Not So Charitable
I'd guess Clay's day at the park Wednesday was more taxing than a few hours at a charity event. Funny no one complained about THAT. (Photo by Kelly O'Connor and used with permission)
I was going to write this long rant about the Boston sports media and Clay Buchholz’ appearance at a charity event Wednesday night, but Bruce Allen, of Boston Sports Media Watch, really sums everything up perfectly here and here so I will send you his way.
Here’s my short rant: Clay’s doctor didn’t want him flying across the damn country but didn’t tell him to spend the next six weeks in bed. He didn’t drink, the team and his doctor were good with him going and it was for CHARITY. There is nothing, nothing wrong with what Clay did. The media can bitch all they want about “perceptions” but they are the ones trying to create the perception of something bad going on and it’s up to us, the intelligent sports fans who know the media has an agenda, to ignore the created perception and see things for what they really are. Eric Wilbur actually called Clay an ‘idiot’ for going to the charity event so I feel comfortable calling Eric Wilbur an idiot for writing something so hateful and, well, stupid.
When the likes of Deadspin calls you out…and they’re right about what they’re calling you out for…it’s time to realize you’re the problem, not the players, Boston sports media. I never thought I’d type the words “Bravo, Deadspin” but there you have it. Also, Hardball Talk’s Craig Calcaterra has done some good work on this story as well. It’s nice to see the national sports media being able to acknowledge that it isn’t always the fans who are irrational. The Boston sports media has not draped itself in honor lately and it’s about time that was being acknowledged on the national level.
The Red Sox lost last night. They lost to a team they should have beaten and on a night when every other team in the AL East lost so they would have gained some ground. It bothered me after the game, for a long while. As often is the case with me, the new day takes away some of the annoyances from the previous day. I’m not bothered about the Red Sox losing last night/this morning but I sure as hell am still bothered by the idea that we haven’t even hit the All Star break yet and the Boston sports media is already on round, what, three I guess, of trying to create a rift between the fans and the players.
Thanks for the links to read. I never caught the Deadspin take on this. (I literally have never read Deadspin before, which might explain it.)
I’m going to toot my own horn and point out that what the Deadspin article said, I also said before on the Globe comments. (I’m such a brave rebel. I’m sure all of two people read it.) And that is, all this talk about, “Don’t you see? The chicken is simply ‘symbolic’ of larger issues” … that’s a B.S. copout. That’s only something people say after months of reconsidering and realizing that the argument they originally staked themselves to is pretty ridiculous sounding and unsupportable. (The team collapsed in Sept because Beckett ate chicken a couple times.) So rather than recant their original stance, they instead change the wording to this weird, nebulously philosophical, “Oh, it’s not the act itself. It’s that it’s emblematic of something or other.”
You know you’re in trouble when you start damning and crucifying players based on “symbolism.”
And you’re absolutely right. The reason this team has a “perception problem” is because the scum in the media created that. People in the 80′s bleepin injected themselves with crazy glue and chugged horse semen and no one batted an eye. Now it’s the Sandusky trial if you’re seen eating chicken in the break room of a baseball clubhouse.
“Why didn’t you say anything Heidi Watney? If I had seen such behavior in the clubhouse, I would’ve contacted the police immediately if I had been there! Where were you when there was still time? Only now that it’s too late do you say anything! How can you live with yourself, knowing the lives that were shattered why you sat idly by, watching baseball players, uh, eat chicken. Who’s gonna talk to those chickens’ babies now, Heidi? Who’s gonna explain to them why their daddy didn’t come home?”
(Note: I’m not saying that the players shouldn’t feel bad about how they failed performance-wise at the end of last season. I’m saying that the way certain players were crucified, and for all the wrong reasons, are indicative of some pretty simplistic thinking by the people and of the quality of what we call “journalism.”)