Results tagged ‘ Bud Selig ’

Speaking into a “Hot Mike” again…

Not too long ago, Bernie Carbo, yes the Bernie Carbo that hit a game tying 3 run home run for the Red Sox in game 6 of the 1975 World Series against the Reds, shared his story with us about how he played almost every game stoned/high out of his mind.  The latest revelation stemming from that story is how Carbo now admitted he wanted to pay a couple of “mafia” types $2,000 to break the arms of Keith Hernandez in retaliation for Kieth’s testimony against Carbo dating back to the Cocaine Scandal of the early 80′s.  Kieth had testified he was introduced to cocaine by Bernie Carbo.  For that testimony Bernie wanted Hernandez’s arms broken.  When Carbo brought up the idea to the “gentlemen” who would have carried out the deed, they were agreeable enough to do it, after a couple of years that is.  Yep!  The guys talked Carbo out of the deal by getting him to understand if the hit was put on Hernandez so soon after the testimony, of course they’d seek Carbo as suspect number one.  Today as Bernie Carbo is making all this known to us, he says if  he should come in contact with Keith Hernandez, he would tell him he was sorry for introducing him to the drug and causing him to have problems with it.  Read about the whole strange saga here.

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My how the times have changed.  I offer you this little anecdote I heard this morning.  I do not know the full context this following bite was a part of.  I’m assuming it had something to do with the recent TASERING of a fan in Philly.  I could be wrong,  I tuned into the radio show in time to hear this clip
involving Duke Snider.  (I’m paraphrasing Warner Wolfe)
…’after a Dodgers game against the Reds in Cincy…the fans were allowed on the field after the game.  A fan confronted Duke Snider and said to him, “You’re Gutless!”  Duke said a few unsavory things back to this fan.
The fan proceeded to take a punch at Duke, and missed.  As Duke once told the story, he said he had his glove rolled up in his hand and popped the fan in the mouth ‘really good’.  That fan was held over night in jail.  Both had to appear in court the next day.  The judge recommended the two just shake hands and end this like gentlemen.  Duke was agreeable to that.  The fan, who suffered a broken dental bridge from the punch asked the judge ‘What about my mouth?’  The judge’s response to that question?  The judge said, “I don’t know.  I am not a dentist.  Case dismissed!”   We all know how something like that would have played itself out today.  Don’t we?
 
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Not only does Charlie Manuel throw the Mets under the bus with the stealing signals saga, Bud Selig decided he was going to give the Philadelphians 3 more home games this year.  The G-20 Summit will be held in Toronto this year on the same dates the Phillies are scheduled to play the Blue Jays.  MLB basically wants nothing to do with any potential chaos due to protesters and those who take things a step farther.  Instead of finding a neutral site for the two teams to play as MLB decided to move the series, Selig decided to play those games in Philly as Toronto acts as home team.  Thank you Bud Selig!  Because that is so fair right?  Toronto is entitled to the gate.  Without checking the schedules, are you telling me Chicago’s two parks, Buffalo-which would draw a bigger crowd than Toronto ever will this season, Cleveland, Boston or Pittsburgh couldn’t host this series?  No. – Because the zany and wacky long standing rivalry between Philly and Toronto needs to be held in Philly; giving them 3 more games in their own stadium than the rest of the division will have.  I can see MLB’s point.  Canadians have a way of burning down their downtown districts and tipping cars and what-not after their hockey teams inspire such action with a win OR loss.  The outcome of the game isn’t as important to them as the final tick of the clock marking zero point zero zero; Time for them to Wild-Out!  Ay?  All the protesters, activists and hooligans flooding into town for the summit will no doubt be something worth avoiding.  But Selig Meister Meister Selig should have come up with a better place than Philly’s park; somewhere like SomberTown!.  Selig is just appeasing the Jays knowing the joint will probably sell out.  Thank you Dud Selig.  May I have another?
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That’s it!  All HAIL has broken loose.  HAIL is just a complete and utter mess.  He has more problems than a math book!  The pitcher formerly known as Oliver Perez has finally been taken out of the rotation.  Things have not gone well for him at all.  There was a sign here and a sign there he might turn a corner.  But those signs really read DEAD END when you got closer to read them.  Two starts ago it was the weather.  Ollie doesn’t do well in the cold.  In that game he walked 7 batters in too few innings pitched and looked plain ol’ pathetic.  So this is what the team went with;- it was the cold….Too cold for Ollie.  He’s HAIL damn it!!
So everyone said his next start in Miami was going to be just what the Doctor ordered.  Some good old fashioned tropical climate was going to warm Ollie’s bones and he was going to pitch more ‘gooder’.  That was the plan!!  Honest!  This is the way the team was spinning it.  Well Doctor, Ollie needs a miracle not penicillin. 
OK – Miami.  You are there!  Did you smell that?  It was Ollie stinking up Big Fish Stadium like hot garbage in a closet!  So much for the climate control theory.  Next move? –  Mets said is the bullpen.  ME?  That won’t help.  What’s he going to get?  Mop-up duty?  He won’t be the 8th inning guy?  He’s not the 9th inning guy?  He’s not a one batter lefty specialist to get one lefty bat out.  Is he John Maine’s personal long relief specialist now? (He should be!).  There is no effective innings set for Ollie to continue fooling himself  as a pitcher in our bullpen.  Get him to accept a demotion to the minors.  Let him start a few more games in Buffalo.  The bullpen will just not help him.  He just doesn’t fit any job description and the opportunities are sporadic at best. 
How do you pitch out of your troubles as a starter like that? 
Send him to AAA with his consent. 
Make him understand then bring him back after 3 or starts.

(Tonight’s post game note:  You can include RAIN back into the daily forecast along with HAIL again.  John Maine was miserable once again.)

And while I’m at it.  Just like I said folks, the Mets can not beat the Nationals and the Marlins.
It’s un-B-Friggin-lievable!!  This is going on for years now.  Today’s loss ensures we lost the last two series after taking a series from the Giants.  We finish with the Fish today.  Then two with ATL followed by more Nationals.  After that?  NY Yankees and Inter-League play kicks up again.
Did I tell you I’m getting a little sick and tired of Inter-League?
Next post.
 
P.S. – Our next Trolley Ride is all set.  The photos have been taken and cropped up.  We should be riding early this week!
BTB

Baseball Geography 101

Yesterday I said I would present my own fix for Baseball’s re-alignment dilemma.  This is my third crack at this since I got home today.  I deleted the other two attempts already.  Then it dawned on me.  MLB already has the fix.  They already have a blue print.  Kinda.  I told you yesterday about my eerie feeling I had that all this grumbling over realignment, balanced and unbalanced schedules will ultimately lead to one thing:
EXPANSION
That’s right.  It is my humble opinion MLB is starting to plant the seeds for more expansion.
No…not contraction; Expansion.  You heard right.
The more I tried to poke fun at Selig and the GOOFY plan his hand picked staff of 14 Sun-Dried Tomatoes of On-Field Matters came up with involving a GOOFY re-alignment scheme, the more my better sense kept screaming at me, telling me, reminding me there is already a blue-print in place.  Damn it!!  I hate it when I know too much Baseball history.  Truth is I came up up with my own little realignment plan and designs for suspending reality.  I really wanted to give Selig a good Wedgie tonight, but the baseball fan on my left shoulder is winning over my brain.  The punk on my right shoulder will  have to wait.  Instead of having a good laugh at Bud’s expense, I offer you something a little more creative.  My “id” is not happy right now!
Like EVERYTHING, History is the road map to the present.
The National League was formed in 1876..blah blah.  We pick up this story in the year 1901.  Nothing prior to that is really relevant for this post.  It was quite simple then with eight teams.  They are the Senior Circuit.  How baseball evolved to this point is a romp through 60 years (nice round number) of baseball’s infancy and adolescence.
 
