The Noise Factor

This question I have posed does seem a little extreme.  What reason would you have to be against some 9-year old kid pitching against 8-10-year old kids? 

Well, in New Haven Connecticut parents and their kids protested over a young boy named Jericho Scott.  Scott is/was a right-handed pitcher who threw about 40 mph and has been so good in the New Haven Youth Baseball League that opposing players and parents urged league officials to ban him from pitching.  To add to this story, Scott apparently has pinpoint control and has yet to hit any player in the league this season.

Back on point, are we kidding?  You ask the league to stop a great pitcher from pitching?  That would be like every country protesting that Michael Phelps shouldn’t be allowed to swim because he’s too good.  Not only is this league wrong for preventing Scott from pitching, they have violated his rights.  His parents paid for him to play in this league and he deserves the opportunity to pitch, hit, play the field and more importantly, play baseball.

For those people who opposed Scott from pitching in this league should not only be ashamed of themselves but they are what’s wrong with sports.

This is far worse than showing up a player on the field or breaking an unwritten rule, these people have done what they could to break the spirit of a 9-year old boy who loves to pitch.  Are you proud of yourselves?  Have you accomplished something positive?  No, you have brought unnecessary attention to yourselves for all the wrong reasons.  This boy should have been given proper respect for his good play, and instead I have to read about how parents and a Youth Baseball League have ripped this kid’s heart out.  Great work people!  Are you going to make the best hitter in the league swing with wood while the rest hit with aluminum bats?

Why don’t we punish the kids who get straight A’s in school because they are simply too smart in class.

Why don’t we punish the salesperson who has 100 clients and makes $100, 000 from each of them because he’s simply too good for his company.

In fact let’s punish Tiger Woods when he gets back from injury because he should let other golfers win major championships.

This is one of the worst stories to hear when you have lived, breathed and sweat baseball for nearly 20 years.  These people should appreciate what Jericho Scott does on the mound and hope that he succeeds later on in life.  To take something away from him because of something he didn’t do is one of the worst things you can do to a child.  Heinous actually. 

These are the same people who are allowed to have kids and teach them terrible life lessons like this story.  These are also the same people who formulate terrible opinions about sports and are allow to vote in presidential elections.  It is scary to think about how responsible parents like these are to a country, let alone their own family.  It also paints a terrible picture of how their kids will perceive this situation and feel this is right.  It isn’t right.  It is wrong in the worst way.

Developmental league or not, Jericho Scott’s love for pitching was taken away because he happened to develop faster than other kids.  Instead of the league being proud of that, they have taken a step backward as to say, "we don’t want THAT kind of development".  That is a slap in the face to him, his family, his team and his coaches.  Shame on you.

Jericho’s mother Nicole will meet with a lawyer, and that’s the right play.  Don’t allow shallow, self-centered and naive parents to allow control over your son.  And lots of people would have blown their top over this, myself included (probably), if I found out a league banned my son or daughter from pitching because they are too good.  What should also be pointed out is he turned down playing for the defending champions of the league who happens to be sponsored by an employer of one of the league’s administrators.  Does someone have an AXE to grind on this kid?  Or do they really want to repeat this year and banning Scott is the way to go.

This is a sad story for kids who participate in sports.  But I’m not sure what’s worse; pushing for Scott to never pitch in the league or going to bed at night thinking what you did was right.

I hate that we had to learn about a dominant 9-year old pitcher this way.   Jericho Scott has earned and deserved better than this.

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In 1997 I had just turned 15 years old, and like any kid with a passion for the game of baseball I thought I knew enough.  Not everything, just enough.  Like any walk of life you find out that when you get older you grow wiser and I found out I was just a kid with a lot of heart - but I didn’t know enough.  Otherwise I would have given this baseball manager the benefit of the doubt when he was fired that very same year. 

11 years rolled by and not a single team lined up to hire a two-time World Series championship coach.  He wasn’t first on anyone’s list.  However, teams lined up to hire never-will-be’s like Davey Lopez, Phil Garner, Gene Lamont or Don Baylor.  I could have put together a list of coaches who’s records were better than the names mentioned above and they still would not have the resume this man had/has.  Aside from current coaches like Joe Torre, Tony LaRussa and Terry Francona, not one has as many or more championships as this man.  Not Lou Pinella, not Jim Leyland and not Bobby Cox.  In fact, this guy was this year’s desperate hire to save the General Manager’s job and it looks like he has done just that.

That man is Cito Gaston, the first - and only - black manager to win a World Series.  Not that race even matters in this case because winning a championship is a difficult task.  Ask Cox or Mike Hargrove.

