Lenny Dykstra and Frenzy-feeding on the Helpless

Why hasn't someone stepped in to help Lenny Dykstra?  I just saw him on another interview today, for NBC, and once again he seemed mentally unstable.  He still speaks with that slurred speech, as if he were always drunk, or drugged up, or on some meds that make him sound that way.  Once again he was denying his financial reality, saying that he lived in a $30 million home, but yet was on the streets for two years.  Again he says that he has all this money that he doesn't have; that his homes are not in foreclosure; that he hasn't been swindling anyone.  Why hasn't someone stepped in?  He seems confused, taking forever to come up with Gandhi's name, and then comparing himself to him.  Again he sounded paranoid, saying that bankers would assassinate him.  Again he had flights of fancy, saying that he could not be killed--after he said bankers would assassinate him.  He has a persecution complex.  I don't doubt he believes that he hasn't cheated anyone; I believe he believes he really does have all this money.  Why hasn't a friend or loved one stepped in and institutionalized him for his own good, especially when he was living on the streets for two years?

And why are they still putting him in front of a camera?  So we can see that he's still nuts?  So we can see that he's in denial, and slipping even more?  Why are they parading him instead of helping him?  I saw another clip on tv--some kind of program on Paris Hilton--and some guy said that we, the public, just want her to continue screwing up, that we want her to take drugs, get arrested, and say stupid things for our amusement.

There's truth to this.  We are schoolyard bullies parading the clueless for our enjoyment, watching their self-destruction for our self-esteem, for giggles.  Instead of helping them, we jab them, prod them, tie them to the stake.  People like Dykstra clearly can't defend themselves, and rather than help them, we tie them to the media stake, unleash the media and viewer dogs, and watch for our own amusement as they get eaten alive.

Call it Britney Spears/Charlie Sheen Syndrome, call it whatever you want, but it says more about us than it does about them.  They are, or were, messed up, in the head, or as addicts.  But we sit at home, watch it all on television or the internet--more the latter now--and we laugh and jibe as they suffer and self-destruct.  We call them names, often really bad ones, which was even more unforgivable when it's someone like Spears, who was in her late teens and early- to mid-twenties during most of her self-immolation, still mostly a kid, in terms of life experience and wisdom.  But that didn't stop us from calling her horrible names, and puncturing her rather than helping her.  Maybe it's a mob psychology, that many of us are decent people on our own, but as a media saturated public, we become sharks and frenzy-feed on the helpless when they injure themselves.

Sickening.  And it's more us then them.  When did we start putting the popular in cages and prodding them for our own amusement?  Watch this clip, http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/sports/Lenny_Dykstra_s_Winning_Philadelphia-117532508.html, and see what you think.

The Morality Bloodhounds

Okay, so it's been awhile.  Okay, so it's been a long while.  Had some things goin' on, lost a family member, got really sick, got tied up with Paying the Man.  But now I'm back, talkin' baseball, so let's get caught up with a few things:

--The Bonds trial has quickly become a circus.  The topic in court today was how he walked around with a smaller size bat, if you know what I'm sayin'.  What that has to do with him perjuring himself, I don't know, as that soon won't be something you can lie about, if you further know what I'm sayin'.  This tells you something about Barry: Yuckiness seems to follow him, 700+ homeruns or not.  Bad for baseball.  Bad for my acid reflux.

--I worry a little about the Morality Bloodhounds.  First Barry.  Clemens is next, mark my words.  The same legal moral railing didn't turn out so well for Kenneth Starr, and it won't end well for whoever's in charge of this fiasco, either.  Bonds is a jerk, not the Antichrist.  Slap him with a year in jail, or probation, and take away his HOF entrance for 14 years (You can't keep him out.  He's up there with Ruth and Williams, 'roids or not, and you can't just whisk that away.) and move on.  Stop bathing baseball fans in the mud.

--The Yanks may win more games than you would think.  If they have the lead after the 7th, they'll win about 99% of the time.  Soriano and Rivera are the newest Rivera and Wetteland.  The Yanks may be playing 7 inning ballgames this year.  And with that offense, they'll have a lot of leads.  But with that starting pitching...Don't rule these guys out.  They could surprise and win the division.

--But I don't think they will.  Go Sox.  The Fenway opener against the Yanks will mean more than usual, even if it is the very beginning of the season.  Speaking of which, the games with the Rangers will show a lot as well.  But why start at 4, then 8, then 2?  I'm just sayin'.  I mean, we all have DVR.

--When I heard that Jeter's shirts and apparel were the best-selling in baseball, by far, his recent contract made a lot more sense to me.  It ain't all about the play on the field.

--By the way, Pedroia outsold A-rod, for those of you keeping track.  And I was very surprised that Pujols barely made the top-10.  That ain't right.

