There's No Crying in Baseball!

Haha, classic. Surly, drunk and mean, Tom Hanks was the man in this movie. Especially when he hit Stilwell (the little kid) in the face with a glove. As much crying and woman-drama as went on in this movie, those ladies were more ballplayer than some of our current players, especially in light of the recent disappearance of Roy Oswalt, the tantrum of Jorge Posada, and the mysterious trip to the disabled list for Hong-Chih Kuo.

Let's start with the latter. Kuo hit the disabled list last week for, I kid you not, "anxiety." Anxiety? Now my wife is a college graduate with a degree in psychology and I'm sure she'll tell me later that this is a real problem and that you can be disabled from it, but give me a break. First, hitting the DL for anixiety should be outlawed. Your confidence is shaken? You're a former All-Star, you have struggled this year and now you need to go on the disabled list. Man, poor Don Mattingly must nearly have had a heart attack when Kuo told him the problems. Kuo, why don't you take the 2.7 mil you "earn" this season and use it as tissue paper you cry baby. This is straight up abuse of the DL system and what it is used for. 20 years ago Kuo wouldn't be on the DL for "anxiety", he would be in AAA for ineffectiveness where he belongs.

Baseball needs to clean up this usage of the DL, and other bullshit DL excuses, like "dead arm", which was used on Phil Hughes after he started the season with 3 terrible starts. The reason GMs find a way to use the DL is that it doesnt affect the options players have, both the DL listed player and the player being called up. Options are tricky, but basically once a player is called up to the major league team, he has 3 options, meaning, he can be sent down to the minors and called back up in 3 different years (not just 3 different times). Once hes out of options he has to be put on waivers if you try to send him back to the minors again and any team can claim him. I hate this DL loophole, and it needs to be closed. These guys aren't hurt. They can go out and throw a baseball, but they are just completely ineffective so they belong in the minors. We all saw what happened to Rick Ankiel. He had "Anxiety" issues, ended up in the minors for a long time and reemerged as an outfielder. Maybe Kuo and Hughes can take his cue. There is a big difference between ineffective and injured, go cry in into your piles of money you losers.

Roy Oswalt is a different story. In case you didn't see his community was devastated by a massive weather system and he feared for his family's safety. So instead of doing what a teammate should do and tell his coach he isn't in the right mindset he goes out and gives up 5 runs in 3 innings for his start in ages. Then he just leaves the team for nine days to "be with his family" only his family was fine, and instead of pitching which he gets paid approximately $500,000 per start, he decided to operate a back hoe and help clean up his community and then returns with a back injury. This guy is the epitome of show up to work (or not, maybe i'll go operate heavy machinery for a week and hurt myself and waste team money and miss 3 scheduled starts when my team is in a dog fight with two other teams for the division lead) without caring for his team or winning. I'm glad his family is ok, but once he learned that he needs to go back and earn his half a mil a start instead of abandoning his team to pick up some debris. That's what you pay your government for.

Lastly is Jorge Posada and the drama that has been following him since this weekend. My buddy Mr. Armchair wrote a good piece about the rebuilding that Yankees will have to undergo pretty soon. Check it out here: ROME WASNT BUILT IN A DAY. Jorge Posada is a 39 year old catcher (turns 40 in August) turned DH this year and is hitting .179 to date. He was put 9th in the lineup and threw a hissy fit and told his manager he couldn't play on Saturday. Are you kidding me? You are getting paid $81,000 a game to go swing a bat 4 times a game. Then Derek Jeter goes on record as captain of the team saying Posada's outburst isn't a big deal. Let's not forget to mention that Jeter is about to be 37 years old and complained that the Yankees played "hardball" with him in his contract negotiations, but not giving him 5 years, instead playing him 42,000 times his market value (51 mil guaranteed, 3 years; player option (why did they give him a player option?) for 8 mil for a fourth year in 2014). Of course, Big Papi (AKA David Ortiz), also a washed up scrub making way too much money for contributions he made 5 years ago came out and said the Yankees are doing Posada wrong, and that DHing sucks.

I am pretty sick of the growing entitlement these players in baseball are feeling. They have the best union, they make the most money (guaranteed), and their sport probably does less damage to their bodies than any of the big 4 (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL). Did these athletes forget that the point of their job is to make money for their team and win games? I don't care what you did 4 years ago, winning is always in the present. If you are ineffective don't cry about it with "anxiety" problems, don't abandon your team to go pretend you are a CalTRANS worker, and don't pout and sit out a game because you are hitting .150 and are moved to the ninth spot.

Too often, teams are hamstrung by living legends who refuse to exit gracefully. Just think about Brett Favre. I heard a good line about running a team and parting with stars: "It's better to cut them one year too early, than one year too late." I understand what these players have given for the team, but it wasn't charity. These players were paid handsomely for their services. But at some point you must cut the cord. I never thought the Yankees should have resigned Jeter. I never thought the Yankees should have given a 36 year old catcher another 4 year deal for 52 mil but they did.

I have a fun story I like to tell about LaDainian Tomlinson. Three years ago I was in Lake Tahoe for my bachelor party and we were all recovering from Friday night out by eating a bunch of pizza and watching the NFL draft. It was a room full of mostly Chargers fans and I declared that San Diego made a huge mistake keeping LaDainian and not franchising Michael Turner, who just a month earlier signed a huge deal with the Falcons. LaDainian was running on fumes, and Turner was hitting his prime. Of course my friends with very few exceptions thought I was stupid. Of course, we all know how it played out. LT was terrible in 08 and 09. Landed in NY in the best possible situation and with a chip on his shoulder and churned out a good year that never would have happened in San Diego. Why did the Chargers do this? Because of what LT had meant to the team the prior 7 years. But those extra two years cost San Diego over 24 million dollars that could have been used elsewhere. That's the cautionary tale the Yankees and these other teams should use with their cry baby players. If you are old or ineffective, or if you don't want to play for a team then get the hell out.