My Morning in Exile

On April 30, 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appeared at the World’s Fair, stood in front of NBC’s cameras, and became the first U.S. president to appear on television. Two weeks later, Bill Cosby was given a pilot, and “Law & Order” was launched two weeks after that. True story.

  • Joba turns the other cheek when mocked; Brian Wilson whines and pouts.
  • Troy O’Leary thinks he can find baseball talent that has eluded the scouts. The fact that some scout once even tracked down a guy as marginally talented as O’Leary should suggest to him that maybe this is a bad idea.
  • Some owner would love to void the contracts of drug users. In other news, owners would like to void the contracts of about 70% of the guys they sign at one point or another, so this isn’t exactly news.
  • Were the Dan Duquette-era Red Sox providing Steroids 101 to the club? Lou Merloni thinks so.
  • What do Bobby Jenks and a Bond villain have in common?
  • Finally, Cito Gaston is the man, and the Blue Jays probably should have realized this about fifteen years ago.

  • 8 Comments
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    Sam
    14 years ago

    Toe Nash!

    Craig Calcaterra
    14 years ago

    A scout even found him—Benny Latino of the Rays.

    J.W.
    14 years ago

    I know this has been mentioned before by myself and others and you very prudently chose not to get into it, but it needs to be said again. What is wrong with the people who comment over at NBC? Today we had someone Brian Wilson and Joba Chamberlain’s reactions to mocking as an opportunity to say some absurd and offensive things about the author. Ironically the commenter was positing, essentially, that Craig is a coward, a non-macho man. The irony of course was that he was doing it in an anonymous forum from lord knows how many miles away. Admittedly this is a small sample size of this person’s character so let’s not take it too far, but he certainly didn’t represent himself well there.

    Anyway, Craig, I’m sure you’ve learned to ignore these kinds of people and I’m equally sure you don’t need some other random commenter to say nice things about you to make up for the insults, but nonetheless, for the sake of balancing the universe, let me just say 2 things:

    1—I think your perspective on the issue is absolutely right. Maybe Blake shouldn’t have mocked Wilson’s pose, maybe Wilson shouldn’t strike the pose (though it seems less of a celebration and more of a tribue…though public displays a particular faith are, in and of themselves, sometimes problematic) but what is clear is that Wilson is not in a position to whine about it too much.

    2—As for what the NBC commentor mocks, well A: you’re a damn fine writer, B: what he seems to think of as weakness is what we real people call rationality, compassion, and HUMANITY.

    J.W.
    14 years ago

    Sorry, messed up the above comment. It should read: “Today we had someone take an article about Brian Wilson and Joba Chamberlain’s reactions to mocking as an opportunity to….”

    Craig Calcaterra
    14 years ago

    Thanks, J.W. I appreciate it.

    The thing with NBC is just that there are a lot of eyes that casually find their way there, be it though the NBC Sports main page or sometimes even the MSNBC page, each of which are pretty big clearinghouses of traffic.  That’s great for stats and business and stuff, but you know what they say about the masses.  The key is how you respond to the masses. If NBC was the kind of place that forced me to cater more to the morons, I’d be gone in a second. To their credit, they’ve basically told Aaron, Matt and I to keep on keeping on with whatever we’d like.

    So yeah, I mostly ignore that stuff, primarilly on the basis that it’s not fair to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.

    MJ
    14 years ago

    So yeah, I mostly ignore that stuff, primarilly on the basis that it’s not fair to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.

    Or if you aren’t feeling as noble, you can always break out the pic that discusses arguing on the internet

    And yes, I’m going to hell.  But as (I believe) Dennis Miller said, “Who wants to go to heaven, all the bad girls are in hell”

    MJ
    14 years ago

    Btw, regarding the “morals clause”.  If they truly took this to an arbitrator, couldn’t the MLBPA reps argue that Manny took a product, that while legal in the US was banned by MLB, but took it for a personal issue?  And since he didn’t actually fail a steroids test there’s nothing “immoral” about this?  A doctor can’t be compelled to testify in a arbitration hearing can they?

    Now guys like Arod would be a different story, but as you mentioned this seems to be the wrong person to go after (for different reasons obviously).

    HP3
    14 years ago

    What is the big deal with Brian Wilson being angry at Casey Blake for “mocking” his save gesture? Why do some of these prima donnas even have to have a “signature” gesture? Get your save and get off the field. If you feel you must recognize your late father and God, then go to the clubhouse and say your prayers in private. I am sure those that you are honoring will get it just as well in the clubhouse as on the field. Wilson needs to get over himself.