Ah, yes: the complete absence of value added

December 15th, 2006 → 12:26 am @ // No Comments

There’s no way you thought you were going to get through a Daisuke day without someone, somewhere, wondering what this all means for Johnny Jesus — you know, the last (big-name) guy to wear #18. (Sorry, Jason and Dustan: you two ain’t big-name.) Thank god, the AP is on the case:

“NEW YORK — Johnny Damon has his own $52 million contract and no regrets that the Boston Red Sox didn’t give him that amount last winter. Boston announced its $52 million, six-year agreement with pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka on Thursday — nearly one year after the Red Sox allowed their center fielder to switch to the New York Yankees for the exact same amount.”

Now, I get asked with some frequency whether or not sports reporters are morons. My usual answer is yes and no: there are plenty of dolts writing about baseball, but there are plenty of dolts writing about politics and international relations and the media, too. But (as commenter vapodge points out),* sports reporting might very well be one of the very few areas in which writers (commentators, whatever) seem to have a fervant desire to remain ignorant.

I’ve tried to make this clear before, but for all the AP reporters and other aggressively clueless folk out there, I’ll try one more time:

THE RED SOX DID NOT LET JOHNNY DAMON WALK FOR $52 MILLION. SCOTT BORAS LIED, POINT BLANK, TO THE SOX ABOUT THE NEGOTIATIONS. I HAVE SEEN THE EMAILS. I HAVE TALKED TO THE MLB EXECUTIVES. I HAVE TALKED WITH PEOPLE IN BASEBALL OPS ON OTHER TEAMS.

I know this won’t seem like anything except another plug for my book, but man, come on already. I’ve been talking to owners around baseball over the last several weeks (for an unrelated project); every single one of them had already read FTM, as has every MLB exec I’ve spoken with. (In fact, some of the MLB execs have recommended it to other people in baseball.) Regardless of what you think about the damn book, if you’re covering the Red Sox or the Yankees, wouldn’t it maybe make sense to read it? If only to see if there are things you might not know about? You know, to help in your, um, reporting?

* Vapodge was objecting to a segment on Dan Patrick’s ESPN show in which he apparently asked Francona about the “$2 million more per year” the Sox would have had to spend to get Damon. Technically, that’s true…except Boras told them they’d need to spend that extra $2 million per for seven straight years! Aaargh! Just read the fucking excerpt. It’s linked above. In big, bright, red, shiny caps.


Post Categories: 2006 Hot Stove Season & Daisuke Matsuzaka & Feeding the Monster Sneak Peeks & Johnny Damon & Rampaging morons & Sports Reporters

3 Comments → “Ah, yes: the complete absence of value added”


  1. amos

    17 years ago

    i get a little mad when i read people saying that the sox let damon go. but i was wondering something the other day: why? maybe this will be speculation, but why do you think boras didn’t go back to the sox with the yanks last offer and let them try to match it? was it because of the time limit that the yanks set?

    Reply

  2. amos

    17 years ago

    but i guess i’m a little confused as to why. why wouldn’t boras take the yanks offer back to the sox to see if they’d beat it? was it the time pressure? were the yanks johnny’s real first choice?

    Reply

  3. carnett

    17 years ago

    News from the AP has poor J.D. saying he doesn’t regret making the move to the Yanks. Are you kidding me! That’s like Kevin Federline saying his rap album was a good career choice!

    Has anyone seen a Johnny Damon commercial lately? It could be for anything, shoes, a book, or even a razor to shave his beard? Or has anyone spotted the on-air talents of Mrs. Johnny Damon? Hell no! That’s because J.D. is invisible, a non-factor in New York.

    With a Yankees team with no less than 12 All-Stars, poor J.D. is about as popular as Rick Pitino in Boston. What happens to man who lost millions in endorsments, and lost a city in Boston that embraced him for who he was?

    A lot of regret!

    Stupid hurts J.D.!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: