And the MSM has the nerve to bash the blogosphere?

And they pump out worthless drivel like this*:

The big deal is that the Sox and Yankees don't play each other again until Aug. 6. So New York can win every game for the next eight weeks; the Yankees can win 40 in a row or more. But no matter what they do, they're going to be constantly reminded that they are 0-8 against the Red Sox.

It's pretty terrific when you think about it.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Boston Globe. What's the matter, Dan, no more "Curse" books to write?

And the truth is, from one Yanks fan: Losing to the Sox always sucks. Eight in a row is really painful. And I lost not one wink of sleep over it the past few nights. I give a ton of credit to the Sox for doing it everyway possible and for being a very smart organization.

But can the MSM stop with the blogger bashing when they are tossing this horsesh*t out there as "professional content" that you can only learn in a classroom taught by Geoff Baker?


* Thanks to my bro for bringing this to my attention

The evisceration of bloggers

Because we haven't been professionally trained or have a masthead to work under, we are not allowed to question anything. At least according to Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times:

But there is a training that has to occur. You either learn it in school, or learn it on-the-job at a paper before going out in the field. Or from me. But you have to get some training before you head out there. That way, you don't embarrass yourself nationally, as this blogger just did, or risk ruining a ballplayer's reputation when you may not be right.

I don't think the blogger, Jerod Morris, embarrassed himself. He laid out a case that pointed a direction that wondered if Ibanez was on some PED. Passive-aggressive, true, but I'd rather read that than Morris come out and say definitively that Ibanez was on something without proof. Hell, I did the same thing 5 days prior, with less statistical "evidence". As I noted at the bottom of that posting, we'd be lazy to assume everyone is innocent.

But Geoff, what would you say to your esteemed colleague, Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun Times, who kicked this innuendo door WIDE OPEN? Would you want him to attend your class? If it's good enough for the Chicago Sun Times to run innuendo questioning a hometown player, why can't anyone else? Said Telander, just as a reminder:

To wit, Theriot -- no disrespect, but if he's 5-11, I'm 6-12 -- hit two home runs Wednesday night at Wrigley Field against the Padres, giving him five times more home runs in 33 games this year than he hit all last season.

That rings the steroid/HGH/ whatever-designer-drug-is-in bell, doesn't it?

Mr. Baker seems to take particular delight in the fact that Morris was "eviscerated on national television", as if that represents a nationwide beatdown of guys like me who love the game and love writing about it. Guess again, Geoff.

And in this case, the blogger really didn't have a leg to stand on. That much was clear when he was eviscerated on national television by Fox Sports columnist Ken Rosenthal, a longtime baseball writer for the Baltimore Sun. I've seen some commenters to various fan blogs the past 24 hours try to say the blogger "held his own'' but let's get real. It was ugly. I give the blogger -- I won't mention his name because I'm reluctant to give him his 15 minutes -- credit for going on with Rosenthal. If it was me on the air instead of Rosenthal, I would have torn the blogger to shreds in much the same way. Maybe even worse. I know Rosenthal and spoke to him at the ballpark yesterday after his ESPN appearance with said blogger. When you go on TV and radio a lot, you learn how to destroy people like the inexperienced blogger on-air. It was like that Korean dude pounding on Jose Canseco in Japan the other day.

But I give the blogger props for standing up and taking his blows like a man. There is not enough of that in the internet world these days. Not enough accountability. And the fact he was ready to stand up for what he believed in gives me hope that he can one day rise to better things. That his blogging career was not just ruined by this one misstep. I don't think his was. It took some guts to wade into this topic.

I was lucky enough to enjoy 15 minutes of fame via my VoteForManny idea. I did interviews on the radio, in print. I was on ESPN Radio, MLB on XM, local radio in St. Louis, Chicago, San Diego, New York. I had a blast. It takes a bit of practice to get your feet under you to get your point across in a short window without sounding foolish. You have to learn to anticipate and have your rebuttals rehearsed. I learned quickly to have my responses "canned" and ready to go. I got better at it. Guessing Mr. Morris did not have that chance to learn from his on-air mistakes, but let's face it, the blogger got on national TV to debate with the pros. How AWESOME is that? Just ponder that for a quick moment: That's our equivalent of making the field at the US Open golf tournament as a walk-on weekend warrior. Behold the power of guts, verve, passion, and ignoring the intimidation of the pros. Good for Mr. Morris.

Morris has his last word, follow-up available and it's well done.

