:: Life on Planet Dan-E ::

:: Manny being Manny ::

Fans of baseball know that Boston outfielder Manny Ramirez is always good for some interesting drama a few times a season. But I found his latest quotes interesting:

"The Red Sox don't deserve a player like me," Ramirez told ESPNdeportes.com Wednesday. "During my years here, I've seen how they [the Red Sox] have mistreated other great players when they didn't want them to try to turn the fans against them.

"The Red Sox did the same with guys like Nomar Garciaparra and Pedro Martinez, and now they do the same with me. Their goal is to paint me as the bad guy. I love Boston fans, but the Red Sox don't deserve me. I'm not talking about money. Mental peace has no price, and I don't have peace here."

I'll try to break this down so we can figure out what the fuck he's talking about:

"The Red Sox don't deserve a player like me..."
No, they do not for reasons I'll get into later. But this is about the only truthful thing he says.

"During my years here..."
I'm willing to bet good money that he couldn't tell how many years that is. In fact, I'm convinced that last year during the playoff run against the Indians, he probably thought he was still playing for Cleveland.

"...I've seen how they [the Red Sox] have mistreated other great players when they didn't want them to try to turn the fans against them."
Teams as well-run and dedicated to its fanbase as Boston have no need to turn fans against its players. The fans are knowledgeable and capable enough to do it on their own. Just ask Bill Buckner.

"The Red Sox did the same with guys like Nomar Garciaparra and Pedro Martinez, and now they do the same with me..."
Garciaparra went from being an injury-prone perennial MVP candidate to injury prone clubhouse cancer and defensive liability. He only productive season since that 2004 trade was in 2006 where he had a solid .505 slugging percentage but managed to stay healthy for only 122 games. He's currently on the DL, where he and his husband Mia Hamm have built a second home.

Boston decided against re-signing Pedro in 2004 because of concerns about the health of his shoulder. They were willing to go two years but he got four from the Mets. He pitched effectively in 2005 but underwent major reconstructive surgery for his shoulder in 2006 and has been a non-factor since, something they predicted might happen. When Pedro returned to Fenway with the Mets during an Interleague series, Boston played a tribute video for Pedro on their Jumbotron and the fans gave him a standing ovation even though he never played an inning.

These two examples don't shout "mistreatment." It was merely the moves done by a shrewd organization that doesn't feel the pressure to spend money for the sake of spending money. Also, Boston shelled out over $130 MILLION in salary for their collective services. I'm having trouble seeing any mistreatment.

"Their goal is to paint me as the bad guy."
He did this to himself, and again the fans don't need encouragement. (A few beers usually does the trick.)

"I love Boston fans..."
He loves himself. And money.

"Mental peace has no price, and I don't have peace here."
He's right about the "mental" part.

"...the Red Sox don't deserve me."
No they don't. The Red Sox are the envy of many organizations for their ability to develop and sign talent, and their commitment to winning and to their fans are one of the reasons why Sox fans are so obnoxious loyal and attract so many bandwagon fans outside of New England.

They certainly aren't afraid to spend money on players that embody that gritty Red Sox persona (Mike Lowell, Jason Varitek, Josh Beckett) and those players hold each other accountable during the long season.

So you're right. They don't deserve a player who loafs to first base during a no-hitter, someone who's widely regarded as the worst defensive left fielders currently playing or someone constantly makes trade demands every season because he's not happy with something, or something who's determined to sabotage his own season and by extension that of his team just because he's bickering with management.

They deserve better. They deserve someone who gives a shit.

Of course, as I was writing this post, THIS happens. So forget everything I just wrote. Manny's going to kick some major ass and my Dodgers are going all the way!

(This is what I've been telling myself so I won't self-immolate.)

(Seriously though, haven't we Dodgers fans been through this already?)

Labels: baseball, Dodgers, Manny, Red Sox, sports

:: Miscellaneous Ramblings by Dan-E at 5:46 PM [+] :: | 0 comments
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:: I Love Baseball ::

If you'd like to see an early nominee for Sports Headline of the Year, check this out. Yeah, I laughed for a solid minute or so when I read it.