Cito Gaston was not only a sentimental choice in Toronto but a man who’s track record deserved more than just minor consideration for a Manager’s job.  Granted, he was holding out for the right position and when you do that it cuts your possibilities down, but how does he get passed over?  How does Cleveland not hire him after Hargrove?  What about Seattle after Pinella left?  Boston after Jimy Williams?  The Dodgers after, well, anyone?  Marquee places where Gaston wouldn’t be given a fair shake.  The closest he got was the White Sox who hired Ozzie Guillen, who won a World Series himself.  If that title was Cito’s we’d be talking about a potential Hall of Fame manager along with about 10 shame-on-you articles from Fox and ESPN asking how he didn’t get his shot sooner.     

His hiring was out of desperation from a General Manager who’s held his position 2 years too long and knew the city of Toronto would love him for it.  J.P. Ricciardi has saved his job for another year, and if Toronto somehow (and I mean, SOMEHOW) makes the post-season in 2009, Ricciardi will keep his job for another 2 years and will continue to poorly assess talent and damage the farm system.

Take Adam Lind for example; Cito not only wanted him up with the big club, he promised he would play.  Lind has responded since going 1 for a million in his first stint this season.  This is a guy who’s a 2-time minor league player of the year and the best prospect in the Blue Jays system for years.  While he was tearing up the leagues, J.P. refused to bring him up (the last time a guy under 23 has stuck with Toronto was Alex Gonzalez - well before the Riccardi regime.  Imagine how he would have held back A-Rod or Pujols if he had them).  He didn’t feel Lind was ready, otherwise he would have said bye to Matt Stairs in the off-season and not sign Shannon Stewart after cutting the hard-nosed Reed Johnson due to being over-budget.  Cito wanted Lind, and he has been the MVP of the Blue Jays over the last 3 months. Not bad considering the GM wanted him to linger in the minors this season.  He hit .273 in the second half last season - he was ready this year and many people in Toronto knew it.

Not a bad call by Cito considering his one knock over a decade ago was how he handled the younger players.  Perhaps he could be guilty of loyalty to his veterans like Joe Carter, a Jays icon who only hit one of the biggest homerun in baseball history.  Cito was a players manager who was very loyal to his guys.  We’ve seen numerous managers do the same thing with little success.  But I bet those managers don’t have fans purchasing their replica jersey the way Toronto has with Gaston.  Already I have see 4 Gaston jerseys being worn around town.  That is how much the city loves Cito.

Although he won’t win the Manager of the year award, he has taken overrated talent (which means lack of talent) and has gotten the most out of it.  He’s had his #2 and #3 pitchers out (Shaun Marcum and Dustin McGowan - Marcum has returned), his starting second baseman (Aaron Hill) and his star Centerfielder out (Vernon Wells - returned last week).  Yet the team now sits 1 game behind the New York Yankees, who have much more talent than Toronto.  The award should go to either Joe Maddon of Tampa or Mike Scoscia of L.A., but the job Cito has done with this team has been outstanding. 

It should be noted that neither 1992 or 1993 World Series was a lock for Toronto and nobody should look at those years and think any less of the job Cito did.  He won 4 division titles in 5 years and the two years they did not get to the World Series (1989 and 1991) they may not have been the most talented team in the old AL East.  Cito should be remembered at the manager who was ahead of his team, and got the job done when several other managers who’ve had a lot of talent could not close the deal.  It is a constant reminder that no sport, let alone baseball, should ever pass over a proven winner and 2-time champion the way teams in Major League Baseball passed over Cito Gaston - especially being replaced by a con artist in Tim Johnson.

And I apologize for wanting him out as Manager in the first place.  I guess 15 year olds don’t know better. 

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The easy part about the Beijing Olympics is that if you live on the east coast you know the games are exactly 12 hours ahead in time.  That means the television is on live coverage of the Olympics as we speak and it sure beats the hell out of watching reruns of Melrose Place.  Although seeing a young Heather Locklear is great, the Olympics are more fresh.

I’d like to congratulate Canada on their fine showing thus far.  If we really are America’s dandruff then someone toss us some Zest fully clean (not sure if you guys know Pert Plus so I used Zest instead).

Now on with the blog…

- A rare hockey spot to start; in my city the hockey fans are amped up over the possibility of Brian Burke becoming the GM of the franchise.  Known as a genius, Burke truly is not.  He has simply taken credit for teams he never put together and has portrayed the arrogance of a legend before he could build himself as a legend.  Though he finds the time to rip other General Managers in the league he simply hasn’t understood that he’s not as big as he thinks he is.  Toronto Maple Leaf fans will find that out quickly and will want him shipped out of town.  I’ll save you guys the trouble by telling you to hold out for hope that they don’t overpay for the gravy-training GM who’s bark is much bigger than his bite.

