Sports talk radio
I'm back after a long week of watching the Democratic National Convention. I'll spare my thoughts on it.
While I was gone, the Sox lost seven games. Seven games! Carlos Lee has cooled off considerably and the team looks to be in a general malaise. Garcia pitched all right, once again, and three guys got caught stealing. Every time I watch the Sox, it seems like someone is sacrficing in the first or second inning. Guillen obviously feels like the team is a "small ball" team without Ordonez and Thomas, and that's idiotic.
The Sox also traded for Jose Contreras, because, apparently, Brian Cashman has naked pictures of Kenny Williams or something. Maybe Williams lost a bet. It was a stupid, stupid deal. At best, Contreras is a decent reliever and, at least, Loaiza was an innings muncher. Whatever. I've given up on this team. Without Ordonez or Thomas, the Sox stink.
With the trade deadline passing, a lot of players were moved. I'd write about them, but I don't have the time. I'd prefer to talk about something else.
Here in Washington, we have no baseball team, so our sports radio station doesn't talk much about baseball (a little Orioles stuff here and there, a little national Yankees/Red Sox stuff, etc.). But, yesterday, I was in Philadelphia and listened to WIP for about an hour and a half on my drive home (I was stuck in a bit of traffic).
Oh Lord. Now, I realize why players don't want to play in Philadelphia. Maybe it was because it was right after the deadline, or maybe it was because the Phils have lost six of the last seven, but the hosts, Jack McCaffrey and Luci Jones, were just against everything the Phillies stand for. They hate the players (specifically, Mike Liberthal, Jim Thome and Placido Polanco) and they hate the front office (McCaffrey went on a ten minute tirade on Ed Wade). Really, there were only two people they didn't try to tear to shreds (I'll get to that in a minute).
I guess this is typical, as I remember the horrible Chicago local guys always ripping Frank Thomas. Here's the thing, though, the Chicago local guys also ripped Ozzie Guillen a fair amount, which is where many of the problems were and are.
Here's the thing, though. Larry Bowa is a deity to these people. Luci Jones: "You can't fire the whole team, so I guess they'll fire Bowa, which I think is a major mistake." McCaffrey: "Larry Bowa means a lot more to this organization than Jim Thome." "This roster is 25 touchables."
The love for Larry Bowa is bizarre. The fact that he was part of the last Phillies team in the World Series gives him all-time immunity, despite the fact that he's an ass-bad manager, drove the best player(Rolen) they'd had in a while out of there and is clearly insane. Jim Thome, however, gets destroyed, despite being 15th on the all-time career slugging list (and, by all acounts, a pretty good guy). Of course, this because "he can't get a hit with runners in scoring position." Nothwithstanding the fact that he's got a .888 OPS with runners in scoring position, he's third on the team in OPS with RISP.
The hosts also didn't slam Bobby Abreu, but said very little about him.
I don't have the exact quote (I was scribbling writing these down while in traffic), but later, McCaffrey went on a tirade about how Ed Wade needs to bring in someone who "knows how to win." This would be fine if this is all he said. But, the example he gave was Pete Rose in '79. When Pete Rose came to the Phils in '79, he taught Mike Schmidt, Larry Bowa et. al how to win.
Look, I've heard this "know how to win/good character" argument a million times. People say this stuff about Derek Jeter all the time. But, Pete Rose? Peter Edward Rose is, by all account, a delporable human being. A wonderful player, yes, but he bet on baseball! His character isn't something to emulate.
Because of this and the trading deadline, I was thinking about loyalty and teams and fans and whatever. Admittedly, I am not old enough to know about every team, but two cities strike me as hard to play in: Philadelphia and Boston. No one every has good feelings after leaving there. Who was the last member of the Red Sox who actually spoke well of the organization, city or media? Probably Yastrzemski. How about the Phillies? I guess it's Larry Bowa.
(What about players that don't enjoy the organization, city or media afterward? Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk both hated Boston after they left. Nomar, Pedro, Lowe and Manny have all had troubles with Boston currently. Jim Thome, Scott Rolen and Billy Wagner have all had plenty of trouble in Philly)
You can say whatever you want about the White Sox and the way the team has jerked around Frank Thomas, but he'll be taken care of, I bet. Harold Baine, Ozzie Guillen and Joey Cora are all coaches with the Sox right now. Kenny Williams is a former player, as are Darrin Jackson, Ed Farmer and Ken Harrelson.