(By the way, I graduated high school in 1992.)

I'm also linking to this great blog written by Alyssa Milano. (Yeah, that one.) I'm not just linking to her because she's hot (honest), not because she's some trendy L.A. girl that loves the local teams (she isn't, not that there's anything wrong with that), or even that she's obviously a diehard Dodger fan that inherited her fandom from her father (ok, maybe a little), but because this chick obviously loves baseball. (That and I've had a small crush on her ever since my balls dropped - so it's been at least five years - I'm a late bloomer - but whatever.)

While I'm not surprised to discover that she's a Dodger fan, I'm almost shocked at her insightful commentary, ("...I love that Brady Clark can come off the bench and hit like he's been playing every day. But...why was Lieberthal batting cleanup? Is that some Moneyball thing?" And there's also "Love it or hate it, this is our team. Our outfield, our manager, our LOB #’s, our lack of power. It’s all ours.") tormented-fan griping ("...Base running fundamentals? What’s going on with our base running? ...To anyone that was watching on TV -- did Nomar look safe trying to steal second? He looked safe to me from the stands. ...Power bat please? ...Anyone else stressed right now?") and glorious SanFran Giants-bashing ("Anyone else naively think last night's game was a shoe-in because the Gnats sat Vizquel, Roberts and Klesko? I know I did." And "Hi. Wow. Okay. Last night, I threw up in my mouth a little when Bonds hit that home run.") She calls them the "Gnats." That's so adorably awesome, I could eat her out. Up. I meant up. Let's move on.

And I love her unique, woman's perspective on being a long-suffering Dodger fan ("It's easy for even the most optimistic to get negative after watching yesterday's game, to see the specific flaws instead of the whole picture [kind of like when you look in the mirror and only see the zit on your chin even though it takes up a miniscule part of your whole freaking face]. But I am going to make a conscious decision to stay positive, at least for the time being...") It's been a good fourteen years or so since I stopped worrying about my complexion so while I've also noticed those flaws, it's amusing to read how a flawed lineup is analagous to a zit on a woman's face.

Oh, and then there's this photo.

Labels: Alyssa Milano, baseball, blogs, Dodgers, funny words, girls, humor

:: Miscellaneous Ramblings by Dan-E at 6:17 PM [+] :: | 0 comments
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:: To the People of Red Sox Nation... ::

...I feel your pain.

I now know what it was like for you those two long years of 2002 and 2003, with October of the latter year being a culmination - or nadir - of the kind of suffering a fan can endure when he or she fiercely, stubbornly, and indeed, idiotically cling to that unwavering faith that great things can happen - only to see Grady Little take that faith and toss it into a dumpster the same way Boba Fett got tossed into the Sarlac Pit. (I am such a dork.)

I remember that fateful night of 2003, when Grady Little left Pedro in one hitter too long and Aaron Boone became forever known as "Aaron 'Fucking' Boone" in the city of Boston. I was watching with two friends who were from Boston. To say they were excited at the prospect of finally advancing to Elysium... er... The World Series is like saying Hurley from "Lost" was a little giddy when he found the closet full of food.

I remember them leaning forward in anticipation when Little walked to the mound, only to see that become shock and trepidation when he walked back to the dugout without calling for Mike Timlin. I remember them recoil in abject horror when Pedro hung a breaking ball and gave up the game-tying hit to Matsui.

I remember when Aaron "Fucking" Boone launched that walk-off homer off Tim Wakefield, how their faces went from dismay to revulsion to anger to apprehension to resignation in a matter of half a second. Almost like it's happened before. *COUGHbillbucknerCOUGH*

I remember having to talk then off their 5th floor balcony.

I was an outsider so while I felt bad for them, I couldn't understand the chants of "fire Grady Little." Both his years as manager, the Red Sox won more than 90 games and reached the playoffs each season. Also, as a baseball fan with a rudimentary knowledge of Sabrmetrics, it's not like Pedro's arm suddenly falls off or he starts throwing40mph fastballs the moment he throws pitch number 100. Pedro's changeup is still an above-average pitch and he used it effectively neutralize lefty batters his entire career. It was just a fluke hit that came at a bad time. And really, you should be more upset at Wakefield for giving up the home run to Aaron "Fucking" Boone (I'm trying to see how many times I can type "Aaron 'Fucking' Boone"). I tried to rationalized all this to them but they were still bitter.

A year later, fate dealt a different hand and you guys finally won The World Series. Everything was good, and all the bad, horrible things were forgotten. Boston was joyous. Even Bill Buckner was forgiven. Grady Little was a tiny little footnote soon to be forgotten deep in the annals of sports history and in the minds of jealous Yankee fans.

And then he was hired as the manager of my beloved Los Angeles Dodgers.

All the memories came rushing back to me and, no kidding, once haunted my dreams. All those rationalizations were still in my memory. He had a winning record, he's taken teams to the playoffs, the Dodgers who played for him (Bill Mueller, Derek Lowe, both former Red Sox) spoke highly of him, and it seemed like a good idea at the time (as many, many things do).

As a Left Coast sports fan, I wasn't there to see the specifics of what caused Boston to have this animosity towards Little. But as the season went on I learned. He mismanaged the bullpen worse than Joe Torre, he made puzzling calls for pinch-hits with both timing and matchups, and indeed, there were the times he left his starting pitcher in too long. But he wouldn't repeat those errors in the playoff would he? He learned from his mistakes, didn't he?

Us Dodger fans saw Derek Lowe melt down in his first playoff start. Bill Mueller was out with injuries. Nomar Garciaparra struck out a lot. And for a moment, I was at Fenway, sitting on those new Monster seats, looking over the field, watching Tood Walker botch a ground ball, John Burkett get pulled after two innings, two unearned runs score thanks to another Manny Ramirez brain fart, Johnny Damon throw like a girl, and an Alfonso Soriano homerun flying right towards me thanks to a Ramiro Mendoza fast(meat)ball. Truly, and it came without the aid of any drugs.

And to add to my confusion, in what's sure to go down as one of the colossal blunders of MLB postseason history, TWO Dodgers got thrown out at the plate within seconds of each other, which made me wonder out loud if Dale Sveum was our Third Base Coach. (I knew better, but I did have a brief, but very vivid, yet hazy moment there.)

So in a span of four get-wrenching days, Dodger fans have to suffer through a period of ignominy that Red Sox Nation never endured, by getting swept by the very beatable Mets (getting swept last year by the White Sox doesn't count because no one outside of New England though they would advance, and the five-game sweep this season against the Yankees is also excluded since that's the regular season). Blown calls, bad relief pitchers (Brad Penny? Seriously?!), horrible lineups (why did you play 82 year old Kenny Lofton?! He couldn't come up with a hit if you gave him an aluminum bat and had little league girls pitch to him), and a failure to adjust to the situations. (Sure the players couldn't come through either when it mattered, but whatever.)

And now our season is over more prematurely than a fifteen year old getting laid the first time. The only positive I can get from this is that a year after Grady Little got fired, the Sox won the very next year (otherwise know as the "Buck Showalter Theory") so I'm hoping that maybe, just maybe something equally miraculous might happen to My Dodgers. It's the only faith I have right now. That's all I have left.

At least we didn't get beat by Aaron "Fucking" Boone.

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Week 5 Picks:
Detroit over Minnesota
New England over Miami
New Orleans over Tampa
Washington over New York
Carolina over Cleveland
Chicago over Buffalo
St. Louis over Green Bay
Indy over Tennessee
Frisco over Oakland
New York over Jacksonville
Kansas City over Arizona
Philly over The Circus
Pittsburg over San Diego
Denver over Baltimore

Last Week: 10-4
Total: 40-20

Labels: baseball, Dodgers, frustration, Red Sox, sports

:: Miscellaneous Ramblings by Dan-E at 1:04 AM [+] :: | 0 comments
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