- Don’t buy into the new headline involving Brett Favre; this is all head games.  He probably feels tired after the first few days of practice but don’t buy into "arm fatigue".  Last year he was throwin 90+ MPH bullets to his receivers.  This is just a way for people to doubt him going into the season, only for him to emerge a hero.  There is no arm fatigue, just head games with the rest of the league.  He’s back, his arm is back and this is classic Brett Favre setting himself up to be the feel-good hero for mankind.

- I haven’t yet seen the US Olympics team’s basketball highlights from their last game against Angola but if they can’t blow them out by 40 and if Dwight Howard is jawing with any Angola player then there is a problem.  Any game against Angola should be a friendly ass-kicking.  Canada’s lack of medals thinks that is poor.

- What Michael Phelps is doing is nothing short of remarkable and if you are a sports history buff you may want to take notice and start watching his incredible display in the pool.

- If people think the New York Yankees need to pack it in I have news for you: Tampa Bay is reeling.  Losing Carl Crawford for the rest of the season is a killer.  Add Evan Longoria into the mix and you have 2 of their 3 best players out of the lineup.  The spread may say 8.5 games but bigger leads have been blown this late in the season.  Then again, Detroit is only 9.5 games out and they seem to have packed it in.

- Dear St. Louis Rams: Steven Jackson is your best player.  SIGN HIM.

- With all the condoms being distributed among the athletes you can bet that all the athletes you have found hot on TV is getting some. 

I can’t top that last point so why try?  Let’s call it a night…

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If you are a big fan of the Olympics and you can’t wait to watch the events that unfold over the next 2 weeks I commend you.  It seems every time the Olympics come around I become less interested.  It takes a bunch of millionaire basketball players to make me pay attention to basketball.  Meanwhile, athletes who’ve had to sacrifice themselves over years of training for this very day, who don’t have luxury cars or houses or jacuzzi’s, don’t draw as much interest.  That seems unfair but that is reality.

Let’s walk around the leagues…

- FINALLY!  Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers have parted ways.  Here are a few thoughts about that whole situation:

*The Green Bay Packers may have moved on, promised Aaron Rodgers a starting role and felt like they had to eliminate what could have been a cancer on the team, but if they were a QB choke-job away from winning the Super Bowl and Favre is the better quarterback why get rid of him for very little in return?  How badly did they want him out of Green Bay?

*By the time Rodgers is ready to lead, IF he’s ever ready to leave, will the rest of the team still play at the level they were at last year?  Doubt it.  They will lose defensive players , guys will get hurt, running backs will break down and every team is a big injury or two away from a disastrous season.  Green Bay needed to take their shot this season.

*There is more that meets the eye with that situation.  What it is we may never know.  I just don’t see teams giving up a 4000 yard passer with a 2-1 TD to INT ratio very much.  We know Favre is selfish and will put himself above the team whenever he can, but was he also taking too much control over the offense?  Did McCarthy only want Favre to throw 30 times instead of 40 per game and that ticked Favre off?  We won’t know, but it had to be bigger than just a couple of mind changes and a little jerking around in order for the Packers to get rid of their beloved quarterback.

- Did Kobe Bryant really say he’d play in Italy for $50 million dollars?  Before I go there, did Kobe grow up wanting to be an NBA superstar and win championships?  We assumed so.  I just wouldn’t expect the one player that people talk about as a cold-blooded assassin who should have the ball with 5 seconds left on the clock.  All this tells me is Kobe will play for the money.  And all this does is validate the argument I have made for nearly 3 years that Bryant isn’t MJ, isn’t as clutch as you think and now I have a brand new one: a money-over-winning player.  I’m sorry, making 50 million in Italy does nothing for the guy or this "legacy" that he’s built.  If he had a shread of killer-instinct that people say he has he would have said "Hell no.  I play to win NBA championships".  Sorry Kobe fans, your boy isn’t what you thought he was - then again we could have told you that 5 years ago when he was in Colorado.

