He's a classic example of why life is not fair. He should have had a long career, but it was barely a career. As they say, He coulda been a champion.
:? Sorry to see that many of you thought that I was criticizing Mark Fidrych. I was a fan of "The Bird" too. I was merely pointing out that Puig's situation is not all that unusual. Fidrych belonged on the All-Star team. He earned it. Last year Bryce Harper (who was the youngest position player All-Star ever at 19) and Mike Trout also earned it. My point was simply that Puig has earned it too... BTW- Fidrych never faded away or lost his talent. He hurt his arm. In those days the new arm/shoulder/elbow-saving technologies didn't exist. When you hurt your arm, you were through...
You have to wonder if Jay-Z will do for Puig what Don King did for Tyson. http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/...arizona-diamondbacks-call-him-arrogant-071013
re: "Does everybody consider him arrogant or just the Dbacks? " The Dbacks who accused Puig of arrogance were Miguel Montero and Ian Kennedy. These were the same two pathetic clowns who started a riot earlier in the year when they decided to throw at the heads of Dodger players. They apparently did this on their own, without consulting manager Kirk Gibson. BTW- Gibson himself does NOT think that Puig is arrogant and said that he loves Puig's style of play, because it reminds him of himself when he played... The Dodgers completed their sweep of these sensitive Dbacks last night with back-to-back jacks in the 14th... The riot that was started by the Dbacks earlier in the year is not forgotten by the Dodgers either. In game #one of this series, Ian Kennedy went head-hunting again. In the first inning, he hit Hanley Ramirez high on the shoulder. Hanley carried his bat half way to first base as Montero stood between him and the pitcher. He later threw at Puig's head THREE times in that same game, with Puig staring at him after each one. Puig's revenge came later when he purposely gave himself up for an out at the plate and took a running shot at Montero. The game ended with revenge too. With two out in the 9th and the Dodgers leading 6-1, Montero was drilled in the arse by Ronald "Voo-doo man" Belisario on a pitch that was thrown behind him. Belisario tried to act like it was an accident, but the home plate umpire warned both benches anyway. Vin Scully said that it was the only time he can remember that an umpire warned the teams with two out in the 9th... This war with the Dbacks will get much worse. The instigators, Kennedy and Montero, are throwing at the heads of Dodger batters and turning the Arizona crowds against Puig so that the kid is booed everywhere he goes. This situation is deteriorating...
Back to my original point. If Jay-Z starts plying him with hoes and nose candy that could mean trouble. He will make his coin up front; the kid has to earn his.
Skylar Diggins is a Jay Z client. I don't get it why these athletes think that Jay Z the guy to trust their finances. Remember when Puff Daddy was Ricky Williams agent.
The Batting Cage Incident... All-time Dbacks hero Luis Gonzalez asked to meet Yasiel Puig before a recent game. Mark McGwire introduced them at the batting cage. Puig shook his hand and went to work on his batting as McGwire supervised. Now news reports are going crazy with Gonzalez assertion that Puig "blew him off" and "disrespected him." This is all horsesh!t and part of the Dbacks war against the Dodgers... http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/dodgers/2013/07/09/los-angeles-dodgers-arizona-diamondbacks-luis-gonzalez-yasiel-puig-mark-mcgwire/2504523/ Let's get a few things straight: 1. Luis Gonzalez used to play for the Dodgers too. He was one of the LEAST popular players we've ever had here. He was part of that little click of veterans that included Jeff Kent and Derek Lowe. They refused to even speak to the young players like Matt Kemp and Andre Either and expected to be treated like royalty... 2. Puig had NO IDEA who this guy was. Gonzalez may think he's famous, but Yasiel was 10 years-old when the Dbacks won the World Series and he was living in Communist Cuba where news of America doesn't reach the people without heavy editing... 3. Mark McGwire was OUTRAGED when he heard about Gonzalez' assertions. He said the kid was polite to someone he'd never heard of and then concentrated on improving his hitting in the cage with McGwire who is his batting coach... 4. The Dodgers/Dbacks rivalry is turning into a blood feud. ALL Dodger players/coaches/broadcasters and front office people have defended Puig in these matters and say that the Dbacks are lying. Consider the source: Kennedy-Montero-Gonzalez. They're trying to drum up fan excitement. They're drawing only 24,000 per game when the Dodgers are in town and Dodger Dogs are starting to outnumber the locals for these games the same way they outnumber Padres fans in San Diego. It's not our fault that Phoenix is a minor league town in a minor league state. If they have to drum up fan interest this way, then maybe they should move the franchise south of the border where their peculiar brand of sportsmanship is appreciated...
Gonzo was very popular when he was with the Astros, twice. The local morning drive time guys would call him even after he left.
Gonzalez is not very popular with Yankee fans after that WS "hit". Mariano saws him off and he hits a blooper that barely reached the outfield grass against a drawn in infield. That's baseball.. :cry:
As far as bad blood between teams...maybe it's good or maybe it's not. But it sure puts fannies in the stands when you have one of those things going on. Right now the Astros have no blood at all with anybody. The league wants us to develop a rivalry with the Rangers, and I'm sure it will come someday. But so far nada, even the "Silver Boot" series that came with inter league play was sort of a dud. Fans had juice for the Cardinals and the Cubs and the Dodgers, but it wasn't a mutual rivalry. Cards and Cubs are each others big rivals and Dodgers and Giants are each others big rivals. We don't really have big mutual rivalry with anybody really.
