Trading Rambles
I'm pretty much on edge today, because of all the potential trades this weekend in baseball. I'm freaking out, Bob. Seriously, I have ESPN on mute right now, but every time they show Manny I freak out and see if they're saying anything new, or if they're rerunning the same segment for the bajillionth time. I also find that at this time of the year, any time they mention anybody who might be leaving Boston, well, he suddenly becomes like my most favorite player EVER and they can't trade him. This is why I could never be in charge of a baseball team. (Haha, this ONE reason.) But really, if I were in charge of things, my biggest issue of the day would be the conflict over whether to start Brian Daubach or Kevin Millar at first base. (Scary, isn't it?)
This year's trading deadline is making me pretty nervous, obviously because Manny's name has been brought up a lot. It's reminded me of last year's situation, when Nomar's name was being brought up a lot after it seemed that his situation in Boston had gotten pretty desperate. This got me thinking about what happened to Nomar after he got traded, which made me pretty sad. Just think about it. To recap, he WAS the freakin Red Sox, he turns down a $60 million, 4 year contract, for whatever reason (and there were some who argued that he couldn't have been happy to begin with to turn down such a contract, which is a reasonable argument if you ask me) and then, he goes through that whole unhappiness with all the trade rumors. Then he sulks on the bench in a game against the Yankees when Derek Jeter goes all out. After that play, there was not one Boston fan who even entered the debate about whether Nomar or Jeter was better, and that's saying a lot. Finally, he's traded. That fall, the Sox win the World Series, and suddenly, the guy goes from being the reason Boston should win the World Series to being the reason that the Red Sox DID win the World Series - only that reason being because he wasn't there, and Orlando Cabrera, Dave Roberts, and Doug Mientkiewicz were.
Now this guy's career is always going to be tagged with that trade last year. Orlando Cabrera must love Nomar. Here's a guy whose career could have gone by without anybody in Boston noticing at all, and now the guy could return and have anything he wanted. Same with Dave Roberts. Doug Mientkiewicz couldn't get anything here, and that's because he took what he wanted when he left. But Nomar's got it bad. Forget his Boston legacy, which is ruined. Some people are like, "Nomar will still be one of the best players ever to play in Boston." True, but that statement will always come with the footnote, about his 2004 season and trade. And anybody who's like, "Nomar made it possible for the Sox to win because of all his years here," has a point, but is also pretty sentimental. His baseball legacy is still in question, but it's looking dim with this contract year spent mostly on the DL.
Obviously, Manny's in a different category than Nomar, simply because he helped the team win the World Series. But at the same time, I would really hate to see that tainted by a mid-season trade, especially with all of the recent stuff that went on in Tampa Bay. I mean, after Nomar left, it wasn't enough that he was gone; the Boston media exposed everything behind the scenes, all of the supposed sulking and teammate controversy. It was like they were trying to make us all feel better by saying, "Listen, Nomar wasn't that great anyhow," but hearing all of these supposed truths just made it all worse. Nobody wants to hear that a sports hero isn't the hero they imagined. There's nothing more disappointing than worshipping some sports guy or celebrity or whatever and then meeting the person and seeing that he or she is really not nice at all. So reading all the stuff about how much Nomar really didn't like Boston, or how much he really didn't like Boston fans or whatever, wasn't comforting at all. It was the opposite.
So I'm afraid that if Manny leaves this weekend, that's what I'm looking at next week. I don't want them to taint his legacy. Here's the thing: everyone expects too much from these athletes. Even I do. Seriously, these guys didn't sign up to be role models. They didn't sign up to be Boston posterboys, and they didn't sign up to be best friends to each other, to management, or the fans. They signed up to play a certain position. They didn't sign up to be nice guys. I'm not saying that all of these things wouldn't be good, and that they're not all important on some level, and necessary on some level, to have a functioning, successful team. But what I am saying is that I think the expectation that because these guys can hit homeruns and strikeout ten guys in a game also means that they always do the right thing is just plain wrong. And moreover, what gives any of us the right to decide whether Manny is happy in Boston? Or ANYBODY is happy anywhere? Really, I mean, how many people go into their doctor's office and think, "Hmm, I wonder if he's happy here" and then let that affect how they view their doctor? Nobody cares about how happy their doctor is, although now that I think about it, having an angry surgeon might not be the best idea. But that's not my point.