The Cubs, obviously, nearly never have troubles. Cub players love the Cubs and the adoring bleacher bums. The Yankees are the Yankees. The Giants are adored by ex-players, as are the A's. Living near the Orioles, the Orioles are more about that than any team I've seen. Every single ex-O seems to be back and enjoying it all.
The Red Sox and Phillies, though, I don't know why anyone would want to play there.
While I was gone, the Sox lost seven games. Seven games! Carlos Lee has cooled off considerably and the team looks to be in a general malaise. Garcia pitched all right, once again, and three guys got caught stealing. Every time I watch the Sox, it seems like someone is sacrficing in the first or second inning. Guillen obviously feels like the team is a "small ball" team without Ordonez and Thomas, and that's idiotic.
The Sox also traded for Jose Contreras, because, apparently, Brian Cashman has naked pictures of Kenny Williams or something. Maybe Williams lost a bet. It was a stupid, stupid deal. At best, Contreras is a decent reliever and, at least, Loaiza was an innings muncher. Whatever. I've given up on this team. Without Ordonez or Thomas, the Sox stink.
With the trade deadline passing, a lot of players were moved. I'd write about them, but I don't have the time. I'd prefer to talk about something else.
Here in Washington, we have no baseball team, so our sports radio station doesn't talk much about baseball (a little Orioles stuff here and there, a little national Yankees/Red Sox stuff, etc.). But, yesterday, I was in Philadelphia and listened to WIP for about an hour and a half on my drive home (I was stuck in a bit of traffic).
Oh Lord. Now, I realize why players don't want to play in Philadelphia. Maybe it was because it was right after the deadline, or maybe it was because the Phils have lost six of the last seven, but the hosts, Jack McCaffrey and Luci Jones, were just against everything the Phillies stand for. They hate the players (specifically, Mike Liberthal, Jim Thome and Placido Polanco) and they hate the front office (McCaffrey went on a ten minute tirade on Ed Wade). Really, there were only two people they didn't try to tear to shreds (I'll get to that in a minute).
I guess this is typical, as I remember the horrible Chicago local guys always ripping Frank Thomas. Here's the thing, though, the Chicago local guys also ripped Ozzie Guillen a fair amount, which is where many of the problems were and are.
Here's the thing, though. Larry Bowa is a deity to these people. Luci Jones: "You can't fire the whole team, so I guess they'll fire Bowa, which I think is a major mistake." McCaffrey: "Larry Bowa means a lot more to this organization than Jim Thome." "This roster is 25 touchables."
The love for Larry Bowa is bizarre. The fact that he was part of the last Phillies team in the World Series gives him all-time immunity, despite the fact that he's an ass-bad manager, drove the best player(Rolen) they'd had in a while out of there and is clearly insane. Jim Thome, however, gets destroyed, despite being 15th on the all-time career slugging list (and, by all acounts, a pretty good guy). Of course, this because "he can't get a hit with runners in scoring position." Nothwithstanding the fact that he's got a .888 OPS with runners in scoring position, he's third on the team in OPS with RISP.
The hosts also didn't slam Bobby Abreu, but said very little about him.
I don't have the exact quote (I was scribbling writing these down while in traffic), but later, McCaffrey went on a tirade about how Ed Wade needs to bring in someone who "knows how to win." This would be fine if this is all he said. But, the example he gave was Pete Rose in '79. When Pete Rose came to the Phils in '79, he taught Mike Schmidt, Larry Bowa et. al how to win.
Look, I've heard this "know how to win/good character" argument a million times. People say this stuff about Derek Jeter all the time. But, Pete Rose? Peter Edward Rose is, by all account, a delporable human being. A wonderful player, yes, but he bet on baseball! His character isn't something to emulate.
Because of this and the trading deadline, I was thinking about loyalty and teams and fans and whatever. Admittedly, I am not old enough to know about every team, but two cities strike me as hard to play in: Philadelphia and Boston. No one every has good feelings after leaving there. Who was the last member of the Red Sox who actually spoke well of the organization, city or media? Probably Yastrzemski. How about the Phillies? I guess it's Larry Bowa.