Ken Rosenthal asked at one point, “how did we get here?” What I wish I had said was: “We got here because one newspaper mischaracterized what I said, because a reporter from that same paper went running to Raul Ibanez for a comment without (ostensibly) Ibanez or the reporter reading the actual article I wrote, and because the mainstream media and its holier-than-thou high standards decided to run with the story. If none of that had happened, the Raul Ibanez story would be making its way towards 300-400 views right now and fading from relevance even here at MSF, as opposed to being a national story.

I wasn’t setting out to create a firestorm, but it is curious (there’s that word again) that the MSM was so quick to jump on the story. Could it be because the MSM salivates anytime the terms “steroids” or “PEDs” and an actual player’s name are in the same sentence? Might such stories drive pretty high traffic and viewership? Seems to me they would (and, admittedly, the last few days have proven it for us here at Midwest Sports Fans. Thanks mainstream media!).

Rock on.

Manny channels his inner McGwire

As a wise man once said: "You can't fix stupid".

Example #489,204:

The dreadlocked slugger, who also talked to manager Joe Torre, told reporters he isn't going to formally address the media about what led to his 50-game ban because it's in the past.

"I don't want to be a distraction for this team," Ramirez said. "What happened, happened. I spoke to [owner] Frank McCourt, I apologized, I spoke to Joe, my teammates and I'm ready to move on.

"I didn't kill nobody, I didn't rape nobody, so that's it, I'm just going to come and play the game."

You'd think that maybe, just maybe, Manny would remember the McGwire mistake: "I'm not here to talk about the past". Except that he clearly doesn't. If we've learned anything from those who have been outted: being upfront and honest (at least a reasonable attempt at honesty) goes a long way in a player's public relations rehabilitation. Worked for Pettite and others quite well. McGwire, Bonds, Clemens and others similarly defiant, not as much.

The last sentence, about murder and rape... well that's about as dumb a comment as you can make. I'll leave it at that.

Whining taken to a new level

For some reason, I thought this sorta whining coming from the Boston media was done, that somehow we were beyond this (note the subtitle: "Yanks buy first place and perhaps a title"). Guess not.

There was nothing particularly savvy or skillful about it, of course. They were dealing with Scott Boras, so they knew that honor and integrity would play no part in the process.

Just money. Lots and lots of money.

In other words, it was a New York Yankees kind of deal right from the start, a chance for them to buy the biggest house on the block and act like they built it with their bare hands.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman didn’t even have to travel to Mark Teixiera’s home to grovel. All he had to do was sit back, checkbook in hand, and let Boras do his thing. In the end, the slimy superagent did not let him down.

Awwwwww. That's so sad. Boo hoo. Boston was $10m "short" in their efforts to buy first place, Mr. Callahan. Don't act so one-sided, looking down on the Yanks for doing exactly what you were prepared to do.

Even though they already had a pretty good first baseman and third baseman, the Sox didn’t try to hide their affection for the best free agent on the market. They pounced on Teixeira like Brian Williams on Barack Obama. They made a bold offer of about $170 million over eight years.
[...]
Cashman did as he was told. He topped the Sox by a sizable margin. Final number: $180 million over eight years with a full no-trade clause.

And don't dare call that difference "sizable", because it represented just 6% of their total offer and that's not material by any stretch when you're whalehunting. That's close enough for the Sox ownership to call Boras and say, "call" and get Teix if he wanted to come to Boston for the same money as NY.

The Yanks do what they always do; use their financial might. And with some $80m+ coming off their payroll last year, all they did is backfill (with the best players available).

Mr. Callahan, you can hate on Boras all you wish. Makes no difference to me. He was only doing his job. And doing it damn well. If you think Boras would somehow treat the Sox differently than any other team, you're a fool. He's an agent with a singular mission: securing the largest deal for his clients. To think that he'd play favorites with Boston merely because they had worked well together in the past is either naive or dumb.

Also, don't try to portray Boston as some small market club, innocently being clubbed by the big, bad Yanks. As you noted, Mr. Callahan:

It is easy to say the Red Sox should have known better, but after lavishing outrageous contracts on other Boras clients, including J.D. Drew and Daisuke Matsuzaka, maybe the Sox thought Boras would give them a fair shake. They thought wrong, and they got burned.

Pot, kettle? Not quite, I know. But close.

Just quit the whining. The Sox are an incredibly run organization with great talent up and down, and plenty more on the come. Whining is not something the organization does; they react and fix things as well as any other club. Why aren't you, Mr. Callahan, lauding your team for being only a game out of first despite a sinkhole at DH and slow starts by Beckett and Lester (though obviously both have come on like gangbusters lately, especially Lester), rather than whining about the Yanks' spending. It's not a new story.


