Archive for the ‘Hall of Fame’ Category

1/9/13: No Baggy, No Biggio, No Body

Wednesday, January 9th, 2013

Twenty five to none, baby,
None in twenty five
No one gets IN alive

May take a year, no
It may take longer
They got the votes 
Though you got the numbers

Gonna sit, yeah,
Your ballgames are over, boys
Night is drawing near
Shadows of the evening
Crawl across the years

apologies Jim Morrison

Husband told me – go write this entry, get it out of your system. I’ll grill something. Sorry your boys didn’t make it in
(translation: we don’t hafta go to that stupid little town in the middle of nowheresville Yankeeland with nothin to do except for stand there with thumbs up butt while Wife gets all googoo eyed over Bagwell and Biggio and some stupid museum with mostly dead guys don’t even know their NAMES in it- and we get to go back to Galveston and go swimming YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!)

Well, all those smug, self important BBWAA and all those smug, self-important HOFers who wouldn’t NEVAH have done NOTHING immoral or TOUCHED any substance or thing that might could give them any sort of improvement or edge – you think they are gonna do anything to help the museum, which has lost money the last 8 of 10 years, and will get this crowd of dozens for the induction of some guys who have been dead a hundred years that nobody but SABRites have heard of?

HAIL no.

They are too busy crowing about The Sanctity Of The Halls. Not crowing about The Poverty Of The Local Businesspeople who they just deprived of their main business week of the year.

I can’t understand voting a good but not great pitcher like Morris over Bagwell or Biggio. They are not going in, if ever, for a long LONG time, seeing as how the BBWAA’s Declared Perfect Players who could not POSSIBLY have been associated with steroids in any way, shape or form, have managed to stagger themselves every year so they can put in only the perfect. Starting with Maddux next year. I would say Frank Thomas too, but he was very large, hit a LOT of home runs, and therefore MUST be one of those damm dirty roiders. Right?

Next year comes Randy Johnson, who didn’t get to be any good until he was 30 and lasted WELL into his 40s, throwing 90+ MPH sliders – and you know it’s impossible for that to have been due to roids, right?

And so on.

Bagwell, Biggio, Lofton (who fell off the ballot – and that is because he didn’t hit enough homers for a CF, unlike The Sainted Kirby Puckett, who couldn’t possibly have used roids to suddenly increase his HR totals from 4/year to 31/year, the year BEFORE the Juiced Ball in 87) Larry Walker (often mistaken for Dante Bichette), Schilling and his bloody mouth – I mean Sock. Rock Raines, Mike Piazza (acne is like betting on baseball – right?) and Alan Trammell. And Rafe Palmeiro – don’t ask me why people believe Miguel Tejada who was on the Mitchell Report because they had RECEIPTS for his purchase of steroids.

Let alone the 2 best players of the past 50 years who are being kept out for being, uh, jerks. Or as Ken Burns and his hazy shade of Remebrance of Golden Years Past put it – teach those mother, uh, lovers – ahem – a lesson.

IT’s too stupid. it’s really TOO stupid. In the not so distant future, we’re gonna look back at the Salem Steroid Trials and honestly wonder what all the fuss was about. Just like we wonder why, now, that so many folks were so hysterical about not allowing Those Icky Negroes to play on the Nice White Ballpark Grounds For the Regular Season.
The veterans committee gonna put most of them in 20 years from now and unlike Frankie Frisch’s gang, THESE guys will be genuinely great.

You know what? I think that this IS the right year to go to the Cooperstown inductions. No problem finding a hotel room, no crowds, no bloviating Hall of Famers going on about what little choir boys they were Back In The Good Old Days.

heh

Yeh, gonna sockitto Husby-doo. No crowds this time boy, no excuse for YOU.

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Posted in Biggio, Hall of Fame, Jeff Bagwell | 8 Comments »

1/5/13: Alan Ashby Returns To Astros Broadcasts

Saturday, January 5th, 2013

First of all, sorry no posts – my last long one about Baggy and BGO almost certainly not making the HOF along with nobody else vanished. Ridiculous – 8 absolutely no doubt superior ballplayers all deserving of the HOF, along with one of the 5 best position players and 5 best pitchers who ever played, left off most ballots.  But the writers, who haven’t needed to make a statement about “steroid era” players like Roberto Alomar and Barry Larkin, suddenly remember that hey – they have to refuse to mail in ballots, or worse, send in BLANK ballots, which count.

