The Boston Red Sox started the 2009 baseball season with high hopes and eager expectation. They have the second highest salary in baseball, a great group of starting pitchers, and a depth of talent. (Indeed, their bench players have higher salaries than most of the starting players with the KC Royals!)
Yet the Sox are a dismal 2-4 in the first six games of the season. The city of Boston is already in a meltdown, wondering if it is all just another wasted year. To top it all off, pitcher Josh Beckett has been suspended for six games by Major League Baseball for throwing the ball at the LA Angels' Bobby Abreu.
Abreu called for a time-out after Beckett wasted close to forty seconds on the mound (trying to scare the runner on second.) Beckett then threw the ball at Abreu's head. He claims it was an accident. However, when you watch the play Beckett immediately steps off the mound and begins to talk crap to Abreu 9who is being restrained by the umpire.) The benches clear as the Sox and the Angels get into a shouting/shoving match.
When the dust settled the game continued on. Beckett is outraged at his suspension, however, because he claims it was unintentional, and the worst punishment should go to the one who caused the biggest problem.
Want to know who called the biggest problem? Beckett! Here's why:
1) Don't throw the ball at a player's head. If you want a retaliation hit, hit them in the back or the side. Giving a player a concusion (or a brain hemorrhage, orblindness, etc) is NEVER a good idea. Any pitcher who intentionally hits another in the head out to be put in front of a firing squad of pitching machines. WITHOUT a helmet...
2) If you break Rule #1, never, never, NEVER walk towards the player you just tried to kill.
3) If you subsequently break Rule #1 AND Rule #2, you better be saying nothing but sweet things and apologies to the player you just tried to send to Lake Concussion. Never ever try to talk crap to the guy you just tried to bean. Seriously... the guy is carrying a huge club!
4) If the pitcher breaks Rule #1, then makes the mistake of breaking Rule #2, then decides he wants to start something, I believe we should nip this behavior in the bud. The umpire should get out of the way and allow the batter to beat the MESS out of the pitcher. Seriously, those guys are jerks and weanies anyway. AL pitchers don't even bat in the lineup! (They are afraid the opposing pitcher would retaliate, plus they all bat like 7 year old nails-just-painted whiny girls.) They deserve to have the crap beat out of them.
So Beckett, shut up and serve your suspension. In the weird world of baseball it means you are only missing one start. Get over it and grow up. If you are man enough to throw the ball at a fellow player you are man enough to take your punishment.
Showing posts with label Baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baseball. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
He who is without sin throw out the first pitch...
For those of you who don't already know, Alex Rodriguez took steroids from 2001-2003. He admitted as much two weeks ago after he was outed by a friend. Yesterday he held a press conference verifying his steroid use and apologizing for his behavior. I am proud of the way A-Rod approached this head on. But two questions always arise in the back of my mind. 1) If he hadn't been caught, when A-Rod have ever fessed up to his steroid use? 2) Does it really matter?
The answer to question number one is, "Absolutely not." Yesterday, when asked by a reporter whether or not he thought of himself as a cheater, A-Rod replied, "I don't know. That's not for me to decide." First of all, yes you were cheating. It was the easiest question on the list. A-Rod showed no penitence, so remorse for his decision. The closest thing he has said to remorse was that he was sorry he had shamed the game. There's not much in there about personal culpability or personal responsibility. If he hadn't been caught he never would have shared his steroid use.
Does it matter? Absolutely not. Do steroids provide an advantage in the game of baseball? Yes. Do steroid users have an unfair advantage? Absolutely: steroids present an unfair advantage for the steroid user, as they are bigger and stronger than the non-steroid users that they face. (Their balls are also smaller and their voices higher, but that is beside the point.) Most guys in baseball AREN'T using steroids. However, many of the big names in baseball DID use steroids at some point in their career: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Jason Giambi, Mark McGuire, Miguel Tijada... The biggest names in baseball were doing it. A-Rod simply joined the list. Plus, there are just as many pitchers doing steroids as batters. The bigger you get, the harder and faster you can fling the ball. A-Rod was blasting out steroid fueled pitches with his steroid propelled bat; maybe he was just leveling the playing field.
