and it’s a shame that the Mets deemed fit to cast aspersions on our reporter instead of dealing with the issues at hand. We stand by Adam 1,000%.”
The Mets, of course, did deal with the issues at hand. They fired Bernazard. But the Daily News editor-in-chief did not deal with the conflict of interest so I sent another e-mail on the conflict question but got no further reply.
In the meantime, Minaya and Jeff Wilpon came to the press box for news conference Part II. Minaya apologized not for what he said but for when he said it. ”That was not a proper forum for me to raise those issues,” he said.
I disagree. That was the absolutely right forum. When else? When no one was paying attention any longer?
Though mocking Chass is a more popular sport around here than, well, Slamball, he’s not incorrect. There’s little to indicate that Rubin had a score to settle or has ever been particularly interested in making himself the center of attention. But in seeking career advice from Jeff Wilpon (who presumably suggested that Rubin come back to earth after he’s won a genetic lottery), the reporter left himself wide open to implications of impropriety. And while I realize this has nothing to do with Chass’ point, there must be a worse way of currying favor with the Wilpons than repeatedly exposing them to ridicule? It would seem Rubin is just as poor at sucking up to potential employers as Omar Minaya is at crisis management.
Last Wednesday Hansen somehow didn’t receive the directive from Bristol, Conn. and spent 20 minutes on his “Hour of Hansen” 6-7 p.m. show dissecting the ramifications before producers read him the office memo during a commercial break.
In other words, his departure was ultimately a combination of ESPN corporate censoring its reporting and ESPN local not relaying that censorship.
“The directive was the fuse, but the fact nobody told me was the match that lit it,” Hansen tells me. “I don’t want to be identified with being one of ESPN’s puppets. I refuse to be anybody’s puppet. Well, Channel 8 might get to pull my strings but ESPN can’t do that for $2,000 a month.”
Hansen ignored Roethlisberger the final half-hour of his show and afterward sent an email to ESPN program director Tom Lee announcing his resignation.
Of course, that was made easy by the fact that for the last six months Hansen worked without a contract.
“I agreed to a new deal with a serious pay cut,” Hansen says. “But for whatever reason they never sent it to me. This was just another example of how I was an afterthought over there. So I finally walked.”
25 year old LHP Alan Merricks was buried on the Brooklyn Cyclones depth chart, but despite being warned by a teammate that if he asked the New York Mets for his release, “they will punish you”, he made that very request of ‘Lil Wilpons skipper Pedro Lopez on June 12. The events that followed seem very much in character, sadly, for deposed VP of Player Development Tony Bernazard. From Mike Silva’s NY Baseball Digest :
Alex and two teammates had attended Game 4 of the NBA Finals in Orlando. Merricks, a huge Lakers fan, knew that if the game ended late he would break curfew and incur a $250 fine. After all, Orlando was two hours away from Port St. Lucie. But Merricks said breaking curfew, and the resulting fine, was “common practice” with the Mets. Merricks took full responsibility for the evening with the coaching staff, and his conversation with Pedro Lopez had been friendly.
Later that day, Merricks and the two teammates were brought into the office to have a conference call with Bernazard. Merricks knew he was wrong, but didn’t think it was an egregious offense. What happened totally blindsided him. He was told by Bernazard that “He f***ed the New York Mets, now the New York Mets are going to f*** you!” Merricks was suspended for 30 days without pay and fined $500.
During the next month, Merricks said he tried to reach out to the organization, but no phone calls were returned. Meanwhile, the other two players who went to the game were brought back after two weeks. Asked if he was surprised by this, Merricks said, “No, because they just don’t seem to have it together administratively.” Even after 30 days, he was unable to find out where the Mets wanted him to go.
He said that, although the conference call was his first experience with Bernazard, many of his teammates talked of fearing his presence. “Everyone is on egg shells because they don’t want to be on the receiving end of his tirades,” Merricks said. Merricks was certain that Bernazard would make him an example and put him in baseball purgatory.
Merricks believes the root of the Mets’ developmental problems are Tony Bernazard and the culture of fear he has created. As Merricks explained the fact that some Binghamton players and coaches denied the Bernazard incident is more a product of them being “scared to death of the guy. Would you come out and say something?”
Leaving aside the matter of last night’s 7-3 win over the Wild Card leading Rockies, the Amazins’ third straight, Newsday’s Wally Matthews calls the Mets, ” the only collection of individuals in all of major-league baseball who needed to conduct an internal investigation to discover what everyone else seemed to know – that Bernazard was a foul-mouthed, ill-tempered little cuss with a Napoleon complex and two last-place minor-league clubs on his resume.” As we’ve know come to understand in the aftermath of a bizzare Citi Field press conference, said investigation had to be super thorough, as Omar Minaya couldn’t simply trust the veracity of reports filed by a guy who at one time or another might’ve wondered aloud about working for a baseball franchise. The journalist in question, Adam Rubin of the New York Daily News (above), went toe to toe with Minaya during Monday’s session and later coaxed an apology out of the Mets GM that even Ron Darling opined should’ve been “more forthcoming”. How’s it feel to be at the center of the most embarrassing Flushing Q&A since Vince Coleman offered a strained mea culpa for pelting children with M80’s, Mr. Rubin?
Everything I wrote about Tony Bernazard – bombshell stories that appeared in the pages of the Daily News over the last week – is accurate.
As I told the reporters who descended upon me after Minaya left the press conference, I have never, ever, asked Omar Minaya for a job. Or even career advice. Frankly, I’ve never been very close to him.
What I have done, and what Mets COO Jeff Wilpon acknowledged later yesterday, is ask Wilpon for “career advice.” My question: Is it even remotely feasible for a baseball writer to get into an administrative job with a team – any team – down the road and what would I need for that to be achieved?