  1. Brooklyn Dodgers
  2. New York Giants
  3. Philadelphia Phillies
  4. Pittsburgh Pirates
  5. Chicago Cubs
  6. Cincinnati Reds
  7. Boston Braves
  8. St. Louis Cardinals

 

The American League was just the most recent come-lately formed to rival the National League.  The historic formation of the AL is a very different story than that of it’s senior.  The N.L. was a continuation; the evolution of our original game only more organized.  The A.L. was a rival, like others before them.
Pay attention.  I’ll make this short.
A minor league, the Northwestern League, operated from 1879 to 1887.  In 1888 they reformed and operated as the Western Association till 1891.  From 1892 to 1899 it was known as the Western League.
Ban Johnson was a cat with an axe to grind against the N.L.  He wasn’t allowed to buy a team and the N.L. refused to expand to accommodate him.  He had a bad attitude, a good reason and most importantly, re$cource$ to declare war on the N.L.  He purchased the Western League, disbanded it in 1899 and in 1900 re-organized it as the American League, opening the 1901 season.  Ban Johnson’s War vs the N.L. had begun.
As of 1895 the Western League operated in:
 
  1. Indianapolis
  2. St. Paul
  3. Kansas City
  4. Minneapolis
  5. Detroit
  6. Milwaukee
  7. Grand Rapids
  8. Toledo
     

 

Ban Johnson reorganized the league and this is what happened over 1899 & 1900:
  1. Indianapolis – OUT.  They continued to operate in a new minor league named the Western League est.1901.
  2. St. Paul – operations shut down, packed up and moved to Chicago to compete directly with N.L. team.  Ding ding ding!
  3. Kansas City – OUT.  Western League with Indianapolis.
  4. Minneapolis – OUT.  Western League too.
  5. Detroit – Ding ding ding!  Yep!  These aren’t the Detroit Wolverines either!
  6. Milwaukee – operations shut down, packed up and moved to Washington D.C. for the 1901 season. Ding ding ding!  For the opening of the 1901 season, Milwaukee was given a second team.
  7. Toledo – operations shut down, packed up and moved to Cleveland.  Ding ding ding!
  8. Grand Rapids – operations shut down, packed up and moved to Buffalo.  They never did get to unpack their boxes.  They folded before 1901.
Between 1901 and 1902 there were still changes before things settled and 1903 gave shape to a more recognizable MLB as far as “we” are concerned.  Ban Johnson was a straight gangsta and wasn’t joking. For the 1901 season he completed his new league by giving teams to cities and owners rebuffed by the N.L.’s monopoly.  Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore made eight and the A.L. was in business.
The second Milwaukee team moved to St. Louis for the 1902 season to become the Browns. Ding ding ding!  And after the 1902 season, Baltimore was boxed up and mailed to NYC to become the Highlanders/Yankees.
Stay with me people.  That was the hard part.  Finally the A.L. of 1903:
 
  1. New York Yankees    head-on vs. NL
  2. (Milw) St. Louis Browns    head-on vs. NL
  3. Cleveland Indians
  4. Detroit Tigers
  5. Washington Senators
  6. Philadelphia Athletics    head-on vs. NL
  7. Boston Red Sox    head-on vs. NL
  8. Chicago White Sox    head-on vs. NL
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. 
Finally allied, the NL and AL firmly put down a challenge by the Federal League in 1914-1915.
The NL/AL War went Cold status.  It turned into a Golden Age Game of Franchise Chicken.
Who was going to blink first?
Throw in some planes, trains and automobiles and now it’s a whole new game.
The Boston Nationals blinked.  The Americans win the battle of Boston in 1953.  Wicked!
Milwaukee gets a third team and supports the Braves to the tune of 2 million fannies a season and the rest of Baseball said, “Oh $hnap!!”
The Battle of St. Louis was won by the Nationals in 1954 and the Browns fled east to Baltimore where the Orioles had the rest of Baseball saying out loud, “OH $$HNAPP!!”
Now more and more teams were getting the fever and the only prescription, was more U-HAULS.
The Battle of Brotherly Love was won by the Nationals in 1956 and Kansas City was the new home of the American A’s.  This time the owners just flat out declared, “Holy Chitt!!”
Just in time for 1958, the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants got caught in bed together and eloped to the Left Coast.  This is where everything changes.  This is when everyone stopped being kids; when the Dodgers and Giants got caught wearing leather chaps, snappin whips with red rubber balls in mouth!  Filthy Hanzel and Dirty Gretel made all the wanna-be’s take stock of the situation.  If the MLB was being run like a Roman Toga Party and they didn’t let anyone in to their little club, a certain MLB who shall remain nameless was gonna get served with papers.
Better yet, a lawyer named William Shea, in concert and on behalf of interested owners (like Mrs. Joan Payson; a NY Giants season ticket holder who’s team abandoned her), declared their intentions to establish a third Major League; the Continental League.
Greed made MLB compete head to head in 5 cities.
When the owners saw there was money to be made by moving, Greed made teams abandon their fan bases to pick another cities’ pockets.
C’mon!?  How long did they think they could keep everything for themselves (16 owners) with all those markets out there?  I don’t think they were thinking at all.  They were asleep behind the wheel because they were arrogant (just like your ENRON’S etc.).  So what happened?  In their drunken stupor, they got served.
The writing was on the wall and they had to open the doors of the club.  That’s Capitalism folks.  That’s America!  If your city has a team that was not one of the original 16 (and their movement), you can thank the Continental League and the MLB owners for being sloppy drunks.
There will not be contraction; Not likely; Not Soon.  Not happening.
The lawsuits are still pending in a sense and cities are still lined up waiting for theirs while they hold on to “Letters of Shut-Up and Wait Your Turn”.
The Continental League, incorporated 1959;
a direct causality of the NL and NYC’s lack of a representative.
Disbanded in 1960 based on MLB acceptance of franchise movement and expansion.
It’s no different than the exclusion practices prior to 1947.  It was unspoken; the unwritten rule; it was understood.  Shut-up and wait your turn.
The original idea; 8 teams:
 
