If you read this blog, you know our feelings on Jonathan Papelbon. I think he's a prick and while his numbers the past couple years have been spectacular, I think the numbers he's put up this year are more indicative of the kind of pitcher he is. Very very good, but not lights out unhittable.
And yes, he said something really stupid by saying, "If I was managing the team, I would close." It's Yankee Stadium in its final year. Mariano Rivera, at age 38, is still throwing 93 mph, looks-down-the-middle-then-it's-on-your-fists cutters, striking out over a batter per inning, walking someone as often as a relationship works out for Jack Bauer (sorry Jack, but forget about Audrey, Secretary Heller wouldn't make a very nice father-in-law and there are plenty of other fish in the sea) and has yet to blow a save this season. Forget about closing this game. However, while Papelbon should have known that saying something like that was going to cause problems, the Daily News still should get a good share of the blame as they made it out to be much worse than it was as Papelbon did not "dis" Mariano. After hearing and reading about what he had said through biased sources, my initial reaction was, "Typical Papelbon jackass comments" and wondered why the Nick Blackburns and Chris Youngs of the world get hit with line drives in the face and not pompous jerks like Papelbon or K-Rod. (And I shouldn't say things like that. That's just a kneejerk reaction on my part. I don't honestly wish harm on jackass pitchers. I do wish that they suck, though...) But in this case it wasn't. He said that Mariano was the "godfather" of closers and that Mariano's done so much to make what the closer role has become today. His stated reason for thinking he should close was because of last year's World Series, not because he thinks he's better than Mariano. The logic being, Francona gets to manage, he should have the right to use his guy to close out the game. While the logic is wrong in this case, and Papelbon acknowledged that it's not that cut and dry, it's certainly not indefensible.
The "I don't mind deferring to an elder statesman" line could be seen as a dis, but honestly, I don't think that was his intent because it was followed by the "godfather" comment. He has said other, much more annoying and pompous things and you can read one of them in my post about a week ago. This is why I hate the Daily News and just the media in general. People rely on them to get information and they transform non-stories into controversies and most people (including myself at first, until I read more about it) are going to base their opinions and/or actions based on the information made available to them. Now, if what Papelbon said is true about his wife being threatened, then that is disgraceful and the people who did that are classless regardless of what information they had. That makes me embarrassed to be a Yankees fan and a New Yorker. While I think that the average Boston fans are definitely worse as they start victory riots, light cars on fire, get themselves arrested, run players out of town with death threats, and yell racial slurs at players, neither Yankees fans nor fans anywhere should emulate those behaviors. And it just goes to show you that there are idiot fans EVERYWHERE you go, it's just a matter of degree. Papelbon, I hate your guts but the non-idiot Yankees fans wish no harm to you and your wife and hope your child is born healthy. I just hope you don't pass your genes onto him.
I can't wait for the season to kick back up again.
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