These thoughts are my own and not associated with anyone else, enjoy.
While watching the ESPN program PTI tonight. Co-host Michael Wilbon made several observations that left me aghast. While talking about MLB's attempt this year to shorten the game, Wilbon mentioned that doing away with warm up pitches between innings should be eliminated. Eliminated? Has this sports personality ever been a pitcher, or coached baseball? Warm up pitches are not just a novelty, they are a necessity. A pitchers arm is a fragile thing. Its not like throwing a football, or shooting a free throw (something his overblown NBA players cannot do). A pitchers arm could literally kill someone. Here is the proof. For nearly half a century in baseball, baseballs were nasty, spit and snot covered brown blobs being hurled at a batter 90 feet away at speeds nearing triple digits. Then something happened. A batter was killed. Ray Chapman was killed on August 17, 1920 when a ball thrown by Yankees pitcher Carl Mayes. The reason, the ball stained by spit, slime, snot and tobacco juice could not be seen. Chapman was struck in the side of the head and dies 12 hours later. The only on field fatality in MLB history. In case your wondering, batting helmets were unheard of, and wouldn't be for a few more decades and then only "invented" by a Negro League batter who was tired of getting hit in the head. Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League are the only two major sporting leagues that has a player killed while playing. Bill Masterton, of the Minnesota North Stars was killed as the result of massive head injuries received in 1968.
How many have been killed by a NBA free throw? None. How many killed by a passed football? None. A pitcher warming up is a needful thing, not a time killer or a show. It is also needed so a pitcher, who's arm is oft times insured because of the valuable nature of his skill, does not injure himself. Its not like a NBA prima-donna who can clap 3 times, throw a handful of chalk into the air and go out and lose a game (with his bogus "I can't breathe" shirt on as well). Why do you think they work pitchers and catchers out before everyone else in spring training. Why do they have a place for extra or relief pitchers to "warm up" in called the bullpen? Its not for show, it is for safety, for both the batter and the pitcher (and even the umpire); its for common sense.
So let's see the score so far, Wilbon 0, Common Sense 1.
His next moment of ignorance, came after speaking of two players who should be banned from the game. Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez. If you are a baseball purist, you will know that Pete Rose and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson should be in the Hall of Fame, but that is a topic for another day. The only juice they did was tobacco juice.
Apparently Bonds is giving A-Rod lessons (insert your favorite comment or pun), helping him on his return to the league this year. Wilbon went on to state that Bonds is an excellent teacher. Really? Barry Bonds, Jr? The player who is probably the biggest cry baby in baseball? The man who when he departed from Arizona State the team had a party? The player who got mad after his teammate won the MVP and they won a ton of games and got into a fight with him? The same one who made his manager, Dusty Baker, trade the said MVP because he out did him on the field? The one who lied to a Federal Grand Jury, multiple times? The man who hit all those home runs (with an asterisk)? The biggest loser in baseball? BALCO. The "cream" and the "clear"? The biggest and worst possible insult to baseball, ever? What the???? Bonds is teaching A-Rod how to get back into the league this year. In case you missed it A-rod was banned this past year for using Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs). He whined and cried leaving a wake of lawyers and doctors wondering why he didn't take his medicine a shut up. This is great. Some at ESPN think A-Rod is great for baseball. They want him to return with a flourish. Bonds teaching A-Rod, to Wilbon it was a grand thing. It is a joke, that is what it is. Both players should be banned from baseball and all their records removed from the record books. The only thing they should be teaching each other is how to be ashamed. Which is impossible because they have no shame about them.
Final Score - Wilbon 0, Common Sense 2.
Thanks.
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