  1. New York
  2. Buffalo
  3. Ft. Worth
  4. Denver
  5. Houston
  6. Minneapolis (St. Paul)
  7. Atlanta
  8. Toronto
As you can see, since 1960, everyone got their team, except Buffalo.  The Senators were allowed to move in to MINN, and the void left behind would be filled by a 2nd Wash team.  In the 60′s Buffalo had a population of 600,000 strong.  Today they sit at 250,000.  You can see how they just might loose their football team.
The Continental League also had plans for expansion of their own; in concept of course:
 
  1. Montreal
  2. Indianapolis
  3. Miami
  4. New Orleans
  5. Portland
  6. Seattle
  7. Honolulu
  8. Jersey City
You see what’s going on here, don’t you?  As far as the present day dilemma, MLB has to give Seattle someone closer to home.  Their travel is ridiculous and they’re not happy about it.  Besides, after the Seattle Pilots folded after one year and Selig purchased and moved them to Milwaukee (their 4th team!), Seattle was working on a promise the next team would be theirs.  They got it in 1977.  MLB made a lot of promises.  If MLB doesn’t expand, they have to shuffle the deck if they want to be in relative geographical harmony.  That means LA/LAA in the same division  OR  breaking up the CUBS/CARDS  OR  having NYM/NYY/BOS in same division….it doesn’t have to be those but this is certain – A new rivalry must be created or an old one must be broken up.  It’s the only way without expanding the league.  Like I said, there are still cities waiting  to collect on their I.O.U.’s.  The only scenario the Twins would have been contracted was if Mr. Pohlad retired and folded the team.  That’s it.  That’s law 101.  The team was his and he held that right but DUD Selig couldn’t deny a buyer if the Twins owner was selling.  Contraction is a myth people.
Like I said, MLB will address Seattle’s burdensome travel by getting them another team; Portland maybe.  My Spidey Sense tells me they are dying to get in Las Vegas.  Both cities work for Seattle if it means they won’t have to fly to Los Angeles or Texas anymore.
And you can bet, the owners know there is labor strife ahead when the current contract expires.  They might want to pad their pockets with some expansion fees to dull their nerves.  Expansion has to come in a pair, obviously.  Portland and Las Vegas just might be the winners.  They make the most sense geographically.
Getting back to the teams, after MLB realized their mortality, Baseball moved into LA(A), Washington (2),
NY (Mets) and HOU.  The A’s bounced from K.C. and landed in Oakland.  The Milwaukee Honeymoon Effect wore off and the Braves broke for Atlanta.  K.C. got a team again.  S.D. and Montreal got theirs.  Seattle got one then lost it and Selig was there with his Pooper-Scooper and made Brewers out of them.  The Washington Senators Junior got tired of D.C. too and went to Arlington.
Then MLB started making good on their promises.  Seattle got another and Toronto their first in 1977.  Florida, Colorado, Arizona and Tampa bring us up to date.
What options does MLB have?  Left on the original Continental League docket is:
  1. Buffalo?   Not happening.
  2. Indianapolis?     Would make the region too crowded.
  3. New Orleans?  Fits perfectly between Texas and Florida.  Hmmm?!
  4. Portland?    Discussed, very viable!
  5. Honolulu?     MLB is crazy enough to do it!!
  6. Jersey City?    Maybe…not exactly,  but north New Jersey is dense and has always been a location of interest.

