In Bob McManaman we get the classic carping of the steroid scold. He's right up there with a Mike Lupica or a Bill Madden.
"He's the dirty little secret Major League Baseball hoped would just go away. But how do you wish away a nightmare when the boogeyman is right under your bed? You don't because you can't."
"Alex Rodriguez isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Baseball is stuck with him. So are the Yankees. And so are we."
http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/mlb/2015/03/31/mlb-alex-rodriguez-new-york-yankees-commissioner-steroids/70726904/
Here we go again. Who exactly is this 'we' that feels 'stuck with A-Rod?' It's not me or most other Yankee fans who after watching our team fail to score even 700 runs for two years in a row can use the power anywhere we can get it. McManaman wants us to think that 'we our all stuck with A-Rod' when this is the obsession of only a couple of sanctimonious baseball writers who, alas, get to decide who's in Cooperstown-A-Rod should be a first ballot winner. He won't be, of course, anytime soon-one can only hope that in the future, we have less sanctimonious baseball writers.
I mean, how is it that we can all progress to the point where we don't accept the kind of gay bashing of Indiana GOP Governor Mike Pence anymore, but baseball writers never get any less Holier Than Thou? I mean you have phonies like Madden claiming that steroid use is a bigger affront to the game than even the Black Sox. Anyway, McManaman's picture of reality is no more reality based than a Neoclassical economists assumptions for his model. While maybe the economist will claim that it doesn't matter as the model is still of some use, McManaman's view of reality is simply useless.
"Ready or not, the aging slugger will officially make his uneasy and controversial return from a 162-game suspension on Monday when the Yankees open the 2015 season against the visiting Blue Jays. All eyes will be on A-Rod and we'd better learn to deal with it."
"After all, this is going to be harder for baseball fans to stomach than it will be for Rodriguez, who is under contract for three more years and is still owed $61 million by the Yankees."
"He may be a liar and a cheater and the most reviled athlete in sports, but we're talking about a megalomaniac who, when the spotlight is focused solely on him, can dance in a thunderstorm without getting wet."
Again, no one is having any trouble 'stomaching' anything, nor is A-Rod reviled by actual fans, who self righteous baseball writers like this have absolutely no contact with. What was A-Rod's great crime where he missed 162 games? He used Human Growth Hormone-which I have no idea why using it is cheating. By the way, the whole process by which he was convicted by MLB is the part I have a hard time 'stomaching.' A-Rod has never failed a drug test. The arbitrator who found him guilty-without any failed test-kind of had to find Rodriguez guilty-assuming he wanted to keep his job, as the previous arbitrator had found against baseball in a steroid case against a player and was then: removed from his post. If A-Rod's arbitrator would have exonerated him, then the arbitrator would have been relieved of his post and another would have come in to make the right decision.
Earth to Mike Lupica nation: everyone is over throwing stones at A-Rod. The only question that matters is if he can play baseball and his spring has seemed to show that he can. Even Rob Manfred can let it go-but not the Bill Maddens and the McManamans of the world who set themselves up as Baseball's conscience.
"Whenever Yankee manager Joe Girardi is questioned about how the media storm constantly hovering over Alex Rodriguez has impacted his spring training—and this being the Yankees, that’s asked fairly often—he leans back and gives what can only be called a knowing smile."
“I never thought it would be a distraction in the clubhouse,” Girardi said. “What I said is, yeah, we might have to answer a few questions the first few days but that’s going to go away. And it only becomes a story if he’s not productive. And he’s swung the bat pretty well, so I think people just thought that it would be 50 TV trucks there every day. It’s just not the way our world works, something else happens and they go somewhere else.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/n-y-yankees-alex-rodriguez-is-a-distraction-no-more-1427762071
I don't want McManman to have to read this-it'd be too painful:
"He has always stuck to the “mistakes were made” defense, never quite explaining what mistakes they were, exactly. But that hasn't seemed to bother fans, who have cheered him at every home game, or even the media, which has for the most part stuck to assessing his baseball readiness after the initial days of spring training. Even Rodriguez’s near-daily media scrums have a less confrontational tone than in past years, with the player going to great lengths to be self-effacing, trying to crack jokes—sometimes, even successfully."
