Really Jayson Stark? REALLY?!

Manny Ramirez is fucking Benedict Arnold.

And whoever gives him a new contract is setting a bad precedent for the game... because of how Manny got out of Boston.

For a man who decided his personal net worth was more important than an entire franchise and all the people who played with him, covered for him, depended on him?

For a man who's watched as other "Boston Heroes" have been ushered out the door like pieces of shit. Where did 'Boston Loyalty' get Bill Mueller, Johnny Damon, Pedro Martinez, Keith Foulke, Mark Bellhorn, Todd Walker, Kevin Millar, Trot Nixon, Orlando Cabrera, Derek Lowe and Bronson Arroyo?

And these are guys who won the first World Series in 10,000 Bostonian years!!! They got tossed! They low-balled half of these guys, and either dealt or flat-out CUT the rest of them!!!

"It really bothers me," one GM said this week of the Manny-mania lovefest that has unfolded in L.A. "What he did in Boston was criminal. Now he goes there, and everything's OK? No, sir. It doesn't change the fact that how he got there was criminal."

Really, unnamed GM? You really feel that way? It was criminal for Manny to look out for number one? He's spent the better half of his career in Boston, getting bitched out by the media every time he wipes his bum the wrong way... and what defense has ANYBODY on the team ever given for it? "Well, that's Manny being Manny!!"

Let me explain something. That whole "Manny being Manny" thing... was a nice way of saying, "Yeah, the guy's an asshole, but it's okay because we win games." It's not a defense of him. If you wanted to defend him, you'd saying, "Who cares if he takes a week off in September!! He's getting ready for the playoffs... and we all know what he does in the playoffs!!!"

Boston treated Manny like shit. He wanted out about 100 times before this... and he agreed to stay for the good of the team. Now he had a chance to get out and go somewhere good, and he jumped all over it. And if it lands him a $100 Million contract, then good for him!!

Yeah, we know what every Dodgers fan on earth is thinking: "What he did in Boston isn't our problem. He didn't blow up our franchise. So who cares?"

Yeah, he really blew up that team down in Boston!! Boy, those Red Sox are struggling!!! They're what? 30 games back now? Oh wait.. only 3? And they were that many back when they dealt him? Oh, my bad. And that slob Jason Bay, he's terrible, isn't he? Oh wait... he's .327/.393/.473 with 12 RBIs in 13 Boston games... so how, exactly, did Manny KILL THE FRANCHISE? They got 10 years younger, and 100 times better on defense at the position. And about $10 Million cheaper moving forward.

It would, in effect, be an open invitation to every selfish superstar in baseball to pull a Manny. Act up. Stop hustling. Stop trying. Refuse to play. Make up an injury. Whatever you have to do to get back out there on the free-agent market. It's all worth it.

Lets take this step by step. Act up? Check, Manny did that.

Stop hustling? Umm... Manny NEVER hustled. He had his moments, but his effort is more in the preparation than the execution. Everybody knows that.

Stop trying? .299/.398/.529 with 20 homers and 22 doubles in 100 Boston games. Sure looks like he was trying.

Refuse to play? He played in 100 of 109 games in Boston. That's about 91%. Over the course of a full season, he was on pace to appear in 147 games. That would be the MOST he's played since 2005. Not really "refusing to play" if you ask me. Maybe at 36 his body needs rest once in a while... maybe? You think?

Make up an injury? Yeah, he asked out of a game against the Yankees because his knee hurt. One game. Had tests, they showed nothing, and then he played. Again... 36 years old. Maybe just routine soreness? Find ONE 36 year old ballplayer who never takes a day off with aches and pains... I dare you. Find one.

So these angles are mostly bullshit. Thank you Jayson Stark.

"He wouldn't play for me," the exec said. "I'll tell you that. I might cost my team a chance to go to the World Series. But we work too hard to put a team together to take on a guy like that. As soon as you open the vaults for him, you'll wind up with the same problems Boston had."

Lets examine that, Mr. Unnamed Exec. It might cost your team the World Series? Yeah, I think it might... because Manny's pretty good at carrying teams to the World Series, despite his asshole attitude.

And yeah, you don't want to wind up with the problems that Boston had. I mean... how would you face your fans if you won 2 World fucking Championship in 4 years? You'd have to be nucking futs to deal with that!!!!

From that point on it gets worse. Jayson Stark, I understand that you're a card-carrying employee of Red Sox Nation, through it's subsidiary, ESPN... but can we pretend, just for a minute, to be an un-bias news outlet, and offer some realistic analysis?

Maybe Manny saw the shithouse treatment that other so-called Boston Heroes got at contract time? Pedro? Clemens? Greenwell? Mo Vaughn? Pedro? Do I need to keep going? Really? Do I? Boston shits all over their guys when they get old... they've done it habitually for a long time!

You all know that I'm a Yankees fan. And guess what!! The Yankees do the SAME THING!! They did it to Bernie Williams in a MAJOR WAY! Tino got shit-heeled for Giambi. A lot of guys have gotten run out of the Bronx for getting old. It's how you build a winner, by staying young, staying competitive, and re-loading at your key positions...

But don't blame Manny because he didn't want to leave his neck on the fucking chopping block.

Maybe He Did a Papel-Bong Hit...

