Bobby Valentine Attacks the Yankees - The Spin Starts Here

Article first published as Bobby Valentine Attacks the Yankees - The Spin Starts Here on Blogcritics.

Whether you like Bobby Valentine, new skipper of the Boston Red Sox, or not, you have to admit he knows how to stir the pot and cause a commotion. Bobby V (as he is affectionately known here in New York) is a master provocateur, a spin artist of the highest caliber. Bill O'Reilly's famous catch phrase is "The spin stops here." Bobby's might as well be "The spin starts here." Believe it or not, he would not have it any other way.

It has been ten years since Bobby has managed a Major League Baseball team. In that time he has not climbed a mountain in Tibet and become enlightened; no, Bobby hasn't changed one bit. He started talking to the press and you know there is always a game plan. There was some negative press going on about the Red Sox: beer was being banned in the clubhouse, Jason Varitek was retiring, the team blew it last year, etc. What better way for Bobby to spin things his way than to attack the New York Yankees? You can either get agitated about it or sit back and admire how crafty Bobby V can be.

Today Bobby Valentine is splashed across the headlines in the New York papers. Yankees fans are outraged that he spoke about the sacred cow Derek Jeter, and the less than sacred cow A-Rod. Jeter lied about a play being practiced by the Yankees a decade ago; who can even remember what happened last season? Varitek beat A-Rod up; I am not even sure about when or where this happened. For Bobby V the devil is not just in the details - it is the light of his life to get people agitated about them.

As a Mets fan I still like Bobby Valentine. I admire how he managed my team, how he stood up for New York after 9/11, and the way he pushed his team to be the best team it could be (even when that was difficult to say the least). All the other stuff with Bobby V is the package deal: getting thrown out of the game and sitting with a disguise in the clubhouse, for example. Saying things that he knew were going to get people angry or talking. That's Bobby and there's no changing him.

The problem is that Yankees fans now want to break down Bobby's comments and defend their guys. They want to prove that Jeter did practice that play, that A-Rod didn't get beaten up, and on and on. The problem is that is exactly what someone like Bobby wants. You argue about what he says, you get into a debate, you rage against him and the Red Sox, and he thinks he is winning. You know what, since the focus is off his team and on these silly comments, he has succeeded exactly as planned.

So take it from a Mets fan who knows Bobby V's act - the devil is in the details. Yankees fans (and anyone else for that matter) should not get sucked in by what he says. They shouldn't get angry and bothered and want blood, because in that way Bobby thinks he is winning, and maybe he is because it is his fault the spin gets started but it's everyone else's for letting it spin out of control.

One thing is for certain, the baseball season will be a lot more entertaining with Bobby V back in the picture. Welcome back, Bobby Valentine!

Photo Credit - AP

To Tell the Truth: The Tale of Roger Clemens

This article first appeared as To Tell the Truth: The Tale of Roger Clemens on Blogcritics.


"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
-John 8:32

We always want to believe people, at least I know that I do. When someone tells me something, I like to think that person is being honest. We hope that this will carry over to our children because kids tend to lie, sometimes often, and if they learn the truth is better than lying early on, perhaps they will not succumb to this childhood malady consistently and then fall deeper into the truth-less abyss later on.

Who knows the truth about Roger Clemens? I am not saying this on a superficial level. We fans of baseball only know that. We certainly don't know Roger, just as we don't know Alex Rodriguez, David Wright, Mark Sanchez, Eli Manning, and all the other sports figures out there. We think we know them, but we only know what is presented to us: the persona that has been honed as the marketable entity that comes across on the field and in interviews.

I'd like to think that the person who knows Roger best is Roger. Perhaps his wife and children would fit in there, then his friends, his teammates, and so on, but the only person who truly knows Roger is Roger. It is like that for all of us. We live our lives, though surrounded by people, ostensibly alone. Within our own minds and in our own hearts, we know the truth of truths. No one else knows everything we know. No one.

If you are like me, I want to believe in the essential goodness of each human being. I want to believe that everyone has a good heart, but as reality slaps us in the face again and again, we understand that is not the case. People who strap bombs onto their bodies and walk into crowded places are not good. People who harm innocent children have no goodness in themselves. We realize that there are many fine people, but that bad ones exist and, even if in their hearts they see themselves as heroes, we know that is because something has warped their ability to discern reality.

