BBTF's Newsblog Discussion :: Detroit News: Paul: One down, one to go? Verlander wants the MVP, too

Baseball Primer Newsblog
— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Detroit News: Paul: One down, one to go? Verlander wants the MVP, too

“But that doesn’t make him a slam dunk for anything more than he won Tuesday. He still has plenty of competition for MVP, among the candidates, three outfielders — Jacoby Ellsbury from the Red Sox, Curtis Granderson from the Yankees and Jose Bautista from the Blue Jays.

“Curtis Granderson, he’s a friend,” Verlander said of his former Tigers teammate. “If I don’t win, that’s the guy I hope has the best opportunity.”

Still, Verlander’s as competitive as it gets. On the mound. On the golf course. And, you bet, in the awards voting.

He wants to be talking again about his season to the baseball writers in six days. Because that’ll mean he’s the MVP.

“Would I like to win it? Of course,” said Verlander, 28, who now has one more Cy Young than his childhood idol, Nolan Ryan, whose Hall of Fame career amazingly doesn’t include any. “(But) I’m not gonna let the MVP voting let me make any less of this accomplishment.”

What? No mention of teammate Miguel Cabrera? Does D-U-I unspell M-V-P??

Don Malcolm Posted: November 16, 2011 at 03:54 PM | 29 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: awards

Reader Comments and Retorts

Go to end of page

Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.

1. Paul D(uda) Posted: November 16, 2011 at 04:52 PM (#3994794)

Jose Bautista is winning the MVP. And he deserves it.

2. Heinie Mantush (Krusty) Posted: November 16, 2011 at 05:07 PM (#3994805)

Jose Bautista is winning the MVP. And he deserves it.

I was going to make a snide comment about the Man in White, but his Home/Away is virtually identical... which just proves the Man in White traveled with the Jays until the second half, when Bautista mysteriously returned to Earth.*

*Tongue firmly in cheek on that one. However, Verlander's all-around dominance makes him the MVP in my non-voting, non-baseball writing eyes. A monster starter like Verlander has a cascade effect on the rest of the roster. And yes, I think Halladay's been jipped in MVP voting in the past.

3. Nathan Kunkel Posted: November 16, 2011 at 05:43 PM (#3994823)

Hmmm.. where's the love for his own teammate? Anyone else find that peculiar?

EDIT: must.read.intro.fully.

4. Moe Greene Posted: November 16, 2011 at 07:04 PM (#3994886)

And yes, I think Halladay's been jipped in MVP voting in the past.

Ever since I learned the etymology of gypped some years ago, I've avoided using the term for fear of being branded an insensitive ___-ist. In fact, in a number of instances when I've heard friends/colleagues use the term, I point out where it comes from and that they may want to avoid using it (not that I'm personally offended by it).

Yet I've never heard of a single person actually being offended by this and the same friends/colleagues still use it. Maybe it's time for me to end my mini-crusade.

5. Bob Evans Posted: November 16, 2011 at 07:14 PM (#3994892)

Yet I've never heard of a single person actually being offended by this and the same friends/colleagues still use it.

I've never met a Romany person to be offended by it, but I still won't use it.

6. Enrico Pallazzo Posted: November 16, 2011 at 07:45 PM (#3994920)

Yeah, I use jew'd or kiked instead. Personal preference, you know.

7. Daryn Posted: November 16, 2011 at 07:55 PM (#3994933)

The last time I used "gypped", I got off scot-free.

8. The District Attorney Posted: November 16, 2011 at 08:00 PM (#3994940)

The last time I used "gypped", I got off scot-free.

You were lucky; justice is usually more niggardly.

9. Moe Greene Posted: November 16, 2011 at 08:07 PM (#3994958)

I knew I could count on you guys to come through with some high-quality comments on this topic.

Related recent clip from The Colbert Report: Don't Jew them down

10. Don Malcolm

Posted: November 16, 2011 at 09:55 PM (#3995119)

Yeah, I use jew'd or kiked instead. Personal preference, you know.

Absolutely, Enrico. That's why I lean toward the term "dago-whipped" myself....

11. Enrico Pallazzo Posted: November 16, 2011 at 10:25 PM (#3995155)

That's why I lean toward the term "dago-whipped" myself....

That's racist, man.

12. Nathan Kunkel Posted: November 16, 2011 at 10:36 PM (#3995166)

sometimes these ill founded nicknames lose the original baggage, such as with 'Quaker'

can't think of another example, however..

13. RMc is the loyal supporter of the MLB event Posted: November 16, 2011 at 11:22 PM (#3995211)

The last time I used "gypped", I got off scot-free.

You were lucky; justice is usually more niggardly.

The correct term is "miserable fat belgian b@stard-ed."

14. Never Give an Inge (Dave) Posted: November 16, 2011 at 11:36 PM (#3995223)

I've never met a Romany person to be offended by it, but I still won't use it.

Do you know a lot of Romani (Romany?)...I don't think I know any.

15. Joe Bivens, Idiot Posted: November 16, 2011 at 11:55 PM (#3995236)

I've sort of met a Romany...he mows my lawn. We don't talk much. I pay him and he leaves, quickly. The door to my house shuts as he's counting the money I give him.

16. Tom Nawrocki Posted: November 17, 2011 at 12:00 AM (#3995238)

The door to my house shuts as he's counting the money I give him.

One of these times, you should gyp him, just to see what he accuses you of doing.

17. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Moral Idiot

Posted: November 17, 2011 at 12:08 AM (#3995246)

Every Vagino-American I know is horrified by the tone of this thread.

18. Enrico Pallazzo Posted: November 17, 2011 at 12:24 AM (#3995256)

I once sarcastically used the word "gay" to insult something while I was near one of my vagino-canadian friends. She immediately lectured me on how mean that was and how she had gay friends who would be offended. So for the rest of the evening, I started slipping racial and anti-semitic slurs into my conversations when she was near. She laughed at most of those.

Girls are weird.

19. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Moral Idiot

Posted: November 17, 2011 at 12:41 AM (#3995274)

Girls are weird.

Nah, everyone's weird. Except you and me.

And sometimes I wonder about you.

20. Don Malcolm

Posted: November 17, 2011 at 12:56 AM (#3995288)

Yeah, we really need Baseball Chick to come in here and say some racy/sexy things about Brad Ausmus, don't we?

Andy--you really don't have to wonder about Enrico.

Hey, Enrico--hijack my goddam thread and feel the fury of the jackboots, buddy!

21. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Moral Idiot

Posted: November 17, 2011 at 01:08 AM (#3995294)

I've heard that gays love jackboots.

22. AndrewJ Posted: November 17, 2011 at 01:49 AM (#3995311)

The reference book The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins claims "gyp" is actually derived from either "gee-up," which meant "to treat roughly" in some parts of England, or "gippo," a type of short jacket worn by the valets of 17th century Oxford University students -- the valets were apparently known as thieves...

23. Enrico Pallazzo Posted: November 17, 2011 at 02:35 AM (#3995327)

I had a discussion about racial slurs with my girlfriend once. She argued that we just shouldn't say them, ever. I understand her point, but I argued that if you stopped using them some stupid new words would eventually take their place and the cycle would repeat itself. It's like you're giving in to the real bigots.

It makes more sense to me to just strip them of all meaning and expose the absurdity of their racist connotations. Sticks and stones, right? Of course, I live in Canada in a University town with a heavily non-white student population where racist terms are thrown around jokingly for this exact reason.

And I want Bautista to win the MVP. Personal bias.

24. Fred Lynn Nolan Ryan Sweeney Agonistes Posted: November 17, 2011 at 02:48 AM (#3995332)

She immediately lectured me on how mean that was and how she had gay friends who would be offended.

Sounds like the SF Bay Area, where being offended on someone else's behalf is treated as some kind of sport.
"If you can imagine a way to be offended, do so" is the local rule of thumb.

Anyway, I like calling things gay, but only if they actually are gay.
A friend of mine acquired a big pink bike with a flowered basket, and then she rode it in the Pride Parade. That's hella gay, yo.

25. Enrico Pallazzo Posted: November 17, 2011 at 02:52 AM (#3995334)

Funny, I have a friend who did almost the exact same thing (girl's bike, no basket unfortunately). Except instead of riding it through the Pride Parade, he was just really drunk and rode it home (he returned it on a subsequent evening, also drunk I assume). University was fun.

26. bobm Posted: November 17, 2011 at 03:11 AM (#3995341)

[14]

I've never met a Romany person to be offended by it, but I still won't use it.

Do you know a lot of Romani (Romany?)...I don't think I know any.

"Evans" is actually a common Romany a/k/a Gypsy surname/alias.

EDIT: at least as described by the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/nyregion/psychic-is-expert-in-teaching-how-to-let-go-of-money.html

"This city is up to its third eye in psychics and palm readers, and yet little is known about them. Called gypsies by the police, they are as structured as the Mafia, with a council of elders to solve their disputes over turf. The families are not named Luchese, Gambino or Genovese, but the relatively anonymous Eli, Evans, Miller and Johns."

27. AndrewJ Posted: November 17, 2011 at 03:42 AM (#3995365)

The correct term is "miserable fat belgian b@stard-ed."

"'People called Romany, they go the house'?"

28. Heinie Mantush (Krusty) Posted: November 17, 2011 at 05:10 PM (#3995635)

So, prior to this thread, I had no idea of the etymology of "gypped" (or the proper spelling, even!) I'll refrain in the future.

What I'm most surprised by is that I had no inkling of the word's connotation, and I'd like to think I'm reasonably well-educated* and old enough to know better.** Moreover, I'm fairly progressive, and I'd imagine this is the sort of thing my circle would know.

*BA/MA/JD in May
**twentysomething.

29. Blastin Posted: November 17, 2011 at 05:19 PM (#3995640)

Krusty (who was the first to call me "Blastin" in real life) is indeed smart and 20something. But yeah, ever since I learned it I've found it ugly.

Now, I think there's a distinction to be made between "gypped" (which, once you find out, seems to be like calling people "retarded," that is, not very sensitive) and "lame," which, I might argue, doesn't even have its original meaning anymore. Would you all agree?

You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.

<< Back to main

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Detroit News: Paul: One down, one to go? Verlander wants the MVP, too

Reader Comments and Retorts

Support BBTF

Bookmarks

Hot Topics