These two teams are constantly going at each other verbally. You know, win with class, lose with class. Just keep your mouth shut and go play your game.

Dwight Evans Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

I’m not a big fan of folks using the word “class” whenever they discuss sports, but since Chipper brought it up - let’s talk about class.

Is class schtupping a Hooters waitress and having a child with her while you’re married to someone else?  Destroying a marriage that spanned almost seven years and produced a son just to get your rocks off with another woman?  Is that how class is defined these days?

I get it.  That happened off the field.  Doesn’t matter what happens off the field as long as you stay classy on the field, I guess.  Every ball player cheats, so cheating on your wife and child isn’t indicative, really, of what type of person you are, is it?   Cole Hamels is without class because he called the Mets “choke artists” during a radio interview?  Let’s get THAT quote, shall we?

…he was asked outright, “Do you think the Mets are choke artists?”

“Last year and this year I think we did believe that [they were choke artists],” he said. “Three years ago we didn’t because they smoked everybody, and I think we all thought they were going to win it all. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. But, yeah, that’s kind of what we believed and I think we’re always going to believe that until they prove us wrong.

“For the past two years they’ve been choke artists.”

Not exactly evil sounding, is it?  Doesn’t even sound all that “classless” to me.  Maybe Chipper’s too busy banging waitresses to look up the meaning of the word?  I believe if Chipper is so eager to become relevant again that he’s going to throw himself into this fray, well, maybe he should choose his words more carefully.  I look at Chipper Jones and, in all honesty, the first thing that comes to mind is “he cheated on his wife with a Hooters waitress”.  I don’t think about his stats.   Not about how good he was or all his success with the Braves.

I think about what a scumbucket he is.

So when I read that he’s calling others out for being classless it really got a chuckle out of me.

In any other field, your morals and your standards define what kind of person you are.  No one says “He’s a great accountant.  Sure he cheats on his wife and shoots up, but he’s a tax wiz!”  People call that guy an ass behind his back, because that’s what he is.  In baseball, the type of person you are off the field only seems to matter when you’re a good guy.  Everyone wants you to know that this player devotes a lot of time and money to charities or that player spends all his free time with his elderly grandparents.  We get beaten to death with those stories.  But you’ll never hear about a pitcher touted as a fabulous guy who was screwing a groupie while his longtime girlfriend was planning for their future or about the married catcher with a different girl in every city his team visits.  The press knows these stories, the players know these stories, and they all ignore them.  You’ll read everywhere about what wonderful people these players are.  Great guys, a tribute to their teammates…but you’ll never hear about their personal lives.  Because it doesn’t matter, right?  They’re fabulous players and all their teammates love them so who cares if, when they walk off the field, they have no problem cheating and lying?

I have a problem rooting for these men.  I do it for some on my team, so I’m a bit of a hypocrite here.  But I’m not whining about the lack of class in an area where I’d be throwing stones in a glass house.  Chipper is surrounded by glass and he needs to mind his own business.

Chipper also needs to get the hell off his high horse and leave the likes of Cole Hamels alone.  The Braves finished in 4th place in 2008 and third place in 2007.  Maybe he should focus on helping to improve his team instead of whining about the way other players are handling their successes?

Bronson coming to Boston for these shows is the first sign that Spring Training isn’t too far away.   Woo!

Have a great Saturday, folks!

So I haven’t done a bloody moment of writing.

That’ll change later tonight.  For now, I’m singing Harvey Haddix and watching baseball.  Life doesn’t stink.

I was just telling someone about how much I love Christmas Eve but not so much Christmas Day.  Christmas Day is the last day of the “season”I love,  in my eyes and it gives people license to go back to being asses, so it’s a bit of a bummer.  I’m the opposite on New Year’s Eve.  Hate the Eve.  Hate it.  A bunch of drunken people going out and driving in crappy weather - woo, sign me up.  Ugh.  BUT I love New Year’s Day.  It’s a great day.  I can’t remember the last time I woke up on New Year’s Day and it wasn’t sunny and brisk out - and inviting me to embrace the new year.