--Beltre could've hit 30 homers a year at Fenway alone, had he stayed.  Just take a knee, and swing.  I haven't seen a swing better fit for Fenway, ever.  That swing would make all of those shots go over the Wall for Beltre, too.  He didn't have too many wall-balls last year.

--There's something going on with Beckett that we may read about in a few years.  Maybe Pap, too.

--The Sox and Yanks measure up closer than you'd think.  Both have questionable starting pitching that could either excel, or flame out.  The Sox starters, overall, are better, with Lester and Buchholz, but if Beckett and Lackey don't perform, and Dice-K's arm falls off, this could be a very disappointing year.  The 8th and 9th innings should be great for both teams--with the Yanks getting the nod--and the offense should be stellar, as well, with the Yanks getting the nod there as well, though the Sox's offense could pull away, as they've gotten younger while the Yanks have gotten older.  But this year may be a draw, with the Sox getting the upper hand offensively for the next few years.  The difference could come down to middle relief, of all things.  Or injuries.

--Because of this, watch out for the Rays.  And Rangers.  The Rays may still surprise, despite the firesale.  If their rookies perform well--and they might--they could be in the thick of the wild card.

--Sox and Phils at the end.

Curtis Martin, Deion Sanders and Shannon Sharpe

Whoa, it's been awhile.  Well, what drove me to post tonight, amidst all that's going on, is that Curtis Martin did not make it into the NFL HOF.  That's not right.  In 2004, he had a season for the ages.  For his career, his 3518 rushing attempts is 3rd; his 14,101 rushing yards is 4th; his 17,430 yards from scrimmage is 8th; the same number of all-purpose yards is 11th; and his 4,002 career touches is 3rd.  And there's a lot of other good things that he places 10th-12th in for his career, which, by the way, he spent with bad to mediocre teams.  He also played in every single game for 6 straight years--rare for a RB--and his stat sheet shows that he was an iron horse during his career.  An injury stopped a career that looked to be getting even better after a career year in what proved to be his last year.

All of this isn't good enough for the Hall?  What are they making him wait for?

Certainly I'm not knocking those who did make it: Deion Sanders was the best athlete of his generation--with maybe Bo Jackson in the same league--and was actually a good baseball player for a couple of years.  His slash-and-run offense would've been perfect for baseball in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Except, of course, that they wouldn't've let him play.  With his speed, he would've had 200 hits and 200 steals every year back then--and he did show flashes of that brilliance with the Reds.  He talked the talk, sure, but he sure walked the walk, too.  One of the rare impact players who played both sides of the ball.  (And he was a perfect fit for his Dallas owner, too.)

Shannon Sharpe is also worthy of inclusion.  He and Elway made the Broncos winners.  He was one of the best in history, no doubt.

But their inclusion is marred, a little bit, by Curtis Martin's rejection.  Someone needs to explain this to me. 

Hope Springs Eternal

Went to the annual Pawtucket Red Sox Hotstove today at McCoy Stadium to get free autographs.  With the frigid weather and a lack of no-doubt future major league stars, the turnout was low--and so was the wait!  Normally the lines last for hours, but that's with better weather and players like #1 draft pick Casey Kelly (last year; since traded to the Padres in the Adrian Gonzalez deal) and Lars Anderson and Daniel Bard the year before that (when Bard smudged his own autograph when he gave the ball back to me; I'm looking at it in my office now.  Anyone have a Daniel Bard autographed ball to trade?).

But even a wait of hours is worth it.  Even when it was about 3 degrees last year--and not much warmer this year--it's worth it.  Hope springs eternal at any ballgame, at any level, but at these things, even the ballplayers signing autographs need hope.  Most of them won't make it to the majors.  This year's athletes included a Rule V draftee from a few years ago and a pitcher who had a cup of coffee last year in September.  The Rule V guy--designated as a probable no-shot to begin with, as most Rule Vs are--probably won't make it to the majors if he's spent a few years in the minors as a Rule V guy already.  The pitcher who came up in September didn't impress; no one knows that more than him.  Those guys usually don't get 2nd chances.  The guy most likely to get to the majors today was Ryan Lavarnway, drafted 6th in 2009, who tore up Division I at Yale and set records for homers there; he hit 22 homers and drove in 102 last year.  But the Sox are stacked with catchers, and he's got to learn to call a better game if he's going to make it at all.  He'll probably be traded or go as a free agent to another team who needs a decent hitting catcher--if he doesn't hit the wall before then.

But any one of these guys could make it.  One of them could go all the way to the majors this year.  They show us that we all could do something we dream of.  I could get an agent this year; I could get a novel published.  That's why grown men stand in lines in the cold for hours to get autographs of other guys who most likely won't make it to the majors, thereby making their autographs worthless.

Because they could.  We all could.