Similarly, does anbody ask their lawyer's office staff how they're treated, before they sign up for the lawyer's services? Anybody ask the accountant's boss how his accountant interacts with his co-workers before submitting their finances? And perhaps more importantly, how many people have never experienced a moment of unhappiness at their jobs? Or how many people have never experienced a moment of tension or disagreement with a coworker, boss, customer, or client? And how many people have never called into work sick, or have never taken a personal day from work?
Obviously, these things have limits, but I don't think Manny's reached them. How many days off has this guy had? You could probably count on them on one hand. My point is this: everyone has days at work they'd rather forget about. Everyone makes decisions about work that they think they could have done better or differently. The difference is that everyone has the benefit of making these decisions without having fifty billion people also making them for you. Does anybody call up a doctor and say, "You know last week, when you were doing that routine exam with that patient? Well, I thought you sort of half-assed that knee-reflex thing. Sure, it turned out to be nothing, but really, you should have done that better." Of course not! Whether the doctor half-assed the exam or not, and regardless of whether that's right or not, he didn't have the whole thing scrutinized by the entire freaking free world. Manny doesn't get that luxury. And you know what? Nomar didn't either. In the end, it didn't matter how much talent the guy had: he was going to be portrayed as a selfish sulker, a non-team player. Whether that was right or not, when Nomar left, that's what everyone read about. I'm just dreading something similar happening to Manny.
Some people say it's because of the money that these players make that makes them eligible for all this judgment. Some people say it's because they're public figures. Some people say that it's just because they can't help themselves that they make these judgments (I think I fall into this category most of the time). I mean, it's easy to condemn everyone for condemning Nomar and Manny and these thingsin general, but I've had my share of outbursts over first-pitch pop-ups, fielding errors, managerial decisions, and Jose Offerman. All I'm saying is I don't know how justified any of it is, if at all.
This all reminds me of back in 1999 when the UConn men won the NCAA championship and they planned this huge parade, and then their main guy, this kid El-Amin, got in trouble for possession of marijuana. Everyone was freaking out, because here was a guy who was a huge sports hero to every kid in Connecticut, even though he was only about 20 years old himself (In Connecticut, UConn basketball is like the Red Sox to people in Boston). But the point is, suddenly people were split on whether they wanted him on the parade float or not. People were like, "We should not glorify this guy." You know what I thought? Nobody's putting on this parade to honor these guys' character. Nobody was interested in El-Amin because he's supposedly such a good guy. We're having this parade because of his ability to get the basketball to the open guy on the court. So, he should still be in the parade, but let's not pretend that we're honoring the team for anything but what we're honoring them for: their basketball ability.
And so, by the same token, I hope that maybe, no matter what happens this weekend, that Manny is given a similar courtesy, which I feel is rightfully his. David Ortiz is right: nobody should ever boo Manny Ramirez in Fenway Park. You don't boo your World Series MVP because of supposed unhappiness or laziness. You don't. (And, let's face it: nobody cheers Manny Ramirez because we think he's such a great guy. People cheer Manny because of the baseball talent.) Are there issues that go on behind the scene that fans don't know about? I'm sure, just as there are issues that go on behind the scenes at every job in every situation. I don't care how happy I was anywhere, I would never want people to be like, "Let's recount every single day she was here, every single bad mood she was in, every single questionable decision she made." Yikes.
I don't know. It's been a while, and there's still no update on ESPN. I want Manny to stay. And it's not because I really think he's an amazing guy or because he's so nice or funny. It's because he's arguably the best right handed hitter in baseball, one of the best hitters in baseball history, and I think he and David Ortiz are the best one-two punch in baseball right now. And if he can't stay, which still seems as foreign as Nomah becoming Nomar again did last year at this time, I really hope that those stats are the only things anybody gets to read about in the coming weeks.
Good god I hope he stays.
In other baseball news:
1. Wicked depressing: I was looking to check up on the Dauber, so I went to the Mets website and checked on their major league roster. On the 25-man roster, Daubach's name isn't there under infielders, but guess who's is: Jose Offerman. Seriously, there is nothing more nauseating than reading that the result of "Daubach and Offerman fighting for playing time" (trust me, I thought THAT was the all-time low) ended like this (this is why AIM needs that puke smiley).
