Gammons: "Chris, you beat the crap out of your girlfriend, put her in the hospital, and bit her on the arm. Was it hard filming those Doublemint Gum commercials?"
Brown: "It has been a difficult time for all of us" etc.
Anyway, nothing we could write would be as easy-going and predictable as the actual Gammons/Rodriguez interview, so tonight's Dugout is just me copy and pasting text from the transcript into the field next to the images. Just try to picture Pete gnawing on his upper lip like he does while you read.
While most would agree that publicly admitting and apologizing for taking steroids while in Texas was the best move Alex Rodriguez could have made, even if it was just an "I'm sorry that I got caught" admission, there has still been some trouble stemming from the admission. For Rodriguez, he's taken some grief about making claims that Selena Roberts was stalking him, and had even broken into his house.
Those allegations have even gotten Peter Gammons in trouble for not making Rodriguez explain the comments or at least show some proof. Though now we're finding out why Rodriguez might not have any evidence to show, because according to the police, there are no such records of anything ever happening.
Before Sports Illustrated published their accusation that Alex Rodriguez failed a steroid test, Selena Roberts gave him a chance to tell his side of the story. He refused, waiting for the news to break before admitting the allegations were true in a televised interview with ESPN's Peter Gammons. Why did he wait?
I think it's obvious. Aside from any grudge he may have against Roberts for writing a soon-to-be-published biography about him, he must have known that she would be looking for specific details to verify information received from anonymous sources. In other words, she'd be practicing actual journalism.
On Monday, the great Peter Gammons sat down for an interview with Alex Rodriguez to discuss his 2003 positive steroid test and the recent report leaking the information. ESPN will air the interview in full on Monday night's SportsCenter, but have previewed a portion in which A-Rod verified that the report, and the initial test's results, were both accurate, and that his use was voluntary. (See video here)
I usually wouldn't waste more than a nanosecond even thinking about Gregg Doyel. I quit reading him years ago because he seems to think the sports journalism world is a professional wrestling outfit. You see, he's playing the "bad guy" (heel, as they call it in the wrestling biz). His gimmick (the part he plays) is of that guy that simply writes things to piss people off. The more negative comments and e-mails he receives, the better -- then he gets to run his hate mail column!
(I have no idea if he still does this because I quit reading him -- but he used to print hateful emails he received and he'd google the people's names and expose their professions. Something like, "you're a banker in a hicktown, what do you know?" It was an exercise that reeked of small man's syndrome.)
Anyway, the reason I'm here now is that I made a mistake last night. I saw the obviously-baiting headline, "Fix the World Series? Why Bother with America's Afterthought?" and clicked on it. I screamed about as loud as I do when I hear "Saved by Zero." Then I noticed it was a Doyel article. I can't bear the thought that I gave a page hit to this dude.
Manny Ramirez does many, many weird things. Many weird things. Oddly enough, however, shameless self promotion usually isn't one of them.So it's not even that shocking to hear him tell reporters that he wants nothing to do with the Most Valuable Player award.
"It's nice that some people think I deserve it," Ramirez said. "I'd like to win it. But I have to be realistic. Someone who was only here for two months doesn't deserve it. It should go to someone who played the six months of the season."
Ramirez said he has resigned himself to the reality that he might never win an MVP award.
"I've played 16 years, I've been a pretty good player and I've never won it," he said. "It's not a big deal. I'll go on with my life."
Now, for the most part, Manny is right. He doesn't deserve to win it. But not because he's only played a half season in the NL.
It's hard to talk about the MVP Award for Manny when the team that paid the Dodgers to take Ramirez is 27-13 without him through Sunday and have seen their runs per game increase from 4.94 at the time of the deal to 6.22 since.
Yes, yes it is. As good as the Dodgers have been ... well, the Red Sox have been better. And Manny's seen that, so he knows that while he makes a tremendous difference in the NL West, it's not like the Dodgers have been white hot the entire time. Or, you know, are a guarantee to finish above .500
In our country's history of bizarre endorsements, I don't think Peter Gammons calling Mark Cuban's purchase of the Cubs a "great fit" is quite as shocking as say, Hunter S. Thompson rising from the grave to declare the need for another four years of Dubya, but it's pretty bizarre.
