Mychael does it again
I ripped this guy for being annoying and pointless maybe a month ago - because his column is entirely his wishy-washy feelings about what's "Good for Ball" or "Bad for Ball". It's repulsive. Let's have a look at his latest effort, the ASG edition:
The tribute to Ted Williams at Fenway in 1999 was a tough act for the Giants to follow in their homage to the "Say Hey" Kid, but they rocked it in every possible way.
Right, including the pink cadillac and the twenty-minute show. I found that they bored me, rather than "rocked it". Also, do you think the eighty-year-old Willie Mays ever gets tired of being called "The Say Hey Kid"?
The Tony La Russa-Albert Pujols tiff was the only truly negative story line to emerge all week. Hard to fault either guy. La Russa missed out on providing a potentially classic moment by not sending Pujols up there with the bags juiced in the bottom of the ninth, but his baseball reasoning was sound.
I like how you claim his baseball reasoning was sound, Mychael, but then you fail to explain it. Pretty much everyone in the labeled universe knows that Albert Pujols is a better hitter than Aaron Rowand. This was a negative storyline because the NL manager did something idiotic. For some reason, you think the story was more about the non-feud that is non-occurring. I'm just pissed because I wanted the NL to win.
The general lack of steroids talk in San Francisco all week proved that a good many sportswriters actually do respect the game and didn't want to bring it down on the big stage. Good For Ball.
I love it when sportswriters talk about themselves. I envision their conversations going like this:
Mychael: "Hey, want to talk about steroids?"
Jeff Pearlman: "d00d! shhh! We don't want to do anything that is BAD FOR THE GAME! Especially the ALL STAR GAME! When like eight more people who are not baseball fans tune in to watch baseball!"
Mychael: "But this is the story of the year, what with Bonds so close!"
Jeff Pearlman: "Let me consult my sportswriting friends... (short pause)"
Jeff Pearlman: "Nope, steroids is a no-go until at least July 20, when all the ASG hype dies down and I have no more material"
Wow...yeah...I'm pretty curious myself as to in which category of "sound baseball reasoning" lies keeping one of the top 3 players of the last 7 years on the bench for the sake of a decent, overperforming, CF with the game on the line because the former isn't an outfielder, all the while threatening to pull the team off the field if the game goes into extras. That's not just something that can sit there and go unexplained.
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