(What about players that don't enjoy the organization, city or media afterward? Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk both hated Boston after they left. Nomar, Pedro, Lowe and Manny have all had troubles with Boston currently. Jim Thome, Scott Rolen and Billy Wagner have all had plenty of trouble in Philly)
You can say whatever you want about the White Sox and the way the team has jerked around Frank Thomas, but he'll be taken care of, I bet. Harold Baine, Ozzie Guillen and Joey Cora are all coaches with the Sox right now. Kenny Williams is a former player, as are Darrin Jackson, Ed Farmer and Ken Harrelson.
The Cubs, obviously, nearly never have troubles. Cub players love the Cubs and the adoring bleacher bums. The Yankees are the Yankees. The Giants are adored by ex-players, as are the A's. Living near the Orioles, the Orioles are more about that than any team I've seen. Every single ex-O seems to be back and enjoying it all.
The Red Sox and Phillies, though, I don't know why anyone would want to play there.
1 Comments:
Okay, first and foremost, how could ANYBODY rip Jim Thome? Apparently, he is not only one of the few genuinely nice guys in all of baseball (this is what EVERY SINGLE play-by-play announcer says about him), but he is LEADING THE FUCKING WORLD IN HOME RUNS (31). Oh, and if that weren't enough, he's 6th in all of baseball (5th in the NL) in OPS (1033). Anyone who truly thinks that any coach or manager (outside of Bobby Cox or Earl Weaver) is more valuable than a player of Jim Thome's caliber is an idiot. Any sportscaster who truly believes this should be dragged out into a field and have his FCC licence violently taken away. Clearly, Ed McCafferey falls into the long line of sports talk/sports broadcasting guys who have absolutely no idea what they're talking about.
As far as cities that nobody wants to play in, I can see why Philly would top that list. Although I know very little of their media coverage, it is very clear to me from having watched sporting events that take place in Philadelphia, that their fans are tough and unforgiving. Obviously, that's a tough environment to play in. The same goes for Red Sox fans (this I can attest to firsthand), who are equally as unforgiving and but probably a bit less likely to shower a struggling player (especially a member of the Red Sox) with Boos. I would imagine that the worst aspect of playing in Boston (I'm talking baseball specifically) would be the ravenous media. The Red Sox aren't just the team of Boston; they are the team of the New England region. When I traveled up to Vermont during February of my freshman year of college, Red Sox spring training news was plastered on the front page of the Rutland Herald sport section. This is while the Bruins and Celtics were still in their regular seasons. And while I'm sure that the Celtics and the B's are the "official" basketball and hockey teams of the New England region (as the Patriots obviously are) they are not THE team of the New England region. THE team is the Red Sox. It is THE team that everyone in New England is absorbed with, from Maine to upstate New York to Connecticut. That obsession is only compounded by the history of the franchise and their nearly 90 years of not having a championship (at least in Chicago there's another cursed team to split the media's coverage), their fans' inferiority complex with the Yankees (which is baseball's worst inferiority complex, followed closely by the White Sox to the Cubs), and the anguish with which they have let those championship opportunities slip through their fingers. All of this makes the entire city of Boston a bunch of second-guessers. All the media coverage is about what's going wrong with the Sox and what they need to do to fix it. In Boston, the media is so awful that it poisoned Nomar Garciaparra's experience in Boston. According to Boston Globe columnist and Bambino Curse perpetuator, Dan Shaughnessy, after Game 4 of last year's ALDS, Nomar snapped at celebrating teammates "Why is everyone so happy? As soon as we lose, everyone's going to rip us." If you look at any of Boston's media today, it's no different. The headlines (from the Globe): "This was a bad deal." "Young Fans Take Trade Hard." (from the Herald) "Theo Puts Wobbly Spin on Trade." It's got to be hard to play in a place that serves up a culture of pessimism, which is precisely what Red Sox fans (and the media that cover them) do. Every year in Chicago and Boston seem to dawn with the same light: the light that this may be the year. While Cub fans retain hope throughout the season, Red Sox fans give it up after the Yankees take hold of first place.
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