So I am.  I’m embracing all the possibilities of the new year and I hope you all are as well.

For me, there are already two reasons to be excited about 2009.  The MLB Network and WEEI.com.

At 6pm tonight, the MLB Network goes live.  I actually have told just about everyone I know that I’ll be in front of a television at 6pm to see this happen.  I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about something on television that didn’t involve the Red Sox being in the World Series.   The best part is that I know so many other people who have the same plans as I do tonight.  It’s good when you’re friends are as passionate/crazy/obsessive as you are!

As most of you know, the EEI gig is something I’ve wanted for a long time.  (Well, I suppose I didn’t really aspire to work for WEEI but this opportunity is something I’ve wanted for a long time and the folks over there, specifically Rob Bradford and Tim Murphy, have really done a lot to get me even MORE excited about this new road I’m taking.)  Technically (or I should probably say “legally”) I become a part-time, temporary employee of WEEI on January 5th.  I’m not sure how that translates into starting to blog for them, though.  I have a sense that I’ll still be “here” on the fifth since specifics of the new blog haven’t been all ironed out yet.  No worries, folks, as when I switched over from “Red Sox Chick” to “Toeing the Rubber”, I’m going to have this site forwarded to the new blog.  So the day I begin blogging for WEEI, you’ll know as soon as you come to visit here.  As I said, though, I’m not really sure just when that will be yet.

New Year’s Day is the day I get to pretend the entire past year never happened.  There were a few high points in 2008 but a lot of lows.  Later on today I’m going to tackle both in a new post - as soon as I REALLY wake up. 

Hope you all enjoy a safe, happy and healthy new year, folks!

Kyle Snyder shown here to cleanse our palates of the asshattery I write about in this post.

I’ve been writing stories and such since I was about 8 years old.  (Cyn trivia:  The first piece I ever wrote was a 13-page script for “Charlie’s Angels”.  It was to win a contest in “Tiger Beat” magazine.  I never submitted it, but haven’t stopped writing since.)  I have some formal writing training and am always looking for a good class to help me bone up, especially since I’ ve been baseball blogging more than any other kind of writing for a while now.  I will never claim to have talent on the same level as a Dan Shaughnessy (try to remember back to the days when he wrote some amazing  pieces on the Boston Celtics and forget, for a moment, about the hack work he’s done lately) even though I do think I have it in me to make it professionally at some point (not necessarily in sports writing) if I’d just get off my ass and focus.

I was offline for most of last week and only today read Curt Schilling’s latest entry in his blog over at WEEI.com that he posted on Christmas (quick plug, I’m 99% certain I’ll be over there next week.  January 5th is supposed to be the start date.  There’s just the matter of a little paperwork to be finished up.) and for the most part it’s a big “whatever”.  Some interesting views on how he feels about Teixeira.  Fairly  innocuous stuff.  Until I came to this passage:
.

.

Oh and one more thing. I really loathe to even mention CHB in anything anymore, due to his irrelevance on the Boston sports scene but I suck at keeping my tongue in places like this. CHB wrote the other day (thanks to the person forwarding this as it’s the first thing I’ve read that he’s written in five months)

“Best part of Curt Schilling’s blog on the WEEI website? Schill claims, ’I don’t get edited.’ Could he be more of a diva? Here’s a clue for the Big Lug - Ernest Hemingway had an editor. And Schill needs an editor more than I need a pitching coach.”

By edited I meant content Curly, because Lord knows I sure as hell need help with anything I write. But your last statement is laughable, because I think — and correct me if I am wrong — I am doing what you do for a living right?

