Does Goose remember Dock Ellis, a contemporary of his? Dock and that whole "We Are Family" Pirates were the prototype swagger team, a team Goose played on in '77.
Is the premise that anything new that makes things more fun and/or safer are automatically bad?
The disgrace! The disgrace being brought upon the hallowed game of steroid users hitting the shit out a ball baseball by players...expressing themselves?
Was it just me, or when you read the initial quotes did it sound like Goose was drunk? Like he's your drunken neighbor who won't shut up about Trump?
The heart of the matter is this: 1) Are player celebrations essentially bad sportsmanship? and 2) Does this kind of sportsmanship signify the downfall of society?
Predictably Gossage sounds like every other curmudgeonly old fart in Colorado (I have an up-close-and-personal viewpoint on these assholes, unfortunately). He's a gun-totin', tobacky-chewin' SOB so full of himself he forgets that he's actually talking out loud. His cranky, tone-deaf bleatings fit exactly with his persona on the field. He once said he got so worked up to walk on the mound and go to work - he thought of hitters as guys with clubs who were trying to take food away from his children - that his wife wouldn't recognize him or like him at all.
ReplyDeleteI was intrigued to see where Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi sat him down to beat him up. Or maybe just to shut him up. That's kind of a long way to go to protect the Yankee(tm) brand, don't you think?
I think the celebrations are cool. The controversy is an indication of how out-of-touch baseball is with the rest of Sporting America. But it's also an indication of how long it's been around, its central and vital place in American culture, and how it's thought of on a higher plane - and more seriously - than any other American athletic endeavor.