Wilpon once invited me to his office at Citi Field for an advisory session. I never took him up on it.
I also appear on the Mets’ television station, and I asked Jeff Wilpon whom I should talk to at the network if I wanted to explore television as a part of my career. He told me to talk to SNY exec Curt Gowdy Jr., who told me basically that I was a bit “too flat.”
But again, none of this had any bearing whatsoever on any reporting that I have done while covering the Mets.
While not letting Bernazard off the hook, Amazin Avenue’s James K. is one of the few ready to raise the spectre of a conflict of interest, writing “asking for pointers on how to break into the baseball business seems like questionable behavior at best and a minor breach of ethics at worst.”
Would it be appropriate for a New York Times reporter interviewing Barack Obama to ask for tips on how to enter the world of politics? How about a Wall Street Journal writer asking Warren Buffett how to start a successful financial services firm? No, of course not. Especially if the conversation is kept from the public and not documented in the published work. Such discussion could influence coverage of the subject (either positively or negatively) and give the impression to the public that treatment of the subject is biased.
By asking Wilpon for what amounts to business advice, and continuing to cover the New York Mets for the Daily News, Rubin is saying one thing and doing another. He went on to say: “I don’t know how I’m going to cover the team now.”
The same statement could have been said after Rubin’s inquiries with Jeff Wilpon.
Another quality work from longtime CSTB fave Derek Erdman, this one available in limited quantities from Insound. Derek describes the portrait thusly ;
“Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris (accompanied by wife Gillian Gilbert), of the popular rock group Joy Division, recently won a cash purse of £350,125 after completing a sweep of five races at a Macclesfield OTB. ‘We kept trying to talk Ian into betting with us’” said Sumner, referring to Ian Curtis, the fourth member of the band, ‘but he simply chose all of the wrong dogs.’ The winning three pooled their money and chose the winner in each of the day’s five races. The winning dogs were listed as: Midnight Tax Return, Debbie Debbie, Funtime Alomar, Bruno S, and Daft As A Brush. ‘After Funtime Alomar won,’ said Morris, ‘I had a feeling we were going to win the whole thing. Plus, I had just eaten a sandwich.’ The group has not yet decided on how they will split up the money, but they do have plans to travel to the USA in the next few months. ‘I hear it’s lovely this time of year,’ said Hook, ‘I’m really looking forward to seeing Wall Drug.’ Curtis could not be reached for comment.”
While the young Barry Bonds might never have packed the same free-association punch as say, Stephon Marbury, You Been Blinded helpfully takes us back to a time when baseball’s all-time HR king was “a normal-sized, media-friendly member of the Pittsburgh Pirates”. From a 1991 Pirates exhibition visit to Buffalo :
In June of ‘08, the Associated Press unveiled a new licensing scheme in which rank & file blogging scum would pay as little as $12.50 or as much as $100.00 to quote from an AP story. At the time, Making Light’s Patrick Neilsen Hayden warned, “welcome to a world in which you won’t be able to effectively criticize the press, because you’ll be required to pay to quote as few as five words from what they publish.” A little more than a year later, headliner writers at the New York Times suggest they consider such blogging, “pirated journalism”, with the Gray Lady’s Saul Hansell reporting on one company’s plansto track activity between newspapers and “even the tiniest sites that copy their articles.”|
The plan faces many technical and legal hurdles. Attributor wants to take some of the ad money that would have been paid to the pirate site and give it to the copyright owner instead. To do that it needs the cooperation of big advertising networks like those run by Google and Yahoo. So far those companies have reacted coolly to the proposal.
Still, Attributor has been able to attract many major publishing companies to what it calls the Fair Syndication Consortium, which is exploring its ideas. These include The New York Times Company, the Washington Post Company, Hearst, Reuters, Media News Group, McClatchy and Condé Nast.
For now those companies have committed only to receiving data from Attributor about how widely their content is being used on Web sites that don’t pay for it. Later they will decide whether to proceed with the revenue-sharing plan.
Attributor co-founder Mr. Pitkow said a study in January of 250,000 articles from 25 publishers showed that on average, each article appeared on 11 unauthorized sites. Looking at traffic data, Attributor calculated that five times as many people read each article on pirate sites as on the site of the publisher. And it estimated that collectively the publishers were losing $250 million a year from unauthorized copying.
“Everybody knows I got hit on purpose, even their team” demanded Marlins SS Hanley Ramirez, a plunk victim of Wevie Stonder I during the 6th inning of Sunday’s 8-6 victory over the Dodgers (the Fish were leading, 8-0, at the time). As you might recall, Ramirez had previously complained of his pitching staff being a bunch of <strike>pussies</strike> Shawn Estes clones when it came to retaliation, but was quick yesterday to credit Burke Badenhop with “staying together and protecting your teammates.” From the Sun-Sentinel’s Juan C. Rodriguez :
Home plate umpire Bob Davidson ejected Badenhop and manager Fredi Gonzalez in the seventh after the right-hander drilled Orlando Hudson. Badenhop’s backside fastball came in response to Jeff Weaver requiring two attempts to plunk Hanley Ramirez an inning earlier.
Give credit to Badenhop (above) and the Marlins for their handling of the situation. Badenhop, who said he “yanked” a fastball, kept the pitch low and Hudson took his base without incident.
“It’s up to the umpire whether there’s a warning or ejection,” Gonzalez said. “The safe way is to just go warning. [Weaver] missed him one time. We play the game the right way. I understand we got an eight-run lead and the whole thing, but we’re not stealing bases or hitting and running. We’re playing the game the right way and for him to do that it puts everybody in a situation where it’s not good baseball the rest of the game.”
