If you are a Red Sox fan, you got some pretty bad news this week. Maybe you even suspected it (I did), even if you didn’t want to admit it to yourself. David Ortiz, the energetic, lovable, wide-smilin’ slugger who led the Red Sox to a pair of World Series championships, tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003.
Papi played the “Gasp! I can’t believe this! I’m totally shocked by this news,” card, which would have been believable if we didn’t find out the next day that all 103 people who tested positive in 2003 were notified about it by the Players Union in 2004. To me, David immediately lying was even more disappointing than him taking the P.E.D’s.
We don’t know if took a dietary supplement or HGH yet, but to me there isn’t a huge difference. If you are an athlete, your body is your tool. You better know what you are putting into it. A carpenter wouldn’t rub some random cream onto his hammer if he didn’t know what was in the cream and what it would do. I think the “I didn’t know what was in it!” excuse is at best lame, and at worst irresponsible. It would take five minutes to call the Union and ask if the dietary supplement was legal or not.
Be prepared for missiles to start pouring in from Yankee fans. I’m sure they will talk about how 2004 and 2007 are tainted. On this point, I don’t agree. Oh yes, we had known steroid users on the club. But everyone did. The fact that everyone was cheating doesn’t make it right, but it makes the playing field level. Yankee fans will say “Ortiz had a monster series and was on the juice! Same with Manny!” Those are facts. They will conveniently leave out that they got to a 3-0 lead in the Series with Andy Pettite, Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield. They’ll also forget that Pettite and Roger Clemens pitched them to championships. The Bronx Bombers are just as guilty as the rest of the teams in MLB, so if they want to throw stones in their giant glass house, well then more power to them.
I could care less about barbs from arrogant Yankee brats who know have a giant inferiority complex with the Red Sox, in an interesting role reversal from say 6 years ago. What I do care about is a legitimate Boston sports hero has been exposed as a cheat. He certainly isn’t alone in what he did, but it’s irrelevant. He broke the rules to get where he is.
His career arc fits the profile of a steroid user, so maybe we should have seen this coming. He was a .260, 20 HR, 80 RBI guy in Minnesota, and they cut him loose. They are usually great at player evaluation, but they got criticized for ditching the Dominican slugger. Maybe it wasn’t a bad evaluation. They just hadn’t seen him on the juice.
Ortiz comes to Boston and hits 31 bombs in his first season in limited playing time, then becomes a 40 HR guy (and even 54, in 2006). Why the huge jump? We were told that in Minnesota they stunted his growth. They didn’t let him swing for the fences. They made him try to go the other way with the ball too much. Interesting. They now have Justin Morneau, who hits 30-40 jacks a year. They don’t seem to be telling him to hit singles to left field instead of homers. It looks like it was the lack of P.E.D’s that stopped Ortiz from going deep in Minneapolis, not the organizational beliefs of the Twins.
Those last two paragraphs can be proved semi-false if it comes out that Ortiz was taking some random diet pill with a obscure banned substance in them. Honestly, I hope that’s the case. If nothing else, it would make the Ortiz news easier to swallow. But I don’t think that’s what we will come to find out. I think it’s more serious than that.
Ortiz is human, and he made a major mistake here. Now that it’s on the table, we can let the healing begin. I’ll never stop rooting for the guy, because he was a big part of the biggest championship of my lifetime, and he still plays for my favorite team. But there is no denying there is a giant black eye on his legacy now. And that’s disappointing.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
The Dice-K Debacle
What I’ll be watching this week is the aftermath of the critical comments made by Daisuke Matsuzaka. The 100 million dollar man took aim at his employer, the Boston Red Sox, saying their conditioning program has resulted in his current shoulder problems.