Roger Clemens says he looks forward to telling the truth. His former trainer Brian McNamee says that he only told the truth. Andy Pettite told his version of the truth, and he will likely be the key witness in this whole thing. Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Jose Canseco, and many more told their truths as well. It becomes a he said; he said: my version of the truth verses your version of the truth. Who can prove what? How far will it go into a person's inner sanctum? What consequences are there if somehow or other the facts are presented that your version of the truth is false?

In this case, if Roger Clemens lied, he did so under oath. Again, in my naive world, I like to think that if you raise your right hand and place your left hand on anything - the Bible, a stack of baseball cards, or even The Wall Street Journal - that you have now committed yourself to truth telling. A lawyer friend of mine joked that lying under oath happens all the time. Whew! There goes my faith in the system, but then again it becomes the court's duty to decipher truth from lies. My friend says good lawyers can pick away at the veneer of lies and get to the truth. Hmmm.

Whatever happens to Roger Clemens is going to happen. I have heard reports claiming that he could get anything from thirty years, to thirty days, to a suspended sentence. I can tell you this, and I'm saying this as a Met fan, I don't see any good coming from Roger Clemens staying even one minute in jail. What will that prove about the system and about lying? What will that teach the kids who look up to sports figures? Nothing, if Clemens goes on and still claims he told the truth, was wrongly accused and incarcerated, and then comes out and writes a book about the whole thing and makes even more money, he stands to be more of a folk hero than anything else.

I think what has to happen is a concerted effort toward truthfulness. If Roger can tell the truth, kids might think, maybe I should too. Yeah, I did take that pack of gum from the store. Oh, I did lie about not having a test tomorrow. I did break that lamp, Dad. Sorry. Like that's ever going to happen, right?

The problem is that lying is all around us. People lie and famous people make a career out of it. In the world that is professional sports and in the everyday world the rest of us know, people lie and that is never going to stop. Sadly, something like this only reinforces the convictions of those who lie to push the truth even deeper into that despicable me. It becomes a "No one will ever know what I know!" kind of thing.

None of us will ever know Roger's truth; the question is does Roger know the truth, or is it so far down and covered with camouflage stories that even he doesn't know anymore?

Jesus said, "The truth will set you free." Maybe Roger should try it and see how it feels. Hey, maybe we all should.

Santana Blanks Rockies; K-Rod Does the Pokey Hokey

Article first published as Santana Blanks Rockies; K-Rod Does the Pokey Hokey on Blogcritics.

Oh, the slings and arrows of outrageous Mets fortune. Johan Santana is being accused by a woman of sexual assault, and Francisco Rodriguez (K-Rod) was hauled off to jail for attacking his girlfriend's father. These two guys obviously have a lot on their minds and on their plates, but Thursday's game turned out to be a good one for the Mets (57-57) as they defeated the Colorado Rockies (59-55) 4-0.

Santana was pitching like a man with a mission out there. He said after the victory that he told manager Jerry Manuel that he felt like going out and pitching ten innings. With K-Rod cooling his heels in court, suffice it to say that the Mets bullpen definitely needed a rest. Santana (10-6) scattered four hits en route to his second complete game of the season.

When reporters asked Santana about the situation with the woman who is accusing him in a civil law suit, Santana answered in his trademark calm and collected style. He said it is a matter for the courts and that was that. Whether or not he's guilty, Santana is certainly conducting himself like a gentlemen in public. Privately, if he had consensual sex with the woman (he is married) as he claims, or if he did indeed force himself on her, he is something less than gentlemanly.

Of course, everything is different with the combustible closer Rodriguez. After the Mets crushing defeat on Tuesday night, Rodriguez was apparently on a rampage. The Mets were up by a score of 2-1 in the eighth inning, but with two out and bases loaded, Manuel elected to not bring in Rodriguez and instead inserted Manny Acosta, who gave up a grand slam to ex-Met Melvin Mora. While K-Rod was right to feel slighted by this (and it proves Manuel's managing skills are severely in doubt), he tore into the clubhouse and cursed at reporters before going into the player's family lounge where he attacked his girlfriend's father.

