StFU Makes a Comeback

Speaking of handing out awards, I have an award of my own that I'd like to dole out. And since it's been a few months since I've done so, the recipient had to be special.

Today's "Shut the Fuck Up" goes to baseball legend Pete Rose. That's right, everyone's favorite hard nose playin', gamblin' son of a gun gets a StFU for his comments made yesterday regarding the Mitchell Report.

Charlie Hustle was quoted as saying that players who are using HGH, steroids or any other performance enhancing drug are "making a mockery of the sport." Huh? What was that?

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not encouraging players to enhance themselves to gain a competitive edge, but I'm not crying foul on the street corner either pretending to be holier than thou. If a player wants to shrink their nuts to get an extra 15 dingers a year, shoot it up then I guess.

He also said that "I never thought anybody would make me look like a choirboy." Right. Because knowingly betting against your own team while managing it isn't in any way as bad as using chemicals to "cheat" or a conflict of interest in any way.

Rose has never been above blowing his own horn to prove how he deserves to be in Cooperstown, and I suppose it was only a matter of time before he used this scandal to do the same thing he's been doing for over 18 years now.

Do I care if he gets into the Hall of Fame? I'm not sure. I do think it's sort of tragically funny that the home run king (Barry Bonds) and all-time leading hitter (Rose) may not get in to Cooperstown. He also stated that if these players who were on the report get into the Hall of Fame that "I've got a shot somewhere."

This is the cherry on top for me. When asked how much better he would be if steroids were as readily available in his day as they were in the last decade or so, Rose promptly replied that "I would have got 5,000 hits."

Nice one dumbass. You decry the use of 'roids now, but you're basically admitting if they would have been around in the 70's you would have shot the stuff up just as quickly as McGwire and Palmeiro.

My advice, stay in Vegas and sign your balls and keep your opinions out of the media. So here you go Pete Rose, you deserve it, now Shut the Fuck Up.

Awards, Wrapping Up Mitchell

Another award was handed out today for a Red Sox player. It’s no Cy Young, but reliever Hideki Okajima won MLB.com’s “This Year in Sports” Set-Up Pitcher of the Year. Considering the low expectations for Okajima coming out of spring training, it's not a bad deal.

Normally, this would be pretty cool, but it’s voted on by fans. Don’t take that wrong, it’s just that Sox pitchers dominated with Josh Beckett (best starter) Jonathan Papelbon (best closer) and Clay Buchholz (top performance) largely because the wide reach of the Sox fanbase. But congrats on a great year to Okajima. We’ll have to see if he can perform with expectation in’08. Nice minivan by the way.

With nothing really moving in any direction this off season, (or anymore "awards" to talk about) or the Santana trade talks moving forward there isn’t too much to write about when it comes to the Sox.

No major current players on the Sox current roster were implicated in the Mitchell Report, which is not too surprising considering the ties between the Sox and Mitchell himself.

I found the report to mostly laughable, if you didn’t think players took steroids or HGH in the past 10-15 years you need your eyes adjusted. The players listed were only on said list because trainers or clubhouse lackeys were forced to rat them out. I can’t say I blame them, when you have a former United States Senator breathing down your neck. You’d probably tell him you wear women’s panties if you were in that same position and if he pressured you enough.

Speaking of not placing blame, like many I don’t blame the players entirely for the scandal and situation at hand. Of course a certain amount of blame needs to be placed on the players themselves. However, when faced with a decision between personal accountability and putting food on the table, you can see why players who shouldn’t have been playing in the bigs in the first place stuck a needle in their arm to bolster their bank account by playing a few years for premium dough.

If this were a problem that baseball was serious about curbing, it would have been done without the aid of an independent study group, without the outcry of a public who didn’t mind 10 years ago and without the help of the United States Congress. So basically what I'm saying is that baseball whiffed on correcting it and players were mostly caught in the mania of trying to keep up with each other while we all sat in the stands and cheered for more home runs.

Personally, I don't need a score of 11-8 or even 7-5 every night to be satisfied with the game. Some of the most entertaining games I watched this year were decided by an outcome that resulted in both teams combining for less than 5 runs total. But since most people are lovin' the longball, it's hard for players to just say no. So thank you, dumbass fan, for spawning players like Sammy Sosa and Gary Sheffield. That's fucking great.

Does Anybody Really Care?

According to reports all over the media, tomorrow will be M-Day, so to speak. At least it's the day when performance enhancing drug investigator George Mitchell will release his "independent" and "impartial" report.

