Note to Andrew Perloff: No More Haterade

I know it's pissy for Boston fans to complain about lack of respect - we've certainly worn out our welcome with the rest of the country with all of the fun we've had in the past near-decade celebrating our wins - but talk about your lack of respect:

I wouldn't be surprised if the Bruins were the only Boston team to win a title for some time. The Red Sox have been thrashed by the Yankees in the hot stove league. The Patriots missed the postseason completely and don't know when Tom Brady is coming back. And the Celtics don't look like they're going to get as lucky against the Cavaliers in this season's Eastern Conference playoffs.

Boston, you had a nice run. Now it's time to go hang out with the Detroits of the world and let another town take over as America's most successful sports city.

Wow. I mean, even without the random Detroit hating - didn't they win an NBA championship in '04, Stanley Cups in '02 and '08, and come within a series of winning the World Series in 2006? How are they a second-run sports city, exactly? - someone's clearly got their facts in a cherry-picked twist. The Red Sox were three runs, a bases loaded situation, and a boatload of key injuries away from going to the World Series this past October, and guess what? Almost all of that team is back for the spring. In other words, the Sox "lost" the Hot Stove League because unlike the Yankees, they didn't really need to play.

The Pats became the first team in 23 years to miss the post-season with an eleven win record and did pretty damn well for a team missing a few key components. "Don't know when Brady is coming back" is deceptive phrasing: the question is whether or not he'll be coming back Week 1 or Week 6. Either way, it sounds like the Pats will still have Cassel, the backup who led the team to an elimination game away from the playoffs.

Finally, as one of the commenters on Andrew Perloff's idiotic post pointed out, the Celtics' current slide dates back to the period before the Starbury rumors...and even if it didn't, what team doesn't have bad streaks over the course of a long season?

In other words, Mr. Perloff, I have two words for you and your factless spin through Boston sports bashing: Epic Fail.

Douchebag Alert: Brett Myers

This article reminded me about the thing I regret the second most about the Sox not going to the Series: missing the opportunity for 38,000 people to give Brett Myers his vocal comeuppance. What's even better is that I have even fewer qualms about casting Myers as the bad guy than usual, because the guy is completely unrepentant:

"But you know what, I really don't care what people think about me. ... If people don't like me, they can deal with it. This is who I am."

Myers told Nightengale that on the night in question, he and his wife went out to dinner, had a lot to drink and began arguing. While Myers disputed the police report that he hit his wife and dragged her by the hair, he did say this: "When you're both heavily intoxicated, that stuff does stuff to you you're not supposed to do."

To sum up: Brett Myers has a core of wife beater wrapped in a pitcher shell; a shell occasionally stripped away by the evils of the drink.

Actually, the point of this post was not to engage in fish barrel shooting, but to raise a larger question: why is Brett Myers still a professional baseball player? A jury of his peers may not have had the opportunity to hand down a conviction, but this particular incident isn't shrouded in any sort of mystery: people saw the attack go down. I'm not saying Myers should be blocked from ever working again, but putting him on a big stage on a regular basis seems like tacitly supporting wife beaters everywhere. Especially when, you know, he doesn't seem repentant in the least.

Another Sign Pro Athletes Should Not Be Allowed to Speak in Public...

...without consulting their PR reps first, anyway: the Gambler thinks that a.) the Yankees imposed instant replay on baseball and b.) that "[Mistakes are the] beauty of the game." Better dial back the crazy there, buddy. But then there's this beauty of a quote:

“For every human individual out there, we’re all playing our best. We make errors. It’s part of the game,” Rogers said. “We don’t get a chance to go back — ‘I want a mulligan.’ — It’s not the way it works. It’s not the way it should work.”

Definition of mulligan: "a free shot sometimes given a golfer in informal play when the previous shot was poorly played." Maybe Rogers doesn't play golf, or keep up with popular slang, or think before he talks, because "check[ing] video on so-called 'boundary calls,' to determine if a fly ball went over the fence or if a potential home-run is fair or foul" (the purpose of the instant replay) doesn't give a player another chance to hit just because he wanted a home run instead of a double.

Ok, I'm done shooting this barrel of fish.

Murray Chass Reforms Metaphysics, Creates New Equations

I have a post upcoming for you from Yankee Mike and his All-Star Game experience, but first, this little tidbit: those of you who read about sports things on the Internets are no doubt aware of Murray Chass and his new blog. You might even know that his blog is breaking new metaphysical ground by declaring it is not a blog, because Murray Chass hates blogs. Sounds like a classic case of self-loathing to me...

Anyway, while I heard the news yesterday via Deadspin, I refrained from visiting the site until after the guys at Fire Joe Morgan took their crack at Chass, his blog hating ways, and the fact that he thinks any of those "new fangled" stats (i.e., the ones that make a more scientific attempt at explaining the game) are stupid. Then I visited his description page, and discovered a new wrinkle: not only are bloggers stupid, but Red Sox fans are stupid, leading to the following equation: Red Sox fan + blogger = really stupid, where Red Sox fans = stupid and bloggers = stupid. In other words, you're all idiots for being Red Sox fans, and I'm an even bigger idiot for being a Red Sox fan and a blogger. Now, aren't you glad you know?