Dice-K is upset the Red Sox don’t let him throw everyday in between starts as he did in Japan. He said he was successful in his first years with the Sox because he had built up such a strong shoulder in Japan, but now it’s getting progressively weaker with the Sox stringent program. An interesting analysis, considering the Red Sox are one of the few teams whose pitchers have suffered no major arm injuries in recent years. You’re right Dice-K, I’m sure it had nothing to do with the World Baseball Classic, which put high stress innings on your shoulder early in the year, when you should have been at stress-free spring training.
Dice-K’s real crime wasn’t being upset; it was airing his dirty laundry publicly. Terry Francona is renowned for keeping player issues in the clubhouse, and out of the media. Dice-K dishing out dirt to the public is a total betrayal of Francona’s “behind closed doors” policy, which most players revere. The normally quiet Sox brass (namely Francona, John Farrell and Theo Epstein), were noticeably stung, and even more noticeably vocal, after the story broke. The common theme in all of their responses? Disappointment.
This is a sad chapter in what started as a fairy tale story. Matsuzaka was the conquering hero from Japan, embraced with open arms in this city before he ever threw a pitch. Now he has the Red Sox fans and front office scratching their head, questioning whether or not the Dice-K experiment will work after his out of left field outburst. The bottom line is this. The Red Sox are your employer Dice-K. They pay you a lot of money, and you get a lot of perks. If you can’t find a way to keep your issues in the clubhouse, you may find yourself out of it.
Dice-K is upset the Red Sox don’t let him throw everyday in between starts as he did in Japan. He said he was successful in his first years with the Sox because he had built up such a strong shoulder in Japan, but now it’s getting progressively weaker with the Sox stringent program. An interesting analysis, considering the Red Sox are one of the few teams whose pitchers have suffered no major arm injuries in recent years. You’re right Dice-K, I’m sure it had nothing to do with the World Baseball Classic, which put high stress innings on your shoulder early in the year, when you should have been at stress-free spring training.
Dice-K’s real crime wasn’t being upset; it was airing his dirty laundry publicly. Terry Francona is renowned for keeping player issues in the clubhouse, and out of the media. Dice-K dishing out dirt to the public is a total betrayal of Francona’s “behind closed doors” policy, which most players revere. The normally quiet Sox brass (namely Francona, John Farrell and Theo Epstein), were noticeably stung, and even more noticeably vocal, after the story broke. The common theme in all of their responses? Disappointment.
This is a sad chapter in what started as a fairy tale story. Matsuzaka was the conquering hero from Japan, embraced with open arms in this city before he ever threw a pitch. Now he has the Red Sox fans and front office scratching their head, questioning whether or not the Dice-K experiment will work after his out of left field outburst. The bottom line is this. The Red Sox are your employer Dice-K. They pay you a lot of money, and you get a lot of perks. If you can’t find a way to keep your issues in the clubhouse, you may find yourself out of it.
Why Gordon Bombay was the most over-rated coach of all time
Everyone I know has watched the Mighty Ducks, and Mighty Ducks 2, one of the rare sequels that in my mind surpassed it's predecessor. The problem I bring to you today is a simple one. Because of the success of the Ducks in said movies, people walk away under the gross assumption that Gordon Bombay, played by my good friend Steve Berthiuame/Emilio Estevez is a good hockey coach. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I will be focusing more on D2 for my arguement, simply because in D2 Bombay was chosen to coach a national hockey team, not some rink-a-dink Mite team in Podunkville, Minnesota. The first of my issues is the way he put together his squad, though director of Hendrix Sports, Don Tibbles, deserves some of the blame here as well. First off, they bring back most of the cast from the original Mighty Ducks movie, which is absolutely ridiculous. These kids, though winning a local championship the year before, weren't even the best team in their own local league. The Hawks would have beaten the Ducks easily in a 7 game series, probably 4-1 or maybe 4-2. Now all of the sudden, these kids from Minnesota are the best junior hockey players in the entire country? Please. Adam Banks, Fulton Reid (if he kept learning how to skate) and possibly Guy Germaine were the only people that should really have been considered for a spot on that club.