K-Rod was released without bail on Thursday after appearing in Queens court, while a few miles away Santana was blanking the Rockies. The closer has been suspended by the team for two games, and perhaps more sanctions and punishment await him (including, perhaps, an anger management course?). A restraining order has been filed and he may not go near the house he shares with his girlfriend and her parents. All in all, it was a good day for one Mets pitcher and a very bad day for another.

Still, a fog hangs over the Mets clubhouse now. The allegations against Santana were bad enough to cause ill will with fans, but this thing with K-Rod puts things over the top. No matter how much you love the Mets - and many of us still do after everything that has happened during this disappointing year - this is straining the even most loyal fans and pushing them to the limit.

Santana and K-Rod. Is this what the Mets wanted when they signed these two guys? I know fans thought they would help bring a pennant our way, but once again that's not happening this year. It looks like legal matters are going to hound them both until the end of the season, and things are going to get a lot worse before they get any better as far as these two guys are concerned. That's the lot of Mets fans these days, and across town A-Rod must be smiling from ear-to-ear because no one seems worried about his cheating on his wife or taking steroids for three years anymore.

As they say, folks, only in New York.

A-Rod Hits 600: Put It in the Books with an Asterisk

Article first published as A-Rod Hits 600: Put It in the Books with an Asterisk on Blogcritics.

"Damaged goods." That is what my friend and Yankee fan Frank (he prefers for me not to use his last name) said when I asked him what he thought about Alex Rodriguez's 600th home run against the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium yesterday. I was glad that Frank qualified it this way. When pressed about the number 600, he said, "Put it in the books with an asterisk."

Rodriguez hit a ball to straight away center field, ending his pursuit with of number 600 against Toronto's Shaun Marcum. As A-Rod rounded the bases, getting cheered all the way, it was as if the fans and he believed that this moment was special. Later on he confessed to being glad it was all over, but for his team and their fans it is never over with A-Rod. Now he and they can set their sights on number 700, right?

Okay, I am a New York Mets fan, but I am also a fan of baseball. I had to check with Frank (with whom I have had lots of heated discussions in the past about our two teams) because he bleeds pinstripes as much as I bleed Mets orange and blue. I can appreciate great Yankees players like Derek Jeter, Thurman Munson, and Mickey Mantle for what they have meant to baseball. But the question invariably with A-Rod is what has he done to baseball?

I know there are those who don't care about steroids. They didn't care when Mark McGwire walked around like the Incredible Hulk and hit all those homeruns. Chalk that up for Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds too. They only cared about all the dingers and how it was good for baseball. Good for baseball? Saying these tainted players were or are good for baseball is like saying the Gulf oil spill was good for tourism. Give me a break.

The great sports columnist Mike Lupica, writing in today's issue of the New York Daily News, says that Bobby Bonds put a message to A-Rod on his website: "Welcome to the club." As Lupica notes, "Yeah. They're in the same club." As always Lupica hits the salient nail on the head: A-Rod is part of the Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa club, and not the Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Babe Ruth club. Pure and simple: A-Rod's accomplishment has the whiff of something foul to it.

Make no mistake, A-Rod is a great player. He has enormous natural talent, but the problem is that he sought to enhance that talent in ways that are not in keeping with the fundamental, natural beauty of the game. He is a bad influence on other players who see his success and think, "Why not me too?" Furthermore, he is a terrible role model for kids who aspire to be baseball players, who may think they need to do something even at a young age to enhance their natural abilities in order to perform better, to get noticed, and maybe make it to the big show.

So in the Bronx in New York City yesterday, A-Rod hit is 600th career home run. I kept thinking, "Thank God he is not a New York Met." I have always thought that was, as the legendary Mets broadcaster Ralph Kiner used to say, "One of the best deals never made." I know a lot of Mets fans wanted A-Rod back then, but we can breathe easier because all his talent and all his problems are on the other side of town. Let Yankees fans try to sort out how they feel about his legacy and his place in Yankee history; we can be honest with ourselves that it's better this way.

What about A-Rod's legacy? As my friend Frank says, "Damaged goods." So let baseball put A-Rod and his 600 in the books with a big fat asterisk. Bonds said that A-Rod is part of the club now. I guess it depends on how you look at it, but I keep thinking about that great Groucho Marx line: "I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members." Damaged goods, indeed!