Obviously I'm a Red Sox-hater. I should probably clarify my stance on 'The Rivalry' at some point anyway, so I'll just touch on it briefly here.

I'm not exactly a Sox-hater. I'm well-aware of the history of both of these teams. I love the game of baseball and pride myself on being somewhat knowledgeable about it. And some of the best conversations about the sport that I've ever had, have been with Red Sox fans.

Every team, especially the Sox and the Yankees, have their bandwagon fans. Those guys know nothing about the team, they're arrogant, they're cocky, and they make everybody look bad. That's probably 80+% of the people who claim to be Yankee fans, and at least 75% of the guys who have "membership cards to Red Sox Nation" and shit. I fucking hate bandwagon fans.

But on to the good stuff.

"My wife is pregnant and she's getting her life threatened. It's frigging stupid," Papelbon said during an expletive-laced session with reporters. "I feel like I needed to be in a bullet-proof car."

Shit man!! That's fucked up!! Did Jonathan Papelbon just visit Iraq to distribute kittens to the soldiers or something?

Ohhhh... he was at the parade in New York City yesterday!! Wait.. what? Umm... dude, your wife didn't get her life threatened. Stop exaggerating and stop being a stupid cunt. Your wife got boo'd. Are we really supposed to cry you a river about this?

Nobody rushed the vehicle. Nobody threw anything at you. This celebration wasn't NEARLY as raucous as the one that occurred after Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS, which is to say that while fans in BOSTON might feel it's necessary to kill someone as a means of celebration...

Yankee fans have a pretty good track record over the last 12 years, seeing as they watched their team win 4 World Championships... and didn't KILL anybody. So seriously dude, shut the fuck up. People are entitled to boo you. You're a tool.

"I don't really give a shit anymore," he said. "If I don't even fucking pitch, I don't care."

Just for the record... if Papelbon didn't fucking pitch, the AL probably wouldn't have needed 15 innings to win the game. Especially with Billy "We Are Gonna Need Extra Runs" Wagner on the hill for the NL.

Curt Schilling... Hall of Famer?

Probably not, right? But if it's even remotely possible, Red Sox Nation Media Affiliate, ESPN will push the idea as early and as often as humanly possible.

If you ever doubted that ESPN is, as a whole, a card-carrying member of Red Sox Nation, all you need do is look at Page 2 of late, and read over the 7,402 articles (I didn't count, but I'm pretty sure it's 7,402, give or take a couple) sucking off the ref-slanted Celtics series victory over the Lakers.

It's been the same kind of interactive gangbang following Sox championships and Patriots championships, with Bill Simmons writing 17 entries a week to express nothing other than his arrogant fanboy drivel. Lately Jim Caple's getting into the mix. DJ Gallo and Patrick Hruby are crusading against those bastard "bandwagon Cubs" fans.

I wonder what Jemele Hill's up to... oh wait... she's still on suspension for likening Celtics fans to Nazi's. Which sorta makes me wonder if she's in trouble for the offensive nature of her statements... or because it was directed at Boston fans specifically.

But back to Schilling. We'll get to the numbers in a minute... Jayson Stark thinks Schill in the Hall is debatable. Rob Neyer thinks he's a lock.
And as for the Baseball Tonight crew?

Buster Olney: "you've got to look at his incredible post-season record! 11-2!!!"

Which means that we're inducting Curt Schilling based on 19 post-season starts. I guess that means there's a pretty good case for Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez too then, right? I mean, he's 9-3 with a 2.55 Post-Season ERA!! And he's won 3 rings! The same as Schilling!! Who cares if he's 210 wins short of the criteria that EVERY OTHER PITCHER has to conform to!?! LOOK AT THOSE POST-SEASON NUMBERS!!!

Orestes Destrade: If Schilling is a Hall of Famer, then so is Orel Hershiser!

Good point!! Great point!! Similar to my El Duque point... except that Destrade keeps going... as though to say that they BOTH belong in the Hall of Fame... and again, no... they do not.

Now for the numbers. Schilling is 216-146 for his career with 3116 strikeouts, a 3.46 ERA. Here are some guys with very similar numbers to these...

Kevin Brown: 211-144, 3.28 ERA
Bob Welch: 211-146, 3.47 ERA
Orel Hershiser: 204-150, 3.48 ERA
Mike Mussina: 260-149, 3.71 ERA
David Cone: 194-126, 3.46 ERA

Are these guys Hall of Famers by your estimation? Because if Schilling's in, the Mussina should be a lock, right?

Now take this into account: Before Schilling went to Boston, he was sitting at 163-117. He's gone 53-29 behind an team that's ranked 1 or 2 in pretty much every major statistical category for the entire time he's been there.

Shouldn't that be considered? Isn't that part of the reason that Mike Mussina's not a Hall of Famer? Because he's won 113 games behind the Yankees robust offense?

All in all, no. Curt Schilling is abso-fucking-lutley not a Hall of Famer. His numbers come up short in a few categories, and with exception to a period of 3 years between Arizona and his first year in Boston (which might well have been PED-Fueled), he's never been among the best in the game. Not to mention the fact that he's one of the biggest fucking blowhards to ever write a blog, and I somehow feel as though the entire blogosphere has been contaminated by it. So I'm a biased asshole too.