Johnny and Manny

So Johnny Damon and Manny go to the Rays.  Who would've thought that Johnny Damon would get paid more for a year than Manny?  Johnny gets $5.25 million; Manny gets just over $2 million.  Not chump change for sure, but the Rays are saying right now that Damon is worth $3 million more than Manny.  Think about that a second!  Who could've seen that 5 years ago?  (Come to think of it, Jason Bay, who replaced Manny with the Sox, isn't doing so hot these days, either.)

Don't think it's Manny being Manny that got him the lower contract, either.  It's the spectre of the 'roids, of course.  I haven't seen Manny play every day for a couple of years now, but talk has it that his swing has holes now, that his wrist action is just a touch slower.  That's the absence of 'roids, people say.  I don't know.  But I have to say that I wouldn't pay a negative, whining, complaining slugger, who can't slug well and never could field well (though honesty compels me to say that his outfield throws have usually been very accurate)--and he's got a lousy work ethic, too.

Damon will give his all, and be largely inappropriate as he does so.  He'll field well and throw badly.  He'll draw his share of walks and pull some homers to right.  He'll steal quite a few bases if they let him play full-time, though he'll need to rest more these days.  People don't realize what a workhorse he used to be, playing over 155 games a year for many consecutive years.  All told, one of the more under-appreciated players of my baseball-watching career, which started in the mid-80s.  He'll be sabermatricians' favorite player by the time he retires.  He'll probably fall just short of the hall.  Manny, after the writers have punished him long enough for the 'roids and his on-field antics, will get in, probably after his 8th or 9th try.

Any Given Sunday

You play badly in football, you deserve to lose.  The Patriots played very badly indeed.  It was obvious after the pick, even though no points were scored on that, and when they went behind 10-3, I called it a loss and went out to dinner.  I was right.  (I'm good at calling their losses very early in the game.)  They deserved to lose, sad to say.  Winning isn't a right; you have to earn it.  Even as a fan of the team, I know this to be so.  They don't deserve to win just because I'm a fan of the team.  (Too many sports fans don't get this simple concept.)

Well, out of the 4 remaining teams, I'd have to call Pittsburgh, simply because they're the only team not severely over-performing.  The Packers, Bears and Jets are all playing over their heads; none of them are as good as they're playing--I don't care what Bill Parcells' famous expression says.  I'd have to pick Pittsburgh to win it all.  (As long as the Jets don't, I don't really care, to be honest.)

If they do, that would give Big Ben 3 Super Bowl wins, and now we're talking Hall of Fame credentials.  This is one of the uncomfortable things about sports, that you can't take individual honors away from a guy just because you don't like him.  It's the reason the Hall hasn't kicked out O.J., and it's why they'll have to let Big Ben in.  There's no doubt that he's not a great person--few of us are, I guess--but he seems to cross the line into seediness.  But if he wins again, he'll quietly have as many rings as Tom Brady, though he's obviously not in the same league as a player. 

That's the NFL today, or at least the Super Bowls in the last 7-10 years: the Patriots, the Colts and the Steelers, with occasional upsets thrown in.  There's parity, for sure, but still, at the peak, you have the same repeaters.  It's the latest secret of the sport: more wins for more teams, but in the end, when it matters most, the same ones are there, with an occasional surprise.

5 Baseball Musings

Quick randomness:

--Trevor Hoffman retired too late.  If you're a player having spent your entire career for one organization over a span of 15 years or more, you must reflect upon your decision to play for another team.  Trevor Hoffman finishing his career with the Brewers isn't like Tony Gwynn doing the same, but it's close.  He's free to do what he wants, and certainly the money was outstanding, as the Brewers severely overpaid, but...leaves a slightly bad taste.  Not like Favre leaving the Packers left a bad taste, but, again, it's comparable.

--With the trade of Matt Garza, the Rays have almost completely dismantled its playoff teams of the past few years.  They're going down now as the Rangers continue to ascend.  The lousy attendance at Rays games and the small fanbase were going to catch up with them sooner or later.  Hard to figure, as the Rays have been a winning and exciting team for some years now, certainly for long enough to build a solid fanbase.  But it didn't happen.  You might remember when the Braves weren't selling out home playoff games in the 1990s and 2000s, and when the Marlins couldn't draw during their 2 World Series winning years.  Sinful.

--If the Rays' rookies come through, they'll give the Yanks a fight for 2nd place.  Either way, though, don't look for the Wild Card team to come from the American League East this year.

--What happened to the Angels?  Why doesn't anyone want to play for them anymore?  Nobody's changed in the administration, and I'd play for their manager any day.  They have trucks of money to dump on players, as they always have, and yet nobody's taking it anymore.  They're losing players like they're the Expos, and they can't replace them.  The ones they've lost in the last 3-4 years could form an All-star team.  The players union knows something about the Angels that I and the more-than-casual fan don't know.

--I'll be in the stands for at least 4 Sox games this year.  I have a truly awesome friend who brings me (we travel for the other two games).  I TOLD YOU--I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO IT!!!