d.: Cal.E is working extra shifts so that she and Tucker can have a nice honeymoon and she won’t be called into The Kennel to work. That gives me a chance to rant a little.
My sons and I have been watching Astros games together for a while. I saw the Astros win the sixth game of the World Series last year on television and become world champions and was able to share this moment with my youngest son. Maybe that’s why I’m such a big Astros’ fan and defender.
With the exception of St. Louis and Arlington, the Astros are still booed everywhere they go. The ignorant fans in other cities boo a class act like Jose Altuve, who refused to participate in the 2017 sign stealing scandal. Altuve even scolded his teammates for what they were doing. However, as soon as the boo’s start, Jose seems to come to life. (Maybe we should boo him at home?) The classless New York Yankee fans cheered when Martin Maldonado was run over at home plate and lay unconscious on the ground during a spring training game a few years ago. The player who ran over him committed an offense, since this is no longer allowed in baseball, and it was a spring training game! Also, Maldonado wasn’t on the Astros’ team in 2017. And, Altuve is batting better on the road, I believe, in the last six years than at home. Additionally, in 2017 the Astros actually won more games on the road than at home.
Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich at The Athletic published an article detailing the team's sign stealing activities, which were wrong. However, I don’t think these two completed their assignment. As a nurse at The Human Kennel, I have an obligation to try to keep The Kennel’s population as healthy as possible. I will use a hypothetical example from my occupation to make my point.
If an inmate comes to me with an elevated temperature, muscle weakness, general malaise and a cough, I’m concerned for him. These are commonly known as “flu like symptoms” in the medical profession, although they don’t always mean that the patient is sick with influenza. In fact, these symptoms can indicate a myriad of illnesses, almost all of which are contagious. So, if I only treat the one patient for his symptoms and don’t worry about the other inmates in his dorm, I’m not doing my job properly. Technically, I’m obligated to call all of the inmates in that dorm into the medical department individually and examine them. The odds of that one person being the only one displaying those symptoms are about two percent, the margin for error with any mathematical equation.
What the two reporters did, in my opinion, is the equivalent to me only treating the one patient who walked into the medical department and calling it a day. When Mike (pine tar hand) Fiers told Ken Rosenthal how the Astros procured three whole hits with their “complicated” (according to Rob {he is NOT a} Man,Fred) they didn’t bother to investigate to see if any other teams may have been doing something similar. This, despite the fact that the Yankees and Red Sox had each been caught twice cheating with electronic devices. Almost no one remembers that the Red Sox were caught in their championship year of 2018. The team that they beat to win the American League pennant was the Astros. Hmm. Do you think there may be some bias in the media? Perish the thought.
I will compliment the St. Louis fans, who have always been knowledgeable and realize that the Astros sign-stealing scandal wasn’t an isolated incident. The Ranger’s fans may have taken their cue from pitcher Lance Lynn, who urged everyone to forget about the whole thing and “just play baseball.” I applaud Lynn and the Ranger’s fans.
Now that it has come out from players who were cut from their major league teams that almost all of the teams in MLB were using electronics to steal signs, there has been no retraction from The Athletic or the commissioner of Major League Baseball. Rob (he is NOT a)Man,Fred said that the Astros’ system was “more complex” and, therefore, worse than anyone else’s. So, Rob, if a murderer finds a “more complex” way to kill someone than the guy who just simply shot someone, he’s a worse criminal than the other guy? They're both murderers, and should be treated as such.
Astros’ manager Dusty Baker said, “We had ways of taking care of people like that (referring to Mike Fiers) in my day.” Can you imagine if Bob Gibson had been an Astros and Fiers had been forced to bat for himself against him? AS much of a gentleman as he was, Nolan Ryan was an Astro, and wasn’t above teaching someone a lesson. A fastball to the back from either would be extremely undesirable, to say the least.
Dusty, it’s too bad the same methods and rules don’t apply to reporters. Maybe Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich should be obligated to stand in the batter’s box while Justin Verlander is on the mound. He was on that ‘17 team. I think that would be a good way for these two reporters to learn to report all the facts, not just the ones that interest them and make their point.
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