What if they gave a WAR and nobody came?

Why, then, the BBWAA, who closed their eyes tightly in the 80s and 90s
Would stay home when the fight over “PEDs” begins 
And let another vote and be blamed
They SHOULD care – whether or not the player rose above his ERA, but no.
He/she who does not take part
In the ballot will share in the defeat.
Even avoiding ballot will not avoid battle.
Since not to fight for your own cause 
Really means
Fighting on behalf of your enemy’s cause.

(apologies Bertold Brecht)

The excuse is that the previously ignored “character” clause is now to be used to mean whatever some voter’s prejudice entails. The pretense that no one can be properly judged against his peers is absurd. The pretense that EVERYONE who excelled should be punished is a repeat of the Salem Witch Trials. Accusation = Proof. Naturally, I have noticed that those who accuse, say, Jeff Bagwell of doing drugs (such as Jeff Pearlman) have never offered the slightest shred of genuine PROOF, merely stated that “Houston clubhouse was full of drugs and everyone knows it.”

This is beyond sorry.

They “know” that Greg Maddux, Junior Griffey and Frank Thomas were clean, like HOW? Especially Thomas, the power hitter who out of nowhere, had a superb age 39 season; the explanation is that Thomas was a vocal anti-roider. I say like beeeg deal – Preacher Ted Haggard was loudly, publically anti-gay and whaddaya know, he himself was a closet gay (and drug user, too.)

And if greenies, as illegal as roids, were so OK for the Old Timers to use because they were just like coffee and not performance enhancing at all, and put in bowls in the clubhouses, why is it that no Old Timer will admit to using them? Besides the old Bill Clinton explanation of how he didn’t inhale.

sigh

Husband isn’t real too upset, seeing as how if Baggy and BGO won’t be elected, I won’t have a stronger reason that we have to go to Cooperstown (which he has been promising me since we got married – there is always SOME reason that this year is not the right year.)

Anyway – the FO finally got something right after letting jim Deshaeis walk (he must have wanted money or something unreasonable.) Alan Ashby, who was unceremoniously thrown out on his ass at the request of Milo after the 2004 season (for interrupting Milo’s droning on about nonsense, saying terrible and offensive things like the score, the inning, the pitch count, the name of the hitter/pitcher/team.) Ash is not just a former Astro. He is a really REALLY outstanding play by play/color man who has been working for the Jays, who appreciate him.

I know Brownie will be working with (I now hate that phrase, seeing as how I can’t stop associating it with Ed Wade agreeing to “work with” Tal Smith) Ash, but am not sure who the other person will be. I don’t think it will be Alyson Footer, which is just as well because then Husband would be explaining to me how he has always been this die-hard Astros fan and can’t miss the pre-game or post-game show.

The new radio guys, best I know, will be Steve Sparks and (I think) Kevin Eschenfelter. We better hope it’s not Steve Stone, who has been worse than lousy ever since being fired from the Cubs after criticizing players for playing like garbage and getting in pointless fights etc. I DO know that Mo Ensberg, who has been broadcasting on satellite radio, will not be one of the new guys because he is now the infield coordinator with the Lancaster team.

Amazing how many guys, even guys who have plenty of money, just can’t let go of the game and go do something else with their lives. Even working some crap job in the low minors. As Bouton said – here and you thought you were gripping a baseball and all the time it was the other way around…

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Posted in Astros baseball, Hall of Fame | 14 Comments »

Congratulations Andre Dawson! Sorry Bert, Roberto and Barry

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Andre “Hawk” Dawson received 77.9% of all HOF ballots to squeak into the Hall on this, his 9th year.

I’m a LOT happier about his selection than I was about Jim Ed “Teh FEAR!!!” Rice last year.

