A Yankees Bloggers Lament…A-Rod Fans
Posted by Steve L. on May 1st, 2009 · Comments (20)
Pete Abe posted this in his blog today -
I stand corrected. A-Rod’s supporters apparently have no trouble whatsoever defending anything he does based on the comments to this post. It’s amazing how everything he did is either somebody else’s fault or simply shouldn’t have been reported in the first place.
Welcome to the world of Yankee Blinders Pete. To quote Elvis:
..Oh, I know it don’t thrill you, I hope it don’t kill you…
Quite frankly, Pete HATES A-Rod with a passion, and I have pretty strongly worded emails to one of the writers on my blog to prove it. He has similar blinders running in the opposite direction. Personally, I think A-Rod was an idiot for taking steroids. The rest of the stuff is just crap, there is no two ways about it. Pete wants us to assume evidence when all there is is meager speculation, and I refuse to do so. If that makes me someone with Yankee Blinders, so be it.
@ yagottagotomo1: I agree with you on this.
The evidence on this report is very shaky. And you don’t have to even like A-Rod to not have some skepticism about it.
In an interview with her employer, SI.com, Selena Roberts explained that only a small group of Rangers knew about it “because people wanted to keep it under wraps.”
She also said, “The people that are noticing this, it’s not something that you want to tell anybody else. You want to keep it to yourself until it becomes something you can’t ignore anymore. If this had been a situation where it was determining the outcome of a game, obviously it would have been a much different story.”
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/04/30/roberts.qa/index.html?eref=T1
I totally do not buy this. There is no way A-Rod could have screwed his teammates over in that way and not have it be something that everybody in the cluhouse knew about.
Think about it – if you’re a Rangers player, and your pitchers are getting their ERAs driven up into the stratosphere because of A-Rod tipping off the opposition, what would you do? Would you keep it to yourself, as Roberts suggests, and say, “well, it didn’t really effect the outcome of the game, so I’m cool with it?” I don’t believe that for a minute.
Quite frankly, Pete HATES A-Rod with a passion,
——————–
I have to agree. If you look at a lot of the posts on that particular thread, none of them support the actions A-Rod did. Pete Abe spins every single thing against A-Rod.
This blog, and other blogs, at least offer the quotes from A-Rod’s high school coach and Doug Miensitnkstkntkn, who say that he did not take steroids in high school. (Plus, these 2 individuals spent hours and hours with A-Rod and are not trying to make millions of dollars off of him.) However, Pete Abe doesn’t even acknolwedge these ACTUAL NAMED SOURCES. He ignores them completely. If he hates A-Rod, that’s fine. If he thinks what A-Rod did is worse than how I perceive it, that’s fine. But to not even present a both sides of the case is entirely unfair.
It’s different than your loathing of Cashman, for instance. You present all the facts for everyone to see, and you simply have a different interpretation of his moves, how the front office works, his genius/lackthereof, etc. Also, you don’t hide you displeasure.
Pete Abe hides his displeasure behind quotes that aren’t his. He pretends to be impartial when he clearly isn’t. That’s the major difference.
Don’t know what happened with the formatting there. Sorry about that.
My issue with this whole thing is not so much that he did or didn’t do. For arguments sake, lets just say he did. It was stupid of course, but why is he being demonized for something in which he’s not the only culprit? If sources were able to figure out he was tipping pitches, I’m pretty sure they were able to see who he was tipping them to. Why not name those people as well? I’m guessing some pretty high profile names would be on that list (Jeter maybe?). And, as Rob Neyer put it earlier today, I’m pretty sure this isn’t the first time in the history of baseball something like this has happened.
