1. Responsibility and Ownership. Without getting overly moralistic about it, I’ve never understood why some players just can’t figure out what the words responsibility and ownership mean. When Terrell Owens talks about how he feels victimized by the press and that he doesn’t understand where all the scrutiny and negative reactions come from, I just wonder how he can be so lacking in self-awareness. Nobody else publicly questioned QB Jeff Garcia’s sexuality. Nobody else publicly undressed Donovan McNabb for his failures after Super Bowl XXXIX. If he talked less openly about others, others would spend less time focusing on him. Amazing that a grown man can’t figure out something that simple...
2. The Human Stain Award. Last night’s broadcast of ESPN’s Baseball Tonight gave me an idea. I will hand out an award to the person or persons who best reflect why the human race is doomed by stupid people who mar their surroundings like an unseemly stain. Karl Ravech, John Kruk, Steve Phillips, and Harold Reynolds are the recipients of the first Human Stain Award. The reason? By equating a bad game for ARod (3 throwing errors, 0-4 at the plate), with Chuck Knoblauch’s famous struggles in the field. ARod, by all accounts, isn’t having the type of season people would expect of a two-time MVP. Fans have booed him at home and the press has skewered him for his supposed deficiency in the “clutch” department. For BB2N to now say that “it will take a Herculean effort for ARod to overcome the throwing errors” and that he “should be traded before it gets worse” is not only laughable, it’s downright frightening. Steve Phillips is a former general manager of the Mets. Did he trade players after bad games? In truth, that’s a loaded question – he was such a bad executive for the Mets that he’ll likely never be interviewed for a job again (Steve, send your resume to people in a few years, after the Mets stop paying Mo Vaughn’s contract...). John Kruk was never known as intelligent so last night’s comments are not surprising. But Ravech and Reynolds? What sort of brain-eating disease has gripped those two normally level-headed individuals? Last night’s broadcast was a disgrace and BB2N is now officially a blighted program that can’t be taken seriously.
Also, just so I’m not being too New York-centric again, I would like to point out that BB2N’s Steve Phillips cited Alfonso Soriano as possibly going to the Oakland A’s because “Billy Beane likes his aggressive style.” Come on, it’s been three years since “Moneyball” was published. By now we should all know that Alfonso Soriano (career OBP .320) is the antithesis of a Billy Beane type of player. BB2N has dumbed-down baseball analysis to the point that even blatant errors no longer raise eyebrows.
3. It’s Not Over Till It’s Over. The Atlanta Braves have next to no chance of winning their 15th consecutive division title but they have a very real shot of securing their 15th consecutive playoff berth by winning their first wild card. It’ll take a lot more than just one hot week but the Braves and their fans should know that they’re very much in this thing. I still think Houston, the Dodgers, and Padres are better, but I can’t count Atlanta out. In a way, I’m rooting for them. I think their streak is one of the most impressive in all of baseball history.
4. Daily Quickie Tries Out New Math. Today’s Daily Quickie provides a “funny” take on the upcoming White Sox-Tigers series. I call his sanity (and his wife’s taste in men) into question:
“The Sox are four and a half games back, and still play 10 more vs. Detroit in Aug/Sept. But can’t both teams agree their best plan is to break up the AL East wild card hegemony? Collusion is a GOOD thing: They can simply divvy the division and wild card, squeezing out the AL East runner-up. Who cares who gets what?”
If the White Sox and Tigers split their games and maintained this 4½ difference between them, it wouldn’t guarantee playoff berths for both teams. Dan Shanoff, Harvard graduate, has forgotten that if the Yankees and/or Red Sox overtake them both in the standings (a possibility, to be sure), the collusion would end up hurting BOTH teams. I’m realizing that Shanoff didn’t go to Harvard but to Harvard on Halstead.
(Note – I don’t mean this as an insult to anyone who is a graduate of Prairie State College. I’m sure there are people there who are far more intelligent than Dan Shanoff).
5. Book Review. I finished reading “Game of Shadows” this weekend. It’s a riveting and very informative tale of how BALCO rose to the top of the sports-doping pyramid and how one man, Victor Conte, managed to infiltrate track & field, the NFL, and pro baseball with the help of some rogue scientists and a whole cadre of willing conspirators (most notably the owners, executives, team doctors, sports reporters, fans, and union executives). I recommend this book to anyone that wants to know more about how BALCO got started and is interested in the under-reported aspects of this story, including track & field. The only part of this book that I didn’t like was the fact that most of its information is derived from leaked grand jury testimony. It’s sad that something as important as grand jury confidentiality is treated as a minor inconvenience that gets in the way of the media’s curious obsessions and need for instant gratification.