UPDATE (6/9/09, 11:15am): Deadspin's take on the transfer fees being paid in soccer and how it might related to MLB:

Perhaps someone with a more secure grasp of international sports could explain why U.S. sports don't try this transfer fee stuff. When teams like Milwaukee and Oakland and Minnesota watch their best players waltz away for big bucks contracts (or maybe get pennies on the dollar in a trade), would it help if Boston and New York had to dump big piles of cash on their old desks to take the talent? Or would it just give the small teams even more incentive to hoard money and stay terrible? The agents would certainly love to get in on that action.

Fun idea.

More Sterling bashing

This time, at the sword of Bob Raissman:

Sterling's chops are still there, his condescending delivery still tinged with pomposity. Yet now, something is different. Sterling sounds constantly befuddled (and that's being polite). There are strange, hard to explain, lapses in memory. When he begins a home run call you hold your breath wondering how - and where - it will end.
[...]
The offensive - and ridiculous - nature (You think Bombers brass got any complaints?) of Sterling's play-by-play here is apparent. Nonetheless, what was going through Sterling's mind when he segued into his moronic Rodriguez HR call as Matsui circled the bases? Then again, only Sterling, or Kim Jong-il, would invoke a weapon of mass destruction for self-aggrandizing purposes.

So how on Earth does Sterling stay so comfortably seated atop the broadcast?

Sterling has also aligned himself with the powers inside the organization, such as Lonn Trost (on the air Sterling once referred to him as "the titular head of the franchise"), who have final say over all broadcast matters. The honchos put a low priority on broadcast quality and are not easily embarrassed.

Well, that explains a lot, doesn't it? You'd figure that after the luxury seat snafus, Sterling's excessive calls, the pricing, the blocked-views in the bleachers, the links to organized crime, the Stadium Ops errors, the HR's, the moat, the access during BP, the gluttony --and that's just THIS season's "stuff"-- that Yanks leadership just might be concerned with their image. Guess again.

Now shut up and buy more stuff, and thanks for watching and listening.

Muchnick has no love for Sterling (and neither do I)

The NY Post's sports media-hound Phil Mushnick has no love for the Yanks catch-phrase-happy radio play-by-play guy John Sterling:

DON'T misinterpret this; it isn't a rip, it's a plea, a plea for change. Enough is enough. For those who care about baseball, a preventable, 20-year problem has become a crisis.

John Sterling, the radio Voice of the Yankees and a man who has always cherished the sound of his own voice while placing strained self-promotion over good-faith play-by-play, has created and cemented a dilemma: Every game played by the Yankees is a doubleheader -- the game that's played and the game Sterling calls.

Mushnick goes on to discuss how Sterling calls the game differently than the actual game action, how he misses plays and gets over-eager to use his own calls at the wrong times. Hard to argue, and I won't.

But my real beef with Sterling is how he's become so absurdly embarrassing to listen to, particulary with his insipid home run calls. He made a name with his "It is high, it is far, it is goooone". OK, I get it. He needed a call to call his own. Great. Then he had to add the "Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theeeeeee Yankees win!" Painful. Except he was just getting warmed up. Because these calls brought him a measure of infamy, he had to slowly take it a few steps further by adding player-specific home run calls and these are the bane of my existance.

Calls used on the current Yanks:

• Melky Cabrera: "The Melkman delivers!", "It's the Melky Way!", "The Melkman always knocks twice!"
• Robinson Canó: "Robbie Cano! Don't you know?", "Cano can do!", and "A Ribbie for Robbie!"
• Johnny Damon: "Positively Damonic!" and "Johnny on the Spot!" and "It's A Johnny's Rocket!"
• Derek Jeter: "El Capitan!", "a Jeterian swing...", "a Jeter jolt", and "Oh captain my captain"
• Hideki Matsui: "A thrilla from Godzilla, "An Upper-Decki by Hideki!"
• Xavier Nady: "X marks the spot!"
• Jorge Posada: "Jorgie juiced one!" and "Jorgie jacks one!"
• Alex Rodriguez: "An A-Bomb from A-Rod!" and "Alexander the Great conquers again!"
• Nick Swisher: "Jolly 'Ol St. Nick!"'and '"Nick at Night"
• Mark Teixeira: "A Tex Message!" and "You're on the Mark, Teixeira!"
• Jose Molina: "Jose, can you see that!"

Oh. My. Lord.