Gammons is as old school as it gets in baseball, but according to his most recent blog post, he wholeheartedly endorses Cuban as Cubs owner, despite the possibility that there may be forces (the obviously evil and heartless Commissioner Bud Selig) working against him.
But there is increasing speculation that Sam Zell, the chairman and chief executive officer of the Tribune Company, is not going to allow the Commissioner's Office to puppeteer the sale, and that Mark Cuban is in this thing far deeper than Selig and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf want to believe. NBA commissioner David Stern has told those associated with Cubs that Cuban is one of the NBA's best partners, and everyone appreciates that Cuban understands fans and marketing, and is one of the creative pioneers of the world of new media and would create a tremendous buzz throughout baseball that would be nothing but beneficial to the industry.
Nothing about Cuban is surprising anymore ... except perhaps that David Stern is giving him positive reviews. I kid, I kid. Kind of.
Cuban and Stern have gone head to head on plenty of stuff in his tenure as Dallas Mavericks owner, but the fact that he turned the team around and continues to be an innovative owner, desperately trading for Jason Kidd aside.
Yesterday Josh told you about Frank Thomas and his less than happy feelings after being told by Blue Jays manager John Gibbons that he'd be seeing a lot less playing time in the future. Frank said the move was definitely based more on his contract (Frank was scheduled to get a $10 million option if he reached 376 at bats this season), and that there was no way his career was going to "end like this."
Well, Hurt's playing career may not yet be over, but his career in Toronto is. The Blue Jays released him this morning.
Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi told ESPN's Peter Gammons that the release of Thomas was "by mutual consent. He doesn't want to be here if he's not going to play much, and we don't want him to be unhappy. He handled it with class, and I appreciate that."
As far as Thomas' initial benching, I gotta say, I agree with Frank on this one. We're only a few weeks into the season, and 60 at bats is nowhere near large enough of a sample size to judge how a player is going to perform for an entire season. Especially when that player is only one of four players in the history of the sport to have a career average over .300, hit 500 homers, drive in 1,500 runs, draw over 1,500 walks, and score over 1,000 runs. Oh, and he led the team in home runs and RBI's last season.
You would think that a general manager like J.P. Ricciardi, one who definitely uses numbers in his analysis of players, knows that. Which is why I agree that this was more of a money move than a baseball move. The fact they released him only confirms it in my opinion.
If I were Frank though, I wouldn't worry about finding a new home. Anybody who was even rumored to be thinking about signing Barry Bonds will probably take a shot at Thomas since there's no headache surrounding him. Frank's probably going to be getting some calls from Tampa Bay, Seattle, and Kansas City amongst others.
Perhaps the craziest news in the whole Harold Reynolds did he or did he not give an inappropriate hug to a female intern fiasco was the fact that after Reynolds decided to pursue legal action against ESPN, we learned the trial wasn't going to hit court until 2009. Seemed like quite some time to wait for HR to state his claims.
Details of the agreement, which was reached last week, were not released.
"This was a matter of principle," Reynolds, who now works for MLB.com, said in a statement. "I stood on principle and didn't waver. My goals were met. Now I can put this behind me and concentrate on the game I love."
Whether or not HR should have been terminated from his outpost at ESPN -- I suppose there's really no way to know for sure if he got extra grabby, sans some videotape evidence -- as baseball fans, we're clearly at a loss for Reynolds not being on Baseball Tonight anymore. Him and Peter Gammons were the best thing that network had going.
It's a shame he's been relegated to MLB.com. Godspeed, Harold. Also see: Awful Announcing
I want to see Peter Gammons interview Chris Brown. 
While most would agree that publicly admitting and apologizing for taking steroids while in Texas was the best move 
Before Sports Illustrated published their accusation that 
I usually wouldn't waste more than a nanosecond even thinking about 
Manny Ramirez
In our country's history of bizarre endorsements, I don't think 
Yesterday 
Perhaps the craziest news in the whole 
