It's not about the team playing to make the media happy. The NY media at least creates a level of intensity where if you go into Pittsburgh, and it's raining with 5 people in the stadium, you will be called out in public as a team if you serve up three stinkers the way the Reds did. I like that as a fan. That type of heavy scrutiny is good. Also, it's the only form of entertainment when the team fails to provide any. And at the bottom of all this, a baseball team must entertain. It may be my New York point-of-view, but there it is.
"Don't trust any statistics you did not fake yourself."--Winston Churchill
I agree with all of you. Heh. The New York and Boston media have been goading their teams since DiMaggio and Williams. The back-of-the-tabloid frenzy is notorious, and Steinbrenner used to play to that, and play his favorite writers off against players who were in his doghouse. I'm not sure Cincinnati wants newspaper reporters to go all Bill Cunningham on the team, or to make Adam Dunn's mother cry, but an independent streak would be healthy, especially if it's thoughtful and well-researched, like John Erardi's work. C. Trent has an independent mind and a goofy, doesn't-take-himself-seriously approach that I like. The beat reporters by the nature of their jobs are going to want to get along with the people they see each day, and the veteran columnists are going to have a back-in-the-day approach to things. It would be good to have an independent voice asking well-founded challenging questions.
The Phillies are, and always will be, bums in the view of the Philly media. Doesn't matter if they are winning or losing, they are always bums. Having lived in that town for 2+ years, I was amazed at how brutal the Philly media and the Philly fans were for all their sports teams especially when the team(s) were winning. Ryan Howard hit 58 HR 2 years ago, yet he was criticized for not hitting 60 or 61. Jimmy Rollins won the MVP last year, and the Philly media said he was at best the 3rd best player on the team. Why Brad Lidge would want anything to do with Philly I'll never know, but he's now their closer, and I fully expect him to be institutionalized when he blows saves and the Phillies Phans want to crucify him.
This July 30th will be the 2 year anniversary of the Phillies Phans and media running Bobby Abreu out of town, and getting absolutely nothing of value in return. Just think of what the Phillies could have been last year or this year with Bobby Abreu. I fully expect the Philles Phans and media to run Chase Utley and Ryan Howard out of town within the next 5 years, b/c it would be such a Philly thing to do.
They ran Abreu out of town. Then ran Iverson out of town. They're in the process of running McNabb out of town. And I'm sure there's some hockey player they've either run out of town recently, or are in the process of running out of town.
And I'm sure there's some hockey player they've either run out of town recently, or are in the process of running out of town.
I wouldn't consider Lindros recent.
But yeah, they did a number on him, too.
The best example I can think of is the fact they hated the best 3B to ever play, Michael Jack Schmidt. Absolutely hated him, and still hate him. To a lesser extent, it's exactly how we treat Dunn and Griffey in Cincinnati.
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