Dodgers’ manager Joe Torre chose not to directly address the incident either, saying: “I can’t comment because I’m not sure where it’s going to come from, the criticism I’m talking about. So I’d rather not comment as opposed to telling you something you’re not going to believe.”
Badenhop had gone 51 innings without hitting a batter. He tapped danced a bit when asked about the fanfare upon his return to the dugout.
“I’m sure they don’t like to see Hanley get hit,” he said. “It is what it is.”
(from Newsday.com, 2:5pm. The Daily News opted for “Tony Loses His Shirt)
A MESSAGE FROM METS GENERAL MANAGER OMAR MINAYA
I wanted for you to hear directly from me today regarding an update on the investigation of Tony Bernazard, our Vice President of Player Development.
Prior to a series of articles published in the media, our Baseball Operations and Human Resources departments had begun looking into several matters involving Tony. Once those reports became public, we accelerated our investigation. We wanted it to be thorough and complete it as quickly as possible while still being fair to Tony. That process concluded over the weekend.
Yesterday, I met with Tony in person to have a frank conversation about what we had learned following interviews with numerous people. I also wanted for Tony to have the opportunity to give his side of the story.
After meeting with Tony, and giving a lot of thought to the facts, I came to a decision on Tony’s status which I shared with Ownership last night. My recommendation was that we needed to part ways with Tony, as his behavior in his interaction with others was inconsistent with our organization’s values. Ownership agreed with my assessment and accepted my recommendation.
I spoke with Tony this morning and informed him of my decision to terminate his employment with the Mets.
Personnel decisions are never easy. And one can’t make them without giving it a lot of thought. It’s even harder when you know someone as I do Tony. Tony and I go back a long time. He is a dedicated baseball man who loves the game, someone I like and respect, and someone who has contributed to the Mets. In the end, however, I just told him I couldn’t leave him in his position after all that had transpired.
As General Manager of the Mets, I am fully accountable for our Baseball Operations department — on and off the field — and stand by this decision.
Thank you for your ongoing support of the Mets.
Omar Minaya
During Minaya’s SNY’s televised press conference earlier today, the Not-so-Amazin GM suggested he was slow to act on reports of Bernazard’s misbehavior because said tales were being spun by the New York Daily News’ Adam Rubin ; a circumstance that gave Minaya pause because Rubin had allegedly lobbied the Mets for a job (a charge later denied by Rubin who wondered aloud, “I don’t know how I’m going to cover the team now”)
Under what possible circumstances would Rubin’s career prospects improve by burying Minaya’s right-hand man? Short of signing Angel Berroa, this is one of the more curious recent decisions from Minaya, who has zero to gain in attacking the credibility of a well-regarded journalist. If any part of Rubin’s reporting smacked of a vendetta or was inaccurate, why did Minaya fire Bernazard? When Francisco Rodriguez joined the chorus of those totally-fucking-fed-up with Bernazard, was he too, trying to secure a front office job? When it comes to lousy clean-up jobs, Dave Matthews’ bus driver has nothing on Omar Minaya.
Sorry to be cruel, but didn’t the former Mets starter look much better just a few years ago? Seriously, sincere congrats are due to Jim Rice and Rickey Henderson today…particularly if they avoided the gentleman above.
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has been cleared of affray charges stemming from an infamous dust-up over a DJ’s choice of records, causing the Guardian’s Barney Ronay to observer, “The nuts and bolts of life as a Premier League footballer have long been an object of popular fascination: the high-spec girlfriends, the trophy cars, the house with its two-tonne stone bath and plasma-screened broom cupboards.” In the aftermath of the hearings, however, “one of our most distant Premier League millionaires has been made to look, if not exactly very nice, then at least recognisably everyday.”
For a start The Lounge Inn, scene of Gerrard’s misadventures, sounds reassuringly terrible. Is it a lounge? Or an inn? One Southport website describes it as a hangout for “wannabe gangsters and Sunday-football hardmen” and photographs show a gloomy joint with beech-veneer cladding and UPVC double glazing. Gerrard entered the Lounge last December in search of some fairly standard all-male group revelry, which he found in the company of two Accrington Stanley footballers (one 18 years old), four other youngish men and – oddly, but entirely innocent in all this – the 58-year-old former Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish.
CCTV footage shows the group drinking bottles of beer on the dancefloor, singing football songs and downing those Jammy Donut shots, a grisly thing made with Baileys, raspberry liqueur and sugar syrup. Gerrard’s actions at this time have been described as “waving his arms in the air”, rather than the more charitable “dancing”, and throughout he remains crammed into a skin-tight powder-blue V-neck, despite the fact that it’s the wee hours and he’s in a crowded basement.
So far, so normal. In fact, even the climactic dust-up with the bar’s temporary DJ has an appealing mundanity. In Gerrard’s evidence, the exchange runs like a whiny late-night teenage altercation: “He basically said to me ‘I am not putting your music on’. It was quite aggressive, and I said ‘What’s the fucking problem, why can’t I put my music on?’” The identity of the exact song Gerrard was so infuriatingly refused has already been widely debated. Here’s what we know: his favourite artist is Phil Collins. He also likes “dance music”. The person he’d most like to meet is Britney Spears. The fact remains, we may never know the exact truth.
Don Nelson’s attempts to recover back salary from Mavs owner Mark Cuban — who maintains Nellie breached his Dallas contract in taking the Golden State job in 2007 — haven’t been resolved to anyone’s satisfaction, but at least the general public can sift thru the dirty laundry. Previously sealed transcripts from an August ‘08 binding arbitration ruling against the Owner With A Boner revealed specific instances where the previously lovey dovey Nelson/Cuban relationship completely went down the toiled. Here’s a few highlights, courtesy of the Dallas Morning News’ Brad Townsend and Gary Jacobsen :
Cuban testified that after the 2003 conference finals defeat to San Antonio, he had lost some trust in Nelson’s judgment, “not necessarily in his coaching ability, but in his ability as a general manager.”