- 3 reasons why Tampa Bay could hold off Boston and New York in the American League East: Carl Crawford, BJ Upton and Carlos Pena.  None of the 3 keys to their offense has had a good year.  Crawford hovers around .300 every year and is barely over .270.  They NEED him to heat up because when he is hitting and running the bases well he’s one of the most lethal weapons around.  Upton, who’s power numbers have dropped, is hitting just above .260 and is slumping.  He’s a guy who should be hitting .280 and they need him to carry the team for a week or so with a power surge.  Pena is a .260 guy at best.  He’s under .240 and they need him to also have a power surge and somehow lift that average.  The Rays have not hit all that well this year and if their pitchers hit the wall in September, which could happen, they will need the hitting to step up. 

- The Florida Marlins may have wanted to send rookie sensation Mike Stanton to Boston for Manny Ramirez.  He is proving that he can carry teams offensively AND the NL East is as vulnerable as ever.

- Someone should tell Prince Fielder to chill out.  He can’t take his anger out on teammatesespecially since we aren’t sure if he’s upset with them, himself, his dad or the fact that he hasn’t seen his pecker since high school.

- The waves must be too great in San Diego for him to refuse a deal to Boston.  Either that or Boston just want as many outfielders as they possibly can and Giles would rather start than have a shot at a ring.  It’s probably a tougher decision than we think; start for a bad team, ride the bench for a serious contender.  I’d probably take the ring.

- The PGA Championship is this weekend? 

- 20 years ago today: Wayne Gretzkey was traded to the Los Angeles Kings.  Has it been THAT long since the biggest trade in hockey history took place?

That will do for this morning…

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A pre-season game, a holdout, an arrest, a fight, a selfish superstar or two…Football season must be back.  Well, just training camp which is good enough.  And if you are anti-Olympics, Football is the perfect place for you!

To kick start this post, I read another good article written by Mark Kriegel on Brett Favre.  Perhaps the real reason why I thought it was good is the fact that I have said over and over again that Favre is a "me-first" player, and Kriegel did a great job of exploiting that fact.  Face it, we’ve been going after Terrell Owens, Randy Moss and Chad Johnson pretty hard.  I am not the one that will say they did not deserve any ridicule they received from bloggers, but we have allowed Favre to skate under the selfish radar forever and that should have changed years ago, let alone today.  Though he is a better quarterback than Aaron Rodgers, the question is whether the team can accept a Hall of Fame quarterback who will have no trouble throwing any one of those players under the bus at any time.  Certainly not the kind of positive atmosphere you want from a team that was a QB choke-job away from getting to the Super Bowl.  To have that team crumble with the talent they have would be a disaster that would be much worse than the situation that team is in as we speak.

Here’s a link to Kriegel’s article: http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/8410850/Never-thought-we’d-see-Favre-like-this

And speaking of Owens, he no-shows to a practice and already people are talking about it.  Let’s overlook the fact that Dallas coach Wade Phillips also gave Jason Witten and Zach Thomas days off from practice as well.  But Owens is a headline grabber and I the only reason I can say it wasn’t a mistake for me to read it is because I learned that Phillips is giving his veterans some rest.  Other than that, Owens missing practice is a non-issue.

But what is an issue is Steve Smith beating the crap out of Ken Lucas.  Every year we hear about teammates getting into a scuffle of some kind - it’s football and it happens.  Although we haven’t heard about Smith getting into fights with teammates in a while that does not mean he hasn’t.  All this means is this fight and the one he had several years ago that got him in trouble the first time were worse than any minor scuffle he’s had in between.  He and several other football players have issues, that is a given.  Odds are if you are a Carolina Panther player you better not cross Steve Smith unless you are absolutely 100% convinced that you can beat the shit out of him.  Otherwise, be kind and rewind for Smith.

Speaking of rewind, don’t you think the biggest Super Bowl upset in history should allow the New York Giants to get more press than they have received?  I would think they would be getting more respect than they have gotten up to this point.  I would also think that Eli Manning would have received the benefit of the doubt by now and not have people question whether he’s The Man or just Peyton’s little brother.  I will bold this for all of you to see: YOU CANNOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS!!!  Seriously, there’s a big deal over quarterbacks winning championships to enhance their greatness.  People dog Dan Marino for not winning a title.  People use to dog John Elway, and then appointed him the best clutch quarterback in NFL history.  Eli now pulls into a tie for Super Bowl victories with Big Ben, Peyton, Brett Selfish-Favre and Kurt Warner, but he’s apparently still horseshit.  What is really horseshit is Marino not getting the props he deserves for being a great quarterback, yet lesser quarterbacks get a pat on the back for winning a ring.  Winning the Super Bowl is a team thing and not a quarterback thing.

If you are currently frustrated with everything I have written, simply go to this website and forget everything: http://green.msn.com/galleries/photos/photos.aspx?gid=220&page=1

Enjoy…

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