We interrupt this broadcast of Meathead Idol to bring you…
…the latest in Yankee-related headlines from SI.com.
I pop over to the site to see who won the Yanks/Sox game and find that Schilling got smacked around out there. Sweet.
But when I read down, I find this comment from Twelve Stations Of The Bloody Sock:
“Most of the hits were mistakes and they hammered them,” Schilling said. “My last 12 innings, I’ve given up 24 baserunners. It’s not just the stretch, it’s everything. I’ve got to pitch again in five days and I’ve got to figure it out in the next four.”
Schilling is a self-promoting tool a lot of the time, but what can I say — that kind of candor is a rarity and I have to tip my cap to it. “So what happened out there, Curt?” “Well, I fucked up. I also fucked up the game before that. It’s not just a single thing, either; I am fucking up across the board. I need to unfuck it up by Monday. Note: neither ‘bad breaks’ nor my pitching coach is responsible for the up-fuckage. That’s all me. I’m-a fix it, though. Talk to you later.”
It pains me to downgrade Schilling from a “…HAAAAAAAAATE!” to a mere “(hate),” but it looks like it’s heading that way.
Within the same article, links to potentially depressing other articles included:
1. “Clemens struggles in Double-A tuneup”
Two things. A) For ’07 Yankees fans, three runs in five and a third is not “struggling.” That’s a top-of-the-rotation performance. Did he break his hand? Did Moose bitch him out in the tabs? No? Ain’t a struggle. B) If the Trenton Thunder is still doing those dollar-beer nights, giving up a few walks is the least of the Rocket’s worries.
He’s fine, people. He’s old, but he’s fine. Give him more than 12 seconds to get back in shape and he’ll probably get the job done.
Unlike some people…
2. “Pavano opts for Tommy John surgery”
“Carl Pavano is headed for reconstructive elbow surgery, probably ending his unproductive stint with the New York Yankees and making his contract a $40 million bust.”
…”Probably“? It better end his stint, Jesus H. The surgeon on the case should really “reconstruct” his elbow to maximize Pavano’s touch-typing skills, because it’s not that he has no future in the major leagues — if you think there isn’t some dumb-ass GM who would pick him up in a year, even though he’s overrated and apparently built entirely out of Ken Griffey’s fragile hamstrings, think again — but it’s like, take a hint, man. You don’t seem to want to pitch; God doesn’t seem to want you to pitch; stop trying to pitch. Learn third base or go to grad school, something, but enough already.
3. “Report: Giambi failed amphetamines test”
I don’t want to tell the league its business, but it’s probably faster at this point to test Giambi for the drugs he didn’t take, isn’t it? “Mr. Giambi does not appear to be taking either Vicodin or birth-control pills.” I mean, what is he, four years old? He just puts everything in his mouth? This is like the phase my brother went through when he kept eating marbles — does my mom have to go up to the Bronx with a bottle of ipecac until little Jason grows out of this?
Meat: love you, mean it, STOP PUTTING SHIT IN YOUR MOUTH THAT AIN’T FOOD.
Wow, that is some staggering candor from Schilling. It is refreshing.
I gotta ask, what’d you think of A-Rod’s ‘slide’ into second in the last game? I was watching Sports Center while at the gym and his completely asshat response made me actually start saying ‘oh, bullshit’ in an audible voice. At least it made the guy on the machine next to me laugh. God, at least just admit it and say you were doing it for your team, man. What a dick.
autiger: I don’t understand why he’s a dick for that. That’s exactly what he did say.
“Alex Rodriguez defended his hard slide on Dustin Pedroia on Tuesday night, saying he was just playing the game hard. “I’m not going to go in like a little baby doll and hug him,†A-Rod said.”
I got that from the Times, and I’ve seen it other places, too.
If it was any other player, would anybody honestly care all that much? Not to mention that Pedroia had done exactly the same thing to Jeter earlier in the same game.
I can’t disagree that Schilling’s candor is, as you say, refreshing. It does nothing, however, to minimize my giddiness when .098 Minky goes upper deck yard on that sanctimonious ass. Many, many kisses were hurled at my set at that moment.
It was a be-yute-iful game yesterday. Petite pitched well, and the bats were cracking. The guy behind me was going on and on in his jabs at Schilling about The Bloody Sock, and it got old really quick. I’m glad to see Schilling being upfront and self-aware of his errors. I don’t like the guy, but it’s, as Jenn C said, refreshing. On the other hand, the Red Sox fielding was a comedy of errors at points last night, so the blame should not entirely fall on the pitcher.
On the Yanks side, you would not have realized that Doug Mientkiewicz’s batting average is as low as it is, as he pulled off some great hits; and Jeter surpassed Mattingly on the Yanks All-Time Hit List, which was a great moment.
All in all, nice game, boys.
See, yeah. Just as I was starting to like A-Rod, though, he pulls his 2nd base shenanigans that is woefully reminiscent of the 1st-base pansy-slap he gave the ball a couple seasons ago.
Still *love* Posada. Jorge, please. Come to Boston. Dougie doesn’t go deep all that frequently, k?
Schilling is my absolute least favorite Sox player, precisely because he IS such an unabashed tool. I will agree though that his latest mea culpa is slightly redeeming and not a little impressive.
I can’t say I’m happy with the way this series came down, but I guess I can be glad we weren’t swept. Both teams were due, and even when we lose, I still like the games against the Yankees better than just about any other games because the energy is perceptably different than when we’re paired with any other team.
Re: 1. I will never downgrade my blazing red-level HATE for Schilling. NEVER! (Shakes veritable fist of defiance).
Re: 2. Sweet Lord, if I never hear that man’s name again ot will be too soon. Make him go away.
Re: 3. Well, that would explain why he’s constantly bathed in sweat.