I know that he didn’t walk much, and therefore had a very low OBP, especially for a Hall of Famer, but unlike guys like McGwire and Edgar Martinez, Hawk was a COMPLETE player. I know that modern baseball places the most emphasis on hitting, especially hitting with power, but I have a LOT more respect with players who can do that PLUS run well and field well, and that was The Hawk.

To me, he is a somewhat lesser version of Barry Lamar, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays. But hey, even 90% of greatness is still great.

Andre was an 11th round draft pick (not an Obvious Supa dupa STAH!!! from the beginning) in 1975 by the now defunct Expos (and I certainly hope he will go into the Hall in an Expos cap, not a C*bs one.)

He had a .934 OPS in 300 AB at age 20 in the rookie league that year, and the Organization MUST have seen something unbelieveable, because they promoted him to AA to start the year in 76, and after 143 AB with a .975 OPS, he was promoted to AAA, where he produced a 1.123 OPS over 275 AB and then was called up to the ML in Spetember, where he, uh, fell back to earth with a .584 OPS over 84 AB.

But he never went near the minors again and at age 22, was in the bigs to stay.

That is almost never EVER seen these days, even with Supa Dupa STAHS!!! draftees like Ryan Braun and Evan Longoria had more minor league ABs than Hawk’s 683. And of course these days, teams try to keep their draftees in the monors for as long as they can to delay the onset of free agency – and even if the player is desperately needed, they keep him in AAA until the super 2 deadline has passed to cheat him of a year of FA. Hawk was a FA at age 28, his peak, and teams not named the Yankees desperately try to avoid that sort of thing.

But Back In The Good Old Days, teams saw a great young player, didn’t care if he was only an 11th rounder instead of their top pick, and put him on the 25 man.

This refusing to promote OBVIOUSLY ML ready young players these days really bugs me. And yeah, I think I am getting old enough to have this lawn I gots to tell younguns to get offn.

Where was I? Oh yeah.

Hawk was made the full time starting CF the very next year and responded by posting an .800 OPS and winning Rookie of the Year and he never looked back. He won the MVP in 87 (ahem – yes I know Ozzie shoulda won) and was a top 10 finisher 4 times, with 2 second place finishes. He won 4 silver sluggers and 8 Gold Gloves (and yes, I don’t like the way GGs are selected any more than any other stat geek/geek-ess.)

He finished his career with 2774 hits, 589 walks, 503 doubles, 98 triples, 438 HR, 314 SB/109 CS: a 119 OPS+ over 7 years as a CF, 8 years as a RF, 2 years as a (mostly) DH, 2 years as a PH/DR – well, only 61 AB those last 2 years, so they don’t really amount to much.)

I wasn’t surprised that he was elected – a lot of writers are focusing on steroid-free guys from the past.

I WAS surprised that Roberto Alomar and Barry Larkin didn’t make it in. Too many writers are obsessed with Alomar sptting on an umpire (and it was a ONE time event of him losing his cool) and Barry Larkin’s troubles keeping healthy. I was very disappointed that Bert Blylevin missed admission by 5 votes. Must be tough to get 74.9% – close but no cigar is cold comfort after 13 years. I was also disappointed but not surprised at the BBWAA ignoring Tim Raines again. He made the bad mistake of refusing to swing at bad pitches and taking a walk to get on base instead of getting out. And, of course, of playing at the same time as The Rickey and playing in some other country nobody never heard of, to boot, instead of Boston/NY/Chicago, where all the good players at.

Hope they, and Alan Trammell all get in next year because 2012 is going to have at LEAST 5 no doubt about it HOFers in its new class.

UPDATE 1/7: I can’t count. 2014 has the 5 no doubt about it guys. 2013 has the Big Argument guys (Bonds, Sosa, Clemens) who absolutely positively should go in the Hall, but the writers are gonna make sure that they don’t. Which is ridiculous because Bonds is one of the 10 best position players who ever played MLB and Clemens is one of the 5 best RH pitchers who ever played MLB.

And of course, Sammy Sosa has got to be punished for being a (derogatory insulting word meaning a Latin with African descent who speaks English as well as your average 2 year old whose first language is English) for taking a translator when summoned by the government of the United States.

