Roger McDowell, uncaring after Pendelton HR?

[Guest mlbaseballtalk]

This caller to WFAN around 8:30ish is the exact reason why its hard to take callers (and hosts) too seriously.

He called to make a point that seeing Roger McDowell blowing bubbles with his chewing gum after giving up the Pendelton homer in 87 made him realize that he cared more about what was going on than athletes did.

He is kidding me? It be one thing if he said he saw McDowell give someone a hot foot in the dugout after the inning (come to think of it, maybe he should have, loosened up the team a bit and we'd start to rally in the bottom of the frame...) or McDowell suddenly went into some Max Patkin style routine.

Roger McDowell was KNOWN to chew gum on the mound. It makes sense that he'd probably was blowing that bubble to release some tension or his way of doing something demonstrative, but to say that was a sign that he didn't care about what had happened is just insane.

At least he wasn't smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer in the manager's office, at least he wasn't undressed making airplane reservations, and at least he wasn't playing a game of poker!

Basically Roger McDowell, one of the last guys you'd point the finger at and say "That guy doesn't care enough"

Steve

[Guest Edgy DC]

I don't know whether McDowell is one of the last guys I'd point to. I don't know why he gets remembered as being tougher and more reliable than Orosco.

I do agree that his bubble is without real meaning.

[Frayed Knot]

I agree that this 'we the fans care more than the players do' attitude is a trend that I'm hearing more of recently. Chris Russo & Joe Badabingo are the worst enablers.
Fans interpreting Johnny Franco's "smirk" to mean lack of both interest and effort became a cottage industry for a time.

[Guest cooby]

I never thought Benitez was smiling either.

[Guest mlbaseballtalk]

Frayed Knot wrote: I agree that this 'we the fans care more than the players do' attitude is a trend that I'm hearing more of recently. Chris Russo & Joe Badabingo are the worst enablers. Fans interpreting Johnny Franco's "smirk" to mean lack of both interest and effort became a cottage industry for a time.

Good point. Gets to the point where if I hear Beningo treated as if he was "The Voice Of The Real Fan" one more time I may call up WFAN and say "Hey, Beningo is the voice of the over obsessive, lunatic fringe fan"

Throw Don LaGreca into this category as well, at least he and Russo acknowledge that they are not the "typical normal fan" Beningo, Rosenberg, Brandon Tierney, Wally Mathews, Mike Greenberg, and other hosts who rip people to shreds for acting as if they don't care as much as fans do fail to acknowledge that they have their own shortcomings in their fandom

Steve

[Guest mlbaseballtalk]

By the way, I don't know which is a worse critizism about modern athletes (ANY modern athlete going back to, well, a generation after the first athlete

The "Ah they don't care enough because they are making more money now, we care more than they do" from the fans or ex-players saying how "We cared more because it "wasn't about the money" when we played"

To steal from Quentin Tarantino, I got the world's smallest violin playing