BBTF's Newsblog Discussion :: NBCsports.com: Mike Celizic: If fans don’t boo Manny, why should the media?

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Wednesday, July 08, 2009

NBCsports.com: Mike Celizic: If fans don’t boo Manny, why should the media?

Why aren’t the fans booing?

“Either they put it behind them or they didn’t care to start with,” Cohen finally decided with an almost audible shrug.

We in the opinion business like to talk about how players don’t have a clue about just about everything — money, fame, contracts, respect, the real world. But on this subject, the guys in the electronic pulpits are the ones who are clueless, and have been for a long time.

I’ve been saying this for years: The fans don’t care.

We saw it when Manny first started getting in shape in the minor leagues. Fans packed ballparks and cheered his every scratch and expectoration. When he played his first major league game in San Diego, the fans seemed happy to have him back.

And now in New York, where the fans are supposed to be tough, there’s a smattering of boos and a smattering of cheers and a whole lot of camera flashes. Baseball as usual. The biggest reaction Manny got was when he got thrown out of the game for tossing equipment after getting called out on a ball that was half a foot off the plate.

Cohen took some solace in that, suggesting that home plate umpire John Hirschbeck was stretching the strike zone on Manny as punishment for doing drugs. It’s possible. But even if it’s true, it wouldn’t prove anything other than that Hirschbeck is petty.

Tripon Posted: July 08, 2009 at 06:03 AM | 12 comment(s) | Login to Bookmark
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1. Moneyball can't buy you love (Joey B.) Posted: July 08, 2009 at 11:27 AM (#3245579)

They booed his ass off in Citi Field yesterday.

2. Win one for Agrippa (haplo53) Posted: July 08, 2009 at 11:30 AM (#3245580)

“Either they put it behind them or they didn’t care to start with,” Cohen finally decided with an almost audible shrug.

Or their team has made them numb.

3. Famous Original Joe C Posted: July 08, 2009 at 11:41 AM (#3245583)

They booed his ass off in Citi Field yesterday.

They need something to take out their frustrations on.

4. bunyon Posted: July 08, 2009 at 12:10 PM (#3245609)

Minaya then tried to trade for his ass, hoping it could play second base.

5. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Moral Idiot

Posted: July 08, 2009 at 12:31 PM (#3245636)

If fans don’t boo Manny, why should the media?

Maybe by the year 3009 we'll appreciate that both "the fans" and "the media" don't speak in a collective voice. Boo if you want or cheer if you want, but nobody else has an obligation to follow suit.

6. LargeBill Posted: July 08, 2009 at 01:00 PM (#3245654)

JOSN,

You're hitting on the point many completely miss. You could get 50 baseball fans together and find a dozen or more points of view on the PED issue. People are not necessarily 100% in favor of their usage or 100% in favor of some draconian punishment (such as a permanent ban). Most are somewhere between the two extremes. Beyond that, fans enjoy the game and even those who want the PED problem addressed are likely to cheer a good play or a home run regardless of whether the player is considered "tainted." Most of us realize Manny, A-Rod and whoever else you want to name did not create this situation. Institutional things like this usually start small and gradually reach problem status.

7. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Moral Idiot

Posted: July 08, 2009 at 01:13 PM (#3245667)

Large Bill,

To add to what you say, there are far too many people who want to force everyone into one extreme camp or the other, and seem to get very annoyed when they run into someone who won't cooperate. I suppose they figure it makes for better television, or for better Repozfests.

8. Harry Balsagne's transparent jealousy

Posted: July 08, 2009 at 01:26 PM (#3245677)

It's sports journalists who fear that if they don't get into a towering moral outrage about such things people will stop buying their product, and their careers will be in jeopardy, etc. Of course there are fans who feel the same, but by and large I think people just want to enjoy the game, and PEDs don't really detract from that. The majority of us have more important things to expend our moral jism on, and all of us are liars or cheaters in some way or another.

9. Sheer Tim Foli

Posted: July 08, 2009 at 01:34 PM (#3245695)

My exerience with professional journalists is limited but I think sometimes they live in a bubble with respect to what the "person on the street" thinks. On the odd occasion when the general public doesn't react the way they expected it is easier to assume the public is "wrong" than it is to admit that they have been spending their efforts on a topic no one cares about.

10. jwb Posted: July 08, 2009 at 02:49 PM (#3245839)

Oddly enough, Mike Celizic is NBC's go-to guy for shark attack stories.

11. Perros Posted: July 08, 2009 at 03:03 PM (#3245864)

...all of us are liars or cheaters in some way or another.

Moral relativism at its finest... still, baseball players taking PEDs ranks near the bottom of morally outrageous acts.

We all have to live with our own karma. Plaskche's likely to come back as a French snail.

12. SoSH U at work Posted: July 08, 2009 at 03:13 PM (#3245887)

Oddly enough, Mike Celizic is NBC's go-to guy for shark attack stories.

And tasered grandmas.

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Wednesday, July 08, 2009

NBCsports.com: Mike Celizic: If fans don’t boo Manny, why should the media?

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