High and Tight.: The NY Post Needs to Admit They Have No Interest In Serious Journalism

The NY Post Needs to Admit They Have No Interest In Serious Journalism

.. and are just a bunch of yellow journalists, especially Jay Greenberg.

HEAD CASE ALEX NEEDS TO WORK ON FUNDA-MENTALS

Did you catch the witty pun in the article title? Don't worry, if you missed it, the point will be drilled home.

July 18, 2006 -- Johnny Damon broke in at Kansas City, where in the withering Missouri summer, the Royals suffer the agony of defeat and agony of the feet.

We're one sentence in and already on our second witty pun.

Trust him, when you play in Kaycee, you are hot to trot long before free agency becomes an option.

And now a third. Is everyone else splitting their sides right now or is it just me?

"It was always smoking there," said Damon, who thus had previous experience with the calf cramps he suffered Saturday.

From what I hear he also has had previous experience in smoking.

Last night, after a one-game absence, he jumped back into the boiling Stadium vat, delivering three hits and driving in a run as the Yankees beat Seattle, 4-2.

Only an Idiot would dare suggest that Damon, who has missed only five games this season while playing through foot, back, rib cage and shoulder problems, can't stand the heat. It is coach Larry Bowa's theory that if you can play in Philadelphia or Boston, where Damon helped changed the city's baseball personality of dread to one of success, you can play in New York.

Oh, I get it! The "heat" of the high temperature is your way of alluding to the "heat" of a pressure packed environment!

And Damon, tied for sixth in the AL in runs scored, tied for seventh in stolen bases and delivering exactly what the Yankees projected for their $52 million over four seasons, can definitely play in New York.

Sure, Damon's been swell. Good stats, plays hurt, model citizen, good clubhouse guy. He can definitely play in New York.

But 21/2 seasons into Alex Rodriguez' time in New York, we can't say that about him, not even close, not even after an MVP season, as weird as that has become.

Just out of curiousity, why exactly can't we say that Rodriguez can play in New York? I mean, Greenberg arrived at the NY-PRIME-A-OK stamp for Damon after less than four months of time spent playing for a New York team... but even though Rodriguez is the reigning AL MVP and won the AL Player of the Month Award for May.... he... can't... play.. in.... New.... York. Now I'm sure we'll get a well thought out and rational explanation of why Mr. Greenberg feels this way.

Since A-Rod, accompanied by his wife Cynthia, was photographed sunning himself in Central Park yesterday, perhaps heat exhaustion was a factor in his sailing three throws into errors last night before completing an 0-for-4 with a bases-loaded strikeout. Because Rodriguez' left big toe had swollen from a foul ball during his second at-bat, Nick Green was at third when the Yankees took the field in the eighth.

Amazingly, Greenberg blames Rodriguez's errors on spending a day in the park with his wife and not on something more rational, which he also mentions in the same paragraph, the swollen foot.

"That's the only reason he came out," said Joe Torre, who said he believed A-Rod's pain was a factor in a Stadium throwing carnage not seen since Chuck Knoblauch in his prime. "Footwork is most important in the field."

I know Greenberg is again trying to be funny (or cruel) by comparing Rodriguez to Knoblauch, but wouldn't "Chuck Knoblauch in his prime" actually be a Gold Glove second baseman? Jeez, I wonder if Greenberg got all over Jeter last year when he went 0-5 with 3 strikeouts and 2 errors against the (gasp!) Mets. My guess: no.

That's especially true on a New York field mined with $25 million in bills and a seemingly equal number of teammates left on base in late innings of tight games.

How does one actually become a New York sports writer? Do you have to sign a blood oath to Rupert Murdoch to never actually check facts or God forbid know them offhand?

The Yankees aren't paying Alex Rodriguez $25 million per year. Seriously, sportswriters, broadcasters, journalists, for the last fucking time, do some goddamned research. Here, just bookmark this blog, ok? I'll spell it out 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 answer then is that had you written it was a "New York field mined with $16 million in bills" you would be correct. I am sure in your future articles you will make sly references to how Jeter and Giambi are being paid $20M this year by the Yankees or how Mike Mussina is making $19M in 2006.

Rodriguez has 16 errors this season, his third playing third base, after having 12 all of last season.

A head case, Torre has repeatedly called Rodriguez, although not in those words, of course. In fact, by admitting the fans get to him, A-Rod even calls himself a head case.