Then they go out and bring in a couple kids from across the country. Where did they find these kids? Hockey hotbeds like Michigan, North Dakota, Boston? Nope. They find kids from Chicago, Miami, San Francisco and Texas. They found one person from Maine (thank god!) but to tell me that you found the best young hockey players in the country and didn't dip into those areas is ludicrous.
So let's look at these studs they brought in for the national team. Chicago produced Dean Portman, a bad ass enforcer who had no other discernible hockey skills. I'll give them a pass on Portman, because he did give them a little toughness. Then they go to Miami to find Luis Mendoza, a lightning fast skater, who can't stop. The best players in the country are at your disposal, and you find a kid that has to crash into the fucking boards to slow down? Nice.
Next they went to San Fran, where they find converted figure skater Kenny Wu. Wow. First of all, he never would have pulled off his fancy figure skating trickery, like the triple axel he did to score against Iceland, because he COULDN'T WEAR FIGURE SKATES. He would be wearing hockey skates, rendering his figure skating abilities completely useless. Then we go to Texas to find Dwayne Robertson, a slick puck handler that would have been a decent player if he ever passed the god damn puck. All he did was screw around in the neutral zone, make a couple of people look bad, then get pummelled and give up possession of the puck. Nice.
The one real find they found was Julie "the Cat" Gaffney, from Bangor, Maine. She was a quick goaltender, and better than starting goalie Greg Goldberg in every concievable way. The only problem was, Bombay decided he felt like benching his best goalie until the last possible moment.
That brings me to Bombay's coaching decisions. While I will grant you that he is a good "Rah rah!" coach, his decision making is just atrocious. Let's start with his handling of Gaffney. Clearly the best goaltender on his team, he doesn't use her until the last penalty shot against Iceland. So you are going to take a goalie with exactly 0 minutes played in the tournament, and ask her to stop impending super stud Gunner Stahl? Even though it worked out, it was absolutely ridiculous. And not for nothing, even if you were hell bent on making Goldberg your starting goalie, you couldn't have found any time for Julie? Was it really imperative that Goldberg played the third period against Italy while you were up 6-0? And you really mean to tell me should couldn't have gotten a spot start against fucking Trinadad and Tobago? You absolutely, positively had to have your "best" goalie play against a team whose country is in the Carribbean? You couldn't have found a little time for her coach?
How about the fact that you let Lester Averman even play, ever? He should never have been on the team, he was god awful, and I would have loved to take a look at his plus minus rating. Yet somehow he managed to get ice time every game. Unreal.
And last but not least, how you handled the shootout was just borderline embarrassing, even the moves that did work out. Fulton Reid and Dwayne Robertson taking penalty shots? Fulton had a killer slap shot, yes, but on a penalty shot, he wouldn't be firing it through a screen, or anything like that. The Iceland goalie would have a clear look at it the whole time, and would have almost certainly stopped it. If you wanted to have somebody out there to take a shot from the blue line, why not have Russ Tyler tee up the knuckle puck? They triple cover him the whole game so he can't get the shot off, and now you can guarentee that he'll have a chance to shoot it, and you let him sit on the bench? Nicely done. Dwayne was always too tricky for his own good, always made one move too many, and it was the most predictable thing of all time that he got stuffed. I wouldn't let him anywhere near a tournament changing penalty shot. Banks and Germaine were easy decisions, they had to take them, and the same with Jesse Hall. But Reid and Robertson? Give me a break.
The moral of the story is, Bombay sucks. And if he never got a DUI in the first movie, he wouldn't have been a coach in the first place. Nuff said.
I will be focusing more on D2 for my arguement, simply because in D2 Bombay was chosen to coach a national hockey team, not some rink-a-dink Mite team in Podunkville, Minnesota. The first of my issues is the way he put together his squad, though director of Hendrix Sports, Don Tibbles, deserves some of the blame here as well. First off, they bring back most of the cast from the original Mighty Ducks movie, which is absolutely ridiculous. These kids, though winning a local championship the year before, weren't even the best team in their own local league. The Hawks would have beaten the Ducks easily in a 7 game series, probably 4-1 or maybe 4-2. Now all of the sudden, these kids from Minnesota are the best junior hockey players in the entire country? Please. Adam Banks, Fulton Reid (if he kept learning how to skate) and possibly Guy Germaine were the only people that should really have been considered for a spot on that club.
