It's so tiresome. Yesterday, Kev-my best friend and roommate-and I had a friendly bet on what Rodriguez would do in his first at bat. Kev said he's hit a home run on the second pitch. He wanted me to make my bet.
I didn't get quite so specific but I said he's get a single. With all my attempts to make money in sports betting this one I got right.
Predictably, the NY Post had the sports page headline 'Cheers for the Cheat.'
I can't tell you how tiresome the sports media is with the A-Rod bashing. Whatever he's supposed to have done he's paid his penalty. I mean the talk about steroids has always seemed a bit hypocritical as pundits always attack him a lot more than others also found guilty like Andy Pettite. My point is not that they should bash Pettite more but A-Rod less.
Listen, here's a dirty little secret: baseball was better before steroids was driven out of the game. It's just a fact. If you don't believe me look at last year's team statistics. Can you believe that not a single team scored as many as 800 runs-to average about 5 runs per game? Only two team scored over 750 runs. Few teams score as many as 700. The Yankees in their glory years would score 850 to 950 every year.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/batting/league/al
Ok, this opinion of mine contains a value judgement: I like offense. However, I think this is pretty widely shared preference. I mean baseball is basically back in it's second dead ball era-though you could say it had something of a dead ball era from the mid 60s to the early 70s.
Thank you, Jose Canseco.
http://www.amazon.com/Vindicated-Names-Liars-Battle-Baseball-ebook/dp/B0015DWMDY/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425569633&sr=1-2&keywords=jose+canseco+juiced
No one did more to ruin the game than he did.
Meanwhile the NFL is going in the opposite direction: it's never been a more offensive, passer dominated game and not coincidentally, it's never been more popular.
Part of the trouble is that most football media pundits have some background in the game-at least the tv media rather than the sportswriters of course. The pundit class in baseball is run by a bunch of purists who never played the game. So in football, steroid use is widespread with no recriminations and congressional hearings.
So Canseco ruined the game, but A-Rod is the one everyone hates. Actually, not everyone. Just the baseball media. The fans didn't sound like they hated him yesterday-ergo, the Post's complaint about 'cheers for a cheat'-they wanted him booed off the field.
Michael Kay is a sports guy I usually like and respect but lately I can't even watch his show-it's often unwatchable he suffers from such deep A-ROD Derangement Syndrome (ARDS).
Yesterday on his show he kept saying how surprised he was that A-Rod wasn't roundly booed. He couldn't just admit that Rodriguez looked ok his first time out. He had to keep pointing out this was one game and didn't prove anything. If he had looked terrible would he have said that. He said A-Rod will have his ups and downs and may at times have to play in the minor leagues and that we'll have to see what happens after spring training. Yeah right, see what happens, uh, sure.
His co-host Don La Greca had to point out that there's no question of seeing what will happen: unless A-Rod gets hurt he's going to play when the season starts.
He pointed out that A-Rod haters could hope he struck out every at bat but he'll still play when the season starts.
Look, I think most fans don't care about this at all. As a Yankees fan I'm just grateful for whatever he can give the team-it certainly needs some offensive punch from somewhere as last year's Yanks had only 633 runs scored.
This is the fault not of A-Rod but of Canseco and the Michael Kay's of the world.
P.S. Michael Kay ARDS goes back awhile. According to Mike Fransesca, Kay might have taken his job over A-Rod.
http://www.si.com/more-sports/2014/11/05/michael-kay-mike-francesca-feud-yes-yankees-alex-rodriguez
P.S.S. This runs per team stuff is just driving me crazy. In 2014, the average AL team scored a paltry 677 runs for the season-in the NL it was 640.
There was a time not so long ago that these numbers would rank a team last or close to it in the entire league.
In 2009 it was 781 in the AL and 718 in the NL. Wow. And Canseco thinks he saved the game. That's why the NFL has never been more popular and MLB has never been less so.
Keep doing what you're doing. I know bashing A-Rod all the time is what the fans want which is why the sports media does so much of it.
UPDATE: I can't stop with the team stats. In 2006 the Tampa Bay Devil Rays had the fewest runs in baseball. They're total: 689. That's higher than the average AL team in 2014.