Pressed for an example, Cuban cited the February 2002 seven-player trade in which Dallas sent power forward Juwan Howard to Denver and received Raef LaFrentz. Cuban said he agreed to the trade because Nelson said LaFrentz “would put us over the top.”
Cuban testified that in league circles “it was pretty much laughable that we would consider Raef LaFrentz this highly. Cuban said he realized player evaluations are often a crapshoot.
“But when the crap comes up a little too often,” he testified, “you question it more, more thoroughly.”
On draft day in 2004, the Mavericks acquired the No. 5 pick from Washington. Nelson testified that as he settled into the draft room to talk to team scouts, he was surprised to hear son Donnie, the team’s vice president of operations, discuss taking “this big Russian” with the No. 5 pick.
The player’s name is redacted from the arbitration transcript, but it is clear that Nelson was referring to 7-foot-5 Pavel Podkolzin.
“I said, ‘Donnie, I cannot take that Russian five,’ ” Don Nelson testified. “And he asked me if I would go in the men’s room. I went in the men’s room with him, and he informed me that I wasn’t in charge of the draft.
“And I said, ‘Oh, really? Well, who is?’ He said, ‘I am.’ And I said, ‘Well, it’s nice of somebody to tell me.’
“And I said, ‘Well, if that’s the case, then as your father I’m asking you don’t draft [redacted].’ … And Donnie didn’t. He took Devin Harris.”
Newark Mayor Cory Booker, as quited by the Star-Ledger’s Steve Politi, expresses little shock over reports Nets owner Bruce Ratner (above, left) is seeking additional financial backing for the franchise. “What did surprise and disappoint Booker,” writes Politi, “was hearing that the team was only looking at potential investors interested in moving it to Brooklyn.”
“I have said from the beginning of this that the endeavor in Brooklyn is under a lot of challenges now, and I’ve said for months that the team is going to go up for sale,” Booker said Friday at a musical festival in Newark.
“I’m discouraged a little bit that they’re saying they’re only going to sell to people who are going to stay in Brooklyn, but the reality is, we’re going to do everything we possibly can to make sure that team stays in New Jersey. We need the revenue, we need the business opportunities. It really can become an economic engine for our state at a time when we need it.”
“I’ve done a lot of work to put the foundations down for a group of people who want to keep it in New Jersey,” Booker said. “There are a lot of people now who are vying for that. It really has to do with the sellers now, where the heart is. I’m hoping they open the team up to staying in New Jersey. I can show anybody that coming to Newark, New Jersey, will make that team a lot more money.
“There are so many reasons why the Nets should be in New Jersey, to the benefit of the franchise, to the benefit of the city of Newark, to the benefit of the state of New Jersey.”
I consider missionary work to be incredibly—what’s the right word here?—disturbing. Why are we celebrating young people serving as moralistic salesmen? Why are we celebrating the practice of, literally, going to poor outposts to peddle a particular (historically questionable) vision of Godliness to the “savages”? A closer look at missionary work offers up a sad, frightening history of mistreatment and sleaziness; of pitching The Word by any means necessary. Of manipulation to the Nth degree.
It goes without saying that Tim Tebow believes homosexuals to be sinners (”We’re all sinners,” he would reply—a lame prejudicial concealment); believes that contraception is wrong; believes that … well, on and on and on and on. What I find most disturbing about people of Tebow’s ilk is the actual message being sold: That salvation is the reward worth living for.
Mostly, while reading the piece I kept asking myself, “Who the hell would take life advice from Tim Tebow?” I’m sure he’s a friendly kid. But he’s a sheltered 21-year old whose life has been lathered in football and religion.
Lest anyone think I’m taking an unfair swipe at Tebow by proxy, were Colt McCoy — another Xtian who loves bringing his message to places far-flung — placed on a similar pedestal, I’d be equally pleased to see the Longhorn QB speared. In print, anyway.
If the Mets were to sack VP of Player Development Tony Bernazard, John Delcos warns firing the oft-ridiculed exec, while deserved, “will only act as a diversion and him being made a scapegoat.” Instead, Delcos insists Fred (above) and Jeff Wilpon show their faces and address the myriad of problems plaguing the Amazins in 2009.
There are rumblings about the job security of Omar Minaya and manager Jerry Manuel. Despite the supposed vote of confidence, we know those aren’t etched in stone. Teams always say things like that before dropping the ax. If a significant number of the injured returns and the Mets make a run but fall short, injuries should give them a pass.
During this tumultuous time with the franchise, the lone voice has been Minaya’s, and that’s not good enough. Times are strained enough now where the Wilpons, preferably both, step up with their state-of-the-team address.
The ticket-buying public must be assured of what direction is the team headed. Among other things, it should include statements on whether the team is a buyer or seller at the trade deadline. Are they waiting for the injured to return? They should state firmly all aspects of the organization will be under review after the season and nobody is safe. They should state what direction they will take in the offseason to rebuild. They should state its concern on the medical staff and is there blame for the injuries or bad luck.
No aspect of the team should be spared the scrutiny, because few things are right with it.
We’re only 37 minutes into Starbury’s 24 hour Ustream spiel and I already think my head is going to explode. Stephon’s fave flavor of ice cream? “Starbury cream….no, I like Bryer’s Vanilla.” Imagine what we’ll learn as the day turns to night?
(UPDATE : let’s just say Marbury’s marathon kicks the shit out of a Sports Putz webchat. Here’s the ongoing transcript.)
