The Old Blog

Jason Whitlock, from ESPN.com:

What is unfair is the double standard that is widely accepted when it comes to how we view the character of our modern-day sports celebrities. It seems that only African-American-born athletes are burdened with the demands of social consciousness.

Andre Agassi was never expected to follow in the footsteps of Arthur Ashe. Larry Bird never needed to be as righteous as Bill Russell. Roger Clemens doesn’t have to match Jackie Robinson’s class and courage. A Great White Hope isn’t expected to be as important as Muhammad Ali. And no one, even before the Trial of the Century, demanded that O.J. Simpson match Jim Brown’s commitment to helping America’s youth.

It’s subtle and funny. That is, until he uses his next three sentences to explain the joke.

Every week, Joe Morgan holds a baseball chat on ESPN.com. And every week I read through the chat wrap and don’t know whether to laugh or cry at what he’s saying. The man is so biased toward the “Big Red Machine” of the 70s you can smell it over the Internet. He dismisses any sort of statistics that can’t be computed with an old-fashioned slide rule. And, twice in the past week, he has insulted Billy Beane for having written “Moneyball.” There’s one big problem with this: as Aaron Gleeman complained on May 26th, Billy Beane didn’t write a single word of the book!

When you’re a baseball “expert” and you have no clue about who wrote the most hyped (and possibly most important) sports book of the past decade, you should not be commenting on it. Here is what Morgan said last week:

I read an excerpt in the NY Times. It’s typical if you write a book, you want to be the hero. That is apparently what Beane has done.

(This is, by the way, what Morgan did in his own book.) Since apparently nobody at ESPN.com corrected him, and he didn’t go out of his way to learn the truth, here’s what he said today (in addition to throwing three thinly-veiled digs Beane’s way in the span of 60 minutes):

I wouldn’t be Billy Beane first of all!! I wouldn’t write the book Moneyball!

If Morgan really read the New York Times review, he should at least have come away with the knowledge that Michael Lewis wrote the book. But I guess mixing up a book’s main character and its writer is a common occurrence for Joe. After all, he’s listed as the main author for his autobiography.

In recent weeks, Morgan has also claimed that Red Sox pitching coach Tony Cloninger hit “a lot” of grand slams in his career (truth: Cloninger hit two–both in the same game), that he “doesn’t know” whether Greg Maddux pitched longer for the Braves or Cubs (with the Cubs: 5 full seasons; with the Braves, he’s going on eleven), and that the Boston Red Sox have a “bullpen by committee.” Well, hell, Joe. What team doesn’t? Is there really a team out there that has a one-man bullpen? Or is Joe Morgan talking out of his “expert” ass?

If I wanted to know what it’s like to stare down Tom Seaver when you’re down 0-2 in the count, I’d ask Joe Morgan. If I want someone to teach my 5′7″ hypothetical son how to hit a curveball or backhand a grounder up the middle, Morgan’s my man. Hell, if I needed another team to wipe the floor with in my fantasy baseball league, Morgan’s high on the list. But if I want an intellectual discussion devoid of cliches like “he knows how to win” or “veteran leadership,” you can’t get me far enough away from the Big Red Machine’s little round cog.

The AP reports that an alien baby has been found in Wyoming. Their source? The Weekly World News. Didn’t anybody learn anything from the Andrew Carlssin debacle? Or has Jayson Blair already found a new job as an AP stringer?

The Red Sox traded “All-Star” third baseman Shea Hillenbrand to the Arizona Diamondbacks yesterday for submariner Byung-Hyun Kim. Hillenbrand is one of the most overrated players in the league, and I am quite excited to see the Red Sox fill a hole in their rotation (or bullpen, depending on how they use Kim). Reactions from sports columnists have varied, from the boring “this could be a good deal for both clubs” (Jayson Stark) to “Theo Epstein should be arrested for grand larceny” (Rob Neyer). In case you can’t tell who I agree with, I invite you to check out my blogroll.

The Red Sox traded a poor-fielding, average running, easily replaceable (Bill Mueller is already on the roster) 3B with no batting eye for a 24-year-old (so there’s room for improvement), hard-throwing strikeout artist. Hillenbrand has the tendency to start the season well (remember last year’s red-hot April?), and then cool down. Plus, he can go weeks without drawing a walk. Kim, meanwhile, can either become the Sox’ new closer, or he can supplement Pedro, Lowe, Fossum, and Wakefield in what is already one of the American League’s best starting rotations.

This marks the second significant step of the Epstein/James era (the first being the signings of Millar, Ortiz, and Giambi this offseason). And, given the recent turmoil in New York, I think the Sox have a good chance of unseating the five-time defending AL East champs come October.

David Horton was having a great time. He and his girlfriend were at a Cincinnati Reds game, enjoying the fresh air, when they suddenly appeared on the scoreboard “Kiss Cam.” Not one to disappoint a crowd, Horton leaned over to kiss his girlfriend in front of thousands of people. Unfortunately, one of those thousands was his parole officer. As anyone who has seen “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” knows, just because you’re playing hooky (or dodging parole) at a baseball game, it doesn’t mean the camera won’t find you.

But here’s what’s really weird: Horton had been arrested in 1999 for stabbing two men, and he served two years. But the warrant currently out for his arrest involves cocaine possession/trafficking, which could land him in the pokey for 18 years. Is it just me, or are certain priorities out of order when the sentence for cocaine abuse is nine times longer than that for stabbing two people?

Florida lawyer Jack Thompson is preparing to defend Dustin Lynch, a 16-year-old who killed 17-year-old JoLynn Mishne last November. He will attempt to use the argument that violent video games, and not Lynch himself, are responsible for Mishne’s death. It’s bad enough that Lynch’s parents may never have taught him about the difference between “real” and “fake” violence, but the fact that Mishne’s father actually supports Thompson’s idea appalls me beyond words. Unfortunately, that’s not even the worst part of the case. Thompson released a statement that said, in part, “Whatever happened (in JoLynn’s death), it was not murder.” If crushing someone’s skull and stabbing them multiple times isn’t murder, then what the hell is?

One can only hope that, due to Lynch’s apparent copycat behavior, he starts hopping around on a busy highway like the character in “Frogger” and soon finds himself beneath a semi.

Lower-income families (those with annual incomes roughly between 10k and 27k) won’t receive the child tax credit of $400 per offspring. Because, you know, the middle and upper classes are the ones who need it most.

Tonight on FOX News: how refusing to help the poor actually helps the poor, the environment, and the world’s view of America.

Mike Tyson wants us to know that while he didn’t rape Desiree Washington in 1991 (though he was found guilty and thrown in jail for three years), he would gladly do so now. Bob Ryan got suspended for a month for saying he wanted to smack Joumana Kidd. I bet Tyson isn’t reprimanded at all.

She’d still stay on her feet longer than Peter McNeeley.
See?

Bob Hope turns 100 today. ESPN.com’s Jim Caple informs us that the New York Yankees have achieved all but 15 of their 8,895 total wins during Hope’s lifetime.

That’s not as big a deal as you’d think. The Rockies, Marlins, Diamondbacks, and Devil Rays haven’t won any games outside my lifetime.

Maybe there’s some chemical catalyst for pedophilia in Boston’s holy water supply. Not only have scores of priests been accused and convicted of child molestation, but so was Donald James Fitzpatrick (no doubt a good Irish Catholic), the former clubhouse manager for the Red Sox.

Maybe this Batboy could have put a stop to things: