Things That Make You Go, “Hmmm…”

Here is an article I just read on Stephen Strasburg, the “the best amateur pitcher I’ve [MLB super-agent Scott Boras] seen” on ESPN.com. And here’s Sports Illustrated’s 1995 cover piece on a 19 year-old coming straight from high school named Kevin Garnett.

It is interesting to me how the piece on Strasburg discusses his fastball, how much money his super-agent will be able to fetch him in contract negotiations, and how teams with no chance of acquiring him are sending scouts to watch him anyway, because of what a treat it is just to see the kid perform. How the crux of the column is how much guaranteed money the young pitcher will receive from the team that drafts him, and how negotiation will set a new standard for top-flight draftees.

While the Garnett piece (also this, this, this, and this), paradoxically, discusses how overwhelming the whole situation may be for the young basketball player, how the money he is set to receive is “like… Monopoly money” to him, and how there is a strong possibility (along with past cases as evidence) that he might fail.

I know this issue has been talked about ad nauseum over the years, and fired up again last yer when Brandon Jennings ditched the NCAA for Europe and this year when Jeremy Tyler passed up his senior year of high school for the pros overseas. It’s just crazy that Lebron James and Kevin Garnett’s initial NBA contracts were worth less than $25 million COMBINED (note: the NBA installed a rookie pay scale in 1998;  LBJ’s rookie year was 2003-04; and KG’s yearly salaries can be seen here), and Strasburg’s agent has MLB general managers talking in the $50 million range and there is nary a word of how overwhelming that may be for Strasburg or how he may have to worry about keeping childhood friends from pulling him in all directions or how he very well may fail, or how his example of being super-talented sets a bad precedent for less-gifted amateurs who may attempt following in his footsteps.

Just interesting to me.

It Aint For Everybody

So this reporter is writing a book that seems to be based on trashing Alex Rodriguez’s reputation in baseball.  If you want to know the details of that, click that link and read up; it’s the most blogged-about topic in the world today.

What got me to thinking is, wow, how tough is it to be atop a pedestal in the public eye? A-Rod has been widely regarded over the years, off and on, as the Best Player in Baseball. He admitted to a history cheating a couple of months ago, and the vultures came out. Now, this reporter stands to make money completely on A-Rod’s back, with a book that sheds a completely negative light on his entire being.

Back in the early 90s a similar thing happened to Michael Jordan, when a Chicago sportswriter penned The Jordan Rules, which, albeit less scathing, also set to make MJ seem less bright-smiley behind closed doors. And both of these book s are completely legal, with no recourse for the subjects to stop it from happeneing. The beauty of the First Amendment.

How would you feel, though, if a person wanted to bring all of the skeletons out of your closet, or at least the most juicy ones, for their own profit while you watched?

UPDATE: Finally, someone stes up to Rodriguez’s defense- MLB Player Doug Mientkiewicz (LA Dodgers), who was a HS teammate of A-Rod’s, speaks up and questions the credibility of the book.

Don’t You Just Hate It When…

… you think of something you need to recall later, trust your memory to file it away, then can’t remember what the hell it was later on?

… you listen to people talking about things and they have all the facts incorrect, but you dont wanna jump in and speak because youll look like a know-it-all?

… taxi drivers seem to drive extra catious and miss yellow lights and left- turn opportunities?

… you go somewhere that boasts ‘wireless internet’ and the connection is extremely inconsistent?

… you are talented at something, and an observer says, “Well, if I blankety-blank-blank, I could do that too!”???

… the yankees don’t win the world series?

… you use a white towel at a hotel, and all the cotton frm the towel rubs off all over your body?

… you see you have new friend requests on myspace, and when you go to the freind request manager, all the requests are spam accounts?

… when gay males that you’ve never met send you one-word messages and freind request you?

( oh, i guess im the only one, huh…. )

… when media and television people sensationalize stories- because you know it’s not as serious as they make them seem, but you also know that there are a lot of not-so-intelligent, impressionable people out there that will believe and regurgitate the stories word-for-word?

… when rappers get in trouble with the law and it becomes a big story for nothing, because they almost never end up actually convicted and/ or in prison (free t.i.!!!) ?

… some people treat tap water like it came out of the toilet, when we used to drink that shit like it as nothing about 15 years ago (showing my age)?

… black folks explain their inability to be punctual with the ever- popular CPT? isnt that just as ignorant as ridiculing a black person for talking “too proper”?

… you get in someone’s car and the have the a.c. on too dam high and it’s freezing inside the car?

… someone gets into your car and puts thier hands anywhere near the center area, i.e. temperature control, music controls?

… whenever i write about my personal feelings on human interaction of any kind in my blogs, someone always thinks i’m talking about them?
(i very well may be.)