[!CrackMonkey!] baseball == violence

[Bob Bernstein]

On Sun, Oct 12, 2003 at 11:03:51AM -0700, #2 of Berkeley wrote:

> Even the Red Sox grounds crew are assholes.

Hey, this guy was evidently a member of that generation raised on PBS 
"public service" announcements urging us all to be "more passionate!" 
And now you quibble with the end result? Of course they're assholes. 
They're TRUE BELIEVERS.

> I used to enjoy the Red Sox and their annual miserable meltdown.  

Which puts you in line for the "World Class Masochist Rookie of The 
Year" award.

> However, after seeing Pedro Martinez throw at Karim Garcia's back, and
> then point at his head and say "I'll hit you in the head"

The dustoff was just that: a dustoff. They're part of every team's game.  
The tape replay showed the ball didn't even hit Garcia, but his bat
instead. That said, Pedro's gesture to his head was totally
unforgiveable, and should draw some sort of sanction from the league,
which you and I will never see during our natural lifetimes. It's one
thing to say after a game, as Clemens did yesterday (paraphrasing),
"Hey, if I want to hit you in the head, there'll be no doubt about it
when it happens.", but it's another thing to signal your intent to do so
during a game.

> and then tackle a 72 year old man,I have to say that the Red Sox
> really are a bunch of dirtbags.

You'd think a man of thirty one years of age in excellent physical
condition, atheletically endowed (or so we're told)  could have done a
better job at fending off what was admittedly a headlong charge directly
at him by Zim. Then again, it's not clear that Zimmer is that good on
his feet anymore, so that any interruption of his freight-trainish
approach probabably would have put him on the ground, regardless of
intent.

> Manny Ramirez gets upset about a pitch that was over the plate...

No one is arguing that one. Manny, unfortunately, keys off of his role
model and culture hero, Pedro. He's an embarassment and has been one all
year. Someone who has followed the game for a LONG time told me that
some day Manny will stroll down the first base path after hitting one
out of the yard, and earn himself a real beanball next time up for his
troubles. Sounds good to me.


-- 
Bob Bernstein