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Posted in baseball, Hall of Fame | 5 Comments »

A Few Thoughts About The 2008 Hall Of Fame Voting

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

A long time ago, this Supreme Court Justice was asked – how could he identify greatness in a ballplayer? He replied – I know it when I see it. (Anyhow, that’s how I remember the story….)

These days, non-statistical qualities are called “intangibles” (think Derek Jeter who is King of Intangibles), not just by stats hating reporters, but by the ballplayers themselves.

Intangible, at least to me, means that certain something about a player that makes him better than the sum of his parts.

And looks like Jim Ed Rice is going to win the intangibility contest of the year and be voted into the Hall of Fame, probably THE worst left fielder ever voted in (note that I am ignoring all the Veterans Committee of Frankie Frisch abominations) and he is going to be voted in, honestly, as a finger to the modern, supposedly roided up sluggers. Jim Ed was supposed to have been “feared” but seems that all this fear has been concentrated among modern sportswriters, dreaming about 1978. Jim Ed wasn’t much of a hitter outside of Fenway, an extreme RH hitter’s park when he was playing, and Yankee stadium. Just judging from some of the writing from 1976-1980, I think that as far as “feared” that Jim Ed fell so far behind Reggie Jackson and George Brett as to be virtually unnoticed.

Ah well, at least Jim Ed was FINE, even with that icky porn stache, an obvious great Hall worthy virtue somehow unmentioned by all the writers. And please, don’t tell me that HOT is unimportant – WHO is supposed to be my fantasy team rep from the Astros now that Bradley is retired? Hunh? Tell me that! Up and down the team is a pile of yawn.

But I digress.

Where was I? Oh yeah, Jim Ed. Back on intangibles. And also, he was a 1 team only guy, something valued by voters, don’t ask me why, as it had exactly zero to do with player “loyalty” prior to the advent of free agency. Don’t guess the media back then liked him real too much, but they sure do like those rose colored glasses they wearing these days.

As for me, I don’t think Jim Ed should be in the Hall for his stats, but rather for his intangibles – as I wrote a few years ago. (Check it out – it’s a good entry. Well, it IS.)

>A little more on the one team only guy who will be/might could be in the Hall in the FA era: The writers LOVE them. Players stay with the same team from beginning to end ONLY if it is in the best financial interest of BOTH the team and player to remain. No matter what the writers want to think, ML professional baseball is and always has been first and foremost a business.

I guess I was thinking about this in reference to John Smoltz, the long time Atlanta Brave, who just signed a last year contract with the Red Sox. He’s pretty darn close to a sure thing for the Hall – not Roger Clemens level excellence by any means, but an outstanding pitcher all the same, a guy who won’t reach 300 games because he spent 3 years as an elite closer and because he missed several years because of injuries.

Atlanta wanted him back a little, I guess, but not enough to make sure he didn’t leave. They offered him a contract with incentives which would be difficult to reach, such as 200 IP. I think they must have looked at what money John could make the team – I guess they didn’t think they could market him as a franchise icon havng a farewell tour, as the Astros did with Biggio in 07 – enough to recoup what they thought would be their losses if he couldn’t pitch 200 innings. Odd reasoning, especially as they don’t really have anyone ready to replace him. Unless, of course, Smoltz isn’t sure that this will be his last year in MLB, even at his age.

Of course, once he retires, he’ll undoubtedly be offered all sorts of liason contracts with the Braves, they’ll have Smoltz Remembrance Day, and he’ll continue to make the team money. And of course he’ll go into the Hall as a Brave along with his compatriots Glavine and Maddux.

But really, will it make any difference that he spent a year as a Red Sux? Who remembers Steve Carlton as anything but a Phillie? Who won’t remember Frank Thomas as a White Sox? Or even The Rickey as an A?

