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Issue #44

     This is the best time of the year, the weather is warm, women will begin to wear less layers, and men will argue for hours over inane things like who is a better first basemen in NY or should LaRussa have sent the runner from third. Plus new heroes will emerge from the NBA playoffs (the best and most suspenseful of all the major sports) that America will discover for the first time, and hockey will again crown a Stanley Cup champ and no one in the U.S. will care unless there is a seventh game.

            TO BOO OR NOT TO BOO

            I love baseball. I grew up watching it as a kid and enjoy it now as an adult. What I don’t like are idiotic fans who feel like they are entitled to act anyway they want just because they paid their money. Case in point Yankee and Mets fans. When Mike Piazza was traded to the Mets, he was booed constantly because he had the gall to not come through every time he came to bat.  These fans felt that Pizza wasn’t trying hard when it was clear that he was pressing because of the pressures of playing in New York under the microscope of the media attention and impatient fans. So they booed him at every at-bat then these same idiots called into WFAN and claimed Pizza was not a New York kind of guy if his skin wasn’t thick enough to take some good-natured booing. Lately, the same type shit is being pulled on Jason Giambi. The team is friggin 6-1 and the morons who pass as New York Yankee fans (yet always described as sophisticated and knowledgeable) are booing a guy who is a former AL MVP and one of the top players in the league because he hasn’t come through early in the season.  I can see people booing Allan Houston, but even there why? It’s not Houston isn’t trying out there, the man has limitations, he can’t guard anyone, but he can shoot the rock. Is it his fault the Knicks overpaid for his services?  At least Giambi plays hard and is trying just like Piazza was back in 1998.  As long as guys are working hard out there why boo?  Why do jerks who dare to identify themselves as fans of the team feel they need to show Giambi or Piazza who’s the boss? All it does is illustrate how classless New York fans really are and why places like St. Louis are light-years more classy.  Case in point, Tino Martinez replaced Don Mattingly in NY and is booed until the fans finally accept him, Tino replaces Mark McGwire on the Cardinals and the fans give him a standing ovation. And the assholes who call the radio station angry because so and so decided not to play in New York continue to wonder why anyone would not want to play here.  Just because you paid money to see a sporting event, that does not mean you have carte blanche to behave like George Steinbrenner or Daniel Snyder. But at least they paid for the team.

OLD BASEBALL PLAYERS

            What the fuck got into Buck Martinez?  The stress of knowing that you can’t just come out of the broadcast booth and lead a team to the World Series must have caused him to lose his mind. Should we really be upset as fans that Pedro Martinez walked through the opposing team’s clubhouse?  Who gives a shit Buck? What you don’t think Pedro talks to his friends on the other team during the off-season or after the game. It’s a business, you guys are entertainers although its definitely a more juicy story to have guys fighting and sniping at each other no one believes that players should have hatred for the opposing team or that they don’t fraternize.   The only people who really get bent out of shape are the old traditionalist like Buck Showalter or Buck Martinez.  Buck Showalter was so uptight about all the little things that have nothing to do with playing baseball that he got his old-fashioned ass fired by the Yankees and the Diamondbacks who both went on to win the World Series after he left. Coincidence? maybe, maybe not. Old-timers are always bitching about how the game has changed and how they way the game was played before was so much better. That’s bullshit. That what I think when I hear my dad telling me the same crap too. I just roll my eyes and suppress a laugh, because I know one day I’ll be telling my kids that Michael Jordan was the greatest player ever and these young guys can’t hold a candle to him or that Barry Bonds was awesome and the best ever.  All it means is that as you age you become nostalgic and think everything that came before was better.  But was it really better. Would Buck Martinez prefer today’s player treat all opposing players as the enemy despite the fact that players change teams a lot more often nowadays and come be a teammate within weeks? What the hell does he think would happen because Pedro was in the clubhouse? That Pedro would take extra food, that guys would lose some sort of edge. I have many friends that I love like a brother, but when we compete against each other I show no mercy and want to destroy them. But were still friends at the end of the day. I guess professional athletes are not smart enough to do the same.

            DO THE RAPTORS NEED VINCE?

            Vince Carter gets injured and the Raptors win 9 in a row. What’s up with that? I guess it means that Vince was holding the team back. Can it be another case of too many guys standing around watching Vince do his thing, instead of getting involved. Methinks that Toronto was waiting for Vince to lead them and when it became apparent that he was not going to be able to lead, they took matters into their own hands. The Raptors are a dangerous team in a wide-open Eastern Conference.  If you want an example of what I mean look no further than the New England Patriots. Just like the Raptors the Pats were lead by a guy who was not your typical leader. There is something about Drew Bledsoe that screams SOFT and Vinsanity has the same tattoo on his head. Until and unless Carter can become a true leader, he will do more harm than good to the Raptors in the long run. I wouldn’t be surprised if Toronto looks to move Carter in a year or two if they can get an upgrade. He may be there biggest box-office draw in Canada, but if he can’t lead the team and improve his game, Carter will become a liability.

            DUMB FATHERS ON TV