"He's the dirty little secret Major League Baseball hoped would just go away. But how do you wish away a nightmare when the boogeyman is right under your bed? You don't because you can't."
"Alex Rodriguez isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Baseball is stuck with him. So are the Yankees. And so are we."
http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/mlb/2015/03/31/mlb-alex-rodriguez-new-york-yankees-commissioner-steroids/70726904/
Here we go again. Who exactly is this 'we' that feels 'stuck with A-Rod?' It's not me or most other Yankee fans who after watching our team fail to score even 700 runs for two years in a row can use the power anywhere we can get it. McManaman wants us to think that 'we our all stuck with A-Rod' when this is the obsession of only a couple of sanctimonious baseball writers who, alas, get to decide who's in Cooperstown-A-Rod should be a first ballot winner. He won't be, of course, anytime soon-one can only hope that in the future, we have less sanctimonious baseball writers.
I mean, how is it that we can all progress to the point where we don't accept the kind of gay bashing of Indiana GOP Governor Mike Pence anymore, but baseball writers never get any less Holier Than Thou? I mean you have phonies like Madden claiming that steroid use is a bigger affront to the game than even the Black Sox. Anyway, McManaman's picture of reality is no more reality based than a Neoclassical economists assumptions for his model. While maybe the economist will claim that it doesn't matter as the model is still of some use, McManaman's view of reality is simply useless.
"Ready or not, the aging slugger will officially make his uneasy and controversial return from a 162-game suspension on Monday when the Yankees open the 2015 season against the visiting Blue Jays. All eyes will be on A-Rod and we'd better learn to deal with it."
"After all, this is going to be harder for baseball fans to stomach than it will be for Rodriguez, who is under contract for three more years and is still owed $61 million by the Yankees."
"He may be a liar and a cheater and the most reviled athlete in sports, but we're talking about a megalomaniac who, when the spotlight is focused solely on him, can dance in a thunderstorm without getting wet."
Again, no one is having any trouble 'stomaching' anything, nor is A-Rod reviled by actual fans, who self righteous baseball writers like this have absolutely no contact with. What was A-Rod's great crime where he missed 162 games? He used Human Growth Hormone-which I have no idea why using it is cheating. By the way, the whole process by which he was convicted by MLB is the part I have a hard time 'stomaching.' A-Rod has never failed a drug test. The arbitrator who found him guilty-without any failed test-kind of had to find Rodriguez guilty-assuming he wanted to keep his job, as the previous arbitrator had found against baseball in a steroid case against a player and was then: removed from his post. If A-Rod's arbitrator would have exonerated him, then the arbitrator would have been relieved of his post and another would have come in to make the right decision.
Earth to Mike Lupica nation: everyone is over throwing stones at A-Rod. The only question that matters is if he can play baseball and his spring has seemed to show that he can. Even Rob Manfred can let it go-but not the Bill Maddens and the McManamans of the world who set themselves up as Baseball's conscience.
"Whenever Yankee manager Joe Girardi is questioned about how the media storm constantly hovering over Alex Rodriguez has impacted his spring training—and this being the Yankees, that’s asked fairly often—he leans back and gives what can only be called a knowing smile."
“I never thought it would be a distraction in the clubhouse,” Girardi said. “What I said is, yeah, we might have to answer a few questions the first few days but that’s going to go away. And it only becomes a story if he’s not productive. And he’s swung the bat pretty well, so I think people just thought that it would be 50 TV trucks there every day. It’s just not the way our world works, something else happens and they go somewhere else.”
