SPORTS SUNDAY

i gotta tell you: there's nothing like fat middle-aged guys sitting up in the stands at ball games criticizing the quality of the player's efforts, esp when the fat middle-aged guys have various, contrary & flat-out weird opinions about "how the game is supposed to be played," the game they've either not played since little league or maybe high school. i find this kind of behavior more annoying than the loons who act like THEY hit the damn home-run that won the game.

issuing their god-like judgments from the olympus of their stadium seats that their fat asses are sitting in, these "fans" feel completely justified because, well, they know "how the game is supposed to be played" & since their emotional or intellectual investments have been focused onto one team or another, they feel entitled, as if they OWNED the player, the team, the sport itself, to their criticisms. this odd sense of ownership can make sane people act pretty damned crazy.

now i have been pretty clear here about what i think about juicers. this has little to do w/"how the game is supposed to be played" & more to do w/cheating & actually breaking the law. but let me be clearer here now: i'm all for the more stringent rules about juicing. let's see the olympic model be adopted: first violation, three years & the second violation, you're literally OUT of the game. the multi-millionaire superstars will be more apt to pay attention when their contracts for the multi-millions can be voided. manny might hate losing that $7million but losing ALL the money the dodgers ponied up would have quite a bit more bite.

what to do about the past & how that impacts the record books? well, that's a little more complicated. in terms of the hall of fame, anyone who's tested positive(yes, every one of those 104 guys on the infamous "list")is out. period. i'm pretty sure i'm all for having the positive test guys' records expunged too. this is a little more dicey but i have no problem w/the hard line here too.

as for mike's argument about "the one dimensional player?" it's as silly as most of his odd opinions about the game. ever hear of mark belanger, the very weak(just above the mendoza line)hitting shortstop of the baltimore orioles back in the day? great w/the glove, couldn't hit the side of a barn. there's lots more like him(george mcbride, ed brinkman,et al). they've always been part of the game. remember gorman thomas? could hit nothing but an occasional home run & certainly couldn't play the field. guys like gorman have been around forever too. it's not clear to me when the "golden era" of baseball existed that saw every player on every team a "complete" dimaggio-like player. i'm pretty sure it exists only in mike's mind.

the fan noises i made that night at att weren't for manny. it's true: manny doesn't seem to want to play in the field. that's manny being manny. it's obvious & always has been. however, i have seen him make exceptional plays in the outfield. he can certainly motivate around the bases w/the best of them. & he can hit. clutch hit too. & since the numbers are quite to the contrary, it's silly to suggest he's a liability to his team. as far as i'm concerned that's all moot at this point(see above). my fan noises that night had more to do w/being a fan, w/refraining from presumptuous judgments. i don't see that it is making a positive contribution to the discourse, as we used to say, like calling someone a "bum." professional sports are hard & the guys(a very very small percentage)who make it & play them for our entertainment are exceptionally skilled beyond the middle-aged fat guy's imagination. savaging these exceptional athletes for lacking one skill or another that i think they should have is ludicrous.

i could go on & speculate that this demand for the "complete ballplayer" led to the "juiced" era. certainly the insatiable demands of the fans for more & bigger numbers did. player egos had something to do w/it too(tho less than the players wanting to cash in). of course, in some fan's minds, the "juiced era" WAS the golden era of baseball(until the stench of the drugs became overwhelming).

manny will be back. i'm not particularly glad about it but he'll be back. such is the nature of the game at the present time. i heard buster olney, an ok baseball guy, say that when it came time for him to vote for the "juiced" era's guys for the hall of fame, he's just going to assume that everyone did it & vote for the stats. this is fundamentally wrong on so many levels but that's where things are now. i guess mocking a player for not hustling & playing up to a fantasized
ideal of "how the game's played" isn't such a bad thing considering olney's position.

that's just mike being mike.