I'm afraid our friend Ben Grieve has fallen one rung further. From Rookie of the Year...to Tampa Bay Devil Ray...to marginal MLB player...and now to "epitome of the crappy hitter". In a discussion of the mythical "gyroball" (make sure to check out the gyroball's history and the super-cool video of a possible gyroball), Deadspin describes the pitch as
"a phantom pitch out there that turns everybody into Ben Grieve."See what's missing here? Until now, people felt obligated to refer to him as "former Rookie of the Year Ben Grieve". As in, "the guy who used to be really good and now sucks." Now he's just "the guy who sucks". Sorry Ben.
Fantastic post Earl! That's a pretty cool story. I was going to blast Jeff Passan yesterday for his idiotic WBC article, but elected to hold back. In the end it wasn't so idiotic. I am just sick of the media demanding baseball supremacy. It's the whole "we love you when you win hate you when you lose" problem. I think they should come up with a new name for the gyroball, how 'bout "g-ball", which could be shortened to "gall" :-)
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the same thing; his WBC article is truly horrible. I don't see how these people can think "If the US does badly, the WBC a failure." Actually, I think that makes it a success. If other countries do well, they'll be psyched about it in 2010. And if the US stumbles, more players will join next time.
ReplyDeleteWhat's strange about the WBC (at least I haven't seen it written) is that so many tiny things can make the difference in a baseball game...
ReplyDeleteObviously, a pitcher can be "on" which would make it tough for any team (whether they are stocked with MLBers or not). A pitcher can be "off"...Even the best pitcher can get shelled by college guys...
A rock on the infield can cause a bad hop, leading to an error that is costly...
I don't have to go on and on...We are all baseball fans...
But...
To the point of "it is a failure for the WBC is the U.S. is eliminated" is silly. For one, there are tons of major leaguers on other teams. There are lots of U.S. born players playing on foreign teams (because of that once or twice removed generations rule).
Linking back to what I said above...If Dontrelle is "on" no one is hitting him. He can't be blamed for being off.
And, yet, another example...A-Rod (even though I can't stand him), Varitek, and other big names can't contribute if they're sitting on the bench...And that you can put on the manager (and probably behind-the-scenes shenanigans by player agents protecting their products...).