When Toronto General Manager J.P. Ricciardi told viewers of “Rome Is Burning” on Wednesday that trade bait Roy Halladay was a sure thing to test the free agent market in 2010, hence the Blue Jays’ determination to deal the starter, you might’ve presumed the teflon exec had heard as much from the pitcher or his agent. If Adam Dunn liked baseball enough to read about it, he’d be laughing right now, as the Globe & Mail’s Robert MacLeod and Jeff Blair explain :
“Roy Halladay has not demanded a trade,” Ricciardi said last night. “We know what he wants and he knows what he wants. He hasn’t given us a list of teams. We’ve run teams by him to see if he has any interest in going there – yes or no. There is no secret, hidden agenda. We’re not playing divide and conquer … and, again, my gut tells me that I just don’t see anything happening.”
However, speaking to reporters yesterday afternoon as he was getting on an elevator at the Rogers Centre, Ricciardi said: “I think I made this clear really early that Doc wanted to test the free-agent market. That’s the reason we’re going down this whole avenue.”
Ricciardi also indicated to reporters that Halladay, who has a no-trade clause, provided a list of teams to the Blue Jays.
Halladay appeared testy after yesterday’s 5-4 loss to the Cleveland Indians when reporters approached him for comment on the impromptu interview with Ricciardi.
“I don’t want to address it,” Halladay said. “I don’t even know what he [Ricciardi] said. I’ll do it after I pitch.”
According to Rogers Sportsnet, Halladay’s initial reaction when approached by one of their reporters was: “This is not good.”
Ricciardi has never clearly expressed that Halladay’s desire to test free agency was behind the club’s decision to consider trade proposals. Further confusing the Jays’ motives, Blue Jays interim chief executive officer Paul Beeston suggested last week in an interview on a Toronto radio station that he intended to discuss a contract extension with the pitcher this past weekend.
It would seem as though whoever was responsible for the lettering on Washington Nationals jerseys earlier this year has found gainful employment with FSN Florida (thanks to Paul Lukas for the screenshot).
So you’re the defending champs of the AL Central. The defending pennant-holders ended your postseason bid, and they’re in town for a four-game home stand.
In all of baseball, the Rays are first in walks, third in OBP and third in runs scored. Nonetheless, you take two out of the first three games against them, and if not for the rare misstep of your beloved mayonnaise-stained closer, you would have swept those.
The early season was grim. You’ve only been over .500 for a couple of weeks. Your ace is coming up for the 4th and final game of the series. If you win, and the Mariners beat the Tigers, you’re tied for the division lead for the first time since May 1st.
Today’s home plate ump, Eric Cooper, is the one who was on plate duty in April 2007, the last time Mark Buehrle threw a 2-hour 3-minute no-no against Texas.
Do you:
a) put the same Buehrle/Pierzynski battery out there that took you to the World Series in 2005?
b) send your backup receiver Ramon Castro to catch his first Mark Buehrle game?
You probably answered a). See, that’s why you’re you and Ozzie Guillen is Ozzie Guillen. You might not have let the 18th perfect game in MLB history happen.
The Josh Fields grand slam in the 2nd off a Scott Kazimir (L 4-6 6IP, 5H, 5ER, 3BB 5K) fastball only hinted to the 28,036 weekday attendance just what lay in store.
The Buehrle / Castro axis kept fastballs largely off the menu, presenting a baroque assortment of sliders, changes and hooks that had Bartlett, Upton, and Kapler so off-balance they were one-handedly hacking at whatever they could see by the 7th. Carl Crawford, .480 lifetime against Buehrle (W, 11-3, 9IP, 0H, 6K, 0BB) was pitched into contact three times with changes following sliders – all for naught. If they weren’t weak dribblers or line shots right to Beckham, they were safely in Castro’s glove batter after batter.
The gutsy performance produced plenty of contact but not a single tough play- until the 9th inning.
Ozzie pulled Scott Podsednik for Dewayne Wise in center, and Buehrle faced Gabe Kapler. Rays skipper Joe Maddon never put on the bunt. Kapler fouled off a couple before he sent a dead inside heater deep to left center.
28,036 hearts stopped. One heart didn’t.
Wise got on his fresh legs and charged for the wall. He was taxed. His neck was craned. But had the look and he had the jump. At the Billy Pierce portrait the backup fielder ran out of ballpark at full stride. Kapler’s hit was headed over the yellow line. Gravity would no longer do.
The leap and stretch was the culmination of a career, and a callback of sorts. Wise had been on duty for baseball’s last perfect game, Randy Johnson’s 2004 outing in Atlanta, when Wise had been a Brave. The timing was impeccable. Kapler’s bomb disappeared in Wise’s mitt as the defenseman sailed into the wall at full speed. The collision and the landing jarred the ball loose, and Wise juggled it as he tumbled to the ground. And held it.
Hawk Harrelson’s TV booth screams were reportedly so loud as to be audible through the next-door radio booth microphones. Indeed, the folksy announcer was stunned right into a rare stretch of plain, comprehensible English, proclaiming the catch “One of the greatest I have ever seen in fifty years of this game.”
A swinging punchout of Michael Hernandez and a 6-3 dribbler from Jason Bartlett sealed the deal. Mark Buehrle had handed in the first White Sox perfect game since Charles Robinson in 1922 — and his second 2-hour 3-minute no hitter in three seasons.
(alas, not all western icons are welcomed as warmly in Japan as Bobby Valentine)
Mr. & Mrs. Howie Rose spent the All-Star Break on a trip to London, affording the couple an opportunity bask in a bit of rock history. While the Roses didn’t get around to visiting the Bruno Wizard Museum, Mets’ radio announcer Howie does have a few recommendations for his fellow tourists (link courtesy Repoz and Baseball Think Factory)
If you’re a fan, and you appreciate the history, I would strongly suggest a trip to 3 Savile Row. That’s the building the Beatles bought for their Apple offices, and eventually they installed a recording studio in the basement. This is where a big chunk of the Let it Be album was recorded, but it’s best known for it’s rooftop. That’s where the Beatles performed their last live “concert”, an impromptu show held in the middle of a business day until it was eventually broken up by police. It’s all in the Let it Be movie, and although we weren’t allowed on the roof, I gazed at the iconic site like an awed teenager. The building looks just as it did in the film 40 years ago.