As an aside, the game last night was ROCKIN’ good news, and I had the pleasure of being at the stadium to witness it.
The only angle I saw the slide from was, I think, the first-base cam, and it looked to me like A-Rod lost his balance a little.
But even if he came in hard on purpose, he didn’t come in *that* hard, and that’s what you do in that situation. You try to break up the double play. If that’s not what A-Rod said about it, he probably should have…and not to be all “shut up, freshman” about it, but if Pedroia wants to play infield in the major leagues? Rook needs to learn to jump.
That’s all I remember from the broadcast, was Kay saying Pedroia did not look happy, and I was like, “…Didn’t look that out of line to me, kid.” What’s-his-name, Phelps, mugging the catcher a couple weeks ago for no reason? That was inappropriate. This didn’t look like anything Wally Backman didn’t pull a hundred times, and he *was* a second baseman.
Actually, Schilling’s blog is a pretty good read……when he’s not apologizing for his hypocrisy(the Bonds comments). The recaps of his own pitching performances are very detailed and informative, generally broken down inning-by-inning.
http://www.38pitches.com
Look, I’m as die hard as Sox fans get (yes from before this century- I’m looking at YOU girl in the Pink Sox hat), and I can’t stand Curt Schilling. I can grudgingly respect his skill and talent, and 2004 etc etc, but the man is an asshat.
That being said, his response to Curly Haired Boyfriend is bookmarked!
Also- A-Rod didn’t slide that hard, but I still hate him.
Here’s my thing about Giambi: tested positive or no, that “stuff” was supposed to be confidential. I’m sure it’s a complete COINCIDENCE that it got leaked right after Giambi said the players AND the league had some apologizin’ to do about the steroid era. The whole thing sort of stinks to me. Because, yes, Giambi used/possibly still uses/would eat raw eggs dipped in sewage to keep his job which is not surprising since wow, he makes a ton of money but the first sign of honesty from anyone not testifying in ages and suddenly get slapped around with leaks like this? Leaves me a little cold.
And I don’t even like Giambi!
Maybe the problem some people have with the A-Rod’s slide is that he came up with an elbow to the crotch? I don’t know. Mountain out of a molehill, I think. Move along, nothing to see here.
Yeah, I was assuming more folks saw the re-plays that I saw. It wasn’t that he came up hard- *of course* you come up hard! It was that after he came up hard sideways (so, really Pedroia was geting the hell out of the way) he then realized he still wasn’t going to hit him, and ARod then threw an elbow into his thigh, which to me looked like he was going for the nads. And it wasn’t even an, ‘oh, I’m losing my balance’ deal- it was clearly intentional.
And, KaR, he also said it wasn’t dirty. And that’s what I’m saying bullshit to. I’m all over a hard slide. I’m all over a hard slide with cleats up. But throw elbows because you can’t pop up good enough to get the guy throwing around you is jackass. I don’t care who you are. And yeah, Ped needs to learn to leap, but he also didn’t cry too hard about it. He just said that he thought it was a dirty play and he’d know next time that that’s he dickhead, oh, I mean A-Rod, was going to play it. Let’s hope no one comes down on him after leaping over him and puts some cleats in him. You wanna play dirty, you better be prepared for the consequences.
Oh, and FWIW, I’m not a Yankee hater and I couldn’t have cared less about A-Rod before yesterday. I just watch the game and glumly cheer on my pathetic Cubs. So, it actually surprised me how pissed I was when I saw that nonsense on the replays. That’s the only reason I actually had a comment for once. He just irritated me with saying it wasn’t a dirty play when it was. If you’re going to do it, at least cop to it.
A-Rod’s reaction to this kerfuffle is everything I hate about him in a nutshell. I think this is at least in part why a lot of fans don’t respond to him even though he’s a great player and at times it’s a privilege to watch him do his thing — the thing is, it should be MORE fun, MORE awesome than it is, but his tendency towards poutiness, blame-shifting, whingy excuses, and so on is hard to relate to. Compare this to Schilling, who would have owned that play, said he was playing hard, maybe apologized…the glove slap, same issue. I believe I said at the time that that inning dragged on for a good half hour due to the scuffling over the ump’s call, and A-Rod’s protests, and that the best thing *for the team* at that point would have been for Ol’ Raspberry Lips to accept the ruling and sit down so the team wouldn’t lose momentum. But: no.
He’s consistently a dink about stuff like this; this is why fans and press love Jetes and can’t get into A-Rod, I think. Jeter is not the most interesting or candid speaker on the team, but he doesn’t whine, either.
Giambi reminds me of a guy I knew in college who DID take his girlfriend’s birth-control. Because, yeah, anything-that-might-do-anything, straight down the hatch.
*whispers* I still wouldn’t kick Giambi out of bed for eating crackers.
The thing that always bugs me most about the Yankee/Red Sox series is Michael frickin’ Kay. Does he have to go on and on every time about the letter “C” on Jason Varitek’s uniform? Because Derek Jeter doesn’t wear a “C” on his uniform for “captain” obviously means that Varitek shouldn’t. And remember when Johnny Damon was still playing for the Sox? He was just awful! Now Kay can’t say enough nice things about him. Maybe it’s cause he shaved off his beard and cut his hair. And where the HELL is Ken Singleton? I miss Ken. And Bobby Mercer. And Jim Kaat. I’m even getting used to Paul O’Neill in the booth. I need to learn to turn the sound down on the games.
the grand not-so-secret of the nation is that… well… we don’t like schilling either. especially when he’s capitalizing on our curse-ending series to peddle votes for geo w. that didn’t go over real well, not at all.
he sort of like your somewhat drunk and lecherous uncle at thanksgiving. we lump him, but we don’t have to like him.