Ten of the original Continental League cities have been satisfied.  Six have not.  After having said all this, Las Vegas, Portland and New Orleans seem most likely.  I’d like to add Vancouver to this list of most likely candidates.

Dark Horse candidates?  Charlotte, Salt Lake City, Orlando

Does anyone remember plans for the United States Baseball League?  In 1995, this League was to be an equal equity system between players, owners, agents, and whatever other interested parties and municipalities.  This was their idea:

  1. Washington –     since filled by the Nationals.
  2. Buffalo
  3. Tampa Bay -     since filled by Rays
  4. Baltimore
  5. New York
  6. Toronto
  7. Los Angeles
  8. Texas
  9. Kansas City
  10. New Orleans
  11. Oakland/San Jose
  12. Phoenix -     since filled by D-Backs
They even had ideas for foriegn expansion into Mexico City, San Juan, Monterrey and Vancouver.
In conclusion, all this was just to say, Bud Selig, I think you’re full of Chitt.
You don’t want re-alignment or competitive balance.  You’re buddies want expansion money.
Say good night Gracie!
 
 

Bud Selig’s Solution is Lipstick on a Pig

I know!!  Instead of stopping the bleeding I’ll devise a way to best clean up the blood.  Instead of seeking to remedy the root cause of sickness, perhaps we should all just creatively medicate ourselves to mute the symptoms.  Instead of cleaning a cut on your arm and applying a proper dressing, let’s just wear a long sleeve shirt and hide the on-setting infection.  Instead of fixing the big hole in the floor, I’ll just throw a rug over it and no one will know it’s there.  Forget the shooting pain emanating from that infected tooth you choose not going to the dentist for.  Just chew your food on the other side of your mouth and chase it with a shot of Johnny Walker Black (the official idiot juice/stupid water of the NYY by the way….C’Mon!  I haven’t taken a cheap shot at them all winter.  Cut me a break, will ya?).  Now hold this thought until I finish scratching this AROD itch I have.

Today’s post could have very easily been about A-Rod.  I’ve been trying to avoid him.  I’ve RANTed myself silly over the years about him.  Frankly I’m bored with it and him.  I’m not one of those who think now that he has a ring the scrutiny he has historically received should now somehow dissipate like smoke in the breeze.  Sorry, it’s not that simple and he is proving why.  ARod did not quit his addiction to controversy in one October detox.  We all know where I’m headed with this.  The story has been out for days and you know the names of the doctors, the Yankee’s statement regarding, and all the speculation why ARod was involved with Dr. Galea in the first place without any one’s authorization…..(I’m bored already!).  Why ARod and not Beltran and/or Reyes?  Why am I being a biased Met fan?  I’m not.  Beltran and Reyes acted out in the open for the most part.  Beltran had issues with the Met’s Med Staff  etc  but everything was out in the open; Reyes ditto.  Trust me though, – I’m upset they’re mentioned and involved.  ARod has priors.  And we are finding out that no one connected in this still developing blister is on the same page of music outside Dr. Phillipon and Brian Cashman.  Further speculation is probably best left unsaid until ARod talks to the Feds, then the Yanks, then ultimately the media and us.  (quack-quack…sounds like a duck?)

