Interesting Article

Win baby, win. Chuck Klosterman might have the worst name in history of world, but the guy has a point. While 100% of the people might not act this way, a very large majority of fans do.

The only thing we truly demand of pro athletes is that (a) they never associate with known gamblers, and (b) they always, always try to win. Randy Moss put a kid in the hospital and purposefully hit a cop with his Lexus, but the biggest mistake he ever made was relaxing on Vikings running plays; his critics will never forgive him for being openly lackadaisical. Ron Artest punched private citizens who paid to watch him work, but I'd still want him on my team if we were up two points with 15 seconds remaining on the clock; he'd surrender his body to protect the baseline. The greatest compliment you can give any athlete is that he would rather die than lose. And this is curious, since that particular behavior would be classified as idiotic in every other aspect of life.

Of course social lives of players and how they conduct themselves is by and large irrelevant to many sports fans. While I do not like Ron Artest, if he was on my favorite team helping win games (this is assuming I actually liked basketball), I do not know if I would care. I would not be buying an Artest jersey, but I might not care he is on my team. We only care about winning, which is understandably the biggest point for fans, and villify anyone who exudes anything less to win 100% of the time.

You are not like Cal Ripken Jr. You aren't that dedicated, you aren't that intense, and you care about your job a whole lot less. Ripken might be your favorite player of the past 25 years, but the two of you have almost nothing in common. In fact, I bet there are many days when you wish you could just take a suitcase of money to Australia, drop out of society, grow out you hair and smoke cannabis all afternoon while having sex with whoever you felt like. In fact, if you had the chance, you'd probably do it tomorrow. But you know what? I bet you also think Ricky Williams is despicable.

It really is a good read because Bode Miller was more or less vilified for his non-performance at the Olympics. But the entire point to that guy is that he does what he wants. He does not train in the off season like he should because he likes to drink beer and hang out with his friends. How horrible is that? In contrast to Miller, a guy like David Wright works 24/7 to perfect himself as a baseball player. Is anyone right or wrong? Absolutely not, but it is food for thought. As fans we often want a guy like Miller hung for his indifference towards his sport at times. We are all envious of the position he is in. However, it boils down to this. There are people that are just wired differently. You give me $10 million right now, I am off to Costa Rica never to be seen again. There are people so driven that money does not matter. It will not matter how much money they make, success is what drives them. They would try and take that $10 million and make it into $50 million, even if there is a chance they will lose it. Is Miller that bad of a guy? Though I like to laugh at him, no. He is not that bad of a guy and probably a lot like us, but with a load of natural talent.

* * *

Soler is going to have to work his way to the big club as he is going to Minor League camp.


The Mets reassigned four pitchers to the minor league side Wednesday: Alay Soler, Mike Venafro, Anderson Garcia and Tim LaVigne.

The Mets won 8-5 behind a five run eighth inning.

Aaron Heilman hurled four shutout innings, allowing three hits and striking out three, as the Mets won their third straight game, 8-5, over the Washington Nationals.

Milledge went 1 for 2 with two runs scored, Wright went 1 for 2 with two walks, Chris Basak went 2 for 2 with three RBIs, and Victor Diaz went 1 for 5 with his first homer of the spring.

Floyd's kidney's are healthy and happy.

"I wasn't even nervous, man," Floyd said. "She had put me in the state [of], 'You know what? If everything is going wrong, at least we're going to be able to catch it in time.'

As The Toe Turns.....Pedro feels good after making a minor leaguer look like a minor leaguer.

"It went pretty good," Martinez said. "I was a little stiff at first, but loosened up."

How about this for corporate speak:

Once the sale is finalized, a Comcast spokesperson said the company would evaluate the system and is always looking to expand its programming options. It stands to reason that Comcast would add a network it owns.

Umm, yeah. It seems pretty obvious. Cablevision is still not on board and they will be 'trying' to reach a resolution so Cablevision's customers will see the station's launch tonight.

"We are committed to working out a deal and hope to finalize it prior to our launch on Thursday," said SNY spokesman Andrew Fegyveresi.

Cablevision spokesman Jim Maiella said, "While we hope and expect to reach final agreement to carry SportsNet New York, such an agreement is not yet completed."

USA Today has an article on David Wright with plenty of quotes from Mr. March himself.

Perfect fodder for those back pages. "I would enjoy that," Rodriguez says of a cross-town rivalry with Wright. "I think it would be great for both of us."

and...

"It looks like he has a real good idea of the game, a real respect for the game," Rodriguez says. "That's rare for young players to have that type of feel at the plate and for the game. He has an outstanding reputation as a player, and it's well deserved."

Both quotes were pretty standard responses. Whatever, I still think he is a punk.

I can read these quotes all day from the Asian teams. They read like quotes from a samurai movie.

"We gave everything we had," Japan manager Sadaharu Oh said in the post game. "We learned that our opponents' desire was higher than ours."

The Asian players seem to approach the game with respect and exhibit humility, but c'mon. Just for once I want to see some fire. Even when they got screwed they were tame about it. Amazingly enough though, 39,679 fans showed up to the game and Chan Ho Park is pitching like Cy Young. Park threw five scoreless innings and threw 66 pitches, 50 of which were strikes. Next up? Roger Clemens vs. Oliver Perez. Strangely enough, all is not right in the universe and the USA team needs to lose in a high scoring game to help Japan moves on.

Gooden is in trouble again.

Gooden, 41, is being held without bond after violating the terms of his probation by testing positive for cocaine on Tuesday. The former Mets and Yankees pitcher faces up to five years in jail, a prosecutor told The Associated Press yesterday.

He's famous. I doubt he gets five years, but in case you wanted to site by side compare of Doc and Darryl's escapades, click here.