Then they go out and bring in a couple kids from across the country. Where did they find these kids? Hockey hotbeds like Michigan, North Dakota, Boston? Nope. They find kids from Chicago, Miami, San Francisco and Texas. They found one person from Maine (thank god!) but to tell me that you found the best young hockey players in the country and didn't dip into those areas is ludicrous.
So let's look at these studs they brought in for the national team. Chicago produced Dean Portman, a bad ass enforcer who had no other discernible hockey skills. I'll give them a pass on Portman, because he did give them a little toughness. Then they go to Miami to find Luis Mendoza, a lightning fast skater, who can't stop. The best players in the country are at your disposal, and you find a kid that has to crash into the fucking boards to slow down? Nice.
Next they went to San Fran, where they find converted figure skater Kenny Wu. Wow. First of all, he never would have pulled off his fancy figure skating trickery, like the triple axel he did to score against Iceland, because he COULDN'T WEAR FIGURE SKATES. He would be wearing hockey skates, rendering his figure skating abilities completely useless. Then we go to Texas to find Dwayne Robertson, a slick puck handler that would have been a decent player if he ever passed the god damn puck. All he did was screw around in the neutral zone, make a couple of people look bad, then get pummelled and give up possession of the puck. Nice.
The one real find they found was Julie "the Cat" Gaffney, from Bangor, Maine. She was a quick goaltender, and better than starting goalie Greg Goldberg in every concievable way. The only problem was, Bombay decided he felt like benching his best goalie until the last possible moment.
That brings me to Bombay's coaching decisions. While I will grant you that he is a good "Rah rah!" coach, his decision making is just atrocious. Let's start with his handling of Gaffney. Clearly the best goaltender on his team, he doesn't use her until the last penalty shot against Iceland. So you are going to take a goalie with exactly 0 minutes played in the tournament, and ask her to stop impending super stud Gunner Stahl? Even though it worked out, it was absolutely ridiculous. And not for nothing, even if you were hell bent on making Goldberg your starting goalie, you couldn't have found any time for Julie? Was it really imperative that Goldberg played the third period against Italy while you were up 6-0? And you really mean to tell me should couldn't have gotten a spot start against fucking Trinadad and Tobago? You absolutely, positively had to have your "best" goalie play against a team whose country is in the Carribbean? You couldn't have found a little time for her coach?
How about the fact that you let Lester Averman even play, ever? He should never have been on the team, he was god awful, and I would have loved to take a look at his plus minus rating. Yet somehow he managed to get ice time every game. Unreal.
And last but not least, how you handled the shootout was just borderline embarrassing, even the moves that did work out. Fulton Reid and Dwayne Robertson taking penalty shots? Fulton had a killer slap shot, yes, but on a penalty shot, he wouldn't be firing it through a screen, or anything like that. The Iceland goalie would have a clear look at it the whole time, and would have almost certainly stopped it. If you wanted to have somebody out there to take a shot from the blue line, why not have Russ Tyler tee up the knuckle puck? They triple cover him the whole game so he can't get the shot off, and now you can guarentee that he'll have a chance to shoot it, and you let him sit on the bench? Nicely done. Dwayne was always too tricky for his own good, always made one move too many, and it was the most predictable thing of all time that he got stuffed. I wouldn't let him anywhere near a tournament changing penalty shot. Banks and Germaine were easy decisions, they had to take them, and the same with Jesse Hall. But Reid and Robertson? Give me a break.
The moral of the story is, Bombay sucks. And if he never got a DUI in the first movie, he wouldn't have been a coach in the first place. Nuff said.
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