Breaking News on the East Side

[Guest Edgy DC]

It took me some time to get also. Big guy? Steinbrenner?

[Valadius]

I got it right away.

[Benjamin Grimm]

God doesn't trust him to fly around in heaven.

[soupcan]

Groooooaaaaannnnn.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: God doesn't trust him to fly around in heaven.

Well, yeah, I get it now.

[stevejrogers]

Going through some stuff, I found a 1997 Mets Stadium Give-Away photo album featuring this nifty Lidle action shot

[Valadius]

You know, over a decade later, don't you think it's time the union got over their beef with the replacement players?

[nymr83]

Valadius wrote: You know, over a decade later, don't you think it's time the union got over their beef with the replacement players?

if they were a normal union? no.
considering that they are all a bunch of of rich bastards anyway? sure.

[stevejrogers]

I don't know about other union reps (like a Tom Glavine for example) but gotta also think (Metly anyway) about a guy like Franco's background. Sure he was in 1997 (and pretty much all of his career) a well paid entertainer, but he grew up in a very blue collar/pro-union environment, so in Franco's case I understand where he comes from being cold towards the replacement players.

As for the others, Dude this is an ENTERTAINMENT industry, get over yourself, this isn't something to get all paranoid and militant about

[Guest Edgy DC]

So the United Auto Workers or United Mine Workers has a history of guys fraternally and happily working side-by-side with guys who crossed their picket line during a strike?

[stevejrogers]

Edgy DC wrote: So the United Auto Workers or United Mine Workers has a history of guys fraternally and happily working side-by-side with guys who crossed their picket line during a strike?

Not sure where you are going with this Edge. I'm pretty sure my comment (and others) were aimed at sports (and actors, radio personel, ect) unions where the industry is an entertainment based industry rather than well, actual labor and all.

In other words it is unfair to put the freeze on a replacement baseball player and act like you are some AFL-CIO big shot

[Guest Edgy DC]

I don't want to make too much of this, for obvious reasons. I don't like to beat up on Joe Torre, but the Times has these comments from him at the memorial for Lidle:

“I was his manager for a couple of months, though I knew of him professionally for quite awhile,” Torre said during the reception at Faith Community Church in West Covina. “What sticks with me, what I keep replaying, is the fact that I went out to the mound and gave him the ball, and I went out to the mound and took the ball away for the last time on that day in Detroit,” he said, referring to the Yankees’ 8-3 loss to the Tigers on Oct. 7 in Game 4 of their American League division series.

“I didn’t get to know him very well personally because we were only together a short time, but he seemed to blend in very well with our team,” Torre added. “And now the future that you sort of planned, there is no future other than his memory. But I know one thing: the fact that he was a Yankee and that he was very, very pleased when I called him after the trade, pleased he was to be a part of our Yankee family. Unfortunately, he couldn’t have been there longer.”

Now, I initially thought that he made these in a formal address to the gathered mourners. Now, I'm thinking that it was just an empty statement to a reporter. But still, the guy dies, and the best you can say for him is that he really llikes that for 15 minutes, he was, you know, one of you?

Forget that (1) his last public act was a heated defense of you, and (2) the Yankees weren't particularly likely to tender him an offer. The thing you remember about him was how pleased he was to be hit with your reflected glory?

I don't think Torre is a dick or anything, but I wonder if he's been speaking the corporate bullshitspeak so long that he can't turn it off.

The guy needs to drink from a different well.

[MFS62]

]Now, I initially thought that he made these in a formal address to the gathered mourners. Now, I'm thinking that it was just an empty statement to a reporter. But still, the guy dies, and the best you can say for him is that he really llikes that for 15 minutes, he was, you know, one of you? Forget that (1) his last public act was a heated defense of you, and (2) the Yankees weren't particularly likely to tender him an offer. The thing you remember about him was how pleased he was to be hit with your reflected glory? I don't think Torre is a dick or anything, but I wonder if he's been speaking the corporate bullshitspeak so long that he can't turn it off.

Well done, Edgy.

Torre has had a lot of face time with reporters, and I'd prefer to call it "manager speak". Outside the baseball world, in lengthy interviews, I haven't found him to be the most erudite person in the world. In a situation like this, it is difficult to always come up with the right words.

So it may have been easier for him to revert to the references about the team that he used.
I'm neither a Torre supporter nor a Torre basher, but in an situation like this, I'd be willing to cut him some slack.

Later