A Pity Party for Junior
By
Amanda
Posted at 9:45 pm
Bill Madden had a particularly schmaltzy piece in yesterday's New York Daily News. It was called Junior achievement: Staying on the field and it got awfully sentimental about one Ken Griffey, Jr., who, at the ripe old age of 36, is too young to be getting sentimental about, imo.
No less an authority than Hank Aaron himself predicted he would be the one to break the all-time home run record, but that was before Griffey came home to Cincinnati and seemingly began playing every season hurt. His legs have betrayed him these past five years and, as such, denied him the opportunity to make a run at Aaron that, instead, is being made by the cheater that is Barry Bonds.
In Junior's case, it is he who has been cheated, but as he was saying last night in the solitude of the Reds clubhouse before their 9-2 loss to the Mets, we should not feel sorry for him.
He's got a good point, of course. We could all feel sorry for Junior. If only he could have our lives, things would be OK for him.
But he doesn't want that! Oh, no! He'll put on a brave face and face the harsh reality of hanging with Tiger Woods, playing himself in video games, and tooling around in cars worth more than your life!
OK, that sounds nasty. I know that Junior isn't feeling sorry for himself, or, if he is, he's keeping it to himself. I'm just bitter because I write schmaltzy crap like this all the time, but I'm not getting printed in any big New York newspapers.
And for that, I blame Madden's steroid habit. Damn cheater.
The Daily News is a joke anyways. I don’t think you really want to be seen around those parts.
The baseball press in New York is a joke, period. Every December they pick the Yankees to win the AL East, and pick all the other teams that won the previous year to repeat, and pass that off as expertise. They now look real smart after picking Atlanta in the NL East again this year, now that the Braves are in the cellar and the Mets are mad at ’em for picking the Braves again. It’s hard enough to handicap the pennant races in July. These guys would like us to think they can do it before spring training even begins. They can’t. Nobody can. Try it in August and you’ll have better luck.
In between they spend their time coming up with the most ridiculous trade rumors possible: Sean Casey to the Mets (last year), Griffey to the Yankees (last year and this year), .
Go back and read what Griffey said about himself when he tied Ted Williams on the carrer home runs list. Madden’s right about Bonds, but there’s no reason to go all misty-eyed about Griffey in order to get in a shot at Bonds. For once I agree with geki about something. You wouldn’t want to to lower yourself to run with that particular bunch of dawgs.
HMZ