Are we, the listeners, that basic and stupid that he thinks we might find these somehow funny or amusing? Holy crap, make it stop!!!! It's absolutely unlistenable. Add in Suzyn Waldman's whiney drivel* and I can be thankful that XM has the feed from whoever the Yanks are playing. I'd much rather listen to the opposing broadcasters and get their take on the Yanks than listen to those two chuckleheads.

* As I noted in the comments, choosing who you dislike more, Waldman or Sterling, is similar to choosing which you like better: the sound of the recorder or the sound of the kazoo. Both will make your ears bleed and your head hurt like hell.

It's time for a change and Muchnick's spot on.

_____________

Bonus Sterling-isms, just to make your eyes/ears bleed:

• Bobby Abreu: "El Comedulce!" and "Bobby Abreu as sweet as candy..."
• Wilson Betemit: "You can bet on Betemit!" and "For the Betemit of the Yankees, Wilson hits it out"
• Jason Giambi: "The Giambino!" and "It's a bash from the 'stache"
• Tino Martinez: "The Bam-Tino!"
• Don Mattingly: "Mattingly, smashingly!"
• Gary Sheffield: "The Master Sheff!" and "A Sheff Special!"
• Shane Spencer: "Shane Spencer! The Home Run Dispenser!"
• Robin Ventura: "And Robin becomes Batman!"
• Bernie Williams: "Bernie goes boom!" and "Bern baby Bern!"
• Scott Brosius: "Brosius the Ferocious!!"

Thanks to TheSportsHernia for the tip

Levine's got a firm grasp of perspective

Imagine this: Randy Levine, my favorite Yanks front office official, lashing out about the empty seats at Yankee Stadium. Shocking, I know.

A day after the Major League Soccer commissioner raised the subject, New York Yankees president Randy Levine blasted back.

"Don Garber discussing Yankee attendance must be a joke," Levine said Friday. "We draw more people in a year than his entire league does in a year. If he ever gets Major League Soccer into the same time zone as the Yankees, we might take him seriously.

"Hey Don, worry about Beckham, not the Yankees. Even he wants out of your league," he said.

Way to go, Randy. Why not call his wife fat and his kids ugly and dumb? Have you no sense of perspective?

Told of Levine's comments, Garber explained his remark.

"When I mentioned the New York Yankees yesterday, my comments were part of a larger assertion that all businesses -- even the most successful sports entities -- are experiencing some impact from the economic downturn," Garber said through a league spokesman.

"The Yankees are one of the world's strongest sports brands and the context of my comments about a few empty seats at Yankee Stadium was to illustrate the economic challenges we are all facing," he said.

ESPN's East Coast Bias

ESPN has an East Coast Bias. Boo-freak'-hoo. Wanna know why:

Last season, Red Sox-Yankees drew ESPN's three highest game ratings — a Mets-Yankees game was fourth. Vince Doria, ESPN senior vice president, notes the Yankees and Red Sox outrate West Coast teams even in West Coast TV markets: "It's not a question of bias. It's trying to discern what most of our viewers are interested in."

So bash the network, MLB on XM, whatever you listen to.... but know there's a reason for the relentless ECB: RATINGS. And ratings = MONEY. And you know what it's all about, dontchya?

All is well, remain calm!

Despite a truly forgettable debut by Sabathia and Teixeira, I will be very much anti-NY media today and try to to maintain a sense of calm.

Perhaps I am the anomoly, but I'd like to think that most Yanks fans aren't climbing out on the ledge this morning. The media --what those not in NY see-- does a wonderful job of portraying a sense of impending doom and fear. Sure, fans like me are bummed that Sabathia had nothing and Teix looked a bit flummoxed. But I'm not panicking.

The NY media sells lots of papers with outlandish fear-mongering headlines. Some are truly brilliant and funny. But don't think that they speak for all of us, even most of us, when they call for Girardi's head after one game or calling Sabathia and/or Teixeira an abject failure.

Some of the headlines today, getting the bile boiling:

• YANKS' BIG-MONEY MEN MAKE POOR IMPRESSIONS
• CC, TEX STINK IT UP IN OPENER
• Money for nothing
• Opening daze: CC, Yanks rocked
• New Stars Fizzle as the Yankees Absorb a Beating
• Sabathia, Teixeira flop in debuts; Yankees fall
• A tough day for Teixeira all around
• Dreary debut for Teixeira
• Newcomers struggle as New York Yankees fall 10-5 to Baltimore Orioles on Opening Day

You get the point. We all do. It was a dreadful opening day for the team. However, while watching the first half, two things became very clear:

1. Sabathia had no command and only threw breaking pitches. I hope he is not hiding a strain or something.
2. The Baltimore offense is pretty darned good. They might not have the pitching to compete, but they sure can hit. And Adam Jones is gonna be a player.