And speaking of The Rickey, one writer from some minor paper in Arizona left Rickey off his ballot, saying that guys like Tommy John and roider Matt Williams were more deserving unlike that roider McGwire and unlike The Rickey, who might could make it in someday. Apparently, the paper was absolutely inundated by emails from outraged baseball fans, uh, making, uh, remarks about the mental status/capacity of the person who deliberately omitted The Rickey from his ballot. The writer/voter, Corky Simpson, was more than miffed that internet people were making such a big deal of him actually thinking that Rickey didn’t belong on his ballot. Guess we all should have written letters to the editor by snail mail cuz that would have made ALL the difference.

Thing is the Hall of Fame is not the Hall of Stats – you DO consider the intangible.

And the fact is that there simply is NO way that any intangible could possibly be bad enough to justify keeping The Rickey off a ballot.

Other baseball writers have asked Mr. Simpson why he didn’t vote for Rickey, and all he has said is that if he had known there would be this much fuss, he would have. But, of course, it doesn’t answer the actual question; Simpson didn’t use all 10 votes, so he can’t say that he thought 10 other guys were MORE worthy. He simply didn’t think that Rickey is worthy.

Amazing

But then again, there were 20 guys who didn’t vote for Ted Williams (HOW could they explain THAT?) and plenty of guys who didn’t vote for Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle. Seriously, WHO is their definition of a Hall of Famer, WHO is better than those men?

Ah well…

But speaking of intangibles, I come to Mark McGwire. There is a question of did he or didn’t he use roids – and mind, the writers aren’t forcing every other player on the ballot to PROVE he didn’t use roids – and there are 2 divergent thoughts on him:

1 – even IF he didn’t use/roids actually have no effect on performance, he was a one dimensional player who was not a good fielder or runner and either walked or hit home runs. He wouldn’t be a Hall Of Famer even if he could prove conclusively that he never used any steroid other than Andro (which was availble over the counter to anyone, including pregnant females, in 1998 and which has not been proven to have any effect whatsoever in terms of performance enhancement in healthy young male athletes.)

2 – steroid users are evil and we know that he wouldn’t have even hit as well as some crappy SS in the 60s facing Sandy Koufax if he hadn’t been shooting up because every guy who used roids hit like McGwire and everyone who hit like McGwire therefore HAD to have used roids (see Sammy Sosa because every single male continues to look exactly the way he did when he was 19 and lifting weights without roids does exactly zero for muscle development). Anyway, if he had been a real man, he would have told Congress about every drug he used, naming names of everyone else he KNOW who used and everyone he thought might could have used or anyone to whom he even mentioned the word – roids – and then he would have taken his prison sentence like a Real Man and accepted that he would never be allowed in baseball or near the Hall due to his being a convicted felon.

uh hunh

I am kind of undecided about the stats – he didn’t have a long period of sustained excellence, had a fairly short, almost unbelieveable peak, and was never any sort of threat on the basepaths, except maybe to mutilate any SS/2B he slid into trying to break up the DP. He did “earn” one Derek Jeter GG. And I do know that umpires gave him a strike zone the size of a postage stamp cuz anything above mid thigh to him was a ball.

BUT

I want him in because of “intangibles.” Yep. It is the Hall of FAME. And let’s be honest here, McGwire and his home runs really DID bring back an enormous amount of attention to baseball that had been gone since the strike, in spite of St. Cal and The Streak. Seligula and the rest of the owners WANTED all those homers, WANTED all the cartoon characters to promote and WANTED the Paul Bunyan-like “hero.” And no, I don’t consider steroid use to be “cheating” prior to its being banned, any more than I consider using dirty/deliberately scuffed baseballs or spitballs to be cheating.

McGwire should be in the Hall. Warts and All.

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Posted in Astros baseball, Hall of Fame | 13 Comments »

4/9/07: Jim Rice ROOLZ – Bull Durham PC Lingo Sux

Monday, April 9th, 2007

Jim Ed Rice played his entire career in the AL, mostly between 1975 and 1988. I didn’t watch much AL ball (except for Rickey and Stew) and what I really remember of him from my childhood is that he was one FINE lookin brotha. I knew he hit the heck outta the ball in Fenway, won an MVP, never got a Ring and had a bad rep with the media.