The real question in my mind is this: Why is Congress poking their nose into baseball at all? Aren't there bigger fish to fry? Our economy is in shambles, we just passed a MASSIVE (impotent) stimulus package, more investors on Wall Street are crooks, we are sending 17000 more troops to Afghanistan... Honestly, does the baseball controversy really matter at all?
According to President Obama it does. The Rodriguez controversy was mentioned in his first prime-time address of the American people. With so many other things to wrestle with it's amazing that we are focused on steroids in baseball.
Here's what I would really love to do: Walk into the Congressional hearing with a rock and place it on the arbitrator's desk. I would love to tell the Congressmen on the panel, "If any of you have never cheated to get to where you are, go ahead and throw the stone. But let's be honest... you took money for your campaign from shady investors looking for kickbacks and government contracts. You shamelessly add pork for pet projects into bills to fund education. You lie, cheat, and steal because it is "good" government. So shut the heck up about baseball players! If one of them goes to jail for lying, ALL OF YOU SHOULD GO TO. Bunch of stupid hypocrites."
Did A-Rod cheat? Absolutely. Did A-Rod cheat anymore than the executives on Wall Street, the petroleum profiteers who drove up the prices, the housing execs who sold houses for more than they were worth to people buying outside of their means? Did he cheat more than the Congressmen who are putting other baseball players on trial? Absolutely not. So... let's get down to some real work and leave sports alone.
The answer to question number one is, "Absolutely not." Yesterday, when asked by a reporter whether or not he thought of himself as a cheater, A-Rod replied, "I don't know. That's not for me to decide." First of all, yes you were cheating. It was the easiest question on the list. A-Rod showed no penitence, so remorse for his decision. The closest thing he has said to remorse was that he was sorry he had shamed the game. There's not much in there about personal culpability or personal responsibility. If he hadn't been caught he never would have shared his steroid use.
Does it matter? Absolutely not. Do steroids provide an advantage in the game of baseball? Yes. Do steroid users have an unfair advantage? Absolutely: steroids present an unfair advantage for the steroid user, as they are bigger and stronger than the non-steroid users that they face. (Their balls are also smaller and their voices higher, but that is beside the point.) Most guys in baseball AREN'T using steroids. However, many of the big names in baseball DID use steroids at some point in their career: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Jason Giambi, Mark McGuire, Miguel Tijada... The biggest names in baseball were doing it. A-Rod simply joined the list. Plus, there are just as many pitchers doing steroids as batters. The bigger you get, the harder and faster you can fling the ball. A-Rod was blasting out steroid fueled pitches with his steroid propelled bat; maybe he was just leveling the playing field.
The real question in my mind is this: Why is Congress poking their nose into baseball at all? Aren't there bigger fish to fry? Our economy is in shambles, we just passed a MASSIVE (impotent) stimulus package, more investors on Wall Street are crooks, we are sending 17000 more troops to Afghanistan... Honestly, does the baseball controversy really matter at all?
According to President Obama it does. The Rodriguez controversy was mentioned in his first prime-time address of the American people. With so many other things to wrestle with it's amazing that we are focused on steroids in baseball.
Here's what I would really love to do: Walk into the Congressional hearing with a rock and place it on the arbitrator's desk. I would love to tell the Congressmen on the panel, "If any of you have never cheated to get to where you are, go ahead and throw the stone. But let's be honest... you took money for your campaign from shady investors looking for kickbacks and government contracts. You shamelessly add pork for pet projects into bills to fund education. You lie, cheat, and steal because it is "good" government. So shut the heck up about baseball players! If one of them goes to jail for lying, ALL OF YOU SHOULD GO TO. Bunch of stupid hypocrites."
Did A-Rod cheat? Absolutely. Did A-Rod cheat anymore than the executives on Wall Street, the petroleum profiteers who drove up the prices, the housing execs who sold houses for more than they were worth to people buying outside of their means? Did he cheat more than the Congressmen who are putting other baseball players on trial? Absolutely not. So... let's get down to some real work and leave sports alone.
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