The schizophrenic New York Daily News is officially on record as pro-Pedro if he comes to the Mets and anti-Pedro if he comes to the Yankees (no word on their position if Pedro returns to Boston, which seems the most likely scenario).
I find it difficult to read the following without laughing out loud:
"But let's take the emotion out of the question of whether Pedro would be worth the headaches he'd cause, not to mention the money he'll command over the next three years, and examine it objectively."
Examine the issue objectively? What a freakin' concept for a newspaper. These New Yorkers with their high-fallutin' so-called jernylists and whatnot.
Can you imagine? A sportswriter who gets paid actual money to write about baseball? Performing an objective analysis of a baseball issue? Provide a more thoughtful analysis than some housewife from Kew Gardens who watches 15 games per year and hates Pedro becaues of his hairstyle?
You know, I'll admit that I hate Pedro. But it's for different reasons. I hate good players on non-Yankee teams, basically. Rick Helling, I don't hate so much, he can pitch against NYY any time.
As for all this "Who's Your Daddy" nonsense, open up your eyes. Pedro always pitched well against the Yankees, regular season and playoffs. The Yankees find a way to beat him because they match his excellent pitching performance. It's just obvious if you watch the games.
Maintaining their high journalistic standards, the News then conducts a poll of a handful of anonymous baseball people that basically concludes that Pedro is among the top 10 or 15 starters in baseball. Which you knew already. Unless you only receive your baseball information from the New York Daily News.
Conclusion:
"In other words, baseball people seem to agree that Pedro is still one of the elite pitchers in baseball. But perhaps not for much longer."
Well, gee. Thanks for the news flash, newspaper. Same can be said for Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, for what it's worth.
In any case, it's pathetic that the Daily News won't even bother conducting such a simplistic Pedro analysis until the Mets get into the discussion.
Why does the Daily News wait so long to perform this baseball-oriented analysis? Because they have to build some sort of foundation for their pro-Pedro platform, in case the Mets actually sign him.
I understand the different approaches to covering the Yankees and the Mets, the different expectations of the fans. It's fair to reflect these differences in the general coverage of the respective teams. The Yankees get more back covers, the Yankees get more scrutiny. Though I think the anti-Yankee, anti-George, anti-payroll (anti-ARod?) angle has warped much of the coverage to the point where it loses its credibility and usefulness, I am not expecting a World Without Bias.
But it's completely nonsensical to evaluate Pedro Martinez differently depending upon which team is talking to him. It's stunning, actually, to witness the Daily News embarrass itself in such a manner. By simply talking with King Midas Minaya, Pedro Martinez is no longer a cancer in the clubhouse.
"Still, who's kidding whom? If this were just two years ago, and Pedro was a free agent coming off a season in which he went 20-4 with a 2.26 ERA, those same Yankee fans surely would be more forgiving. "
This is not true. Because if you're the type of fan who favors personalities over performance, then you hated Pedro two years ago. Deep down, I don't believe that fans really value personalities over performance. But if it's your shtick, it's always your shtick.
"Perhaps they'd be thanking Alex Rodriguez for trying to recruit Pedro over dinner in Miami recently rather than gagging over the very thought of it."
I wasn't gagging over the very thought of it, but that's just me.
Who knows? I can't say I speak for every Yankee fan, but certainly most Yankee fans I know. We weren't gagging over the thought of Pedro Martinez off the Sox and on the Yankees; we were salivating over the very thought of it. It's better than Thanksgiving turkey.
No comments:
Post a Comment