Tuesday, March 28, 2006

what Julian Tavarez, Barry Bonds, and Pete Rose have in common

After reading all the different posts on yesterday's incident where Sox set-up man Julian Tavarez cold-cocked the Devil Rays Joey Gathright, I feel like I have to say something here on the AL East blog. But first, let me apologize to all (6?) of my readers who had believed that this would be a blog different from the other JASBs (Just Another Sox Blog, thanks Beth) out there. For the past few months, I have posted nothing but Sox stories and opinions. Here is a chance to stop that habit.

After reading Beth's blog on this incident, and her subsequent link to Randy Booth's blog at overthemonster.com, and specifically the comment from Patrick Kennedy at draysbay.com, I was very surprised when I browsed to draysbay.com to get their entire take on the incident. According to Jake's Take, there is very little class remaining to dole out in Red Sox Nation.

I have not gathered from all this that RSN is feeling all high and mighty at all. Let's begin with the players themselves. According to published reports, Jon Papelbon and Ron Jackson came out of the bullpen and dugout respectively to pull Gathright out of the mess! That sounds to me like the Sox know full well that Tavarez is a ticking time bomb.

So, what about the fans? Where is all the "high and mighty" there? Already according to two blogs linked here, Tavarez is being chastised for his actions. As an aside here, though, and in some defense of the D Rays fans, I would like to say that, were Tavarez "part of the fold" (meaning if he were an established Red Sox player), I highly doubt that the chastising would be as great as it has been. Let's face it, Sox fans, didn't Jason Varitek stuff his mitt down A-Rod's throat and practically get crowned King of New England for it? I don't remember nearly as much huff after Pedro Martinez took down defending HEAVY WEIGHT champion Don Zimmer a few years back.

What I found to be perhaps the most interesting tidbit in the news I've read about yesterday's bash was the line at the end of the game summary.

"In the bottom of the eighth, newly acquired Red Sox first baseman Hee-Seop Choi was plunked by Rays pitcher Wayne Franklin, and the umps warned both sides."
What I find MOST amazing about the whole fucking mess is that the umpires actually ALLOWED the next inning to begin without a warning being issued. Please, D Rays fans, don't take this the wrong way. Surely the Sox player "deserved" the plunking in some twisted baseball sense. Actually, the thing I have a problem with is sort of the same thing I have a problem with around the steroids mess. Major League Baseball always waits until it's TOO LATE to do something about the fucking mess!

One of these days, mark my words, we'll be looking back at incidents like this and saying "if only MLB had done something about it back then, [insert very unfortunate player's name here] would not be paralyzed for life." It is very obvious from JTs comments afterwards that the slap-on-the-hand that MLB gives him shortly is not going to faze him!

To continue the parallel I had begun to draw between conduct on the baseball field and steroid use in the game, if MLB had done something about steroid use 10 years ago, we would not be in the situation where folks are calling for everything from Barry Bonds suspension to his head on a platter (a damn big platter at that!) Pete Rose puts it best when he says:

"I don't know what he did the last two years. All I know is the guy can hit," said Rose, calling Bonds one of the top five players in baseball history.
"Here's my take on steroids: We can say anybody took steroids," Rose said. "We don't know. Unless you took steroids the last two years, I don't care."

I believe Pete is saying that unless they catch Barry Bonds with a positive steroids test in 2005 or beyond, we're gonna have to live with the fact that the man who hit more home runs than Babe Ruth probably did so "on the juice." Let's face it folks, he may even break Hank Aaron's record for home runs in a career. Have we decided to put an asterisk next to Mark McGwire's record (at the time)? Have we banned him from baseball, making him ineligible to be on the Hall of Fame ballot this year?

So, what do these three have in common? Honestly, I didn't even have a title until I had finished the post to this point, so then I figured I needed to wrap it up with something like this. To begin with, all three have dishonored the sport of baseball. In chronological order, Pete Rose bet on the baseball team that he was managing. Barry Bonds knowingly used substances that, although baseball had no policy regarding, were illegal to use unless under the guidance of a physician. And Julian Tavarez has drastically lost his temper on the baseball field a handful of times in his career now, resulting in THREE suspensions (soon to be four). However, at least two of these guys, it could be argued, are products of their environments, mere pawns for the MLB machine to make more money.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

i'll never get those who use an on-field incident as anything against the fans of the particular team. it just makes no sense at all. especially when those fans aren't defending him--at least not the fans i've heard from.

as for the tek incident you referred to, i don't think the difference there is longevity but the circumstances of the incident. gathwright didn't stand in tavarez' face beckoning him, saying "fuck you" and "come on." (that would prob. have gotten him killed, so thank god he didn't.) there's at least a grey area there. and sox fans do WANT to defend their guy if at all possible. but an incident like the tavarez one...i mean, there's just no way a sane person can defend what he did. we're just forced to say "uncle" with that one.

12:16 PM, March 28, 2006  
Blogger David Welch said...

Agreed on the 'tek incident, and we've had our discussion on that one. On the other hand, though, there has been mentioned that JT was spiked by Gathright. If that is the case, intentional or not, the gut reaction could be to lash out. From that point, the whole thing is gonna snowball.

Of course, that would mean that the dipshit would have had more to say about it than "What do you mean, 'regret'?"

12:27 PM, March 28, 2006  

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