The bottom line is that A-Rod’s an easy target because he is who he is: a socially awkward other-worldly talent. And many of the fans who are more inclined to root for him, of which I would count myself, get tired of him being the constant target of venom, deserved or not. It’s not so much that always think he didn’t do it, but you get to the point where you start to wonder why he’s always the only one being called out on it.
yagottagotomo1 wrote:
Yagottagotomo1, Ohayo Gozaimasu, what’s up? Look, the problem with some people is that they are so homerish that Aroid could have had an orgy in the street and he’s the greatest guy in the world! Or even worse was a serial killer,but it’s not his fault. Look no offense to the pro Arod people(I like his production and his work ethic)but he has become a PR nightmare/attention whore to the nth degree. Quite frankly, it’s becoming more and more annoying with this guy. Look, Yagottagotomo1 I understand your point but Arod brings a lot of unwanted attention upon himself with the girl in Toronto, the Roids and the bull afterwards , the poker and now these new allegations about tipping(which if are true are more damaging than the steroids to me).
thank you ms. swan
in other news, i thought the games would be bigger than a-rod, guess not….
thenewguy wrote:
New Guy, the inherent problem with Arod is that he brings this crap upon himself all the time. He couldn’t tell a straight story about the steroids, so what does one expect? That the savage press will be benign with him when he acts so wrecklessly? Look at St Derek, he does tons of different things that don’t get out into the press. I really like Arod’s insane work ethic and his play(his clutch hitting could be better)BUT even when he rights a wrong he creates yet another one.
Welcome to the world of Yankee Blinders Pete
—-
Loath as you are to admit it, you’ve got some blinders on too, Steve. Don’t throw stones from that glass house of yours.
MJ wrote:
I happen to like those blinders Steve has! Keep it going SL and don’t forget Prison Break……
Butchie, of course he brings it on himself. That doesn’t mean that we have to believe everything we hear about him when the evidence is shady at best. Her pitch tipping story is based upon speculation by Rangers “people” interpreting signals that he was making.
Butchie, I do agree that he oftentimes unnecessarily brings the PR upon himself. That said, I appreciate the way Steve presents the A-Rod info. He gives us quotes from both sides and let’s us decide. Pete only gives a quote from one perspective (his) and then says “It’s a quote! I didn’t say it! I’m not against A-Rod! I’m just reporting the news!”
Pete Abe seems to think that by using someone else’s quotes, he can remain impartial. That is simply absurd. By choosing which quotes to print and which ones not to, it is easy to give the story a certain slant. Pete Abe doesn’t seem to realize this.
MJ wrote:
MJ, how’s your objective opinion of Big Stein, Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte doing these days?
MJ, how’s your objective opinion of Big Stein, Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte doing these days?
=========
got ‘em
i think we can add jeter to both of your lists, as well
Hey, I love the Captain!
Steve, I don’t claim to be unbiased so your shot at me was a swing and a miss.
The tone of your post, as well as your linking to that “Yankee Blinders” post of 2006, is your way of saying that you’re unbiased? That’s a riot.
I don’t judge you for having biases. You’re human. Your only problem is that you never admit your biases and steadfastly hold to the notion that everyone else is a “kool-aid drinker” or “wearing blinders” or some other sneering, condescending judgement of some of your readers.
Have a nice weekend.
i think we can add jeter to both of your lists, as well
——-
I don’t hate Jeter, I just don’t want to re-sign him after 2010.
My only issue with him — and it’s not his fault as much as it’s the fault of his fans and the media’s coverage of him — is that there is a ridiculous double-standard when it comes to Jeter.
Jeter’s never done wrong by me but he’s not the greatest thing to ever happen to New York, either. Put another way, I don’t find myself getting sentimental about him the way I do about Rivera or O’Neill but I don’t hate him, let’s be clear.
MJ – no shot intended. More so, I just wanted to remind you that we all live in glass houses…
Steve, couple points. First, Pete’s got a serious case of A-Rod hatin’. That’s okay. But it’s worth noting. Second, anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Roberts’ career would take these latest allegations with a grain of salt. Her reporting on the Duke lacrosse team story was about as bad — and inaccurate — as it gets. Her refusal to address her own errors in the aftermath only adds ego and arrogance to incompetence.
In other words, Selena Roberts is what you get when you toss Judy Miller, Andrea Dworkin, and a jock strap into a blender. I’d be very careful about placing much confidence in the results.