Later, it was on to the Abbey Road studios where much of their music was recorded. Naturally, we went to the crosswalk where the famous album cover was taken. If you looked at it from the same vantage point as the one used by photographer Iain MacMillain, you would have thought it was 1969 again.
The coup de gras was the Paul McCartney concert at Citi Field on Friday night. If you are of a certain age and have a certain reverence for the Beatles, you probably felt as though the soundtrack to your life was playing out right in front of your eyes. It was incredible. Paul McCartney is 67 years old, and moved energetically around and across the stage, changing instruments, talking to the crowd and playing one historic song after another. I couldn’t help think that he has the stamina to do all of that, and the Mets have world class athletes in their 20s and 30s who can’t run out a pop up.
(DeWayne Wise robbing Gabe Kapler of a 9th inning HR and preserving Buerhle’s perfecto — surely worthy of a presidential phone call, too?)
With apologies to Lloyd Bridges, Jim Parque picked the wrong day to confess PED use. The White Sox’s Mark Buerhle threw a perfect game against Tampa today, the first such accomplishment in the big leagues since Randy Johnson hurled one in May of 2004, and just the 18th of all time. The only thing that could make Buerhle’s feat more satisfying would be if we learned David Wells was hungover while watching something else on cable.
If you watched any of last night or this morning’s highlights, you’re probably already aware Manny Ramirez smacked a pinch-hit grand salami last night, the decisive blow in the Dodgers’ 6-2 defeat of the Reds (on Manny Bobblehead Night, appropriately enough). What you might not know is that Reds broadcaster Chris Welsh, perhaps taking a page out of the Buck Showalter Styleguide, proposed that Dusty Baker intentionally walk Ramirez with the bases loaded. Former Cincinnati Post beat writer C. Trent Rosecrans “had to rewind the DVR just to make sure.”
“We go back to the same old philosophy, how do you pitch to Barry Bonds in his prime? How do you pitch to Albert Pujols now that he’s in his prime? You can say the same thing about Manny Ramirez — do you allow him to beat you? Bases loaded or not, do you allow him to beat you? Does a walk beat you? You miss off the plate four times in a row and let Juan Pierre come up next and see what happens? It could be that one-run beats the Reds, you never know. But a grand slam takes you a long way to that end…”
With bases loaded and a 2-2 score in the bottom of the 6th? I don’t walk Jesus there. I may not throw him a fastball over the heart of the plate, but the way the Reds are hitting, I don’t walk him. I think that’s a little much. I understand some times when you can walk a guy with bases loaded, but that is a very limited situation. In a tie game with one out, I don’t think so.
It’s funny, in the bottom of the seventh, I think someone took Chris out of the booth, he didn’t say a single word in the half-inning. Maybe he went to get drug tested.
The last time Tony Bernazard got this much coverage for anything was never. He has never been this interesting to anyone, not during his playing days and not when he worked at the MLBPA and not during his apparently irresistible and wholly inexplicable rise to what appears to be a position of unassailable authority in the Mets organization. He’s not even really all that interesting now — just another monster ego with a good paycheck, spotty resume and bravado a go go in a business (and with a franchise) that traditionally lets guys like that hang around for awhile. But you call a bunch of Minor League players pussies and then act like an asshole to a bunch of Major League players and all of a sudden everyone starts asking “what is this butthead doing here?” And then even the finest literary minds of this generation start fixating on you instead of doing the work they’re paid to do. It’s a risk for all of those who aspire to great things.
And honestly, one way or another, Tony Bernazard needs to go away. If the Mets won’t fire him (and I suspect they won’t, at least not for awhile) then maybe we can all just agree to ignore him. But before we say goodbye to the man who has taken his place among the oilest, nastiest and least effective execs in Mets’ history, it’s worth checking out this detailed rundown of who Bernazard is, and how he got here, by Matthew Artus at the Star-Ledger’s Always Amazin blog. Artus takes a pretty strong stance on Bernazard, but he also ably lays out the strange history of Tone-B’s baffling, tantrum-laced rise through the organization. Of course, it didn’t negatively impact my impression of the thing that he winds up with about the same conclusion as me:
Randolph finally gets canned, and Bernazard allegedly fiddled while Shea burned. Bernazard then continues the rhetoric against Jerry Manuel while keeping the availability of his cell phone number as part of the Mets’ minor league development. And now he’s calling out kids in Binghamton for reflecting his failures as VP of Player Development and yelling at subordinates in Citi Field for not bowing down to him.
If Tony Bernazard were still a player and pulling these antics, he would be deemed a “clubhouse cancer” and everyone would beg for him to be traded or released. But he continues to work behind the scenes, just far out enough of the periphery to disappear from memory when we start pointing fingers.
I believe Tony Bernazard is a major distraction and source of confusion and misinformation in the Mets’ front office. I believe Bernazard is the reason the fans and media like to comment on a pro-Latin American agenda in Mets’ personnel decisions, as he clearly uses it to his advantage. The conspiracy theorist in me believes Bernazard, who has made clear his aspirations for higher office, may be using subversion tactics to stage the baseball equivalent of a coup in the Mets’ organization and will continue to do so until he’s a GM himself or he’s fired.
And I believe the Mets will be a better team and organization without Tony Bernazard than with him.
If you’re even a little bit interested in this guy, it’s worth reading the whole thing. It’s as full-spectrum as anything I’ve read on this, and it’s kind of weird that it’s 1) not in a New York paper and 2) wasn’t in print.