So not what I wanted to come in and ramble about today. Just know that most of us (Yanks fans) are not in full bore panic mode yet. Talk to me at the end of the month.

Fellow bloggers also seem to be trying to maintain a sense of perspective (perspective and Yanks fans, living together, hilarity ensues):

• Jay at FackYouk seems to be squarely in my corner here, too. Thankfully.
• It’s only one game, from RAB
• It’s one game, calm down, from Pete Abe (LoHud of the Rings)
• Relax! from Sliding Into Home
• Well, there goes the undefeated season, from It Is High...

Canseco's becomming desperate

We all didn't believe Canseco early on. Even after his book proved largely true, we still don't like to have to rely on him for our PED truths. But this... this is getting to the point of dangerous. It's getting awfully close to libel, isn't it?

Never mind that [Manny] Ramirez was asking for a mega-deal at age 36. Or that he was negotiating in a sickly economy, while weighed down by the heavy baggage of a surly reputation. Canseco will have none of it. To Canseco, the drawn-out negotiation, the lack of a long-term deal, the lack of interest all raise red flags, and so he tells the Bovard crowd that Ramirez's "name is most likely, 90%," on the list.

Canseco admits later that he has no way of knowing. But it makes sense to him, so he threw it out there -- kaboom! -- swinging for the fences, still.

If you have no idea, you can't say "most likely, 90%". You just can't.

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

...who's the vainest, most self-absorbed, narcissistic, image-conscious of them all?

His inability to stay in the shadows, his relentless quest for the limelight as an individual.... what more can I say?

ARod loves him some ARod.

Just say "no comment" and we'll all be better off for it

Seriously, can he just "no comment" the rest of the 2009 season?

"I wish he was leading off on our team, playing on our team," Rodriguez said of Reyes, who hustled to take an extra base in the fifth inning and then stole third and scored in the Dominican team's 10-1 win over the Marlins. "That's fun to watch. Anytime you have that type of speed... I mean, we have a guy in (Brett) Gardner that'll be fun. That's probably the most you can have, watching those guys run."

No, of course it wasn't a dig at Jeter, but he looks yet again like a dumbass. Said Pete Abe:

He then sent word through a team PR man that his comments shouldn’t be taken as a shot at Derek Jeter. No, of course not. Reyes plays shortstop. That’s the same position Jeter plays. How could anybody take that as a shot?

It’s truly amazing. It really is.

Remember way back when I called ARod a Seinfeld-esque "Inappropriate Comment Guy" out of the Crazy Joe Davola mold? That ICG guy is back, with a vengence. Said me, just over a year ago:

ICG, why do you so often stumble on things that are so easy to step over or around? Just avoid the traps and you'll be OK. We, the fans, really want to embrace you, but you make it tough sometimes with these proclamations. We "get it" that you're not Jeter. Few are that media savvy (or vanilla). But for a guy who is protrayed as intelligent, you sure do step on your own tongue too often.

ARod "enhanced" his anti-Roberts claims

This is precisely why ARod should have avoided any Selena Roberts bashing:

But police departments from New York and Hoboken to Miami and Coral Gables say A-Rod never reported Selena Roberts' alleged crimes to them.

"I haven't been able to find anything to corroborate that she has tried to break into his home," Detective Juan Sanchez of the Miami Beach police said. "I haven't been able to find anything that corroborates the statement Alex Rodriguez made to ESPN."
[...]
Sanchez said Miami Beach police did file a "miscellaneous incident report" after police were called to answer a security guard's question about whether the island where Rodriguez lives is public or private property.

"She was trying to gain access onto the island, and they had no right to stop her," Sanchez said. "It's a public right of way. She can stand in front of his house and do whatever she has to do as long as she doesn't step on his property. There's no follow-up. She was not arrested. She was not cited. It doesn't go on her record. It's not even entered into our system."

This only makes ARod's claims look off-base and mis-guided.

Speaking of ARod's bashing of Selena Roberts, Jeff Pearlman took Gammons to task for letting ARod get away with it:

The reason Gammons scored the interview with Rocker a decade back is the same reason he scored one with A-Rod today: He’s the Larry King of sports television. Softball questions, limited inquisitiveness, an easy time for all involved. I’m not sure if Gammons was jealous of Selena for scoring a huge story, but he had to—absolutely had to—follow up Rodriguez’s presumably ludicrous accusations with a question or two or three or 10. “Alex, are you saying Selena Roberts literally broke into your building? Alex, can I see the paper you’re referring to? Alex, you rip Selena Roberts’ reporting? But wasn’t she, ahem, correct?”

