Jay Greenberg Apologizes!
From: Mr. Faded Glory
Sent: Wed 7/19/2006 6:24 AM
To: Jay.Greenberg
Subject: Concerning your 7/18 and 7/19 articles
Dear Mr. Greenberg,
I am a regular reader of the Post, and have noticed the past two days you have written two quite negative hatchet job articles regarding Alex Rodriguez. While I will ignore the fact that I disagree with you on almost every conclusion you've reached in both articles and believe that most of the fan negativity comes from repeated bashings in the press, I can't help but point out a fallacy you've repeated in both pieces.
In your July 19th article, you again mention how much Mr. Rodriguez is paid by the Yankees:
"The Yankees pay Rodriguez $25 million a year to come to the park prepared as possible, including on nights hot enough for the trainers to post reminders about hydration, diet and 'limiting workouts.' "
The problem is that no matter how many times this is repeated in the press, it does not make it true.
The Yankees aren't paying Alex Rodriguez $25 million per year. I wish writers would do more research before they keep trotting out oft used and incorrect statistics. I'll break it down for you:
* Before 2001 season, Rodriguez signs 10 yr, $252M contract with Rangers.
* Rangers pay Rodriguez in 2001, 2002, 2003.
* Amount remaining on contract: $179M
* Rangers trade Rodriguez and the 7 years and $179M remaining on his contract to Yankees for Alfonso Soriano and Joaquin Arias. As condition of trade, Rangers agree to pay $67M of the remaining contract.
* Amount remaining: $112M
* $112M divided by 7 years = $16M
The Yankees pay Rodriguez $16M per year, not $25M. The Yankees pay Mike Mussina, Derek Jeter, and Jason Giambi much more. Rodriguez only makes slightly more than Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui, and rarely are any of these players' salaries mentioned in your articles.
If you wish I could go on to discuss such statements about how Rodriguez's errors remind you of "Chuck Knoblauch in his prime" when in his prime he was a Gold Glove defender, but I'll just assume that was tongue in cheek and leave it at that.
In the future I would appreciate though if your facts were correct when quoting the factual and not that based on opinion.
I would be amazed if I actually got a reply to this.
Regards,
Mike
--
On 7/29/06, Jay.Greenberg wrote:
Mike: You don't have to dare me into a response. I answer all my e-mail, if it is signed and not sick., bigotted stuff.
I was aware that the the rangers are paying $9 million, just failed to phrase it . . "he is paid $25 million" which would have taken care of the problem.
I apologize. Any fact error compromises my credibility.
Jay Greenberg
---
OK. Now apologize for your hatchet jobs.
posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 3:26 AM
5
comments
5 Comments:
oh please, he so was not aware- it's hard to be aware of things when you do your job by rolling out of bed and saying, "hm, which way do the winds blow today? how can I join and/or foment the baaing masses?" and then just barfing up your half digested apparent personal vendettas instead of looking shit up as the basis for your work as you are REQUIRED by your JOB DESCRIPTION to do.
and yes I see he apologizes only for the fact error (which he transparently and cravenly tries to reposition as a misstatement) (it depends what your definition of PAID is) and not for the fact that he's grossly biased in a profession where it is, again, IN HIS JOB DESCRIPTION not to be. to quote gene hackman's character in the Birdcage, at this point, I feel like I'm insane.
of COURSE he didn't know that.
Basically, he's admitted though that either:
- he lies to slader a player
or
- he's completely ignorant of situations about which he writes
This post was not meant to be a "let's forgive Jay Greenberg" post by any means
I never saw the Birdcage. I am sorry.
june on a mad rant is really one of my favorite Internet Things. i should save them for a best-of.
and re "Any fact error compromises my credibility" -- no jay, putting pen to paper is about all you need to do to compromise any cred. on second thought, it helps to have cred to begin with. so.......
anyway, mike, that's almost as much fun as the joe west email. can you write to andrew marchand next, plz?
Shit, I need to start a Steve Buscemi-esque hitlist. But without the lipstick.
Oh, and had Greenberg not responded I would have planned a mail bombing campaign.
Feel free to post any link to any article that you wish me to go of on the author.
what can I say - many things piss me off kind of a lot
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