A conversation about MLB, on the field, off the field.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Leaving the basement April 03 07

Be careful what you wish for....

Tomorrow I will leave the basement and attend Lynx Media Day. I am officially a "Journalist". If a geek types in his basement and nobody reads.....? I find it very amusing, that I am pretending to be part of the media, boys will be boys. This weekend I purchased new toys, a digital recorder and a microphone. If nothing else my kids ( 6 & 4 ) had a lot of fun playing with them and if I can surmount the technological challenges perhaps their voices will be digitally archived for future nostalgia. There is a strong possibility my new toys will be used only tomorrow and never again, although I do hope to soon starting posting up some baseball talk on the Web....so, it feels very strange to leave the basement and talk baseball with some guys in the industry. That's another odd thing about my geekdom, I very rarely talk about baseball because honestly I know practically nobody who is interested in it.

Anyway thanks to Riley Denver @ The Lynx for allowing me to attend, I'm thoroughly looking forward to it.

It's ironic that I will be "covering" Lynx Media Day. Ironic because this is the type of reporting that I'm not interested in. I rarely read player comments, unless someone has said something controversial / inflammatory, but the "give it 110%", "one game at a time clichés" bore the hell out of me. I'm not interested in what the players and coaches say to the press. It's not that I don't think some of these guys couldn't be insightful but they are hamstrung by their position. You can't bite the hand that feeds you.

So what am I gonna ask?

Before he was released a handful of days ago I was going to ask ( if I had the balls ) Randall Simon if it's true that he was the "fat monkey" that former Braves teammate John Rocker referred to in the infamous SI interview. This has been widely reported. But I was thinking even before his release, is that an insulting question? If it is true, is it any of my goddman business? ( No ) If he confirmed it for me what would I have uncovered, more evidence that there is racism in MLB? That's not insightful, there's racism everywhere.

I'd like to ask their opinions on what percentage of pro ball players are taking PED's, but they can't comment publicly on that. I'd like to ask why more minor leaguers are testing positive ( I know there are more minor league players in the aggregate but percentage wise I think the minor leaguers are caught with greater frequency ).

I'd like to ask if the balls are livelier in the bigs than in the minors ( there has been speculation over the years ), but again they probably wouldn't comment.

I'd like an honest answer on how bad the umpiring was in Ottawa last season during the strike. The Lynx and the IL tried to keep a lid on it but there was speculation that the quality was sub standard across the league but particulary bad in Ottawa. Just before the strike was settled there were rumors that the IL was going to step in and provide umpires for the Lynx home games. But who wants to comment openly about that, do you need to be called on the carpet by Management because the League complained about your comments? And anyway, it's last season, it's over.

So why am I going? I'm excited about going and to be honest it's because I'm a geek and I'll get a charge out of pretending that I'm part of it for an hour or two. The real reporters will be bored, the players and coaches will be bored, the Lynx staff will be working and I'll be riveted, because I'm a geek.

Maybe a guy in his basement has an advantage? Maybe somebody will be more candid with me than the real reporters because I am a guy in his basement and ergo, who gives a shit? Or maybe ( and more likely ) I'll be ignored because I am a geek in his basement.

Cancuk update

I mentioned that local guy Philippe Aumont made Keith Law's blog on ESPN. Now I see the same comments in Baseball America, he certainly impressed some people in Florida with the Cdn Junior Team last month in FLA. The June draft isn't far away, looks like this kid is gonna be rich.

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