Seriously, give me a break.

Oswalt wants to re-write the books

Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt wants ARod's numbers stricken from the record books:

If Roy Oswalt had his druthers, any player who was proven to, or admitted to, using performance-enhancing drugs would have his numbers erased from baseball history, the Astros ace said on Tuesday.

That includes Alex Rodriguez, who on Monday admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs after a Sports Illustrated report revealed he had failed a drug test in 2003.

So Roy, when your teammate, Miguel Tejada, pleads guilty to some charge relating to perjury this week, what will you say to him?

How would you do this? Would you only take away ARod's totals, or do you have to adjust the opposing pitchers' stats, too? Do you then go and retroactively adjust the scores and outcomes? Are teams records restated? Much like an accounting ledger, you can't simply deduct from one side without impacting the other side. But what if the pitcher he face was also a known user?

Oz complained that ARod (and others) were cheating him. What if Tejada's performance HELPED Oz earn an extra win or two?

WARNING: RAMBLE COMING

Wiping numbers away is impossible and (since I love the term) a fool's errand. When the book of baseball is written and catalogued in Cooperstown, cheats will be enshrined whether we know it or not. We are living in an era of chemically enhanced players and despite the testing, it's not going away any time soon. The crooked scientists and doctors are three steps ahead of the testers. We cannot simply strike whatever numbers we wish to make us feel better about ourselves, as fans. The 1950's, '60's and '70's all saw their fair share of chemical enhancement, from greenies and other amphetamines to cocaine. Now we have more elegant and advanced drugs.

A generation ago, fans saw the careers of beloved players like Mickey Mantle and Sandy Koufax end prematurely due to injury. Nowadays, Koufax would have had the "zipper" on his elbow or his shoulder worked on by Dr. Andrews and Mantle's knees would have been fixed arthroscopically. Aren't these medical procedures technically performance enhancing? The medical/chemical advancements have changed the game. Players get lasik surgery to improve their vision; isn't that performance enhancing?

What about players drawing their own blood, having it spun to consolidate the platelets only to have it reinjected to help rejuvenate an injured area? Is that performance enhancing?

What I have heard a ton of this week is this: Players should be competing only with what you were born with. OK, I like that. I'm not encouraging use of PED's, but to me, the line is a bit blurry. You aren't born with a replacement elbow or knee ligament or a repaired rotator cuff, things that both enhance performance and prolong careers. I know that the medical procedures are merely restorative, per se, but don't we see players coming back from TJS eventually throwing harder than before?

The line is a nice shade of gray and turning blurry.

I almost forgot about this ARod comment

Mentioned here almost a year ago:

"What now?", you ask. Well, it appears that [ARod] tried to make a funny or lighthearted reference to steroid testing, claiming he got tested 9-10 times last year. Whoops! Being tested that many times would seem to indicate that he was under suspicion of something, possibly amphetamines.

"Last year, I got tested 9 to 10 times," he said. "We have a very, very strict policy, and I think the game is making tremendous strides."

The number of tests he cited is substantially higher than those mandated by baseball's collective-bargaining agreement.

Of course, Yanks management has helped to try to extricate [ARod] from his latest hole with helping him with this "official statement" (which I can't stand):

On Wednesday night, Jason Zillo, the Yankees' media relations director, issued a statement on behalf of Rodriguez to further clarify his original comment.

"My quote from earlier today was taken literally," the statement said. "I was not tested 9 or 10 times last year. I was just using exaggeration to make a point. My intent was simply to shed light on the fact that the current program being implemented is working, and a reason for that is through frequent testing. I apologize for any confusion I may have caused."

[ARod], why do you so often stumble on things that are so easy to step over or around? Just avoid the traps and you'll be OK. We, the fans, really want to embrace you, but you make it tough sometimes with these proclamations. We "get it" that you're not Jeter. Few are that media savvy (or vanilla). But for a guy who is protrayed as intelligent, you sure do step on your own tongue too often.

Boomer bashing

While driving home last night, I flipped to ESPN Extra (1050 ESPN local feed via XM #141) during a commercial break from MLB on XM. I hadn't flipped to that channel in weeks, if not longer. I just happened to since I recently modified my presets. When I did, I heard Michael Kay breathlessly tell me to stay tuned, that if I hadn't yet heard Boomer Wells' interview from earlier, it'd be worth staying for. I was hooked. I love me some Boomer Wells interviews. And when they rolled that interview, it was awesome. Boomer unchecked, rambling, honest. (You can check here, at the 1050ESPN site for the audio/podcast). If you can't check out the audio, just check in to The Daily News for their take on the interview.