By the way: shut up Fay Vincent-it's your attitude that's ruined the game. I actually quite like Mike Franscesca. At least he's not as virulently anti A-Rod as a knucklehead like Kay.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/fay-vincent-rips-alex-rodriguez-mike-francesa-bud-selig-article-1.2129816
I didn't get quite so specific but I said he's get a single. With all my attempts to make money in sports betting this one I got right.
Predictably, the NY Post had the sports page headline 'Cheers for the Cheat.'
I can't tell you how tiresome the sports media is with the A-Rod bashing. Whatever he's supposed to have done he's paid his penalty. I mean the talk about steroids has always seemed a bit hypocritical as pundits always attack him a lot more than others also found guilty like Andy Pettite. My point is not that they should bash Pettite more but A-Rod less.
Listen, here's a dirty little secret: baseball was better before steroids was driven out of the game. It's just a fact. If you don't believe me look at last year's team statistics. Can you believe that not a single team scored as many as 800 runs-to average about 5 runs per game? Only two team scored over 750 runs. Few teams score as many as 700. The Yankees in their glory years would score 850 to 950 every year.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/batting/league/al
Ok, this opinion of mine contains a value judgement: I like offense. However, I think this is pretty widely shared preference. I mean baseball is basically back in it's second dead ball era-though you could say it had something of a dead ball era from the mid 60s to the early 70s.
Thank you, Jose Canseco.
http://www.amazon.com/Vindicated-Names-Liars-Battle-Baseball-ebook/dp/B0015DWMDY/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425569633&sr=1-2&keywords=jose+canseco+juiced
No one did more to ruin the game than he did.
Meanwhile the NFL is going in the opposite direction: it's never been a more offensive, passer dominated game and not coincidentally, it's never been more popular.
Part of the trouble is that most football media pundits have some background in the game-at least the tv media rather than the sportswriters of course. The pundit class in baseball is run by a bunch of purists who never played the game. So in football, steroid use is widespread with no recriminations and congressional hearings.
So Canseco ruined the game, but A-Rod is the one everyone hates. Actually, not everyone. Just the baseball media. The fans didn't sound like they hated him yesterday-ergo, the Post's complaint about 'cheers for a cheat'-they wanted him booed off the field.
Michael Kay is a sports guy I usually like and respect but lately I can't even watch his show-it's often unwatchable he suffers from such deep A-ROD Derangement Syndrome (ARDS).
Yesterday on his show he kept saying how surprised he was that A-Rod wasn't roundly booed. He couldn't just admit that Rodriguez looked ok his first time out. He had to keep pointing out this was one game and didn't prove anything. If he had looked terrible would he have said that. He said A-Rod will have his ups and downs and may at times have to play in the minor leagues and that we'll have to see what happens after spring training. Yeah right, see what happens, uh, sure.
His co-host Don La Greca had to point out that there's no question of seeing what will happen: unless A-Rod gets hurt he's going to play when the season starts.
He pointed out that A-Rod haters could hope he struck out every at bat but he'll still play when the season starts.
Look, I think most fans don't care about this at all. As a Yankees fan I'm just grateful for whatever he can give the team-it certainly needs some offensive punch from somewhere as last year's Yanks had only 633 runs scored.
This is the fault not of A-Rod but of Canseco and the Michael Kay's of the world.
P.S. Michael Kay ARDS goes back awhile. According to Mike Fransesca, Kay might have taken his job over A-Rod.
http://www.si.com/more-sports/2014/11/05/michael-kay-mike-francesca-feud-yes-yankees-alex-rodriguez
P.S.S. This runs per team stuff is just driving me crazy. In 2014, the average AL team scored a paltry 677 runs for the season-in the NL it was 640.
There was a time not so long ago that these numbers would rank a team last or close to it in the entire league.
In 2009 it was 781 in the AL and 718 in the NL. Wow. And Canseco thinks he saved the game. That's why the NFL has never been more popular and MLB has never been less so.
Keep doing what you're doing. I know bashing A-Rod all the time is what the fans want which is why the sports media does so much of it.
UPDATE: I can't stop with the team stats. In 2006 the Tampa Bay Devil Rays had the fewest runs in baseball. They're total: 689. That's higher than the average AL team in 2014.
By the way: shut up Fay Vincent-it's your attitude that's ruined the game. I actually quite like Mike Franscesca. At least he's not as virulently anti A-Rod as a knucklehead like Kay.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/fay-vincent-rips-alex-rodriguez-mike-francesa-bud-selig-article-1.2129816
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