Now that last lil thing actually makes me like him the very best, because I do NOT like the way the media is about how brothas supposed to be/talk – all Ryan Howard/Tony Clark/Tony Gwynn goodygoody and no Rickey,Gary Sheffield, Barry Bonds, Dick Allen, Frank Thomas all uppity/surly/snarly/greedy/whatever.

Jim Ed didn’t hit 500 HR or get 3000 hits, so he’s no automatic in as Eddie Murray, another guy the writers said was “a bad guy” was. I’m sure all the writers who hated him looked for SOME excuse to keep him out, but 500/3000 kinda tied their hands, so in he went, “surly bad guy” and all.

The writers have always found plenty of “good” reasons for keepin a “bad guy” like Jim Ed out of the Hall, except for last year, when they decided that they “knew” that he “couldn’t” have used steroids (what, they hadn’t been invented or something – or baseball players except for Tom House couldn’t have known they existed) therefore he was The Last Clean Hero (or something like that) and he got over 60% of the votes.

But poor ol Jim Ed just might could have gotten his little ol self in trouble again because he forgot to read his Bull Durham cue cards on The Things You Are Supposed To Say when he spoke at a AAA Red Sox dinner to honor him (this means rich people pay a lot of money to eat ritzy food, get an autograph and say they got to meet a Famous Athlete)

If I just looked at stats, well, his away numbers are so much lower than his home numbers that I thought that Jim Ed was actually a Hall Of Very Good kind of guy, like Dale Murphy. But after reading some excerpts from his speech, I think he should go into the Hall because his “character” – that is, ability to actually tell the truth, boosts him right up there. Actually, waaaaay above the character of guys already in the Hall like nice wholesome All-American racist guys like Cap Anson and Ty Cobb and wife-cheating guys like Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth and wife-beating guys like Kirby Puckett and the sainted Ty Cobb, yet again.

Get this- (ohhh, you best believe the writer didn’t like THIS – “inappropriate” he sez)
“You have to trust yourself, he said. “You’ve got to work twice as hard, and to me, if I was one of the players right now, I would be a selfish player.
Oh, NOOOOOOOO
He began to explain that today’s players take spring training for granted because of all the amenities and state-of-the-art equipment. Rice said he saw some things during this year’s spring training that he didn’t like. He said if he was playing today he wouldn’t be sitting in his room watching television; he would be at the ballpark taking batting practice.

“This is my 36th year of marriage to the same woman,” he said. “If I had to do it all over again, I would have been divorced 10 years or 20 years ago because I would have been at the ballpark. There is so much money now to be made in the game of baseball, and you have this ability to play the game, why not take advantage of it? It’s out there. Go get it. They’re not going to give it to you; you’ve got to earn it.”

Money??? The brotha cares about – choke, gasp – MONEY??? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
“Who says you have to play for the Boston Red Sox?” he added.“You’ve got so many teams.”

There are OTHER teams??? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

”If you put the numbers up, you’ve got a chance to play for someone else. The whole thing is to say, I. played’ major-league baseball. I don’t care if I played for the Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox or Detroit. I spent 15 years in the major leagues and enjoyed it.
“I don’t want a cup of coffee. I don’t want a doughnut. I want the American Express Gold.

Now, seems to me this actually IS the “grit” that ballplayers are supposed to have. Not just the well, I got picked in the first round and youknowwho is my agent and I got a lot of $$$ so my butt should be kissed stuff we get too many times.

And there’s Jim Ed telling everybody to stuff the fantasy that players in the Good Old Days played their entire career with just one team Back Before The Money Mattered and They Just Played For The Love Of The Game And Would Have Played For Free blahblahblah…

Rice explained how players can make it to the big leagues, but the hard part is staying there.
“You have to learn how to stay,” he said. “What do I have to do? If I’ve got to cheat, I got to cheat. I don’t care. I want to be in the big leagues.”

An honest man. And if any other guy was FORCED to tell the truth, he’d say the EXACT same thing. And people wonder why guys would use bout ANYthing to get into/stay in the bigs? The old guys used to play “just for the love of the game” my butt.

