Dr. Anthony Fauci said some hopeful things about fans attending games in 2021. California, of course, does not necessarily feel a need to cooperate. On that note, the Dodgers are trying to pull some strings and have fans on opening day despite the fact that Los Angeles County is still in the purple tier. Will we have fans at baseball?
Sleaze Bag Of The Day
We have two entries for Sleaze Bag of the Day today. Seattle Mariners CEO, Kevin Mather, unleashed about 45 minutes of racism and disrespect toward his players while speaking to a local Rotary Club earlier this month. The MLB Players Association, understandably upset, released a statement on the matter. Kevin Mather says he’s sorry. To show how sorry he is, he resigned from his position with the Mariners.
Johnny Damon was arrested Friday morning driving with a blood alcohol level over 0.20. Not only was he arrested for DUI, but also for resisting an officer without violence. Further details are here.
The Mike Trout Link
Mike Trout has spoken up. To nobody’s surprise, he would like to go to the playoffs. You heard him, Perry.
The Albert Pujols Link
Albert Pujols’ wife says he will retire after 2021.
Links From Around Baseball
Unless the Dodgers extend him, Clayton Kershaw is going to be looking for a new job next off season. The back must be feeling pretty good this spring. A fly landed on Jeff Passan’s face during a live televised shot. I guess this is a free plug for Big Fly Gear. Taijuan Walker’s deal with the Mets is official. Meanwhile Cameron Maybin got a minor league deal with the Cubs. Julio Teheran got a minor league deal with the Tigers. Tyler Clippard is going to the Diamondbacks. All Star pitcher Stan Williams died at the age of 84.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Mike Trout wants to go to the playoffs?
Mather’s talk sounded like something you might hear at a cocktail party in 1995 when a guy is three sheets to the wind. In this environment, it’s just moronic to do in that setting and he doesn’t deserve to be running a $350 million a year business to make such a stupid blunder. He was likely trying to be frank and funny, but he needs to throw in the towel if he is thinking standup comedy as his next career move.
This Mather speech took me to LL for the first time since 2019 and everything was too long to actually read lol.
But one thing that caught my eye is that they seem to be getting loaded faster than I imagined…
Suppose there wii be the Brandon Woods of Seattle too, but the future there looks like a soon-be threat.
Yeah. They aren’t that far off.
Maybe it really was Arte all along 😱
Marsh/Adell vs. Kelenic/Rodriguez…higher return?
Hard to believe that the Kevin Mather’s can obtain high positions in sports in today new world. But what is even more unbelievable is that being supposedly a smart guy like this actually went on to say such defamatory comments. One has to believe that with people such as Kevin Mather that this is why the Mariners have been this bad for so long.
Johnny Damon made a huge error in judgement make no mistake on that, but that does not make him a ” Sleaze Bag”, it may show that he has a problem that needs to be addressed. Alcohol and Drugs should not be behind the wheel, but good people can make mistakes as we are as humans not perfect. Hope he learns a lesson and gets help and thankfully no one was injured or worse.
With the release of Kevin Mather’s controversial comments it proves that Jerry DiPoto will work for anyone.
Most of these guys will. Only 30 GM jobs in the world so you take what you can get even if it means working for an asshole.
So does this mean that Arte is worse than an Asshole?
Tell DG to put some pants on.
Why bother? He will just flaunt his pants-free lifestyle.
People have been asking for years. Save yer breath!
How’s it been going, DG? Haven’t spoken with you in what seems like ages!
Work and life has been extremely, which means I don’t get to spend nearly as much time farting around online as I would like. Hope all is well in the RF world!
Well just from the odor that’s wafted in from out of town, I can tell that you’ve been farting around OFFLINE.
It’s quite effective at maintaining the 6 ft social distancing rule. In fact, it helps keep people at least 25 ft away.
Rally thong supporting social distancing, ftw.
Not to mention setting the trend for better health.
It’s not hard to believe at all. It shows that baseball has a huge culture problem and a lot of industries do. People like this thrive in those areas because no one cares or speaks up. And yes – I was more surprised that he wasn’t smart enough to keep his mouth shut. He is not the last guy that believes those things in high positions in baseball – he just opened his dumb mouth (thankfully).
Damon’s poor decision could have gotten people injured or killed. And a .294 is a batting average, not a blood alcohol count.