You'll hear a lot about the "I'd probably just knock him out" comment, but you have to realize that he was laughing and a sense of context is really needed. His tone was one of mocking Torre and his decision to do this book (or the Dead Torre Scrolls as I call them). From the article:

Torre has been criticized for publicly calling out players in his book, something he said he'd never do when he was still managing in pinstripes. But Wells called that notion "BS" to begin with.

"Joe called guys out from time to time," Wells said. "He always said you'll never hear anything from him in the media or the papers, and that was BS ... Joe didn't respect a lot of people in my eyes."

It keeps pulling me back in

Just grabbing a great quote from former Yanks (and Rangers, D'Backs) manager Buck Showalter, regarding Torre's book (emphasis mine):

"I'd have to make up my mind that for sure I wasn't going back on the field before I ever wrote one," Showalter said. "I have feelings about it. Obviously I haven't done it. There's a certain privilege to having those jobs that you have to live up to."

Well said. That role is a privilege, an honor. What Torre did is a dishonor to his trusted role and responsibilities.

In case I need to say it again for clarity: I don't care as much about WHAT he said. It could all be true. What bothers me is that he did this as an active manager. And that he did it TO the team that put 4 World Series rings on his hand, turning him from "Clueless Joe" into "Saint Torre".


UPDATE (1/30/09, 11am): In Buster's latest today, he has some good quotes from current front office staff about the Dead Torre Scrolls.

"The big question I'd have for him is: Why?" said a National League general manager. "Why would he put his name to something like that? If [Tom] Verducci writes it in his own book, that's something different. But you have all these people getting [slammed] … and why? For money? Is it to prove a point? Does he have an axe to grind? It doesn't make sense. I'm interested to see what he says."

Said another GM: "We all have stories like that, about different guys. But why would he want that stuff out there, with his name attached to it? I know this: If I were playing with the Dodgers, I'd be running in the other direction, because you don't know what he's going to write when he puts out, The Dodgers Years."

Whether it was his intention or not, Torre has hurt a lot of former colleagues, some of whom feel he has either been inaccurate or ungracious in his portrayals, depending on the anecdote.

You will say nothing

Looks like the Yanks are finally fed up with the tell-all books. I guess after "Ball Four", "The Bronx Zoo", David Wells' book, the Dead Torre Scrolls was the last straw.

The Yankees are considering including a "non-disparagement clause" in future player and managerial contracts in order to prevent any more tell-all books such as "The Yankee Years," co-written by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci.

"Up to now, we have always operated our employer-employee relationships on a basis of trust," the official said. "But we never expected what we got from Joe. We may have to get a little tougher on this issue."

Calling out Torre

I'll restate what I said on Sunday about the Torre/Verducci book:

However true it might all be, couldn't/shouldn't this have been saved until Torre was out of the game? It reeks of bitterness. Torre has fashioned a sterling reputation in and out of baseball as a wonderful manager of people. I wonder if that will change, at least IN the game, if his lockerroom recognizes that he's probably taking notes for his next edition?

I'm not questioning whether the players really derisively called ARod "A-Fraud" or if it was all in jest. I really don't care. The "Single White Female" quip is brilliant.

What troubles me most is how Torre has always (at least since he took the Yanks helm; I can't speak to his pre-Yanks days very well, admittedly) tried to remain above the fray, the dogs, the sensationalism that followed the team. He was the shield between management and the players, between the press and the players. By putting this book out, now, while an active manager, flies in the face of everything he seemingly stood for. I think it was a major mistake to do this now.

During a quick few minutes to throw down lunch, I read Buster's take about this situation and what was wonderful to read was Torre's own comments brandishing David Wells after Wells' book blew up and pulled back the curtains on the lockerroom. From Buster:

It's Joe Torre's book. His name is on it. He got paid for it. He had a chance to read every word, every sentence, every paragraph. He had to approve every passage.
[...]
But he has gone beyond his own code of conduct with his book. In spring 2003, David Wells and a ghostwriter published a book, "Perfect I'm Not: Boomer on Beer, Brawls, Backaches and Baseball," and Torre was furious, angry that Wells had aired some of the Yankees' dirty laundry in the pages. Wells tried to distance himself from some of the words in the book, saying they belonged to the writer, but the Yankees' manager would not accept that. After a meeting with the pitcher, Torre said this to reporters:

"We talked to him about a lot of things today. I just sensed he was bothered by it. Not by what we said, but by how it came out. How much of it is actually what he said and how much isn't exactly what he said, I don't know.