2. Wicked uplifting: Gabe Kapler makes his return to Boston today. This made me regret that I'd never bought a Kapler shirt, because I kept thinking this morning that this would be the best thing to wear today. I'm so excited, I hope everyone at Fenway cheers like crazy for him. I bet they will because it's the first time he's been in Boston since they won the World Series.
And that's it.
I have to get a life.
This year's trading deadline is making me pretty nervous, obviously because Manny's name has been brought up a lot. It's reminded me of last year's situation, when Nomar's name was being brought up a lot after it seemed that his situation in Boston had gotten pretty desperate. This got me thinking about what happened to Nomar after he got traded, which made me pretty sad. Just think about it. To recap, he WAS the freakin Red Sox, he turns down a $60 million, 4 year contract, for whatever reason (and there were some who argued that he couldn't have been happy to begin with to turn down such a contract, which is a reasonable argument if you ask me) and then, he goes through that whole unhappiness with all the trade rumors. Then he sulks on the bench in a game against the Yankees when Derek Jeter goes all out. After that play, there was not one Boston fan who even entered the debate about whether Nomar or Jeter was better, and that's saying a lot. Finally, he's traded. That fall, the Sox win the World Series, and suddenly, the guy goes from being the reason Boston should win the World Series to being the reason that the Red Sox DID win the World Series - only that reason being because he wasn't there, and Orlando Cabrera, Dave Roberts, and Doug Mientkiewicz were.
Now this guy's career is always going to be tagged with that trade last year. Orlando Cabrera must love Nomar. Here's a guy whose career could have gone by without anybody in Boston noticing at all, and now the guy could return and have anything he wanted. Same with Dave Roberts. Doug Mientkiewicz couldn't get anything here, and that's because he took what he wanted when he left. But Nomar's got it bad. Forget his Boston legacy, which is ruined. Some people are like, "Nomar will still be one of the best players ever to play in Boston." True, but that statement will always come with the footnote, about his 2004 season and trade. And anybody who's like, "Nomar made it possible for the Sox to win because of all his years here," has a point, but is also pretty sentimental. His baseball legacy is still in question, but it's looking dim with this contract year spent mostly on the DL.
Obviously, Manny's in a different category than Nomar, simply because he helped the team win the World Series. But at the same time, I would really hate to see that tainted by a mid-season trade, especially with all of the recent stuff that went on in Tampa Bay. I mean, after Nomar left, it wasn't enough that he was gone; the Boston media exposed everything behind the scenes, all of the supposed sulking and teammate controversy. It was like they were trying to make us all feel better by saying, "Listen, Nomar wasn't that great anyhow," but hearing all of these supposed truths just made it all worse. Nobody wants to hear that a sports hero isn't the hero they imagined. There's nothing more disappointing than worshipping some sports guy or celebrity or whatever and then meeting the person and seeing that he or she is really not nice at all. So reading all the stuff about how much Nomar really didn't like Boston, or how much he really didn't like Boston fans or whatever, wasn't comforting at all. It was the opposite.
So I'm afraid that if Manny leaves this weekend, that's what I'm looking at next week. I don't want them to taint his legacy. Here's the thing: everyone expects too much from these athletes. Even I do. Seriously, these guys didn't sign up to be role models. They didn't sign up to be Boston posterboys, and they didn't sign up to be best friends to each other, to management, or the fans. They signed up to play a certain position. They didn't sign up to be nice guys. I'm not saying that all of these things wouldn't be good, and that they're not all important on some level, and necessary on some level, to have a functioning, successful team. But what I am saying is that I think the expectation that because these guys can hit homeruns and strikeout ten guys in a game also means that they always do the right thing is just plain wrong. And moreover, what gives any of us the right to decide whether Manny is happy in Boston? Or ANYBODY is happy anywhere? Really, I mean, how many people go into their doctor's office and think, "Hmm, I wonder if he's happy here" and then let that affect how they view their doctor? Nobody cares about how happy their doctor is, although now that I think about it, having an angry surgeon might not be the best idea. But that's not my point.
Similarly, does anbody ask their lawyer's office staff how they're treated, before they sign up for the lawyer's services? Anybody ask the accountant's boss how his accountant interacts with his co-workers before submitting their finances? And perhaps more importantly, how many people have never experienced a moment of unhappiness at their jobs? Or how many people have never experienced a moment of tension or disagreement with a coworker, boss, customer, or client? And how many people have never called into work sick, or have never taken a personal day from work?