“That comment drew a loud moan from the crowd,

Oh, I’ll bet. They wanna hear crap like the kind that comes out of the mouth of that sanctimonius hypocrite Dale Murphy.

and Rice quickly responded.
“I’m not talking about steroids or anything like that,” he said. “It’s like this here. This is what I mean by cheating in baseball. Men, I don’t know about women because you guys are pretty and can always find a boyfriend.

AHEM. Uhhhhhhhhh, no. You talk bout Old Skool….

Anyway, men, if you’re fighting and this kid is taking your lunch money every day, are you going to cheat? Yeah, I’m going to bring my baseball bat in the next day. That’s cheating. So it’s the same thing with baseball.”

Smile. Got news for you Jim Ed – us grrrrrls we ain’t no different. Might not be a baseball bat, but you best believe we gonna use any “weapon” we can. You said you been married 36 years – your wife ain’t learned you NOTHING bout females???

Rice tried to explain himself again, saying if a hitter always has success against a certain pitcher, that pitcher will start using pine tar on the ball or putting water on his pants in order to soak the ball.

Oh, but THAT’S “Part Of The Game” – not using roids. SUCH a big difference. Yeah, surrrrrrrre. Especially if the Suspected Roid User happens to be Barry Lamar Bonds.

“It’s not cheating,” he said. “It’s having an advantage. I’m not going to be happy sitting in Triple-A 4, 5, 6 or 7 years when I know in my heart I’m better than that guy in the big leagues, and he’s cheating and I’m not can’t do it. You’ve got to find some way of getting yourself in the big leagues.”
He talked about mastering a pitch or learning how to hit. He ended his rant

Rant? Does anyone here think that if he had said this to a bunch of young players without some media person listening in the young players would have called it a “rant?”

by telling the players there are only a couple of things they need to know.
“There are two things they should always remember,” he said. “The first and the 15th, because that’s when they get paid; you have to remember that.”

Guys NEVER thought about that in the Old Days.

“When it came to the team, I was a team player,” said Rice. “When it came to talking to the writers, I was a bad guy. I was a bad guy because I didn’t want any glory. I wanted my team to have the glory. But, when I screwed up, I was there.”
“That’s the way I was,” said Rice. “I’m a team guy. I got paid to play baseball. I didn’t want the glory. When you win, you win as a team. When we lost, I lost. The main thing was to take the pressure off the other guys. Some guys can handle pressure, other guys can’t handle pressure. I was fortunate to have a strong back and I can handle the pressure. I did not want the glory. I’m a leader, but I’m not a front-runner. I’m one of those guys who sit back and makes sure everyone is OK. That’s old school.”

Hmmmmmmmm. It’s good when Craig Biggio says/does this. It’s bad when Jim Ed Rice says/does this. Can anyone here think of any reason why it is good for Craig and bad for Jim Ed? Just look at them – can you see any difference and
Oh.
Nevermind.

It was a strange ending to what started out as a wonderful day for the PawSox and Rice.

- Ah, but it WAS wonderful to hear a ballplayer not talk like a stupid recording out of an old movie. And it WAS strange to actually hear a ballplayer who has the stones to say what he actually thinks instead of the cliches the media demands. ESPECIALLY bcause the guy must know he has GOT to Say Exactly What The Media Wants To Hear, him not being a “Good Guy” and all, because unlike McGwire, he actually DOES care whether or not he gets into the Hall. And he sure knows who puts players in the Hall. And it’s not fans or people like me, that’s fer SHER.

Montgomery, (the guy who owns the AAA team and sponsored the talk) who did a solid job during the interview and attempted to make light of the situation by joking with Rice during his outburst, spoke about what an honor it is for Rice to have the support of Mondor and the PawSox.

translation – Jim Ed – DUDE, there be MEDIA here – remember – it’s “we gotta take it one day at a time” read the *($%^@#! script!!!! Kapeesh, Dog????

Montgomery then tried to make nice with the, um, unhappy (ahem) media – blahblah, Jim Ed misunderstood back then by the press, etc, he a good guy, blahblah.

Ah, James Edward Rice, age 54. STILL won’t give up and he STILL won’t give in and so he’ll never GET in. Dude needs to take his own advice

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