This is not Yankee Hater talk.  This is ARod hater talk.  The Yankees have nothing to do with this.  Alex Rodriguez played with my cousin in Seattle.  I was a fan of his…once, and of that whole mid-90′s Seattle team by default, obviously.  It’s AROD I do not like!  ALEX was cool.  ARod is a Monster in the classic Greek Tragedy sense, or the tragic Frankenstein’s Monster motif.  It’s you’re choice.  A monster by any other name is still a monster (or was that a rose?)    ; )

But like I said, this isn’t about the Yanks or ARod although my want is to stay on him..  This is about another one of my most frequent targets; Bud Selig – Mr. Of-the-Owners  By-the Owners  For-the-Owners himself.  This is about Bud and his little goofy band of 14 Special Committee Members for On-Field Matters.  C’mon, just the title alone sounds so goofy!  Bud the Dud and his crack staff are toying with thoughts of re-alignment.  Tom Verducci’s Sports Illustrated article details * MLB’s On-Field Staff’s goofy little plan for realignment * based on team payroll and a team’s degree of commitment to making the playoffs in a given year in a musical chair division format.  Did you hear that?  Really?  Is this what 14 Baseball people came up with?  Who are these people?  I want to know because I don’t think I’d trust them to mail a letter for me.

HUH?  Put me in the D Division cause I’m not paying for a playoff team this year?  Normally that would have been a cheap shot at the Marlins for pocketing revenue sharing and not increasing payroll by 2 cents.  But this is just too much.  What’s happening to our game people?

GOOFY (there’s that word again).  Honestly, I can’t think of another word to use.  I know what I want to say.  Decorum doesn’t permit me to do that here.  This all goes back to the way I started off this post before I digressed about ARod.

Don’t go after the heart of the problem; the root cause….Buy it a new suit and stick it in witness protection.

I’ve never used this term before.  I never thought I would. 
But this is just putting lipstick on a pig!!
Remember Kenesaw Mountain Landis?  He refused to be Baseball’s Commissioner if he didn’t have full autonomy to preside over Baseball as he saw fit in accordance with Baseball’s best interests.
Remember Fay Vincent?  He warned the owners a work stoppage wasn’t in the owner’s or Baseball’s best interest.  He warned the owners about a looming problem called Steroids and wanted to proceed forward with reasonable suspicion and present a grievance to the Union.  Fay also approached MLB about re-alignment that was clearly & obviously in need.  The Chicago Cubs wound up suing Fay Vincent in a local Chicago court as Fay Vincent, Commissioner of Baseball, for even suggesting the St.Louis/Chicago rivalry be tampered with.  Atlanta was in the NL WEST.  St. Louis was in the NL EAST and Houston was a proponent of both teams changing divisions.
Short version…The owners fired Fay Vincent because they tired of Commissioners with backbones and have re-formed the greedy little brat pack that will lead themselves over the cliff like lemmings.  But it was OK to address realignment when it came time to expand and look forward to the expansion fees they’d be pocketing.  Right?
The owners begged Landis to protect them from themselves then.  Just like in life, the newer generations of owners are bed-fellows with gov’t and the owners finally have had someone they can stick their arms up his back to speak their bidding.  Selig is one of THEM folks.  Everything put forward in Tom Verducci’s article sounds absolutely ludicrous to me.
There’s two things I have an eerie feeling about.  The first thing my Spidey Sense is telling me the owners are on the same self destructive path they were on before they were put on a leash by Mountain Landis.  They are literally off the chain now.  Selig is merely part of the pack.  Secondly I sense this is just a build-up to MLB expanding by two more teams.  They will use the excuse of having 16 teams in the NL and only 14 in the AL and the need to balance it out.  BULL!!  They have an itch for more expansion fees.  They’ve been like clockwork.  Whenever they start grumbling about unbalanced vs. balanced schedules and realignment, expansion has always followed.
In my next post I hope to show a little more life because quite frankly this post bored me.  These were two items that I felt needed to be thrown out there.  I’m just a little blunted because it seems this is becoming a yearly ritual of Spring; having to put up with all these sideline items and having the game itself take a back seat.
In my next post I will play Commissioner, TSAR of Baseball and actually give a pragmatic assessment of the situation.  And who knows, I may actually make some sense and best case scenario..
..Save Baseball from Selig!
Can ya hear me now?
 
 
Anything is better than putting lipstick on a pig!
http://thebrooklyntrolleyblogger.mlblogs.com/
http://thebrooklyntrolleyblogger.blogspot.com/

* credit   selig pic- wordpress.com
 
 

Canseco and the MONSTER

So Jose Canseco,

Mr. Vindicated himself,

The Daniel Boone of the Steroid Era,

The Capt. (K)Jerk of the Star-Juicing Federation of Cheats,

Bluto, to Mark McGwire’s Popeye, said…..,

Jose said “PUFF the MUTANT SLUGGER”, McGwire, wasn’t being forthright with us yesterday basically calling him a liar.