Do I want to know who is on the list? Sure, I guess. But I'm not the type of guy that cares what athletes do when they aren't on the field. Maybe female sports fans will like this more since the fairer sex seems to be what keeps publications like People, In Style and Us Weekly in business.

I'm sure there are going to be names on there. Probably some guys you've even heard of, but not that many. I don't think it's going to be as big as some are making it out to be. Watch it turn out to have 85% minor league players and players that have retired in the last two years.

I wonder how many Red Sox will be on there since Mitchell is a part of the Sox board of trustees or something like that. He's maintained that he hasn't been paid by the Sox since then, but what is he going to go back to when he's done with his investigation? I'm fairly certain you won't see too many Sox on the list.

The chasm between the players union and baseball's owners and probably didn't help matters at all. Mitchell didn't even have any subpoena power during the last year and a half. So I'm also guessing that what he found doesn't even really go that deep.

It all comes down to this. How much do you, the fan, really care if players are juicing or not? Am I personally going to stop watching baseball, or writing about it? Probably not. Am I going to stop going out to Kauffman Stadium to watch the Royals or plan trips to Boston to see the Sox? Definitely not. Am I going to lose some respect for the game? Who knows? Depends on what comes out. I'm not going to lie, my interest in the sport waivered for a couple years after the strike in 1994, but I didn't stop watching completely.

If you care that players are cheating, don't watch. If you don't really care that much, then this report probably matters about as much to you as how many kids Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are adopting from third world countries.

Saying all that, I know I'll sit down and read whatever they put out online about the report itself because I'm a dork like that. I'd like to have a conversation with my buddies about this and know more than they do because I'm an asshole like that.

In any event, this is just another thing to write about during a slow spot in the middle of the week in the baseball world. For now, this is all it means to me at the moment.

Just Who Do You Think You Are??

I know Star Wars is mostly stupid, but the picture is sort of funny, I guess. You'll see why in a minute.

With Santana talks cooling off this week, a new story seems to be dominating a lot of Red Sox fan sites and news aggregates.

Rookie centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury signed autographs at the Emerald Square Mall in the Boston metro area this past Saturday. Now, this wouldn't be that big of news except for the fact that he's charging $125 per autograph. That's not all, if you've got a shirt or jersey, that'll cost you an extra $25 bucks.

I've paid for Joe Montana's signature on a football helmet. It wasn't cheap. It's on a $600 authentic NFL San Francisco 49ers helmet. Then I dropped an additional $300 just to have Joe Cool put his John Hancock (I said cock) on it. I may have been young and retarded with too much money to burn, but I might do it again given the chance. It's a pretty fucking cool sight. But $150 for Ellsbury to sign a t-shirt? Get fucked.

Now, you might say that it's because Scott Boras just became his agent. I'd say you're right. According to Sox starter Curt Schilling, who refuses to sign at events that charge for his autograph, the asking price for autographs is set by the agent since they make a small percentage of the take.

Look, the guy is a phenom in the making, but paying a 23-year old kid who has played 33 games in the bigs for his sig? That's just flat out gay. A survey was set up on Boston.com to see if the general public who happen to be Sox fans would pay for his autograph. Guess how many people said they would? 7%. 7%! Red Sox fans are some of the most loyal in all of baseball and less than one in ten people would pay for Ellsbury's name on a hat.

If Scott Boras fell off a cliff and died tonight, I don't think I'd even care tomorrow. Or the next day.

Nice Name

In other news, I'm waiting on the edge of my seat to see if Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome is planning on playing baseball stateside. Mainly because I'd love to cheer for him because his name looks like Fuk u dome to me.


Go Fuck you dome!!!

Anyway, he has some offers from other Japanese ballclubs like the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants, Japan's answer to the New York Yankees. They play in a dome that is modeled after the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Mike Tyson lost his championship to Buster Douglas there. Those Japs have a long way to go with their stadiums. Along with their team logos.

Meetings Over

With the winter meetings now in the books, Johan Santana is still a Twin and the Sox still have the same starting rotation as they did last week at this time. I, for one, am sort of happy. I really, really do not like the trade for Santana. I don't think we need him and we don't need to spend the money on him. Just because you can, doesn't always mean you should.

In all honesty, I'm sort of tired about posting about Santana so I'm going to stop right now. If something real happens, for example if both teams agree to the trade and the Sox ask the commissioners office for the 72 hour window to negotiate on a contract extension with Santana, then I'll put something up. Till then, I'll post about the bore that will be the Sox offseason outside of the Santana talks.

Veteran set-up man and reliever Mike Timlin was resigned to a one year agreement. It's probably all he'll be getting from now on since he is in the 40+ club with starter Curt Schilling. But since no one has really been able to figure out his stuff, especially in the post season, he remains a stalwart in the Sox bullpen. The Sox will pay Timlin $3 million for the 2008 season.

