The Overexposed
Most of you were probably already sick of the Red Sox and their winter victory tour-- the players and owners campaigning for their favorite presidential candidate, Johnny Damon on Saturday Night Live and Letterman, the Doug Mientkiewicz hidden-ball trick, the fight-picking with the Yankees, and the obnoxious team visit to the White House rose garden, etc.When the Sox polished off the Cardinals in the World Series with relative ease, it was difficult for me to deprive them their moment of triumph, but my breaking point came last week. Curt Schilling, the Julia Roberts of baseball- deeply in love with his own public persona, declared himself the baseball player that Americans least suspected of using steroids. At the time of his announcement, he was accepting Congress' invitation to testify at Thursday's public hearing, but he has since hopped back on the fence and has yet to announce whether or not he'll appear.
Today brings word that five of the Red Sox "idiots," including Damon and motormouth Kevin Millar, will be getting "queer makeovers" in an episode of the Bravo television series "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." Damon, however, will not-- I repeat- not-- be cutting his celebrated long hair due to a contract with the publisher of his upcoming book.
You've been warned.
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The Red Sox victory in October means the media can now focus all of it's "curse" coverage on the Cubs. Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti declared today that the Cubs "are the one team that could be blessed with two of the most gifted pitching arms in recent baseball history, only to watch both encounter repeated arm troubles in their 20s." I hope Mariotti had his tongue firmly in cheek when he wrote this in response to the report that Mark Prior was joining Kerry Wood on the team training table with arm pain.
The Cubs are hardly alone when it comes to experiencing injury problems with young arms. The Cards' Matt Morris has missed the equivalent of three seasons to arm surgeries, but he's done it in between three 15+ victory seasons. Rick Ankiel was equally heralded as a first round draft pick, and has had multiple injuries to go along with and magnify his mental blocks. And yet a third Cardinals standout, a more seasoned 20 game winner, is on the other side of the grass, having been poisoned by Harry Caray's restaurant. Things are tough all around, babe, and we make the best of the cards we're dealt.
When you have young power pitchers, you have young power pitchers that break down physically. Especially when they're throwing as many pitches as these two have during their development. It's exciting to believe that every pitching prospect from Texas is going to be the next Nolan Ryan or Roger Clemens, but those men were freaks of nature, and Wood, the Texan, has been especially vulnerable to injury, prompting former Cubs broadcaster Steve Stone to criticism Monday on Chicago sports radio WSCR-AM (670.)
"Wood has shown no adaptability," Stone said, "He wants to throw the ball 95 or 96 [mph]... Somebody is going to have to tell Kerry the object of the game is to pitch... [If] your mechanics are partially responsible for you getting hurt every year, you've got a couple of choices. You can take all the money you've made- which is a bundle- and you can go sell cars. Or you can make adjustments and try to stay around this league for 10 years."
Wow. Hard to believe Stone lost his job.
posted by CM @ 9:21 PM
5 Comments:
Curt Schilling is starting to get on my nerves too. I can't believe I was rooting for him when his Diamondbacks took on the Yankees in the 2001 World Series.
I was even cheering for his then teammate Randy Johnson back then... although now that that freakish pituitary dork has sold out and demanded to play for the Yankees, if I had it to do over again, I'd actually root for the Yankees in that series. Sorry if that's completely illogical.
I have mixed feelings about Ankiel's decision. He looked very good when he pitched last September, but apparently his mechanics got screwed up again pitching in the Arizona Fall League.
If he's giving up now, I suspect he's just exhausted, and so be it. He has always looked good with the bat, but I can't believe there's going to be much future there.
I'm rooting like hell for him. He's out of "options" so if the Cards send him down in Spring Training, they will risk losing him to another team. Hopefully, this position change means there's a better chance he'll stay with the Cardinals.
If anyone needs a change of scenery its Ankiel. The Cardinals have messed with his mechanics and his head enough.
I read in the QC Times this morning that he was going to play for our Swing of the Quad Cities (A). Center Field.
I read in the QC Times this morning that he was going to play for our Swing of the Quad Cities (A). Center Field.
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