"But there's no question: It has his name on it, and he has to be accountable for it."

That's perfect. Torre must be accountable for every word. And any backlash.

Now it is Torre's responsibility to be fully accountable for the words in the book that has his name on it, and he must stand behind those words.

If he hides behind Verducci and the suggestion that the ugly anecdotes aren't his, the explanation will have echoes of "I didn't knowingly take steroids." If he embraces the words as his own, he also should acknowledge he has been, at the very least, extraordinarily hypocritical.

Dishing dirt "below" Torre

It's a shame that former Yanks skipper and current Dodgers manager Joe Torre is coming out with a book that seeks to dish dirt; it's just so "below" what I'd expect from the always-classy Torre. Nonetheless, it's disappointing to read some of these quotes attributed to his book, from the Daily News article:

In "The Yankee Years," due to be released on Feb. 3, Torre describes general manager Brian Cashman as a less than supportive ally who betrayed him on several fronts, and says that his star player, Alex Rodriguez, was often referred to by his teammates as "A-Fraud" and was obsessed with his perceived rival, shortstop Derek Jeter.

However true it might all be, couldn't/shouldn't this have been saved until Torre was out of the game? It reeks of bitterness. Torre has fashioned a sterling reputation in and out of baseball as a wonderful manager of people. I wonder if that will change, at least IN the game, if his lockerroom recognizes that he's probably taking notes for his next edition?



UPDATE (8pm, 1/25/09): So it seems that the first-person attribution of these quotes to Torre were a bit off-base, according to Verducci, the co-author. The bold/navy is my emphasis.

SI.com: Two New York newspapers are reporting that Joe Torre rips Alex Rodriguez and George Steinbrenner in the book, and that Brian Cashman was not as supportive of Torre returning as Yankees manager after the 2007 season as was previously believed. What can you tell us about these reports?

Verducci: I think it's important to understand context here. The book is not a first-person book by Joe Torre, it's a third-person narrative based on 12 years of knowing the Yankees and it's about the changes in the game in that period. Seems to me the New York Post assigned this third-person book entirely to Joe Torre and that's not the case. In fact, if people saw that Post story they probably noticed there are no quotes from Joe Torre in it. Joe Torre does not rip anybody in the book. The book really needs to be read in context.

Anybody who knows Joe, especially during his time in New York, knows he's a very honest man and he is very honest in the pages of this book. People also know Joe Torre doesn't go around ripping people and he doesn't do that in the pages of this book. There is a lot of information in this book over a tremendous period of baseball history. It's been reported out by me as well as informed by Torre's own insights into that period.

UPDATE #2 (1/26/09, 8:08am): From what appears to be an actual book review (as opposed to a Daily News/Post-like breathless misappropriation of the quotes) from the NY Times:

“The Yankee Years” does a nimble, if at times cursory, job of reanimating the long highlight reel of the Torre era: from the team’s ecstatic triumph in the 1996 World Series to Cone’s nerve-racking perfect game in 1999; from the Yankees’ two mind-blowing comebacks against Arizona with two outs in the ninth in Games 4 and 5 of the 2001 World Series to Aaron Boone’s amazing 11th-inning, seventh-game, pennant-winning homer against Boston in the 2003 American League Championship Series.

The book does not hide Torre’s bitterness over his departure in 2007 (he was offered a one-year contract that involved a pay cut in his base salary) and [the book] takes a few swipes at the general manager, Brian Cashman, and some players — most notably, Alex Rodriguez. But the volume is most interesting in its thoughtful analysis of why the Yankees’ fortunes began to spiral downward after 2001, analysis that has been made before by baseball reporters and fans, but never with such insight and detail by a former Yankees insider.

Most painful, however true, is this comment:

While the Yankees were going through an identity crisis, the dynamics of baseball had begun to change, with other teams embracing new cost-effective business practices based on statistical analysis. No one excelled more at this new number crunching and player development than the Yankees’ archenemies, the Boston Red Sox, who in 2004 would deal the once-mighty Evil Empire a crushing blow, coming back to win the American League championship after the Bombers were ahead by three games to none and a mere three outs away from the World Series. It was a devastating loss that only accelerated the Yankees’ dysfunction, the authors observe, resulting in more organizational backbiting and a team made up of “a slapdash collection of parts that didn’t fit or work.”

I've never shied away from giving the Sox credit and I won't disagree with those statements above. Still hurts like hell.

If the publisher is looking for additional reviews, send me the book and I'll get one up here asap.