I know, I know, I shouldn't let this site degenerate into a sort of FJM-lite, mainly because there is no way we could do it as well as them. Still, there is some stuff that is just so stupid I can't help saying something. Take, for instance, this piece, written by a senior national columnist at the self-proclaimed World Leader of Sports. There is so much good stuff in there that it really deserves a line-by-line takedown, but I'm just going to focus on my favourite part: Gene suggests that a one year deal worth $2M for Barry Bonds would not be an insult.
Gene might have had a point--if he had been writing in 1987. In 2007, baseball players tend to earn just a little more money. To take the most recent of literrally dozens of possible examples, Joel Pineiro just signed a two year deal for $13M. Joel Pineiro. The man has been a well below average pitcher for the last four years. He is now a middle reliever. Thirteen million dollars. And Gene thinks, in this sort of market, $2M for BARRRY FUCKING BONDS is not an insult?
Maybe senior is a polite way of saying senile.
When I logged on to write this post, I noticed this by Ken Rosenthal, who is quickly removing himself from my short list of mainstream sports writers with more than 2 brain cells. Like judging a book by its cover, this article's stupidity can be fully surmized by the opening sentence. It is akin to writing "Tom Brady is a great quaterback. He is not a great football player" or "Roger Federer is a great server, volleyer, forehand hitter and backhand hitter. He is not a great tennis player."
Gene might have had a point--if he had been writing in 1987. In 2007, baseball players tend to earn just a little more money. To take the most recent of literrally dozens of possible examples, Joel Pineiro just signed a two year deal for $13M. Joel Pineiro. The man has been a well below average pitcher for the last four years. He is now a middle reliever. Thirteen million dollars. And Gene thinks, in this sort of market, $2M for BARRRY FUCKING BONDS is not an insult?
Maybe senior is a polite way of saying senile.
When I logged on to write this post, I noticed this by Ken Rosenthal, who is quickly removing himself from my short list of mainstream sports writers with more than 2 brain cells. Like judging a book by its cover, this article's stupidity can be fully surmized by the opening sentence. It is akin to writing "Tom Brady is a great quaterback. He is not a great football player" or "Roger Federer is a great server, volleyer, forehand hitter and backhand hitter. He is not a great tennis player."
3 comments:
In the NYT's writeup of the Red Sox's game 6 slaughter, Jack Curry writes of Drew's grand slam, "One swing could never be worth $14 million..."
Do you think that's true?
Well, winning the world series is certainly worth more than $14M, so in that sense it is not obviously true. Of course, it is not like no one else in the world could have hit that home run. Still, a terrific performance in a postseason series can be worth an disproportiante amount of money, perhaps as much as $14M.
"Hardly anyone is even offended by Ramirez anymore. Not the vast majority of Red Sox Nation, which supposedly is more in touch with the game's nuances than any other fan base. Not certain sabermetricians, who claim that Ramirez's offensive production more than compensates for his on-field lapses. Not even opponents, who either laugh at Ramirez, ignore him or both." Only overpaid, underbrained sports columnists, whose moralizing rants display the perspicacity of cottage cheese splattered on cement.
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