Obviously, these things have limits, but I don't think Manny's reached them. How many days off has this guy had? You could probably count on them on one hand. My point is this: everyone has days at work they'd rather forget about. Everyone makes decisions about work that they think they could have done better or differently. The difference is that everyone has the benefit of making these decisions without having fifty billion people also making them for you. Does anybody call up a doctor and say, "You know last week, when you were doing that routine exam with that patient? Well, I thought you sort of half-assed that knee-reflex thing. Sure, it turned out to be nothing, but really, you should have done that better." Of course not! Whether the doctor half-assed the exam or not, and regardless of whether that's right or not, he didn't have the whole thing scrutinized by the entire freaking free world. Manny doesn't get that luxury. And you know what? Nomar didn't either. In the end, it didn't matter how much talent the guy had: he was going to be portrayed as a selfish sulker, a non-team player. Whether that was right or not, when Nomar left, that's what everyone read about. I'm just dreading something similar happening to Manny.
Some people say it's because of the money that these players make that makes them eligible for all this judgment. Some people say it's because they're public figures. Some people say that it's just because they can't help themselves that they make these judgments (I think I fall into this category most of the time). I mean, it's easy to condemn everyone for condemning Nomar and Manny and these thingsin general, but I've had my share of outbursts over first-pitch pop-ups, fielding errors, managerial decisions, and Jose Offerman. All I'm saying is I don't know how justified any of it is, if at all.
This all reminds me of back in 1999 when the UConn men won the NCAA championship and they planned this huge parade, and then their main guy, this kid El-Amin, got in trouble for possession of marijuana. Everyone was freaking out, because here was a guy who was a huge sports hero to every kid in Connecticut, even though he was only about 20 years old himself (In Connecticut, UConn basketball is like the Red Sox to people in Boston). But the point is, suddenly people were split on whether they wanted him on the parade float or not. People were like, "We should not glorify this guy." You know what I thought? Nobody's putting on this parade to honor these guys' character. Nobody was interested in El-Amin because he's supposedly such a good guy. We're having this parade because of his ability to get the basketball to the open guy on the court. So, he should still be in the parade, but let's not pretend that we're honoring the team for anything but what we're honoring them for: their basketball ability.
And so, by the same token, I hope that maybe, no matter what happens this weekend, that Manny is given a similar courtesy, which I feel is rightfully his. David Ortiz is right: nobody should ever boo Manny Ramirez in Fenway Park. You don't boo your World Series MVP because of supposed unhappiness or laziness. You don't. (And, let's face it: nobody cheers Manny Ramirez because we think he's such a great guy. People cheer Manny because of the baseball talent.) Are there issues that go on behind the scene that fans don't know about? I'm sure, just as there are issues that go on behind the scenes at every job in every situation. I don't care how happy I was anywhere, I would never want people to be like, "Let's recount every single day she was here, every single bad mood she was in, every single questionable decision she made." Yikes.
I don't know. It's been a while, and there's still no update on ESPN. I want Manny to stay. And it's not because I really think he's an amazing guy or because he's so nice or funny. It's because he's arguably the best right handed hitter in baseball, one of the best hitters in baseball history, and I think he and David Ortiz are the best one-two punch in baseball right now. And if he can't stay, which still seems as foreign as Nomah becoming Nomar again did last year at this time, I really hope that those stats are the only things anybody gets to read about in the coming weeks.
Good god I hope he stays.
In other baseball news:
1. Wicked depressing: I was looking to check up on the Dauber, so I went to the Mets website and checked on their major league roster. On the 25-man roster, Daubach's name isn't there under infielders, but guess who's is: Jose Offerman. Seriously, there is nothing more nauseating than reading that the result of "Daubach and Offerman fighting for playing time" (trust me, I thought THAT was the all-time low) ended like this (this is why AIM needs that puke smiley).
2. Wicked uplifting: Gabe Kapler makes his return to Boston today. This made me regret that I'd never bought a Kapler shirt, because I kept thinking this morning that this would be the best thing to wear today. I'm so excited, I hope everyone at Fenway cheers like crazy for him. I bet they will because it's the first time he's been in Boston since they won the World Series.
And that's it.
I have to get a life.
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