Saturday, April 11, 2009

Thank you, Jonathan Papelbon! You tripled Subway Squawkers' page views!

So I wrote a little something yesterday about Jonathan Papelbon griping about the Red Sox Opening Day. Since there was no transcript of his video appearance, I had to watch it several times to type his comments down. What fun that was.

Anyhow, my criticism of Papelbon got picked up by a ton of sites, including Baseball Think Factory, AOL Fanhouse, Can't Stop the Bleeding, Lone Star Ball, Sliding Into Home, and A Diehard Yankees Fan. (Thanks for the shout-outs!) Now this blog entry is our most-read Subway Squawkers post for this year. Hooray!

We've gotten a ton of comments so far about what I said on Cinco Dopo. Here are a few of them, and my responses:

The first of many Anonymous posts says:
You do know that EVERY SINGLE Sox player said similar things, right? So are you going to put up an article that says, "Waah! John Smoltz whines and complains about Opening Day ceremony" or "Waah! Mike Lowell whines and complains about Opening Day ceremony".
If all the Sox agree with Papelbon, which I haven't seen, then that's a pretty sorry reflection of the team, and what they think of their fans. And yeah, I do think they're all out of line. Just the same way Red Sox fans thought Manny Ramirez and David Wells were out of line when they complained about the fans.

And yes, if a Yankee acted the same way, I would make the same criticisms.

Squawker reader NAM said:
And this somehow is worse than Joba the Hut and his drunken tirade or A-Roid's sober statements?
It's not. I have repeatedly both criticized A-Rod and Joba, as well as Papelbon - in fact, I had just ripped into Joba the day before. Didn't think I had implied Papelbon was worse than Joba. But they do have something in common - when it comes to their propensity for saying ridiculous things, both could use a nice steaming cup of Shut the Heck Up.

Uncle Mike opines:
Say what you want about certain Yankees who have gone too far, but Jonathan Papelbon is scum. Not only does he essentially tell Red Sox fans that he's too good for them -- yuuuuck, I'm actually empathizing with Red Sox fans, but that's how much of a louse Papelbon is -- but he's threatening a team executive with being sent down to Pawtucket, as if he has that kind of influence over the front office.
I feel sorry for Red Sox VP Sarah McKenna. In these horrid economic times, she tried to come up with something to show appreciation for those fans still spending their money on Boston tickets. She didn't deserve to be trashed like that.

Another Anonymous wrote:
Poor little pitcher boy might turn an ankle on one of those big-bad steps, fall down and bruise his shins. OMG! My widdle heart is breaking.....

Yep. Fans have to go down those same steps every game they attend. And somehow, they manage to do that feat with a minimum of mishaps. But for Papelbon, traversing these same steps is like a triathalon or something. And no, the players were not in cleats - they were told to wear sneakers.

As for Papelbon, somebody who's so concerned about injury didn't seem to worry about pulling anything with all those dopey dance moves last year!

Red Sox fan Paul from Boston disagreed with most Sox fans commenting. He writes:
Less is more boys!!! Just shut up and do what you're paid a hefty sum to do.
My favorite, response, though, was this Anonymous one:
Ah, shut up. Everyone sucks.

4 comments:

NAM said...

With the tragic DUI caused death of Angel pitcher Adenhart, it is even more difficult to understand why it is so important to you to try to turn Paplebon's radio comments into more than it is and him into NY's new whipping boy now that Schilling is gone from the team. And Lisa if this is what you consider RIPPING into Joba, what a joke:

"But as the teachers used to tell us in grade school, let's hope he's learned a valuable lesson from all of this. Make that valuable lessons."

Paplebon's stupid comments warrant two columns because you got the most comments, but the dui plea gets one. But I have to admit, I am as guilty as anyone, because at the time, I thougth the comments were funny too. In hindsight, we all should be more serious about DUI's. I wonder if the guy who killed Adenhart and his three friends has learned a valulable lesson yet.

Alvaro Fernandez Ravelo said...

It's so funny or sad, not really sure, why other team fans pick on NY Yankee stuff. Although this is a piece on the Red Sox.
It just makes you wonder what kind of losers they are.
And really, Pvt. Homer Pile is not worth a sentence.
Go Swisher!

Anonymous said...

papelbon is a louse. the red sox are ingrates. yada, yada, yada. bottom-line yankee fans, you have to beat them when it counts.
otherwise, none of this matters.

and Nam, you can't really draw a comparison between reporting this story and the joba one. to be fair, it is apples to oranges. if you are reading the posts here looking for an objective position, you should know by now that this is not the place for it. it is all yankees do no wrong. they are unfairly criticized by everyone. it is the poor, disadvantaged yankees vs. the rest of the mean, cruel world. Sort of like the underdog story we all know they are.
km

NAM said...

KM,

You are right. I let my logic and sense of fair play get the better of me.

Search This Blog