OK, let's break down that paragraph.

"A head case, Torre has repeatedly called Rodriguez" He did?!
"Although not in those words, of course." So, he didn't. Then why did you just say that he said that?
"In fact, by admitting the fans get to him, A-Rod even calls himself a head case." No, he doesn't. Isn't a part of journalism quoting people correctly? Can you imagine if FOX News quoted Bill Clinton in 1998 as "Clinton said he did not have sexual relations with the mistress who he says likes to be diddled with cigars"?

"The one time he got under the ball when he threw to first base and it just looked like he wasn't as relaxed as he was [making two good plays Sunday]," said Torre. "That's the best I can do trying to find any fundamental or mechanical flaw.

"It didn't look like he was as soft as yesterday. But it's different if it costs you the game."

What's different is a two-time MVP developing mental blocks about playing in his home stadium. Mike Piazza got treated just as poorly in his first few months here until he changed it by keying a huge, if ultimately failed, stretch drive. Things won't change for Rodriguez until he has a big September and postseason that shuts up not just the fans, but the voices in his own mind.

See, I think if the media shuts up, the fans will shut up too. But here you go, perpectuating things, and forgetting that without Rodriguez down the stretch last year, the Yankees don't make the playoffs at all. And where is the evidence that he has "mental blocks" about playing in his home stadium? The Torre (non-)quote above?

"Yesterday I had a brilliant day," he reminded us afterward. "And tonight I stunk. Tomorrow is another day. I'll be here."

Yep, he had a great game at Yankee Stadium with a great defensive play and a homer the night before, but somehow, he still "can't play in New York" and has "mental blocks" about playing in his ballpark.

For X-rays first. Of his foot, not his head.

Look, even if you think he has a mental block, I can tell you're no doctor as an X-Ray isn't likely to show anything. Unless of course you think there are actual physical blocks there.

"When you are playing in this city or the city [Damon] just came from, if you don't find a way to release a little pressure, its going to build up inside," Torre said about his center fielder before the game.

"Personality-wise, he helps us along in that area."

Rodriguez could use more help in that area. Of course, a large percentage of the population can't control its worrying about what it can't control, which basically, is Bowa's theory, too.

Philly has performed the kind of love on Bobby Abreu that toughens him for New York, where he may arrive within two weeks. Maybe A-Rod needs to be farmed there or to Boston for more seasoning.

So what you're saying is that you need to play in Boston of Philadelphia and get booed for a while and then you can "handle New York." Or be born a Yankee like Jeter. Or play in Oakland like Giambi. Or Baltimore like Mussina. Or.. Japan like Matsui. What exactly are you saying here?

Oh. Jokes. I get jokes.

jay.greenberg@nypost.com

Feel free to email this jackass at the address above.

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 6:49 AM 4 comments

4 Comments:

At 7/18/2006 8:28 AM, Karen said...: The Philadelphia/Boston thing is the most ludicrous things I've ever read n print. Yeah, that's Bowa's theory. Good for him. But to SERIOUSLY apply that theory in his column? Hi, what about Reggie Jackson? Tino? Winfield? Nettles? The list goes on.

Between this and Steve Phillips apparently saying that the Yanks should trade A-Rod on ESPN radio this morning... I swear to god, 50 years from now people are going to be shaking their heads and be all "What was WRONG with New York?" not "What was WRONG with A-Rod?"
At 7/19/2006 5:33 AM, lupe! said...: what the fuck?

http://tinyurl.com/ghsx8

arod is a bad person and a bad player because he was out in central park getting some sun? it doesn't even make any SENSE. it's like the post decided they needed their version of lupica on the payroll.
At 7/19/2006 11:19 AM, Mr. Faded Glory said...: Yeah, the interesting part is that - and it's been mentioned in numerous Post articles - they keep attributing his errors to sunstroke as if it's a fact even though it's totally Post-created.

Spending a day in the park with your wife and child though is akin to holding a press conference though.
At 7/19/2006 5:08 PM, June said...: based on recent ink/01 spillage, in baseball, spending a day in the park with your wife and child is apparently more reprehensible than beating the crap out of your wife in front of a Boston bar, or doing illegal drugs and being a blatant, unrepentant cheat who's about to be INDICTED, for fuck's sake.

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