Man, way to make Mike Judge’s “Idiocracy” look like a documentary. Thanks to David Williams for the video link. Apparently this has been making the rounds for days, which may or may not account for a tremendous drop in productivity in the American workplace (or a new Al-Qaeda decision not to bothering attack the U.S. again, as we’re perfectly capable of destroying ourselves).
Early papers filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York show no sign Baldwin will be using the “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here” argument to untangle his affairs.
His bankruptcy petition says his Upper Grandview, N.Y., home is worth $1.1 million, but he owes $1.19 million on two mortgages. Big income tax troubles are also evident from the court filing, with $749,974 owed to the IRS on taxes as far back as 1999 and a $139,288 debt for unpaid withholding taxes, as well as $194,527 in unpaid state income taxes.
The youngest of the acting Baldwin brothers also has more than $70,000 in credit card debt to shake, according to court documents.
The filing lists no assets, other than the mortgaged-to-the rooftop house. Even Baldwin’s “HM” tattoo, which he agreed to get in a deal that allowed him to appear on Miley Cyrus’s show, is not listed as an asset.
Court papers are also silent on the born-again Baldwin’s ventures in Christian ministry, which began, according to Wikipedia, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and were supposed somehow to make money.
Who amongst you figured the Red Sox had enough firepower to hang around with the Yankees after yesterday’s trades for 1B Adam LaRoche (above) and OF Chris Duncan? Not the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo, who insists GM Theo Epstein has “saved his big chips in case he wants to do something bigger – maybe trade for a pitcher – yet still tried to improve a slumping offense with a lefthanded batter who can hit righthanded pitching and who traditionally has been a better second-half hitter.”
Epstein has to have his hands in the Roy Halladay hunt. No longer can anyone say pitching is not a need for the Red Sox. The once-deep rotation is now minus 11-game winner Tim Wakefield and Daisuke Matsuzaka, with two No. 5 starters in John Smoltz and Brad Penny who aren’t cutting it, and a youngster in Clay Buchholz who to some degree is still on training wheels.
Epstein knows building a farm system is for two purposes – to keep player costs down by developing your own players or to use them as chips for impact players. With the Sox farm system in great shape, it might be time for the acquisition of an impact player such as Halladay, who not only helps now but also gives you a Josh Beckett, Halladay, Jon Lester, Matsuzaka, Wakefield/Justin Masterson rotation in 2010 – if you trade Buchholz. The Sox also have the resources to sign Halladay and Beckett long term.
As for the bigger picture, the Red Sox have now fired the first salvo among American League East contenders (OK, the Yankees did obtain Eric Hinske earlier). If the Sox continue to fall behind the Yankees and if Tampa Bay keeps coming up behind them, Epstein might have to be really aggressive in a shake-up.
“I think [the Red Sox] need Halladay more than ever,’’ said one National League GM. “They can make the deal if they want to. If they don’t and allow someone else in their division to get him, they’re in trouble.’’
Or easier to spell, in any event. If you’ve not seen the The Young, your life is most assuredly poorer for it. The same is true of the evening’s other performers to a lesser or greater degree depending on your sensibility, but a performance by these guys in a rock club environment should be worth everyone’s time.
With all due respect to the Mattinglys, there are few families having a worse week than the Wilpons. Fast becoming Flushing’s Public Enemy No. 1, Mets VP of Player Development Tony Bernazard began Tuesday contenting with revelations he’d challenged members of the franchise’s Eastern League affiliate to a locker room fight, and ended the day with K-Rod telling the New York Post’s Bart Hubbach such aggressive behavior is the norm for Omar Minaya’s right-hand man.
All-Star closer Francisco Rodriguez confirmed he exchanged angry words with Bernazard on the team bus last week in Atlanta.
“Yeah [it happened], but I’m not going to talk about that,” Rodriguez told The Post before the game. “Not going to get into it.”
Another veteran starting player, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Post Bernazard is having a cancerous effect on the Mets’ clubhouse.
“That guy is crazy,” the player said. “No one like[s] him.”
Early indications from several team sources are that Bernazard, who is close to Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon, will not be fired despite a long pattern of behind-the-scenes skullduggery since Minaya helped get Bernazard hired in December 2004.
Friends of former manager Willie Randolph told The Post last summer that Randolph held Bernazard — with an assist from Randolph’s replacement, Jerry Manuel — responsible for orchestrating his midseason firing.
But a source said the Mets’ patience with Bernazard isn’t endless and that management could change its mind if more ugly incidents come to light.
As well as being sent home, the indication is that Bernazard will not be traveling with the parent club or visiting its affiliates anytime soon. Assistant GM John Ricco, not Bernazard, will be traveling with the Mets in Houston this weekend.
With a 3-1 loss Wednesday night to the Washington leaving the Mets a full 10 games behind Philadelphia — nothing like Craig Stammen and a trio of Nats relievers allowing just 4 hits to make you wonder why Minaya considers himself a buyer at the deadline —- how does Bernazard skipping the games in Houston represent a punishment?
“In light of the New York Post’s decision to run graphic photos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, we have decided to stop utilizing Post reporters on any of our outlets,” ESPN’s senior VP of communications, Chris LaPlaca said.
“Erin was grievously wronged here, and while we understand the Post’s decision to cover this as a news story, their running photos obtained in such a fashion went well beyond the boundaries of common decency in the interest of sensationalism. This is not a decision we undertook lightly, but we feel it is an appropriate one.”
The Post used images both in print and on its Web site Tuesday from a video the showed Andrews in the nude in a hotel room.
It is not yet clear where the video was shot or who shot it, but Andrews’ attorney has promised legal action against any media outlet that publishes the material.
