The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox are wrapping up their three game series at Fenway Park tonight. What a series it has been.
Red Sox second baseman Brock Holt took exception to a slide last night by Yankees first baseman Tyler Austin.
Don’t you love it when New England acts all high and mighty? Ironic, isn’t it?
The same thing happened in April last year with the Orioles and Red Sox at Camden Yards. Dustin Pedroia took exception to a slide by Manny Machado. Then, the Red Sox threw at Machado.
Ok. That happens. That’s baseball. There was something different about this incident, though. There was Dustin Pedroia, right out in the open, acknowledging that, at times, pitchers intentionally throw at hitters.
What’s the first rule of The Unwritten Rules? You don’t talk about The Unwritten Rules.
Why did Pedroia feel that he could get away with that? Maybe it’s because New England has bent the rules time and time again, and hasn’t paid any price for it.
David Ortiz took PEDs. Yet he is beloved by the national media as much as he is in New England.
Why is that? Is the anti-Yankee sentiment of the national baseball media affecting their judgment? I get it that you guys got chills when the Red Sox came back down 3-0. I get it that you guys hate the Yankees.
Get over it already. A Hall of Fame selection is supposed to be an honor. Cheaters should not be honored. Ortiz cheated. Period. He shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame.
He probably will be though. Everyone has decided to look the other way when it comes to Ortiz. And Tom Brady is lionized in New England and in the national media as well. Sociopaths are in vogue, I guess.
Still, karma is karma. Deflategate, Spygate, Ortiz-gate, Manny-gate – New England sports is awash in lies. The entire region seems to be swept up in a collective delusion – that Ortiz was framed, that Manny was clean in 2004, that Roger Goodell got bored one day and decided to go after their precious Tommy.
The Patriots won the Super Bowl in 2017 despite the bad karma.
What was going through New England sports fans heads during that game? When they were down 28-3 was The Truth flooding in? “Brady is a liar and a cheater. We defended him like a bunch of pathetic sycophants the past 2 years for this?” When they came back did The Lie take over again? “Tommy is Legit? Tommy is Legit! He is an Ubermensch! Roger Goodell is the no-good rotten liar!”
Congratulations New England. You did it. You showed him!
Two things, though.
First of all, you’ll never enjoy the 2017 Super Bowl championship. There was no honor there. Brady may have won 5 rings to Peyton’s 2, but at least Peyton did it with honor. He’s above Brady in my book, and it isn’t even close.
Honor matters. Truth matters.
The second thing. Where’s Jimmy G? Hey, at least you’ve got Tommy and all of those Super Bowl memories that you will always cherish, right guys?
Without honor, they’re meaningless. Without honor, glory is hollow.
So, New England is in collective denial. Does that preclude the Red Sox from winning another World Series championship in the near future?
It certainly doesn’t help. Just look what happened this year with University of Arizona’s basketball team. They had one star player who was a PED guy. And they had another who was caught up in an FBI corruption investigation along with their head coach! And people were surprised when this team lost in the first round at The Big Dance?
Lies are a powerful thing. The Lie that Tom Brady is a victim and that Roger Goodell is The Bad Guy animated the Patriots’s comeback over the Falcons in 2017. But as powerful as Lies are The Truth is the most powerful force that exists. It’s only a matter of time before it catches up to New England.
Dave Dombrowski shouldn’t have taken the job in Boston. He should have said “stop inviting lying sociopaths like David Ortiz and Tom Brady to Fenway Park and then I’ll consider it.”
One gets the impression that the 2017 Super Bowl was the last championship New England is going to win for a long time.
And that the Yankees aren’t going to win the World Series so long as Alex Rodriguez is a member of their front office.
Rodriguez took PEDs, lied about it and went scorched-earth against anyone who dared to stand up to him.
What price did he pay?
Yankees fans literally bowed before him during the 2015 season. In 2016, after he mercifully left the team, he was given a job at Fox Sports as a TV analyst (who was he working besides? Pete Rose. And who joined him in 2017? David Ortiz. Fox Sports loves their sociopaths, don’t they?). And now he is the lead voice of Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN.
Obviously, I enjoy making predictions. Here’s one. Sunday Night Baseball’s ratings will be down this year. For every Yankees fan that is still in denial and wants to convince themselves that 2009 isn’t tainted and that Bud Selig is The Bad Guy there are two normal baseball fans who don’t want to be lied to for three hours once a week and would rather watch Game of Thrones or 60 Minutes.
Yankees fans should understand: 2009 is tainted. All of those home runs Alex Rodriguez hit that October? Tainted. All of those games the team won that October? Tainted. Raising the World Series trophy at Yankee Stadium? Tainted. Every moment of every day that Rodriguez was on the team? Tainted.
And now they’ve brought him back. Big mistake.
The problem is deeper than that though. And it goes beyond the Yankees. All of baseball is tainted by PEDs. Does it help baseball move on from the steroid era to have Alex Rodriguez sitting in the booth for Sunday Night Baseball once a week?
No, it doesn’t.
Alex Rodriguez should be shunned, not exalted.
And baseball should get serious about getting PEDs out of the game. One positive test should be a full year suspension. One more, and you’re out. For life.
Sports at its best is uplifting and inspiring. Sociopaths like Rodriguez, Ortiz and Brady can never uplift or inspire. They can only corrode. The Red Sox and Yankees will be corroded by their noxious influence, win or lose.
SABR Skeptic 