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Wednesday, April 15, 2015

A-Rod vs. Marshawn Lynch: What I Admire-or don't-in an Athlete

     As I've noted recently , I've never been the kind of fan who roots for players on an individual level. I root for laundry-the uniform. I want my team to win, pure and simple. As far as players go, if they help my team win I love them-but if they leave the team then I forget them. If a great player goes form the Yankees to the Mets, my love affair with him is over.

   Lately, though I've become quite a an of A-Rod. I've been struck by this and wonder why. No doubt, I don't like the way the steroid scolds delight in beating the dead horse of his suspension, his arbitration case, Biogenisis, etc.

    What I find though is despite the way that people like Lupica or Bill Madden make him sound, he really is a nice likable guy. The few honest media people-Susan Waldman, Mike Francesa-admit that it's impossible not to like this guy.

     I feel very strongly that this attempt to pretend that people llike Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, et. al, is just absurd. I abhor what Bill James calls this mad dash to spit on the shoes of McGwire to defend the honor of Roger Maris. Meanwhile, when Maris broke Ruth's record initially, the scolds spit on his shoes going as far as putting an asterisk next to his name in the record books-despite the witch hunt against steroids recently, no one has gone as far as putting an asterisk next to McGwire's name.

     So to an extent, I defend A-Rod as I defend all players so misaligned do to steroid use. The claim that voting steroid uses into the Hall of Fame 'unlevels the playing field' is just absurd as it has never been level. Ok, so Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, and Mickey Mantle didn't use steroids; but they also didn't compete with lack and Latino players either. So does Ruth deserve an asterisk?

    However as indicated above, there is something about A-Rod I like. Yeah, I'll admit it: he wants so much to be liked, that I kind of think it's very cruel not to like him. 

    I know these days you're supposed to admire people who don't care if they''re liked or not. Like Marshawn Lynch. Here is a guy who thumbs his nose at us the fans. You know what? I don't really appreciate it.

    A lot of people think it's unfair to keep raising his fines for not talking to the media. Why? I mean if he feels so strongly about it, let him pay. The fact that he is willing to speak to the foreign press but not the American press speaks volumes. He truly doesn't like us. You hear about all those great things he does for the folks and the kids back at his home in Oakland. 

    Ok, he has done a lot of great things for the folks and kids back home. Still, I wonder why he can only share that side of himself with the folks back home or in Turkey?

    http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/03/01/marshawn-lynch-visits-turkey-gives-lengthy-interview/

     http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2015/04/marshawn-lynch-xxl-magazine-interview/

     He says the reason he doesn't talk about football at least to the American press is because the press will take him out of context. Ok, that happens. Still, in this day and age, if you give say a tv interview, the fans can see for themselves and make up their own mind. 

     I'm sorry, I read a refusal to talk to the press as a refusal to talk to us, the public, who has given him his meal ticket. 

     I guess, I feel these days, there are enough people who don't give a shit about anything or what anyone thinks, they just gonna do them. Maybe we have enough of that already. At least A-Rod has always aspired to something more. 

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