Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Update, because it was just too awesome.
Matt Chatham plays Twister with Mitch Fatel of the Tonight Show at Superbowl Media Day.
Jed Weaver is in charge of the spinner.
When the spinner lands on green, Chatham says, "I ain't touching green! Those are Philly colors!" Note that Fatel, at this point, is completely obscured. Photos via Boston.com by Scott LaPierre.
Sorry, but I just couldn't let those pass by. Back to your regular entry.
Please read this article. I enjoyed it on so, so many levels.
1. The confirmation of my belief that A-Rod was tagging along after Jeter all season long. I've made little side mentions of this before, like on September 25 when I at one point said, "6-4, Yankees. Jeter throws his despicable little fist up in the air while A Rod claps sycophantically next to him, gazing upwards from underneath his lightly gelled coiffure. Matsui on second. This is NOT happening." Uh. Yeah. It's much easier for me to reread that stuff these days, by the by.
2. "...my approach is not to be everyone's best friend. My approach is to win championships. The only way to do that is to be myself, and to take care of my world. With my talent people will follow naturally." Oh, really? Win championships? How's that been working out for you, *cough*Seattle*cough*Texas*cough*NewYork*coughcoughcoughCHOKE*? And 'take care of my world'? What does that even mean?
3. Steinbrenner telling A-Rod that he has to be less worried about his 'friendship with Jeter' and should be a little meaner if he has to be, and these remarks being made public. Oh boy oh boy oh boy, I can't wait to see how this one plays out during the season. Sure, it could end up being a huge nonissue, but some more drama in tha already theatrical Yankee clubhouse sure would go down nicely.
4. A-Rod refusing to go to Jeter's celebrity golf tournament, which I interpret thusly: it's like the girl who refuses to go to the really popular girl's sleepover party, even though she was invited, because her parents told her that she was popular enough on her own, and because she wants to prove to herself that she's cooler than the popular girl anyways, even though in her heart she knows that isn't true.
OK, so I really just wanted another opportunity to compare A-Rod to a little girl, but you have to admit that the metaphor is rather apt.
5. The fact that, after the much-maligned event where VIPs spent bundles of cash to have a 'quality experience' with A-Rod and/or Barry Bonds, A-Rod donated the money he made to charity, while Bonds allegedly spent his share to redecorate his home. This actually makes A-Rod look good, but you'd think giving the money to charity would be sort of a no-brainer at that salary level. Oh Barry Bonds, you dismally large-headed buffoon, how your exploits make me chuckle. Thank fuck I'm not a Giants fan.
6. "I was brought here as the final piece of the puzzle, and we were supposed to win," A-Rod said. "For that, I accept the blame." Hm. Perhaps. Perhaps. Hard to tell if he's trying to step it up and be a man about taking responsibility or if he's being egomaniacal about his impact on the team. After all, they lost in large part when their pitchers collectively imploded. Can't discount those delightful meltdowns in the final estimation, and unless A-Rod was putting laundry soap in Tom Gordon's water bottle (it would explain the vomiting before games, though. hmm) I don't think he can 'accept the blame' for their (non)performances.
7. On the Arroyo-ball-slap play: "In the heat of the moment, you do things sometimes out of instinct," Rodriguez said. "I thought it was a smart play, and we almost got away with it. We put an umpire in the position of having to turn over a call like that in Yankee Stadium. It gave us a shot. (Umpire) Jim Joyce told me, 'if you'd knocked the crap out of (Arroyo) it would've been legal because he was in your way.' So if I had a chance to do it again, I would've tried to run him over. Even though I probably would've hurt someone with my weight and velocity, dropping my shoulder down."
*gapes*
Um. Wow. I can't really believe he's still defending that play, but to say that he would've willingly dropped his shoulder and drilled Arroyo is a bit beyond that. It's not like Arroyo was in his path, he came at the first baseline tangentially, from the pitchers mound, meaning that if A-Rod wanted to 'run him over' he would've had to charge off in that direction. I mean, the whole thing was Arroyo coming in from the side, reaching out with the ball in his glove because his body wasn't on the baseline, and getting the ball slapped out. Maybe A-Rod meant he would've gladly run over Mientkie, who was actually on the baseline? But Mientkie didn't have the ball.
Wow. Just... wow.
8. "I'll never forget that. I'll be 75 years old, thinking, 'what could we have done differently?'" Ah, I hope so. I dearly hope so.
Anyways, I think we all need to give Bob Klapisch a great big ol' cyberhug for giving us this delightful article, and for giving me a way to blow some downtime between studios. As with the World Series this past October, everyone wins. Um, except for New York and St. Louis, but you know.
1:39 PM
|
|