The fact he was that functional at a .294% could indicate a problem. His biggest problem is not calling Uber in this day and age. There’s no excuse to be on the road while risking others.
Remembering Nick
Uber or Lyft, two very easy and safe choices he could have easily made.
Or just stay at home if you are planning to get that blitzed. There’s still a pandemic after all.
No excuses to being on the road as a lot of things could of happened but thankfully no one was hurt. But there are always others options than the one taken and that do not get you arrested.
Some of what Mather said was accurate such as not promoting the prospect to save money. Some of the other things he said were repugnant. All of what he said reflected someone with no self-discipline, no professional acumen and a complete lack of awareness of his audience.
R.I.P. Stan Williams, you are one of the Good Ones.
Opening Day seems optimistic but limited crowds should come back this spring.
I am looking forward to some sunshine and baseball with a few precautions.
Man I don’t know what’s worse, being a once great player who knows he’s going to be riding pine a lot this season especially if things go well, or not even being able to make your own retirement announcement but having your wife do it for you.
Counting his salary this season should ease his turmoil just a bit
One of the worst Free Agent signings in the history of sports. Sad really.
About the Dodgers having fans on April 9, I wonder what they are planning to do about that mass vaccination site filling up their parking lot.
Excellent question. Rush to vaccinate all of LA before April?
But realistically, with only 20% capacity, perhaps there is room in the parking lot for both the vaccination center and the limited fans?
They really are just using the north half of the parking lot. If they tell people they have to use the gates to the south, It will just be necessary to have some security so people don’t drive across cones trying to get a shot without an appointment.
Yeah good point. They could easily section off their huge parking areas and still do the vaccinations even if fans are at games.
For once getting shot up in the Dodgers parking lot will be a good thing ha ha.
If anybody is seriously going there for the shot, make sure you have at least half a tank of gas to navigate the huge maze of bumper to bumper traffic. It can take several hours.
So what you’re saying is it’s just like trying to get out of that parking lot after a game.
Saw McCartney there a couple of years ago. It took almost three hours for our Uber to get in to pick us up.
It took me an hour and a half just to get to Academy from the off ramp of the 5. People were passing me walking on foot.
The access in and out of Doyer Stadium is without a doubt one of the most poorly designed systems in the country.
We took the train to Union Station and the bus from Union Station to the Latrine. Getting home, the line to get on the bus home went from halfway up the first base side all the way to the left field bleachers. So we called an Uber. Ugh, either way.
I know Petco’s is already closing and the FEMA one at the A’s stadium is only to run for 8 weeks so they all were likely scheduled to close before baseball season.
By April a lot of the shots will be via Blue Shield’s network, CVS/Walgreens, Costco and other community centers I think.
No sense in the Mariners trying to manipulate his playing time now, not with that admission. Wow. If Mather felt that free to say that moronic stuff in public, just imagine the culture inside that club. Damage control needs to be happening yesterday.
Given the attention span of most, this will be forgotten in a couple of weeks
What are the Seattle Mariners?
Agents will remember. Players will remember, and those from places he disparaged will think twice about signing into that culture (if they have a choice).
Mather simply stated publicly what even we as fans knows happens in every organization: service time manipulation. And even if the next CBA moves the line, teams will simply adjust and do the same.
As far as signing into that culture as a non-American, for sure. And Seattle is a desirable spot for Japanese players in particular.
Teams will manipulate service time, but I think that Mather saying that out loud about Kelenic would unleash a grievance against the Mariners if they try it. There is a reason there is always another official reason (needs more reps in AAA, flu-like symptoms, something). So, they might as well start Kelenic’s clock.
Agreed.
The natural progression of minor league guys lends itself to that excuse of needing more reps. A guy busts out at AA and gets a month at AAA. A month clearly isn’t enough, but those return 2-3 weeks always do the trick, ha ha.
I liked the first few minutes of the Mather talk but it went sideways fast and into realms that didn’t need to be visited or discussed. He wanted the season moved back a month, told people not to book airplanes, even stated the obvious trust between players and owners. And then disaster struck……
Like I’ve said before, up service time to 7 years but start the clock as soon as a player is added to the 40 man roster. That eliminates the ability for service time manipulation, because you either expose a guy to the rule 5 draft or you start his service time.