"That is exactly what has happened. With only a few days left in spring training, Rodriguez has settled comfortably back onto the Yankees. It would be an overstatement to say that it’s like he never left, but his mere presence is not the lightning rod that it was in the early days of spring. Rodriguez has said all the right things, he has made few, if any, missteps, and he has actually hit well—batting .324 with three home runs as he prepares to be the team’s designated hitter and a backup corner infielder."
http://www.wsj.com/articles/n-y-yankees-alex-rodriguez-is-a-distraction-no-more-1427762071
I don't want McManman to have to read this-it'd be too painful:
"He has always stuck to the “mistakes were made” defense, never quite explaining what mistakes they were, exactly. But that hasn't seemed to bother fans, who have cheered him at every home game, or even the media, which has for the most part stuck to assessing his baseball readiness after the initial days of spring training. Even Rodriguez’s near-daily media scrums have a less confrontational tone than in past years, with the player going to great lengths to be self-effacing, trying to crack jokes—sometimes, even successfully."
"Even his onetime nemesis, commissioner Rob Manfred, is lauding his performance, as he did while on his spring tour through Florida last week, when he met with Yankee beat writers."
The fans, aren't having any problems and are actually cheering for him. Even Rob Manfred wishes him well. What exactly is left to see here?
P.S. Again, as I always say, it's amazing that I'm rotting so hard for Rodriguez to do well this year as I'm the ultimate fan of laundry rather than the player. If you where my team's uniform and help it win, I love you, but if you ever leave-whether or not you have a good reason-you're basically dead to me. It's all about the pinstripes. Yet, while I care most about how the Yankees do this year-expectations are low so at least it won't be so hard to exceed them; providing we have any kind of health in the pitching staff and can find a little depth there we have a shot-I admit, I'd love to see them win with A-Rod contributing significantly to it.
I just feel that the way the Lupicas of the world have treated him is beyond unfair-it's down right cruel. It makes me think of little boys who rip the arms off of crabs or something-just for the pure sadism of it. Let's hope this spring is a harbinger of things to come.
P.S. When you see paragraphs like this from McManaman what can this be but sadism?
"Even now, after serving the longest suspension ever for a player caught using performance-enhancing drugs, Rodriguez sounds anything but contrite and humbled by his once-again stained reputation."
What exactly would please McManaman: blood? He's served 162 games-what more do the steroid scolds need? I mean, this is just classic what Bill James calls the Martha Stewart syndrome: the regulators failed to get the real corrupt actors on Wall Street but they did nail Stewart for something totally trivial. I honestly think that for the steroid scolds-even though HGHt is not a steroid and doesn't even enhance performance just enables you to recover faster from injuries-they find A-Rod more reprehensible than a child molester or rapist or something. I mean they honestly believe he's the worst human being in the world. It's just preposterous they way they evaluate right and wrong. Just no sense of proportion.
I imagine that these scolds are just writhing in their own self-righteousness; it must hurt to be this self righteous. I mean, listen to this!
"Upon issuing a handwritten apology to fans in which he actually apologized only once, Rodriguez shook off his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal as cool as the schoolyard bully who walks out of the principal's office having been given only a warning."
The only bully around is McManaman and his kindred spirit Lupica. I mean I feel that to have to listen to this is a kind of violation for the rest of us. It's almost as bad as Clinton bashing-not quite on that level but in the ball park.. With Hillary there was this sudden obsession with her emails-What?! Did you say she has a server?!
Meanwhile, of course, no one finds it at all notable that Jeb Bush also had a server when he was Governor of Florida. It's the same kind of rationally ignorant reasoning in both cases. Certainly, there are victims but it's us having to listen to them-those with the Derangement Syndrome whether it's Hillary or A-Rod.
One tell-tale sign of BDS is that people suffering from it never feel their object of hate is contrite enough, has been humbled enough, is really sorry enough. .This demand for ever more obsequious public apologies is a kind of rabid sadism. So the bully is McManaman and his friends.
Ok, I had meant to be finished-which is why I used the P.S., but man this guy is just driving me crazy, he's so absurd.I got to stop-if I have more to say about him, I should at least get another post out of it!
No comments:
Post a Comment