2. The Human Stain Award. Last night’s broadcast of ESPN’s Baseball Tonight gave me an idea. I will hand out an award to the person or persons who best reflect why the human race is doomed by stupid people who mar their surroundings like an unseemly stain. Karl Ravech, John Kruk, Steve Phillips, and Harold Reynolds are the recipients of the first Human Stain Award. The reason? By equating a bad game for ARod (3 throwing errors, 0-4 at the plate), with Chuck Knoblauch’s famous struggles in the field. ARod, by all accounts, isn’t having the type of season people would expect of a two-time MVP. Fans have booed him at home and the press has skewered him for his supposed deficiency in the “clutch” department. For BB2N to now say that “it will take a Herculean effort for ARod to overcome the throwing errors” and that he “should be traded before it gets worse” is not only laughable, it’s downright frightening. Steve Phillips is a former general manager of the Mets. Did he trade players after bad games? In truth, that’s a loaded question – he was such a bad executive for the Mets that he’ll likely never be interviewed for a job again (Steve, send your resume to people in a few years, after the Mets stop paying Mo Vaughn’s contract...). John Kruk was never known as intelligent so last night’s comments are not surprising. But Ravech and Reynolds? What sort of brain-eating disease has gripped those two normally level-headed individuals? Last night’s broadcast was a disgrace and BB2N is now officially a blighted program that can’t be taken seriously.
Also, just so I’m not being too New York-centric again, I would like to point out that BB2N’s Steve Phillips cited Alfonso Soriano as possibly going to the Oakland A’s because “Billy Beane likes his aggressive style.” Come on, it’s been three years since “Moneyball” was published. By now we should all know that Alfonso Soriano (career OBP .320) is the antithesis of a Billy Beane type of player. BB2N has dumbed-down baseball analysis to the point that even blatant errors no longer raise eyebrows.
3. It’s Not Over Till It’s Over. The Atlanta Braves have next to no chance of winning their 15th consecutive division title but they have a very real shot of securing their 15th consecutive playoff berth by winning their first wild card. It’ll take a lot more than just one hot week but the Braves and their fans should know that they’re very much in this thing. I still think Houston, the Dodgers, and Padres are better, but I can’t count Atlanta out. In a way, I’m rooting for them. I think their streak is one of the most impressive in all of baseball history.
4. Daily Quickie Tries Out New Math. Today’s Daily Quickie provides a “funny” take on the upcoming White Sox-Tigers series. I call his sanity (and his wife’s taste in men) into question:
“The Sox are four and a half games back, and still play 10 more vs. Detroit in Aug/Sept. But can’t both teams agree their best plan is to break up the AL East wild card hegemony? Collusion is a GOOD thing: They can simply divvy the division and wild card, squeezing out the AL East runner-up. Who cares who gets what?”
If the White Sox and Tigers split their games and maintained this 4½ difference between them, it wouldn’t guarantee playoff berths for both teams. Dan Shanoff, Harvard graduate, has forgotten that if the Yankees and/or Red Sox overtake them both in the standings (a possibility, to be sure), the collusion would end up hurting BOTH teams. I’m realizing that Shanoff didn’t go to Harvard but to Harvard on Halstead.
(Note – I don’t mean this as an insult to anyone who is a graduate of Prairie State College. I’m sure there are people there who are far more intelligent than Dan Shanoff).
5. Book Review. I finished reading “Game of Shadows” this weekend. It’s a riveting and very informative tale of how BALCO rose to the top of the sports-doping pyramid and how one man, Victor Conte, managed to infiltrate track & field, the NFL, and pro baseball with the help of some rogue scientists and a whole cadre of willing conspirators (most notably the owners, executives, team doctors, sports reporters, fans, and union executives). I recommend this book to anyone that wants to know more about how BALCO got started and is interested in the under-reported aspects of this story, including track & field. The only part of this book that I didn’t like was the fact that most of its information is derived from leaked grand jury testimony. It’s sad that something as important as grand jury confidentiality is treated as a minor inconvenience that gets in the way of the media’s curious obsessions and need for instant gratification.
No comments:
Post a Comment