Kevin Baker's book is here!

Kevin Baker's book is here!
"... an exemplary sports book..." Kirkus Reviews

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

So much for Cooperstown: "In the clips, the Red Sox assistant athletic trainer, Jon Jochim, is seen looking at his Apple Watch and then passing information to outfielder Brock Holt and second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who was injured at the time but in uniform. In one instance, Pedroia is then seen passing the information to Young."

NO COOPERSTOWN FOR CHEATERS!

Isn't that what self-righteous, downtrodden Boston fans say, when A-Rod's name comes up? (Though their indignation ends discussing David Ortiz?) Well, Mr. Baseball himself - Little Poppy - just got caught Redsock-handed breaking a league rule. Along with missing, say, the last month of the season, he should kiss the Hall of Fame goodbye, right?


What is it about cheating and Boston? Whether it's spying on opponents or deflating footballs, every few years, Bill Belichik gets caught doing something new. Last year, the Redsocks were nailed cooking the books on international free agents, running a fake system where they signed no-talents to excessive contracts, so they could funnel money under-the-table to star prospects and beat the spending cap. They ended up forfeiting several players because they skirted the rules.

Now this. If the Yankees hadn't caught them, they could have rolled through the rest of the season, en route to the World Series. So the question is, how did they cheat during their world championship years?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

THEY ARE TRYING TO BE LIKE THE PATRIOTS....

I GUESS IT'S KIND OF "COOL" TO BE A BOSTON TEAM THAT IS TRYING TO SKIRT THE RULES, AS LONG AS YOU WIN IT ALL....

AIN'T HAPPENING WITH THIS BOSTON TEAM.

THEY REALLY KINDA SUCK NOW, FIRST PLACE AND ALL.

ONCE THE DRUG INDUCED, PHONY "LEADER" LEFT THEM, THEIR LINEUP HAS NO TEETH.

IF, I MEAN, WHEN THE STEROID PHONY GETS INDUCTED, WHENEVER THAT IS, I WILL NEVER CONSIDER THE HALL OF FAME A WORTHY BUILDING ANYMORE, ACTUALLY, I BARELY DO NOW.

JM said...

I AGREE WITH ANONYMOUS. And with Duquesne. And with anybody who wants Girardi fired after last night's debacle, the latest of many.

Managers are like doctors: first, do no harm.

How many games have we lost due to over- and mismanagement this year? Last year? The year before that?

It's just sickening.

JM said...

Duquesne? Cool, spell check.

Duque Duquesne has a ring to it.

Parson Tom said...

The countersuit is kind of interesting. Let's see if the Yankees were stupid enough to be cheating while they were accusing the Red Sox of cheating. Or are the Red Sox just advanced students of the Trumpian tactic of admit-nothing-and-blame-everybody?

HoraceClarke66 said...

Good point, ALL-CAPS.

Right now, the criteria for Cooperstown seems to be who was nice to the sportswriters.

A-Rod? Got into a running feud with a writer. Never!

Manny? A churlish guy, much of the time, but a Red Sock. Maybe.

Piazza? Admitted doping (a little), but generally got on with writers, so he had to pay a four-year waiting period.

Albert Belle? Nobody caught him cheating, and he never admitted it. But horrible guy, so out he stays.

Big Papi? Admitted cheater—but everybody loves him! In he goes.

This has become a total farce.

Anonymous said...

BINGO AGAIN HOSS....

Parson Tom said...

minor correction, Hoss: Albert Belle did get caught corking his bat, which future Yankee bullpen lugnut Jason Grimsley stole from the umpire's room before being forced by a police investigation hand it over. It wasn't steroids, but back in 1994, those weren't actually against MLB rules.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Very true, Parson T!

But of course, bat corking used to be considered hilarious, much like Gaylord Perry getting caught with the sandpaper or the nail file, whatever it was. I seem to recall Graig Nettles breaking his bat once, and three rubber balls bouncing out, but maybe that was just a dream.

Mind you, I can see a case being made to punish juicers. Steroids not only made a farce of baseball's traditions, but it will also, likely, have long-term effects on many players' health. Worst of all, it led to unscrupulous youth and college coaches pushing kids into taking that stuff.

But let's have some kind of agreement about it. Either you decide, 'Hey, too bad!' or 'Hey, 80 percent of players were juicing, so let's just go by the stats.'

Instead, it's become a way to punish people the writers don't like. That sucks.

joe de pastry said...

So CC says "if you are not cheating you are not trying."
But don't bunt on me because I'm old and fat and have bad knees.
Classy guy.

Anonymous said...

I REMEMBER WHEN NETTLES GOT CAUGHT CORKING HIS BAT, HOSS, YOU'RE NOT DREAMING...LOL

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