Jose, Go’way, Jose has been the most truthful person of the whole steroid era. Everything the Oracle at Gold’s Gym has said thus far, rang true. Why should we stop believing him now? I wouldn’t trust him to mail a letter for me. But he has an axe to grind and we are the beneficiaries. Think about it, most of what we do know about the Steroid Era has either been leaked, as in THE LIST and the Balco investigation, AND whatever JOSE noway! Canseco has told us.

Which gets me back to Puff the Mutant Slugger.

Popeye told Bob Costas that the Steroids didn’t help him hit a single home run. He learned his craft and studied and worked hard and was given good DNA, so says him. The steroids were to keep him healthy and on the field.

Really? Really…..really. Really? C’MON!

We waited nine years for this? This is the best he could do after nine years? Really? Really!?

He didn’t remember what he took. Typical. He only did HGH one or two times. Typical. He only did it to come back from injury and sustain health. Typical Typical Typical. Check Check Check.. There is a motif in genesis here folks. Andy Pettitte and Popeye using the same ruse. Don’t forget folks, we had to shake the truth out of Dear Lovable Andy….TWICE! I digress. A-ROD used his LOOSEY GOOSEY Time line and stressed about living up to a contract. Yea, whatever.

Whatever DUDES!

Folks I bring you the case for Frankenstein, the Innocent.

Bud Selig is Dr.Frankenstein and his trusty lab assisstant Igor, Donald Fehr. The two together are The Louis and Clark of the Steroid Era, Captain Chaos and his sidekick Confusion, allowing Players to boldly go where no record has gone before. I digress again. Pardon.

You know the legendary tale of Frankenstein, apply here!….so I don’t have to get too detailed with this analogy. I’ll get right to the heart of this legendary classic we call Frankenstein and the MONSTER we call the Steroid Era. The cast is being played out by players of the much broader ERA I call the Marvin Miller Effect, who because of the money secured to them through agents like Scott Boras, and owners who were always afraid mostly of them themselves, created an environment that pervades all aspects of Baseball and brings us to today. Part of that blanket statement I just made means these players live in fantasy land and believe they exists in a totally different realm than you and me.  Rules need not apply. We the Plebs are just that, bottom rung of the status ladder. The bottom bottom bottom line why we pay so much to go to a game is because they make the salaries they do, the owners agree to it, and pass the cost off to us. Somehow we blindly agree to this social contract. Of course a few bad apples spoil it for everyone. Of course. 90% are very quite normal. But we don’t care about them. We only care about the one’s who destroyed our record books like Godzilla trampling through Tokyo. So, we kinda helped create this MONSTER.

But grab pitch-fork in hand and torch too. Because the Monster we didn’t mind too much about at first, has gotten out of control and destroyed our hallowed records as we once knew them. Frankenstein the Monster caused the loss of that little girl’s life when they played with lillies by the pond.  But he was truly ignorant of his actions.  How could he?  Igor Bad Brained him tragically in the truest Athenian sense.

Here’s the whole difference folks. Dr.Frankenstein’s MONSTER was innocent. The monster didn’t realize it was doing anything wrong when it threw the little girl into the pond. Clever editing prevents us from knowing what really happened in the movie huh?  But under Evil Dr.Selig-Burger-Burger-Selig and his trusty lab assisstant, Confusion himself, Donald ‘IGOR’ Fehr,  these players knew.  They knew exactly what they were doing, when they were doing it, how they were doing it,  with who they were doing it, what cycle they should be on, knew the pronounciation of every syllable of every steriod, etc etc…and the whole time they were being laweryed up by Selig-Burger-Burger-Selig’s lab rat IGOR the Fehr.

 
The Players are at their weakest and cornered.  They face an expiring collective bargaining agreement.  The Nutty Scientist Dr.Selig-Burger-Burger-Selig is done.  He’s retiring from his lab and giving up his experiments in baseball commissionership.  IGOR? 
 