I am pretty sure you’ve never stepped on a mound, well a field of any kind for that matter, and competed for something that truly mattered to people not on the field? So I am comfortable saying I am a lot closer to being able to do what you do, than you are able to do what I did …

The bolding is mine.  Good God in heaven above, does this  man really think he’s doing what Dan Shaughnessy does for a living?  Seriously?  He thinks writing a blog, on the level that HIS is, is the same as writing for a major newspaper?

And before I go on about the writing, how about the “you’ve  never stepped on a mound and competed for something that truly mattered” crap?  How does he know that the CHB didn’t play ball on any level (including little league)?  He doesn’t.  It’s just ego driving him yet again.  What HE does is amazing and difficult but what Shaughnessy does is so easy that HE can do that as well????

There are many, MANY well-written blogs out there.  Some written by professional writers, some written by people who aspire to be a professional writer and have the talent, just not the resume, some who just like to write and can do it well and some written by people who have an opinion they want to share but not necessarily the tools for writing well.   With respect to Curt, his blog can be interesting because it is written by a professional athlete who has an opinion on everything and loves to share it - especially when he knows it’s going to raise the hackles of many people.  This does not equate doing what Dan Shaughnessy does for a living.  It doesn’t even come close, unless you count the part where he pisses off a lot of people on a fairly regular basis.

How pissed am I that I’m in the position to defend the CHB??

Curt thinking he’s doing what any other professional writer is doing is laughable.  He doesn’t have a deadline, he doesn’t have to work to get people to talk to him, he doesn’t have to answer to anyone but himself and, most importantly to me, he doesn’t have the command of the English language or exceptional writing skills that you associate with a professional writer.  I know he has a hard-on for CHB and he’s just trying to get his licks in, but he’s working on a site with ACTUAL writers who have honed their craft and bust their butts to do what they do.  Belittling their profession is beneath even him.

Dan Shaughnessy might be a horse’s ass, but, in this case, so is Curt Schilling.  Pot, kettle and all, Curt.

(Kyle Snyder photo courtesy of drownedworld73 @ flickr)

BRADY Penny? And to think I was hoping for Brad Penny.

]]> http://www.toeingtherubber.com/2008/12/28/way-to-edit-your-site-bostoncom/feed/ http://www.toeingtherubber.com/2008/12/26/everybody-has-one/ http://www.toeingtherubber.com/2008/12/26/everybody-has-one/#comments Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:30:25 +0000 Cyn http://www.toeingtherubber.com/?p=2304 I’d like to know why so many Boston sports writers (and Boston sports fans) are using the “If you say that the front office didn’t screw up you’re in denial” or “If you say you didn’t want Teixeira on your team you’re lying” arguments against any Red Sox fans who aren’t devastated that Mark Teixeira is in New York.

To me, this is akin to saying “If you don’t agree with my opinion, you’re stupid”. Way to connect with people. folks.

I could have taken or left Mark Teixeira. I know he’s a good player (although, I’d like to know when he became the best player in MLB? He’s not, folks. He really isn’t. So to the people who keep telling me I’m in denial or lying, I tell you to stop over-hyping this guy in the name of Sox bashing.) but I wasn’t champing at the bit to get him. Let’s see, we’ll move Youk back to third, find a team where we can ditch Lowell, carry the one…it just didn’t mean that much to me to get him. We were a healthy Josh Beckett away from the World Series this year - I don’t look at the Red Sox and think “Holy hell!!!! Theo hasn’t done ANYTHING this off-season, we’re DOOMED!!!!”. Good for you if you do but stop trying to drown me with your negativity.