Puig update: From June 22 until today the Dodgers are 26-6 in their last 32 games. This is the greatest period of winning since the team moved to Los Angeles in 1958. They've also won 10 in-a-row on the road, which is within two games of the team record set in 1924. On June 22 the team was in dead last place, 12 games under .500 and fighting the Marlins and Lastros for the worst record in baseball. Today they're in first place, 8 games over .500 and 2.5 games ahead of the fading Dbacks... Home gamers should note the big changes made by the Dodgers back in June which have made a dramatic difference: 1. Yasiel Puig called up from the minor leagues. Since his call-up he has more hits than any other MLB player......70. 2. Hanley Ramirez return to the line up. With Puig and Adrian Gonzalez setting the table in front of him, and Ethier/Kemp/Uribe/Ellis batting behind him, opposing pitchers have been forced to pitch to him with predictable results. He's the hottest player in baseball... 3. Kenley Jansen was named the closer at the end of the bullpen, with Brandon League reduced to mop-up duty and using Paco Rodriquez/Ronald Belisario as a left/right combo to pitch the 8th innings... re: Puig He has the maturity level of a rabid squirrel. I could write about his stupid adventures every night, but it's all just too much. I could give examples every night about his base running alone. He loves to pose and show off, which simply pisses everybody off. Even Vin Scully calls him a "hotdog." Whenever he gets a hit, he rounds 1st base almost halfway to 2nd and stares at the fielders, daring them to throw. Last night, Reds manager Dusty Baker used this against the kid and made a fool of him. Puig rounded first a long way after a hit and stared at the fielders. He felt secure in doing this, because Reds first baseman Joey Votto was way out there with him. What Puig didn't realize... was that Dusty had the Reds catcher trail on the play and cover first behind him. They threw behind him and picked him off... They picked him off today too, late in a 0-0 tie... In the good old days, guys like Puig were called "Rube" or "Babe" or... what's the Spanish word for Huckleberry? Whatever it is, it's a word to describe the indescribable. Now I know how those guys got their nicknames and why Ted Williams first manager simply called the kid "Meathead" instead of his name. BTW- Puig won today's game with a walk-off HR that included everything from a bat flip to a slide into home plate. Guys like that can only survive on big market teams with heavy lineups. If he ever gets traded to Kansas City, every pitcher in both leagues will throw at him... <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xDgadH5kbm0?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Vinny is stretching to find a polite way to describe this kid's selfish and immature approach to the game. Nobody calls Puig the "Wild Horse" except El Supremo himself... Scully is trying to compare Puig to the original "Wild Hoss of the Osage" Pepper Martin of the Cardinals "Gas House Gang" in the 1930's. I'm not buying it and there are very few modern fans who can remember back that far. Baseball Guru dot com describes Pepper Martin this way: ""The Wild Hoss of the Osage" Oklahoma bred Johnny Leonard Roosevelt Martin of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1930s ("pepper") Martin, an aggressive player, was said to play baseball like a "wild mustang" and was given his nickname in the minor leagues."
The Dodgers numbers are so far off the chart, that it's hard to believe what they're doing. These are like cartoon numbers....... Dodgers won again tonight, with another shut out. They've now won 42 of the last 50 since June 22, the hottest performance since the 1944 Cardinals brought up a kid during WWII named Stan Musial. It ranks with the 1938 Yankees and the 1906 Cubs. This performance surpasses the Dodgers team record set by the Brooklyn Superbas in 1899... They entered tonight's game with a team batting average of .285 and more hits than any team in baseball. The pitching staff hasn't been scored on in 30 innings and the bullpen has given up a grand total of one run this month. They've won ten in-a-row and they're 15-1 in the month of August and 25-3 since the All-Star break, which matches the 1942 Cardinals. They've now won 19 of the last 20 on the road. Matt Kemp and former Giants closer Brian Wilson will join the team in September... This is getting ridiculous...
:idea: Dodgers vs. Tigers would be a classic. Has it ever happened? I'd have to look that one up. I don't remember a Dodger-Tigers WS despite the fact that the Tigers are 112 years old and the Dodgers 123... Not so fast... there are some flies in the buttermilk. The Playoffs and the World Series are tournaments and tournaments are always won by the hot team, not necessarily the best team. The Dodgers are currently one of the hottest teams of all-time, but will they still be that hot in October? It's the hot team at that time which will take it all. Tournaments are also won by the teams with the most pitching and both the Tigers and Dodgers should be tough to beat in a short series, because they can shorten up their staffs to just three starters. For the Tigers that will be Scherzer, Verlander and either Sanchez or Porcello. The Dodgers will counter with Kershaw, Greinke and Ryu. The pitching should be a classic matchup if both teams get that far. A weakness that could trip up the Dodgers is their defense. When the team was in trouble in June, they had the WORST defense in baseball. Part of their turn-around story was cutting their errors in half since then, but the problem hasn't been solved. They lost a game today, because of two errors by Hanley Ramirez in the bottom of the ninth and more immature play by Puig... Also, let's not forget the Atlanta Braves. I agree with you that the Dodgers and Tigers are the two best teams this year, but the Braves disagree. Their manager, Fredi Gonzalez, made a statement to reporters in the spring that the Braves would be "the best team in baseball by mid-season." Well here we are and the Braves have already run away with the NL East. They're a solid team and they could take it all. Ill know more about the Red Sox when they visit Dodger Stadium, but I saw them in Anaheim and I don't think they have the pitching to make it...