Donald ‘Confusion’ Fehr(factor), Clark to Selig’s Louis, has fled; Left the Union behind like Spiro Agnew left Nixon.  He’s camouflaged as an Esquire again chasing ambulances.  The MONSTERS are vulnerable.
Grab pitch-fork and torch!  Villagers Unite!  The Monster, though innocent should have not been allowed to remain and wander the country side throwing little girls in lakes.  Our MLB Monsters, those of hubris, they who held our National Pastime with contempt, looked at, pointed at, and laughed at our record books.  After all, it was ”Have no Fear, Fehr is Here” IGOR that messed up the good brain, and came back with the bad brain.  Igor Fehr gave them all Bad Brain.  Therefore,  The Monster must be put down!
Dr. Frankenstein’s Monster was Innocent and OUR MLB MONSTERS, guitly as suspected.

Come Villagers, KILL THE MONSTER!!!!…while they gather in the MILL!!!

http://thebroolyntrolleyblogger.mlblogs.com/
http://thebrooklyntrolleyblogger.blogspot.com/

No FEHR vs. No FEAR sounds like a FIGHT!!

BUD SELIG, Igor to the owner’s Frankenstein, will be stepping down from his post, so he says.  DONALD, the biggest hinderance to rectifying the PED-era, FEHR, broke out of town like Spiro Agnew when Richard Nixon’s house was about to crumble around him.

Fay Vincent wanted to start with reasonable suspicion and investigate suspected usage of PED’s in baseball invoking the best interests of Baseball.  C’mon…we were screaming about Canseco back in 1988!  Fay also stuck his nose in too deep for the owners’ tastes, into the negotiations of a collective bargaining agreement when he was still commish.  Both those efforts got him effectively fired by the owners.  They instituted their “Gumba”, their “Pizo”, and pulled his strings the way they wanted ever since.  Want Evidence? – You explain that 3 Card-Monte he orchestrated with the swap of Boston/Florida and the mothballing of the Expos, sending them off to vacation in Puerto Rico (which incidently is an outrageously beautiful island,…sorry…I strayed), and dropped a cherry on top by allowing Peter Angelos to steal all the new-Nat’s TV money?  Selig was/is for the owners, by the owners. 

However he could have shouted from the highest mountain top about steriods, and it would have changed nothing.  Selig’s crime is ignorance, and denial planned or otherwise and Crony’ism.  PED talk fell on deaf ears unless Donald Fehr wanted to do something about it.  Which by the way for the last 20 years has meant, Nothing.

MLB/Selig ignored it as long as they could get away with it..  But after the Congressional FreakShow with Slammin’ no english Sammy So-So, Groucho, Harpo, Canseco, Raffy and “no interest in the past” Andro-Man McGwire, then the recurring positive tests under terms of the re-opened bargaining agreement, plus leaks from the sample testing list revealing huge names, and full knowledge that he, D.Fehr, himself knew who was on that list, well…He left under the cover of darkness On That Midnight Train to Georgia.  He knows what’s up.  Here’s what I think…what’s up.

I think baseball is tremoring towards the biggest structural upheaval it’s been through since Marvin Miller won the right to institute the current model baseball operates by – Free Market, strong Survive and (now subsidize).

You know a salary cap is on the table.  The owners detest arbitration – the single most reason for the escalation of player salaries.  Slotting minor league/amatuer players from the draft is a huge 800 pound gorilla they want resolved also.  Then obviously, steroids.

This is the biggest reason there are so many as-yet unsigned players available.  Have you noticed the preponderance of one and two year deals being signed?  It’s because times are-a-changing.

Selig…gone.  Fehr…gone.   We know right from the beginning, the next collective bargaining session is going to be unlike any we’ve had to endure in nearly two decades.  The Union’s no FEHR, and the owner’s no FEAR could mean trouble for all of us.  Fight in the schoolyard!!

Enjoy THIS season!   : o

post script:  If you’re around my age 40z…If you remember back to at least the 1976 Olympics…..My point is…. because I was about to get stupidly verbose….SAVE!

Say if you were around in the 70z, we knew back then the Eastern Bloc countries were getting juiced like Roman Soldiers drinking after victory.  By the early 80z it was common knowledge.  But because we put baseball on the perverbial pedistal like we do, we ignored it just the same.  We kept paying to see them.

: O

http://theBrooklynTrolleyBlogger.mlblogs.com/
http://theBrooklynTrolleyBlogger.blogspot.com/

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