Remember the off-season of 2003?  Sure you do.  Everyone and their brother had us signing Alex Rodriguez including, for a time, Alex Rodriguez, right?  Back then, I was a regularly posting member of the Red Sox Fan Forum over at redsox.com.  The place was abuzz for weeks with talk of getting ARod.  I forget the specifics, but wasn’t the plan back then to trade ARod for Manny Ramirez and then trade Nomar Garciaparra for Magglio Ordonez?   I HATED this idea, long before it all went south.  And there were many, MANY people willing to voice the same opinion over at redsox.com.  Then once everything fell through and Slappy ended up with the Yankees, from out of the woodwork came the people taunting those of us who didn’t care.  “Oh you have to say that to make  yourself feel better about your team screwing this up!” was a common refrain.  No, I said it because I didn’t want to lose Manny and Nomar for ARod and Magglio.  Don’t care now and didn’t care then if people thought I was choosing loyalty to players over improving the team (which, in a sense, I guess I was.  I just never liked ARod - never - and there are some players I never want to have to root for - he’s one of them).

Mark Teixeira isn’t one of them, though.  Never really had anything against him, but I like the way this team looks (for the most part.  Have I mentioned that we need a catcher?  I’d much prefer Theo sign a starting catcher right now.  Seems kind of an important piece of the team that is currently, well, MISSING right now.) and I didn’t see the need of signing a Teixeira just for the sake of doing so.  Wouldn’t have been too upset if they did (although the ultimate loss of Mike Lowell would have been greatly upsetting) but, again, really not devastated that they didn’t.

So the Sox didn’t get Teixeira and the Yankees did.  I’m not giving up tickets to the Red Sox games in protest, that’s for sure.  If anything, it’s nice to (once again) have a bit of a “bring it on” attitude in regard to the Yankees.  Rivalries are fun and the Steinbrenners just kicked it up a notch again.

But, seriously Theo, a catcher.  A catcher would be good.

Cheers, Mike!

Usually, when I prepare for a post like this I read every article or blog that covers it so I either have information to use or to ensure I don’t copy whatever someone else has written.

This time, I’m flying solo.  The idea of reading any of the whining I know is coming in regard to Mark Teixeira makes my eye twitch.

I’m not sorry the Sox didn’t get him.  I’m truly not.  But reading people bash the front office because the Yankees decided to throw a ridiculous contract at yet ANOTHER free agent isn’t how I want to spend my evening.

Wait, I lied.  I read Red’s take on it.  My favorite subject line of the day.  And, actually, Denton’s view (also over at Surviving Grady) is one I share:

Wherever he lands, it will be his 4th team in just his 7th big-league season, not to mention the non-signing with the Red Sox back in the 1998 draft. I don’t know how he’s done it, but Teixeira has avoided any and all criticism for doing exactly what guys like A-Rod, Pedro and Clemens have done: pimping themselves out to the highest bidder.

So you have the understanding that I’m not exactly broken up about the Yankees signing Teixeira.  I don’t see this as a failure by Theo/the Front Office.  I don’t think they were outsmarted or outmaneuvered.   Cashman is determined to buy up all the free agents this off-season and that’s what he’s doing.  Why this surprises anyone is beyond me.

I don’t live in a cave, I know Teixeira is good.  But he’s not a good as the contract he got and no one will convince me that he is.  With this acquisition, the Yankees will employ the four highest paid players in Major League Baseball.  They just came off a season where they finished behind the Red Sox and the Rays - so why are people acting like Cashman’s spending spree is an oddity?

I received an email this afternoon from a Yankee fan who used to comment on my blog more regularly (read:  when they weren’t in third place).  He was gloating about Teixeira and became defensive when I wouldn’t take the bait and join him in a flame war.   “Don’t pretend that you aren’t heartbroken that Cashman shoved it up Epstein’s ass” is a direct quote from one of his messages to me.  I didn’t even bother to respond because that idea is just too funny to me.  All Cashman did was show MLB that the idea of building his team around young and homegrown talent is out the window.  The decision has been made that the only way to win it all is to buy it.  Now, I don’t have much of a problem with that, bring the players in who you believe will make your team successful…except for one small issue:  the Yankees have been “buying” for years and all they have to show for it these past 8 seasons is a bunch of AL East Champion banners.  Color me unimpressed.

