I generally find the Fire Joe Morgan blog pretty good, but their love-fest for Barry Bonds is pretty disturbing to me. Time for the FJM writers to be subjected to a FJM style ripping.
We all know Barry Bonds is a bad dude. Does illegal whaling in Japan in the off-season, helps cars hit old ladies crossing the street, has a huge collection of pirated LaserDiscs. Crusty sportswriters -- I'm giving you this one. Not defending Barry's character.
Actually, most people hate Barry Bonds because he cheated, lied about it, and acts like a complete jerk off at every opportunity he gets and now is whining that nobody wants to hire him. Forgive us, for we are mere plebeians in the shadow of FJM wisdom-infinite.
I'm starting to wonder what the fuck some of these teams are thinking.
Really? Do you have to be reminded who Barry Bonds is? Would you sign Darth Vader to the Rebel force just because he is bad-ass with the light saber? Perhaps, just perhaps, ownership does not want Barry Bonds on their team because Barry Bonds is insane and a criminal. An insane criminal filled with animosity at all aspects of baseball - other players, coaches, managers, owners, the media, and, oh yeah, the fans too. He may be the most polarizing player in baseball history. But yeah, his OBP is through the roof (and we all know that in FJM land OBP is the equivalent of sex with a supermodel)!
You know how many Cardinals hit 28 home runs last year? One. His name was David Eckstein. ("David Eckstein" is what I call Albert Pujols.)
Barry Bonds Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP) last year was 6.2. This is a damn good WARP, but six more wins would have placed the Cardinals at 84-78 and still a game behind the Cubs for the division... and that's assuming that Barry's defense would not have lost them any games.
How many 43-year-old outfielders OPS-ed 1.045 last year? Or .999 the year before, at age 42?
I get it now... FJM thinks Barry Bonds is an ageless baseball god. His stats are good, I think we all can agree on this.
Cool. He's a jerk. We get it. Someone should probably sign him, though, because when he plays baseball he's damn good at it.
Somebody should not sign Barry Bonds. I will lose all respect for that team, the game of baseball, humanity, etc. if Barry Bonds is signed. FJM has jumped off the deep end here. I understand that their stitch is to use statistics, logic, and good research to debunk many of the idiots writing about baseball, but this goes too far. Maybe, just maybe, when somebody fundamentally alters the integrity of the game we should look beyond their statistical contribution to a team. When an employee of a profession tarnishes the image, reputation, and credibility of their profession that employee should not expect to be rehired. Wouldn't happen in any other industry. Does FJM have no moral compass?
9 comments:
I don't know Mark, I don't particularly have a problem with a team signing Bonds. That post on FJM wasn't their finest work, but the fact remains that Bonds is still an extremely good baseball player.
Teams should be trying to win baseball games. And Bonds would help Seattle, or Detroit, or even the surprising Tampa Bay Devil Rays (that's right, I'm sticking with the Devil) play better. Even teams that already have the DH slot filled would benefit from his offense. Bonds couldn't possibly be worse than Jack Cust in left field.
I think you're a bit off-base with the moral compass comment. Baseball has been filled with great players who were shitty human beings. Ted Williams was a complete asshole when he wanted to be. Doc Gooden and Tim Raines did shitloads of coke. Mickey Mantle was a drunk. On the field Gaylord Perry is in the hall of fame because he was an excellent cheat. Pitchers like Kenny Rogers and Francisco Rodriguez still doctor the ball, and it is considered part of the game, and gamesmanship. The game has never been about good morals, despite its all-American reputation. It has consistently been a push and pull between the rules and doing what you can to win.
At this point a well written contract would be able to deal with a lot of the character issues. If Bonds really wants to play, he'd sign a contract without a barca lounger in the clubhouse, a contract that would include agreeing to interviews, and one with a character clause that could terminate the contract.
Don't get me wrong, I don't like the "better living through chemistry" era either. It kills me that there is a huge question mark over every major accomplishment from 1995 to 2004 or so. That there will always be the guessing game as to who was clean and who wasn't. But the fact remains that Bonds is an excellent ball player. Teams should be trying to win, and (to follow up on the Star Wars analogy) if you have the opportunity to replace a stormtrooper who couldn't hit a 7 foot wookie from three paces away (Jose Vidro) with Darth Vader, you should take that chance.
I also think there are plenty of examples of industries taking their most maligned members and giving them another shot. Generally, extremely talented people good at a particular thing, remain that way, and if it brings in the dollars, someone will be willing to take a shot at them. There are better examples, but Frank Quattrone springs to mind, as does any number of crazy celebrities (Mel Gibson et al.) Gibson pretty much established himself as a nut job who hates jewish people, but he'll still get his movies made, even in a town that is 70% jewish. Ultimately it's all about the dollars. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to think of a reverse example - perhaps Bonds is the best. But ultimately, I think that is about dollars as well - if teams didn't feel that they'd get a Bonds backlash - ultimately leading to lower ticket sales, people swearing off the team, etc. I bet he would have been signed by now.
When listing the great assholes of baseball, you can't leave off Ty Cobb.
Touché. If Ty Cobb were still alive, he'd spike me for that omission.
And now all the teams have a good reason not to hire Bonds - he's now facing 14 counts of perjury and one count of obstruction.
Wikipedia has a pretty fascinating read on Cobbs. This was my favorite part:
"Cobb once slapped a black elevator operator for being "uppity." When a black night watchman intervened, Cobb pulled out a knife and stabbed him (The matter was later settled out of court)."
I see a difference. Cheating fundamentally alters the integrity of the game itself. It casts doubt over the entire legitimacy of the competition. Being an asshole racist drunk doesn't do that. Doctoring a baseball, while technically "cheating", is within the tradition of the game and. It may be frowned upon, but is generally acknowledged as a part of the game. Using steroids pushes past this type of gamesmanship because it has called into question a whole era of history.
Using the industry analogy. Barry Bonds is like a whistle blower because he, more than anyone else, exposed the dishonestly and hypocrisy in his industry (inadvertently of course, but you get the idea). Whistle blowers do not get jobs again. Whistle blowers must hide and take up fake names and aliases. Barry should follow suit.
That's a good point. It's more of an analogy of someone who exposed the deep dark truth behind the industry than someone who was just generally an asshole. good distinction.
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