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Sunday, September 24, 2006

Identity theft

Dan went by a new moniker today: "Gordon Edes."

This column is horrendous. There's not really much else to say. It is as bad as anything Shaughnessy has ever written about Manny, although (I can't believe I'm saying this) it's less subtle. Just a terrible, terrible article.

In the middle, we get this gem:
While the Red Sox crumbled when Ramírez went on hiatus -- last night was the 22d game out of 30 Ramírez has missed since taking himself out of the last game of the Yankee massacre Aug. 21, during which he has been paid $1.918 million (calculated on his base salary of $15 million this season) -- he had the audacity this week, through agent Greg Genske, to reiterate to the Red Sox his desire to be traded this winter.
First of all, there is every reason in the world to doubt this phrase (remember Gordon's brilliant article last winter, the one entitled "Epstein signs three-year contract?"). Second of all, I can't believe we have to go through this again. 6 more months of anti-Manny columns and baseless speculation about this enigmatic player is enough to make me wish Theo would quit again just so there's something else to write about. I'm dreading the offseason.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree!!! This may hurt Manny's feelings. That would be bad. Manny's feelings are very, very important.

Manny works very, very hard. He watches the movies of himself hitting! He takes BP! He shows up! That is very very hard work! Mean writers don't say this. They are very, very evil.

He is my hero. Anyone who would question his work ethic is a bad bad person. Bad!

Of course Edes is wrong!! Theo didn't sign his contract! That means every thing Edes writes is wrong!! Especially when he insults Manny.

Let's sign a petition. If they don't stop saying bad things about Manny and his hammie, we'll stop going to stores in the Globe ads.

This bad talk has got to end!!! Free thought is HURTING OUR BELOVED TEAM!!! That is bad.

Very, very bad.

Anonymous said...

It's interesting to note that some of the Globe staff seem to be getting more and more of their quotes on contracts from agents of players. "The Cold Hard Football Facts" made a note of this during the Deion Branch negotiations. It seemed that Ron Borges was telling most of the story using quotes from Branches' agent and few if any from the Pats front office.

This quote used in the Edes piece about Manny once again uses material the Sox probably would not have given out, so he probably got it from the agency.

I think this fact seems to indicate that the Globe has lost some of the influence it once had on both of these teams (ownership of the Red Sox fact be damned). Therefore, that must be a clear indictment of the level of fairness and quality of writing that is taking place at the Globe these days.

If the Sox and Pats felt that they would get a fair shake from the Globe (or any paper) on these matters, I would like to think that the front offices would be willing to comment more on these types of issues to the paper.

Anonymous said...

Manny has to go! He doesn't talk to reporters! He hurts reporters' feelings! He's not an automatic-quote machine! How are Red Sox fans supposed to form an opinion, just based on what happens on the field, without the facts being filtered through the 'objective' press? Especially since they [the press] all have medical degrees and can tell exactly how injured someone is!

mike_b1 said...

Bruce, your seizures are acting up again. Better take your pills.

Jenny is right: the piece by Edes, tpyically a very fair writer, is all wrong. It simply doesn't jibe with the facts.

Fact: Ramirez didn't miss back to back games until the Sox were 10 games out (and the season effectively over).
Fact: Ramirez was 2-22. Derek Jeter suffered through an 0-39 stretch. Was he dogging it? Trot Nixon is 6-40 in his return. Is he dogging it? Even great plaeyers endure bad streaks. And it seems to me that if a player is hurt his performance would be hampered. Thus what Edes offers up as evidence of laziness actually goes a long way toward backing up those who think he truly is hurt.

Finally, the myth of Gibson is so much greater than the reality. He played 130 or more games in a season exactly 4 times in his career, and only once back-to-back. Real tough guy.

Anonymous said...

I've been on the Trade Manny bandwagon for three years now. I'm tired of Manny being Manny. I would love to see what the Sox do with that money. Pull the trigger, Theo.

I'm not going to make the same accusation (cheap shot) that Gordon did but we do know that Manny likes the occasional day off more than most players and doesn't hustle on the field. He might be a genius inside the batter's box but he morphs into Homer Simpson the moment he steps outside of it. I don't care if he doesnt talk to reporters but for $20 million a year, some clubhouse leadership should come with that.

The most interesting part of this article is that Gordon doesn't even claim to have a source regarding the trade demand. If Manny is serious, he can't be picky. He can't use his veto rights and he can't demand that the options get picked up. The contract isn't that bad anymore, more teams have more money, and the free agent market isn't deep so I think the Sox can get a pretty good return. Lets do it!

dbvader said...

OB,
Many times I have asked you direct questions that you have never considered. Stop avoiding them and explain how you had access to a Shank column that appeared neither on boston.com nor in the late edition of that day's paper.

Also, answer this question: Why should Little Nicky Carfardo's massive error of fact regarding the very players he is paid to cover that was checked by multiple editors be considered the equivalent of the chief making an oversight?

ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTIONS. You are very good at obfuscation and misdirection. ANSWER THE QUESTIONS or just admit you have no answer and go back to sucking on CHB's gunt.

dbvader said...

Hey shitfuck,
Find a single quotation in Edes column. What single source are we to believe?
None, because Edes did not bother to quote anybody. Therefore, he can say anything, and it is all just his "opinion." I might believe him if he had a quotation from anybody who knew anything about Manny's knee. All Edes knows is that the MRI showed nothing, but MRI's don't show tendinitis.

Edes piece is all speculation without a single citation. Bully for him. I don't have to believe him because he has as much knowledge of Manny's knee as I do.

And OB, the fans are not reflexive manny supporters. The fans object to the media's refusal to show/admit that Manny works as hard as any player and is one of the top 20 hitters in MLB history. It is typical (and lazy) for Boston writers to focus on perceived slights while ignoring the greatness before them. Whatever Papi does, Manny is class above him, a certain hall of famer. Yet there are no stories about the HOF in our midst. No stories about manny's approach to 500.

Anonymous said...

I've answered this silly question before and I shall answer it again. I never "had access to a Shank column that appeared neither on boston.com nor in the late edition of that day's paper."

Didn't happen. So stop being delusional.

I'm not sure what you're babbling about regarding Cafardo. I do know the blogger on this site has made errors and hasn't corrected them.

Resorting to vulgarity isn't very attractive, and speaks more about the people who do it than to those they attempt to insult.

dbvader said...

OB,
You challenged an assertion by the chief that Shank did not mention Hank Aaron's appearance at a WBC event by quoting a passage that did not appear in either the online edition or in the last edition of the paper. When asked where you took the quotation from, you linked to a subscription based database of newspaper articles.
Two conclusions:
1) You did not read the column by following chief's link because you could not have read the passage you quoted.
2) You have some reason to subscribe to a newspaper article database.

Where did you read the passage you quoted if not online or in the paper? How did you know this draft existed? It makes no sense that you would read the column in some obscure database insted of at boston.com.

"Wow, those mistakes about the draft are as bad as saying "Dan has disappeared lately" when he had a college FB column Saturday and one on auto racing Monday."

You ignorant twit. You directly equated an oversight by the chief on a blog to a major factual error by a journalist at a major newspaper. An error that a person would with the least bit of knowledge abou those players would recognize. How did Little Nicky not know that Reyes, Cabrera, Ramirez, and Santana were the DR and Venezuela and, thus, not subject to the draft? That is something all together different from overlooking the dreck that Shank puts out, but you obviously thought differently. Tell us why.

As to the profanity, you can take your prissy Victorian values and shove them up your ass.

mike_b1 said...

For the record, the comment about "Dan has disappeared lately" was written not by me but by my much-funnier apprentice, Jenny.

And The CHB writing about Nascar is amounts to disappearing. It may be more popular than oxygen in the Red states, but it ranks somewhere between field hockey and underwater golf here in New England.

Anonymous said...

I will make one last attempt to answer the silly question that this dbvader thing insists on asking.

1. I read the Shaughnessy piece that mentions Aaron online, on The Globe's site and speculated as to the reason why there were differing versions, lying chiefly in the need to remake the sports front as events transpired on deadline.

2. I have no idea where the subscription database comes from and did an elementary Google news search to find the piece. I get the Globe on the newsstand and therefore do not subscribe to its database, nor do I subscribe to any other "newspaper article database"

Moreover, if I am a Globe person, or Shaughnessy himself, as this dbvader likes to speculate in his periodic ramblings, why on earth would I need a subscription database, or anything other than the story histories, archives and library at the paper itself?

That's the trouble when one ventures out and airs conspiracy theories in the real world without logic or without much thought. One tends to get bitten where it hurts.

The blogger-in-chief, meanwhile also suffers from troubling difficulties in constructing a logical argument. He continues to not correct or to downplay the factual errors appearing herein. Missing columns on a blog devoted to the pedantic review of every column written is hardly an oversight. And now he excuses himself by suggesting the perceived lack of popularity of NASCAR locally means that somehow a column about it doesn't count.

Get out of your shell, young man. Like it or not, and I don't, Loudon draws upwards of 120,000 to a race, and runs a few NASCAR events every summer. Count the NASCAR stickers on pick up trucks next time you're in traffic. People seem to like watching cars go in circles.

dbvader said...

OB,
How about you don't post broken links? The link you posted went to a subscription database for news articles, not to any CHB column.

dbvader said...

And as I remember it, you challenged the chief immediatedly after he posted the column that did not contain the Aaron reference. But it wasn't until after you were challenged about the content of the boston.com link that you posted a quotation and a broken link to a CHB column no one ever read on a website most people don't have access to.

So how did you know?