Trade deadline pick-up Eric Gagne declined the Sox option for salary arbitration. Happy trails Eric, it was a nice thought bringing you in, but you can collect your World Series ring and close for some other team. I'd rather we kept Kason Gabbard I guess. The move was meant to solidify the Sox already dominant bullpen, but the 2003 Cy Young award winner never adjusted. The Sox still have the right to sign him to a contract, but I'd tend to believe they'll just turn him loose.

For the first time in awhile, the Sox didn't pick up anyone in the Rule 5 Draft. The Sox did lose two pitchers however. The San Francisco Giants picked up lefty starter Jose Capellan and the Philadelphia Phillies picked up Lincoln Holdzkom. The Sox picked up Capellan in the amateur draft in 2003 and he never panned out quite like the Sox had hoped. Holdzkom had a decent year for Double-A Portland but even better for Triple-A Pawtucket, going 1-0 with a 1.59 ERA in 12 appearances. At least they went to NL teams.

If you have been living under a rock this week you missed the trade between the Detroit Tigers and the Florida Marlins. The Marlins shipped Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to the Tigers and the Marlins got six minor league players in return. The Motor City Kitties are going for broke gutting the farm on this one, but will be one of the favorites to win the Series in 2008. The lineup scares me, and if need be they could always bring Willis in to DH. They'll be damn good and probably the best if not the second best lineup next to the Yankees.

Speaking of the bombers, I know A-Rod is going back to the Yanks as a third baseman, but my pet peeve of the year had to be people forgetting that he's a shortstop, plain and simple. Here's proof of that and his and Derek Jeter's mutual man-love for each other. At least before things got chilly.

Blowin' In the Wind?

Update

Here is some extra credit reading. Something that I'll even admit that I've overlooked.

Is it only a matter of time before there is a press conference with Johan Santana putting a Sox jersey on over his suit? As of this morning, the Twins had requested to see the Red Sox medical records on Jon Lester, showing that progress had been made in trade talks for the two-time Cy Young Award winner.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the story of Jon Lester. It’s incredible. A guy gets cancer, beats it and comes back the next year to pitch a winner in the game clinching contest of the World Series. It could be made into a movie I suppose. But moving him to Minnesota for Johan plus giving up Coco Crisp and two minor leaguers is almost a no brainer, right?

I’ve maintained for the past two weeks since Boston threw their hat into the ring that they were in it to drive up Santana's worth so the Yankees would bite and pay way too much for him. Now with Hank Steinbrenner putting a time limit (last night) on talks with Santana, it looks like the Sox are left standing with a golden ticket. Looks like Steiny didn’t want to see the degradation of the Yankees good name play out in public and have Sox GM Theo Epstein play them for a fool. Probably a good move for the Yanks. Could this be a win-win then?

I’m still not 100% on all of this. I was always a bigger fan of picking up Dan Heron from the Oakland A’s and having Josh Beckett, Heron, Curt Schilling, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Tim Wakefield be the starting five. Maybe throw in a little Clay Buchholz from time to time to give the aging Wake or Schil a break. Now it seams the Sox are convinced and will only be satisfied with Santana and that they are serious about picking him up.

I’m not saying it’s done until it’s done. After getting burned by the whole A-Rod debacle in 2003 I’m cautiously reserving judgment on this potential trade. The two minor league players in question would be shortstop Jed Lowrie and “a gem in the farm system” pitcher Justin Masterson. Lowrie could give the Twins some added depth in the middle of their infield, which is needed, and having more prospects at pitcher the better, right?

So, to trade or not to trade? It it’s for Lester, Crisp and the minor league guys I’d say go for it. I’d rather keep Ellsbury, crazy as that sounds. I think keeping Crisp and picking up Santana puts the team at more of a disadvantage than jettisoning Lester and Crisp and keeping some speed on the team. The Sox needed it this year because of sub-par seasons out of an aging Manny and the oft-injured Big Papi.

Just a thought, and I'm sure it's down the list of possible concerns, but... Since Ellsbury dumped his previous agent and signed with one Scott Boras, could this be a sticking point for the Twins? I'm sure putting up with the super agent who demands a truckload of money for his clients could be more than the Twins may want to deal with down the road. Like I said, just a thought.

All I can say is that I wish they’d just get it over with. I’m not in good shape early this week after the past week when it came to my college football team (Nebraska) deciding their fate in picking a new head coach. So, let’s hurry up and get this done or move on to something else.