Among those most affected are Kevin Kernan and Lenn Robbins, who regularly appear on “First Take” on ESPN2 and Joel Sherman, who appears on 1050 ESPN radio.
The Post followed their Tuesday coverage of Andrewsgate with a Wednesday cover headlined “Erin’s Perv Fury”. Said piece by David K. Li included the following gem :
Andrews apparently feared something creepy might happen to her one day. Sports blogger Neil Best said, “She knew the fine line she was walking, and told me at Citi Field earlier this year of her concern over some of the darker corners of her fan base.”
Yup, “sports blogger” Neil Best. As opposed to y’know, veteran Newsday columnist Neil Best. It’s that sort of failure to properly attribute the competition that drives some people (well, Phil Mushnick) crazy.
This reporter has been shamefully remiss in keeping CSTB readers, furry phanatics and other mascot aficionados abreast of the latest haps in costumed cheerleading culture, but now that I’ve been fired from my latest job I should have a little more time to enjoy current cultural events.
In breaking news: patent sleuths uncover some mysterious mascot mysteries linking George Steinbrenner to the trade. Though it’d be satisfying to see this guy degrading himself in the Bronx, it’s safe to assume the costume is just some pet project for a birthday party, ice cream social, or Girl Talk concert.
And it’s a slippery and dramatic slope downhill from a past riddled with mascot abuse: former UND defenseman and current Caps property Joe Finley was arrested last week for throwing plates and cups in Grand Forks, ND. Oh, and a friggin lawnmower.
And in bad news in Sussexes all around the world, cricket fans in Sussex, UK are rallying support over a fancy dress ban that apparently discriminates against “harmless” sharks. Sussex, New Jersey might follow suit after the recent scandal involving Scooter, the Sussex Skyhawks mascot, and consider extending their policies to ban child pornography?
Bernazard particularly went after middle infield prospect Jose Coronado, using a slang term associated with a woman’s anatomy, a source indicated. The confrontation happened about 10days before the All-Star break, according to insiders.
“That’s an all-timer if true,” an AL official said upon hearing the account, which was corroborated by multiple people with ties to the Mets.
GM Omar Minaya acknowledged Bernazard spoke to the B-Mets in a “stern voice,” but said he had no knowledge of the scope being portrayed.
“I know he did have a team meeting with them,” Minaya told the Daily News. “It was not a ‘you-guys-have-been-great meeting.’ I know he spoke to them in a stern voice. But as far as what he was wearing, what kind of shoes he was wearing, I don’t know anything about that.”
While the 52-year-old Bernazard’s actions were over-the-top no matter what the motivation, alleged underage drinking on the team apparently was one motivation for the eruption, an organization source said. Still, sending players to counseling rather than challenging them to a rumble might have been a more appropriate course of action.
That’s right. I’m allergic to traffic. As the Erin Andrews Hidden Camera Video story spreads, a number of prominent commentators have revealed sensibilities that have ranged from the downright thoughtful to the predictably dopey. While Newsday’s Neil Best carefully plays it down the middle (”what made this case unusual was that much of the angst has come from sports blogs, which usually offer seemingly harmless, fraternity-style fun aimed at young males who enjoy watching sports and young females”) (for the first and only time in history, feel free to imagine Best as Hugh Hefner), Sports Media Watch’s thoroughly reasonable Paulsen opines, “to such people, Andrews is not a person. Instead, she is merely a body that exists for the sole purpose of leering at.” And with that, SMJ holds the sports blogosphere’s (apparently) narrow demographic accountable for fostering an environment where affording Andrews such treatment was considered the norm (at least until an aspiring Chuck Berry put a video camera in her toilet).
Fang’s Bites notes that “Many sports bloggers myself included liked posting pictures of Erin. And it was nice that Erin played along with us.” While Andrews should not be blamed for the actions of others — after all, she isn’t the one who took those pictures or videos — perhaps the lesson here is to not play along. Maybe the next step is to not accept this objectification as normal, the nature of the beast, or a case of boys being boys. Ignore it if one must, but don’t give what ends up being perceived as tacit approval.
Bloggers and mainstream writers will no doubt come out in the next several days to blast the video, and justifiably. And as sincere as those sentiments may be, they will still come off as somewhat hypocritical. While nobody would approve of the crime against Andrews, there are countless who are culpable in creating the atmosphere in which it occurred.
Perhaps feeling the sting of the above words, Deadspin’s Will Leitch — no doubt wondering if sports blogging ought to be mentioned on future resumes — declared, “this is awful for anyone who has ever written or said anything about Erin Andrews, ever.”
It’s all just kind of dissembling now, isn’t it? People who took photos of themselves smiling with Andrews on the sideline feel guilty, ESPN feels guilty, bloggers feel guilty, everybody feels guilty except the scumbag who shot the video in the first place. (I am ascribing this person with the inability to feel empathy.) The whole thing went wrong, very wrong. I do not think there is direct causality here … at all. But it’s not so wakka-wakka all-in-fun anymore, isn’t it? Even if we all feel comfortable that we were above board, if we scoffed at those other sites who were cruder and uglier, that part is over. No one feels good about it.
I have never met Erin Andrews. If I ran into her on the street today … I’m not sure I could look her in the eye. I’m not sure anybody could.
Really? I mean, I think I’ve seen more than enough pics of Ms. Andrews on Deadspin that I think I’d recognize her if I ran into her on the street. And while said event would be no more or less remarkable than watching Kevin Burkhardt eat lunch, I don’t think I’d share the Godfather Of Sports Blogging’s intense shame. Everyone doesn’t feel guilty, Will. There’s no shortage of persons who neither pandered to meatheads or gave a minor talent like Andrews much more than a passing thought. But if Lou Piniella feels a slight pang of regret, that’s totally understandable.
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