Posts Tagged ‘Tony LaRussa’

Things not related to the ALCS that are pissing me off this week:

*  Steve Phillips is addicted to sex. Stunned.  I’m stunned, I tell you.  To think, instead of facing up to the fact that his ego is such that he enjoys cheating on his wife with subordinates, he announces to the world that he’s a sex addict, goes into “rehab” for it and will most likely come out to the welcoming arms of a job.  Nice work if you can get it, huh?

* Bill Madden is a rumor-mongering ass and no one except Matt O’Donnell at Fenway West, has called him on it.  According to Madden, the Red Sox “have apparently decided not to try to re-sign Jason Bay”.  Does he offer any proof of this?  Any quotes?  Any facts at all?  No.  What he does offer is his belief that Jason Bay’s rep “Scott (Avenging Agent) Boras” had a bad relationship with the Red Sox.  That’s his proof the Sox aren’t going to re-sign Bay.  The worst of it being, surprise surprise Bill, Jason Bay’s agent is Joe Urbon.  Whoops.  Madden wrote this piece on Saturday and it’s been up ever since with no corrections.  The New York Daily News, your leader in spreading misinformation.  The kicker is that so many blogs have picked up on Madden’s piece and are quoting it as fact.  It annoys me to no end that professionals can just throw out rumors, stating them as fact, and not have to be responsible to anyone to report the actual truth.  I have no bloody idea if Theo plans to make Bay an offer that will woo him into staying in Boston – neither does Bill Madden.

*  Tony LaRussa gives Mark McGwire a job.  Yeah, yeah.  McGwire never admitted to anything (he wasn’t there to talk about the past, dammit) and he didn’t get “caught” or “outed” (unless you count Jose Canseco)…but the fact remains that when most people think of Mark McGwire, they think of steroids.  What better way to show folks that MLB is serious about cleaning up the sport than bringing Mark McGwire in to be the Cardinals hitting coach?  How long into the season (or maybe just into spring training) will we finally get Mark in front of a microphone admitting to all he has been accused of, begging forgiveness and thanking LaRussa for his chance to get back into baseball?

*  JD Drew. Folks, he isn’t a murderer.  He hasn’t been outed for cheating on his wife or using PEDs.  I’ve never heard one fan ever claim he blew off an autograph request.  And, believe it or not, he’s a pretty solid player.  Yes, he has a huge contract that was totally overblown and never probably should have seen the light of day – but it did.  YEARS ago.  Build yourselves bridges and get the hell over it, people.  JD Drew isn’t the devil.  You just want to paint him that way so you can entertain yourself in the off-season.

Four?  I only came up with four?

I think that’s because in the back of my brain I keep looking ahead on the calender to tomorrow.  AKA:  The 5th Anniversary of the night our lives TRULY changed forever.  More on that next!

LaRussa’s mug shot from March 2007

I love Twitter and I can’t stand Tony LaRussa so there are some aspects of this story that make me laugh.

St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa is suing the social-networking site Twitter, claiming an unauthorized page that used his name to make light of drunken driving and two Cardinals pitchers who died damaged his reputation and caused emotional distress.

Now I’m on the fence about making light of tragedy. On a personal level, I’m a huge fan of dark humor. I’ve never been to a funeral where we didn’t find something to laugh about (and, unfortunately, I’ve been to an awful lot of funerals). But I also feel like you need to keep a certain level of respect for the people left behind after a tragedy. So I understand that it could hurt someone to see jokes about someone they love who has died.

But I have a few issues with LaRussa “suing” over this. First off, it’s satire. Even if it’s bad, it seems to me that this would fall under that. Even if it isn’t covered under satire it’s still just humor, no? I never saw the original tweets of this fake LaRussa but based on what has been posted it seems to me that it was completely obvious that it wasn’t really LaRussa writing the updates. (The fake Michael Kay tweets usually are good for a laugh or two but even before he put up the disclaimer that the page was fake, you had to be a bit slow to not realize that already.)

There were three profiles I followed when I started on Twitter that turned out to be fake. Keith Olbermann’s, Stephen Colbert’s and Tina Fey’s (that tells you a lot about me, I know. Probably more than I should make public here!). Olbermann has absolutely no love for Twitter because of the fake profile but Colbert just created his OWN profile (instead of complaining about the fake ones) and Tina Fey has commented that, although it isn’t her, she thinks the person writing the fake profile is funny. (Although it should be noted that the person writing those tweets now calls the page NOT Tina Fey.)

I don’t think anyone should be allowed to dupe people into believing that person is someone else. So I understand LaRussa wanting Twitter to take down the fraudulent account. But suing seems ridiculous, petty, expensive and a tremendous waste of time and resources. According to the story I linked, there was a “warning” on the Twitter profile page that read “Bio Parodies are fun for everyone.” So if I understand the story, LaRussa is suing for being parodied because making jokes (and I’m not arguing whether the jokes were funny or not) about the tragedies that the Cardinals have dealt with and about LaRussa’s lack of good judgment when it comes to drinking and driving, hurt poor Tony’s feelings. So sad. Someone needs to call the wahmbulance.

What happened to Darryl Kile was tragic. What happened to Josh Hancock was tragic and, sadly, caused by Josh’s drunkenness. No less sad, especially for his family and friends, but I wonder if LaRussa is a little more sensitive to it because of his own alcohol issues? Maybe Tony has a bit of guilt because, unlike Hancock, he was fortunate enough to only have to endure public humiliation instead of a funeral? I mean what is possessing him to SUE over this? Whatever the case is, joking about the dead can certainly be considered bad taste but I’m not sure it’s worthy of a courty case. If I’m sitting on the jury that catches this case (although I’m going to guess that this case never sees the inside of a courtroom) I’d be PISSED that they brought me in for something so frivilous. Make them take down the page (which already has been done), get a thicker skin and get over it, Tony. (The faux Twitter profile, not the tragedies.)

Since I’m ranting, I wanted to point you all here. According to comments he made on the Dale and Holley show, Dennis Eckersley didn’t know he “couldn’t talk no-no”. Raise you hand if you believe him. Please, God, send us back Jerry Remy soon. Eck is fun but I really, really miss the Rem Dawg.

(Interesting, to me anyway, note: I’m watching Randy Johnson’s perfect game on MLBN. Mark Grace says “Randy’s been perfect through four.” And in the fifth inning he is making remarks about this possibly being a ’special game’. He also said “I won’t say anything else” and then added “Yes, I will. I’ll have to.” So, regardless of my feelings about this issue, I’m interested to see how others look at it. Grace was right. It IS tough not to mention that the pitcher is perfect through so many innings. Does that fall under the tradition of not talking about it? The world might never know.)