Hello again. My name is David Smithson Michaels, and welcome back to DUCK SNORTS. The response to my initial post was amazing (as you can see for yourself), and the folks here are gladly giving me another chance. So, just in time for some of the first or second spring training games of the 2008 season, here are the DUCK SNORTS for Friday, February 29, 2008.
LASTINGS MILLEDGE DOESN’T KNOW WHEN TO KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT, SO DAVID WRIGHT TELLS HIM WHEN: Ever since malcontent Lastings Milledge was traded from the New York Mets to the Washington Nationals, all he’s done is mouth off about how unhappy he was with the Mets and how he never received a chance to prove himself and that Willie Randolph doesn’t know what he’s doing. It’s just another example of the trouble he brought to the Mets’ clubhouse, and why the Mets collapsed at the end of last season. David Wright is correct — Milledge isn’t on the Mets anymore, and so he should stop talking about them. And if the worst thing that happened to Milledge was someone hanging a “Know your place, Rook!” sign in his locker, then he got off easy for all the trouble he caused. Surrounded by would-be criminals like Delmon Young, Milledge is in the perfect place for his type of team-destroying attitude. I don’t think the Nationals will finish better than 5th this year, though they could finish as high as 1st.
SCOTT SPEIZIO HAS A DRINK, GETS RELEASED: Cardinal Scott Speizio, a member of the 2006 World Championship team, and the frontman of grunge rock band Sandfrog, was released by the Cardinals after a warrant was issued for his arrest. The warrant concerned six misdemeanor counts, including driving under the influence and aggravated assault. Clearly this is a hypocritical stand by the Cardinals. Rick Ankiel, an outfielder that powered the Cardinals’ brief playoff run last year, was caught lying about using PEDs, but he’s still on the team. But Speizio, a model citizen that’s admitted he has an alcohol abuse and drug abuse problem, is cut from the team after one infraction? It only goes to show how far baseball has fallen, when steroid abusers can sign multi-million dollar contracts year after year and destroy the game’s integrity, but a player is let go for simply enjoying a little alcohol. Tony LaRussa, the team’s storied manager, knows that a little drink now and then is good for you, and doesn’t have any negative side effects. Someone should tell the St. Louis Cardinals that.
C.J. WILSON CALLS HIS TEAMMATES ‘DOUCHEBAGS’; TEAMMATES DON’T APPRECIATE IT: In a comment on a blog post by teammate Brandon McCarthy, which was a response to an ESPN.com article about players’ disinterest in politics, Texas Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson called his teammates, and most baseball players, “douchebags.” In response to McCarthy’s post, Wilson notes that “the median or average guy in a baseball clubhouse does drive an SUV, drinks beer, golfs, likes college sports, chews or dips tobacco and is relatively a douchebag.” Wilson has since been reprimanded by teammates and his front office for not showing discretion in what he says in public. I think Wilson should be commended, however. It’s rare for the layman to get a true glimpse into the mindset of a professional athlete, and it’s illuminating when these sorts of details leak out. Finding out that Wilson believes most of his baseball peers are, in fact, SUV-driving tobacco-spitting douchebags is the sort of insight that you’ll never see come from a mainstream media publication, and I commend Wilson for putting our country’s First Amendment Rights into good use.
That said, there are times where finding out what an athlete thinks can be detrimental. Recently, Greg Oden, an injured member of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers, and a player just two years removed from graduating high school, came out in vocal support of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama. This, I think, is a very dangerous thing. Knowing Oden’s influence with a certain American subculture, news that he supports Obama could influence people’s opinions about other candidates, and could even sway the results of any upcoming election. A person’s political positions and preferences are a private matter, and should not be something that become the sort of stuff that gets reported on. No one needs to know what an athlete or an actor or some other stranger thinks about this candidate or that candidate. Letting this sort of information leak out could establish a dangerous precedent that I feel might lead to more damage than anyone could imagine.
MANNY BEING MANNY SHOWS UP LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD BY NOT SHOWING UP: One of the greatest honors a professiona athlete can ever experience is being invited to the White House after winning a championship. To be inches away from a man that runs the greatest country in the world, and to have the opportunity to shake his hand, is a feeling I hope to one day experience. Most members of the Red Sox have experienced this twice, thanks to winning the World Series in 2004 and 2007. That is, most except Manny Ramirez.
As he did in 2004, Manny was a no-show at the White House. Unlike the flimsy “my grandmother died” excuse used the last time, there was no official reason given for Manny’s absence. One can only assume that Manny is protesting something regarding the Bush Administration, though I have to question why he would choose such an innopportune time to grandstand like this. Regardless, President Bush showed great grace and aplomb in playing off Manny’s show of disrespect, joking that “[Manny’s] grandmother must have died again.” It’s this quick wit and jovial candor that illustrates yet again President Bush is the best man for this most difficult of jobs, and proof that his final year in office will be as successful, for him and for the country he honorably serves, as his first seven.
David Smithson Michaels hopes you and yours have a safe and happy Leap Year!