Today, Joel Sherman surgically rips Joba Chamberlain for suggesting this week - OMG! OMG! OMG! - that he would like to start someday. You'd think he defended the Holocaust. In a column headlined "Yanks have had it with Joba's look-at-me act," Sherman trowels out Gammonite indignation over Joba's terrible, horrible, wicked words, and he paves the way for Chamberlain's future exit. Some highlights:
"... a 5-year-old... trapped inside a 95 mph-throwing body."
"... Joba being Joba. Hey everyone, look here..."
"... more like a child and nuisance than anything else..."
"... You know what that screams to me? The Yankees have Joba Fatigue..."
"... a constant risk physically and verbally..."
"... tired of all the theatrics and untrustworthiness that comes with Chamberlain."
Listen: I like Sherman. He's gutsy, and they pay him to be opinionated. But I hate it when columnists attack players over idle comments, which - after all - is what the writers peddle for a living. If a player dogs it on the field, or quits on his team - yeah, sharpen the shivs, guys! But do you whack a fellow in the first day of spring training because he strays 10 degrees from the team's official talking points?
Reading Sherman today, I get an ugly Dick Young flashback -- a bloated ego and some bloated nasal corpuscles - of a tired old writer itching to tell off the guy who didn't grant him an interview, or to just make a cannonball splash in the pool, because somebody in the Holiday Inn bar Sunday night - after the eighth gin-and-tonic - called him "The Bard," and everybody laughed.
Somebody is yelling, "Look at me!"
Is it Joba, or Joel Sherman?
Listen: The Yankees are looking to cut payroll. We all know that. A lot of Yankee fans have found Joba to be one of the few players who speaks and plays from the heart. There is a deep dark negativity to this Yankee spring. You can feel it. But are the Gammonites already starting to run Joba out of town?
If he didn't complain about Joba saying he wanted to be a starter he'd only complain Joba has no ambition because he didn't say he wanted to be a starter.
ReplyDeleteJoba? Theatrics? Untrustworthiness?
ReplyDeleteWho the hell is he talking about? Can't be that fat kid who works out of the bullpen.
Wtf?
The question is: Will Joba do his job (whatever it is) in the 2013 season, to the best of his ability?
ReplyDeleteMy opinion is: If they assign him to pitch against "The Little Sisters of the Poor," and he comes in with 2 nuns on base, he's gonna buzz the other team's #5 hitter -- right under the chin.
So -- who cares what Sherman says?
Honestly, I just love how this guy plays the game of baseball.
ReplyDeleteIt has nothing to do with Joba(it could have been any player)or the so called "slow news day(it could have been any day)or even Sherman(it could have been Kate of LLP)...
ReplyDeleteIt's about "yellow journalism",
more accurately yellow pseudo-journalism.
Internet sourced reading materials are rife with output from sub-standard writers who have taken so much liberty in throwing out to readers their garbage.
Hey! Look at me! One more injury and I get called up!
ReplyDeleteBeen a fan all my Yankee-knowing life. That gives me memories of where I was at certain times, such as the time I was on NY28 headed toward Rome under a HUGE full moon, when Torre let Joba stand out there in Cleveland and get engulfed by beetles. I remember driving, listening to Suzyn and John describe it (and you KNOW they described it less graphically than it could be seen) and thinking: we're the Yankees, Joe. Pull the team the hell off the field until they get those bugs out of there; DARE them to make you forfeit a playoff game if they refuse to allow it. Billy would've. Not that Joe was Billy, but Billy would've. And yeah, if the game had gone sixteen innings Joba might have had to finish it, but you KNOW Martin would not have allowed that to continue. He'd have made a scene.
ReplyDeleteFast forward through a bunch of years and freaky injuries, and here we are: Joba still there and caught in a moment where he does the unthinkable and says he could start. As I read the quotes (if they were correct), Joba wasn't crying about his role, wasn't being a jerk. Just saying he thought he could be a starter. If I were the GM I'd be glad to hear him talking that way. I'd be glad to hear he had confidence, after so many reasons to lose it had shown up over the years. And instead of saying nothing or agreeing with him, Cashman (the guy who signed A-Rod again; the guy who told Jeter more or less to test the market) says see if he can hit because we need a center fielder, too. Smug and sarcastic. Exactly what I'd expect of him.
Cashman has reason to be proud; he's lasted almost forever. I'd suggest, though, that if anyone wants to mint him up a big crown they consider four words: Gene Michael Bob Watson.
I wish Joba the best. It scares me how much he reminds me of Cletus Hogg sometimes, but the man isn't a sitcom character. He's a major-league pitcher who's gone through a lot. He's not a quitter. I wish him the best, and no more locusts. Because, seriously, can you imagine what that must have been like?