A complete fucking asshole. That’s what Steve Phillips is. He’s always been one and, quite clearly, it doesn’t look like he’s going to change that anytime soon.
Steve Phillips is concerned about the kind of message it will send to young players if Josh Hamilton – an alcoholic and drug addicted player who is now in recovery – makes the big leagues without “paying his dues” in the minor leagues. Where to begin with the inanity of such a sentiment? Countless ballplayers have been given second chances, from Steve Howe (suspended seven times) to Dwight Gooden (suspended three times). What message did it send to their peers? The bottom line is this: if you can play, there’s room for you in baseball. And if Josh Hamilton can play at a level befitting his status as the first overall pick of the 1999 draft, then why shouldn’t he be given every opportunity to make the big leagues this year? I mean, when did morality become so important in baseball? Why doesn’t Phillips lead the charge to make sure that Ty Cobb (racist drunkard) and Mickey Mantle (wife-beating drunkard) get excommunicated from the Hall of Fame? It would seem perfectly within character, wouldn’t it?
More to the point, Phillips seems to be making an implicit argument against the Rule V draft, a system which allows teams to pluck talent from the rosters of other big league farm systems, provided that the selected player spend the entire season on the active major league roster. If Phillips has such a tremendous issue with how Hamilton might land on the Reds 25-man roster this year, he may want to write a letter to the commissioner of baseball. But he’ll want to make sure that he sends copies of the letter to Roberto Clemente, George Bell, Bobby Bonilla, Willie Hernandez, Johan Santana, and Dan Uggla. Those players, among others, are notable former Rule V draftees who made the big leagues for the first time through the benefit of this system.
At the end of the day, if Steve Phillips is so concerned with issues of morality and sending the right message, he may want to also consider his own checkered past. Steve-O, it’s pretty hard to appear genuine when cheating on your wife and sexually harassing a co-worker are on the back of your baseball card...
(And let the record indicate that I never once brought up how Phillips was an abject failure in his six years as GM of the Mets. But Mo Vaughn and Roberto Alomar thank him for his efforts, no doubt.)
Steve Phillips is concerned about the kind of message it will send to young players if Josh Hamilton – an alcoholic and drug addicted player who is now in recovery – makes the big leagues without “paying his dues” in the minor leagues. Where to begin with the inanity of such a sentiment? Countless ballplayers have been given second chances, from Steve Howe (suspended seven times) to Dwight Gooden (suspended three times). What message did it send to their peers? The bottom line is this: if you can play, there’s room for you in baseball. And if Josh Hamilton can play at a level befitting his status as the first overall pick of the 1999 draft, then why shouldn’t he be given every opportunity to make the big leagues this year? I mean, when did morality become so important in baseball? Why doesn’t Phillips lead the charge to make sure that Ty Cobb (racist drunkard) and Mickey Mantle (wife-beating drunkard) get excommunicated from the Hall of Fame? It would seem perfectly within character, wouldn’t it?
More to the point, Phillips seems to be making an implicit argument against the Rule V draft, a system which allows teams to pluck talent from the rosters of other big league farm systems, provided that the selected player spend the entire season on the active major league roster. If Phillips has such a tremendous issue with how Hamilton might land on the Reds 25-man roster this year, he may want to write a letter to the commissioner of baseball. But he’ll want to make sure that he sends copies of the letter to Roberto Clemente, George Bell, Bobby Bonilla, Willie Hernandez, Johan Santana, and Dan Uggla. Those players, among others, are notable former Rule V draftees who made the big leagues for the first time through the benefit of this system.
At the end of the day, if Steve Phillips is so concerned with issues of morality and sending the right message, he may want to also consider his own checkered past. Steve-O, it’s pretty hard to appear genuine when cheating on your wife and sexually harassing a co-worker are on the back of your baseball card...
(And let the record indicate that I never once brought up how Phillips was an abject failure in his six years as GM of the Mets. But Mo Vaughn and Roberto Alomar thank him for his efforts, no doubt.)
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