Saturday, February 27, 2010

Saturday Topic of Conversation

Weekends are kind of quiet here at RJG during the offseason. There is far less activity than during the weekdays. So I thought I'd just rant for a little bit since none of you are all that likely to read this.

Bob Raissman of the Daily News, who has the strange task of being a member of the media who covers the media's coverage of New York sporting events, wrote a recent article about how the media's treatment of A-Rod during the steroid scandal put the fan's on A-Rod's side (you know, because the media were such dicks about it).

This post isn't really about the article as much as it is about the following line:

Yeah, things can change quickly in one year.

Now, while RJG is hardly known for their commitment to grammar, I can't help but point out how flawed this sentence is. If the point is that things can change quickly, there is no reason to mention a fixed period of time, particularly one as long as a year. If the point is that things can change a lot during the course of a year, then a different adverb should have been used, like drastically, or dramatically.

This is hardly Raismann's fault. His copy editor really should have picked this up. But as it stands, this sentence makes no sense, and places the integrity of the entire print media industry under suspicion at a time when they are struggling. For shame, Daily News. For shame!

I said good day, sir!

8 comments:

lady gaganonymous said...

That's a hilarious picture of A-Rod at the top of the article.

lady gaganonymous said...

Also, I pretty much agree with the main argument of that article. Like, Mark McGwire. I was for the most part indifferent to him before the whole ROIDS! thing. He seemed like an okay person. I assumed he was on steroids, of course, but I still considered his single-season HR record legit, because God only knows how many pitchers were on something, as well as other hitters.

Anyway, so, he confesses. And then he has that interview with Costas, and it's awfully awkward, and he says he only used them to heal from injuries. Do I know if that's the truth? No. Maybe he's so far in denial that's really what he thinks. But all of a sudden everyone is all attacking him and going on about his body language and whatnot.

It was a lot like, what else do you people want? He voluntarily put his name out there, and had an interview with Bob Costas. How many other people were on that list, 100? How many of those have come out and said anything? And no, I don't think that "list" is even CLOSE to the number of people who were actually using. Giuys in the media, don't know if McGwire wasn't being genuine and it's probably unfair to accuse him of not being genuine when he's doing something that's obviously quite personally painful to him for the sake of the team he'll be working for, so that Pujols and Holliday don't have to spend their time during Spring Training talking about their new hitting coach.

Just because he used banned substances doesn't make Mark McGwire a bad person, just like it didn't make Andy Pettitte a bad person, just like it didn't make David Ortiz a bad person (Ortiz's stupid denial is another story, though). It's not ESPN's place or MLB Network's place to pass judgment on his character, and as much as I like Tom Verducci's writing, I'm appalled by how often he does this.

The Selena Roberts bullshit, the overanalysis of every facial expression he had during his press conferences, made me feel even worse for A-Rod. I don't really want to feel bad for A-Rod. He doesn't seem like a nice guy; he cheated on his wife. He's making a ridiculous amount of money. He's incredibly good at his chosen occupation, steroids or not. But ESPN, Sports Illustrated, The Yankee Years, and the stupid articles in the Post and News and stuff did the impossible: they made me feel bad for A-Rod.

/essay'd, I should get a blog

lady gaganonymous said...

"Giuys in the media, don't know if McGwire wasn't being genuine and it's probably unfair to accuse him of not being genuine when he's doing something that's obviously quite personally painful to him for the sake of the team he'll be working for, so that Pujols and Holliday don't have to spend their time during Spring Training talking about their new hitting coach."

Holy crap that was a BAD sentence. So, pretend that didn't happen and replace that with this:

Guys in the media don't know if McGwire was being genuine or not. It's probably unfair to accuse him of not being genuine when he's doing something that, to me at least, seemed quite personally painful to him, especially considering that it was likely for the sake of the team he'll now be playing for (so that Pujols, Holliday, etc. don't have to spend the year talking about their hitting coach).

Roberto E. Alejandro said...

There's no question the media's treatment of A-Rod drove fans to his corner. Of all the Athletes who have admitted use while still being involved in the game, A-Rod gave the most and they still wouldn't let it go. What hurt McGwire was his assertion that he would've hit 70 home runs anyway, without the steroids. A-Rod never said anything quite that stupid.

lady gaganonymous said...

A-Rod never said anything quite that stupid.

"Andy is one of the greatest human beings I’ve ever met. I have two daughters — well, I have one and one on the way. If I had a daughter, I would want ‘em to marry Andy Pettitte. The age difference might be a little awkward, but in today’s day and age anything is possible."

Not about steroids, but pretty dumb. Also it never fails to make me laugh my ass off.

lady gaganonymous said...

Also that quote is stupid not just because of... everything..., but because I am, in fact, marrying Andy Pettitte, not A-Rod's daughters.

You'll have to pardon my 01285028608 comments, I am miserably sick and I've done nothing but hang out on the computer all day and whine about it.

Roberto E. Alejandro said...

Sorry you're feeling ill. The comments is what keeps us going so comment all you want! Nothing is worse than writing a post late Friday night or early Saturday morning, and then you get your first comment on Monday when people get back to the office.

lady gaganonymous said...

I feel vaguely better today because I hung out with my super hot husband Andy Pettitte.