I’m proud that our front office has created limits for themselves.   They set a number and stuck to it (and held to their resolve to not give out no-trade clauses) and Boras couldn’t force their hand.  The Yankees are definitely a better team for having picked up Teixeira, but the Red Sox aren’t a worse team for not getting him.  That’s good enough for me.

Now let’s work on the catcher situation, eh Theo?

Photo from WBZ.com

I don’t know that I’ve ever read Brian MacPherson from the Union Leader before, but if this article is any indication, I’m not missing much.

Okay, that’s a bit harsh.  MacPherson isn’t a terrible writer, just a stereotypical member of the New England sports media looking for trouble where there most likely isn’t any.  His article today is nothing but a whinefest about how horrible the Red Sox (specifically Theo and Tito) are to their players.   Listen, I can give  you a laundry list of players who I felt got the shaft by the team.  But it’s a personal feeling and in no way takes away from the fact that I understand the team does what it does, ultimately, for the betterment of the organization as a whole and it’s not anything personal.  MacPherson seems to be taking fanboyishness to a new level today:

WHETHER OR NOT the Red Sox sign Mark Teixeira this week — or next week or the week after — Theo Epstein and Terry Francona are going to have some serious work to do.

They’ll have some work to do with Mike Lowell, first of all. He signed a team-friendly contract just a year ago, turning down more years and bigger money elsewhere, but he became trade bait as soon as the Red Sox began courting Teixeira.

It’s not just Lowell, though. They’ll have work to do with Kevin Youkilis — and Josh Beckett, and even Dustin Pedroia.

The Teixeira negotiations have sent a message to everyone who wears a Red Sox uniform: We don’t care who you are. You are expendable.

Is he for real? He thinks these players don’t know that baseball is a business and the teams they play for will do whatever they can to sign players who will help the team win?

He thinks that, after the season he had physically, Mike Lowell didn’t know this would possibly be happening?

And Kevin Youkilis is on record as having said:

If we add a guy like Mark Teixeira to the team, that would be great,” said Youkilis. “You never know - I might be the guy traded (to make room). But I don’t mind it; I get to play baseball for a living.”

MacPherson is right. Youk sounds pissed to me. (Shout out to SG for the heads up on that story.)

MacPherson gives no reason Beckett will need to be “worked” with and he goes on to admit that Pedroia doesn’t have to “worry”.   Hell, though, he even throws Jason Bay into the mix.   He needs to be concerned that the Red Sox have no loyalty to their players.  He brings up Bronson Arroyo.  You remember Bronson.  He was traded in 2006.  Red Sox stuck a knife in his heart when they traded him (and got suck in return).  It was shitty and  many people thought so.  Funny, though, how it hasn’t stopped players from signing with the Sox.  Funny how it hasn’t affected the success of the team.

Here’s how MacPherson ends his piece:

Baseball is a business, sure. But when your product is your people, you have to treat them a certain way.

I, actually, don’t entirely disagree with this.  But here’s the thing for me, loyalty goes both ways.  The Red Sox treated Manny like a God and he gave them the finger.  They made really good offers to Pedro Martinez and Johnny Damon and were told “we’re going where the money is”.  There is practically NO loyalty in baseball (Bronson Arroyo aside) but to blame it solely on the owners (and, in this case, the entire Red Sox front office) makes no sense to me.

I often say that if I were GM, John Valentin would have been the shortstop until he shattered into a million pieces.  This is one of the many reasons I’m not a general manager of a baseball team.  I’ll tell you what, I don’t want to see Mike Lowell go anywhere.  He’s been great for this team, he seems like a genuinely good guy, and in a time when he could have taken advantage of the free agent market, he, essentially, took a discount to stay in Boston.  I think it would stink on ice if he got booted just because someone younger and shinier came to town.  But as much as I would hate it, I understand it.  And so do the players - I’m guessing more than I.

Baseball is a business.  It’s lousy, but true.  And it’s probably the first thing these guys learn about baseball once they hit the bigs.  This isn’t news to anyone.