After the game, Valentine hinted that there was still some ill will towards Scott for referring to Fenway as a “dump” and calling the fans “vulgar.”

Price didn't hit Gonzo. That was Matt Moore.

I know, I know. They all look alike to you.

Luke Scott that birther racist piece of human garbage

hy·per·bo·le
[hahy-pur-buh-lee]
noun Rhetoric .
1. obvious and intentional exaggeration.
2. an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”

hy·per·bo·le
[hahy-pur-buh-lee]
noun Rhetoric .
1. obvious and intentional exaggeration.
2. an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”

The pitch thrown behind him was not head-high, IINM. That doesn't make it any less dangerous, IMO.

Scratch a birther, find a racist.

Why not allow his African-American teammates to decide if he's a racist? Or is that too inconvenient?

Yeah, I bet some of his best friends....

Yeah, except David Price and B.J. Upton are well aware that Scott is a birther and yet it does not seem to bother them one iota. (If anything offends them, it is probably Scott's facial hair.) How can that be?

except David Price and B.J. Upton are well aware that Scott is a birther and yet it does not seem to bother them one iota

How do we know this? Seriously. Price and Upton could very well hate Scott's guts for all we know. And if they do hate his guts, we wouldn't necessarily know that it's because he's a birther. Of course, the fact that a couple of black guys hate a white guy's guts wouldn't mean that the white guy is a racist either.

And let's face it, we don't even know whether Price and Upton are aware that Scott's a birther.

I'm still wondering how it could be that you're so tight with David Price and BJ Upton.

So now Price, a vocal Obama supporter in '08, and Upton are clueless morons, unable to read the papers or go online?

professional athletes spend far less time following, and bickering over, this #### than nimrods like us do.

Try sitting on the bench or in the bullpen for 162 games and spring training and talking about baseball all of the time! In my era, a broad range of topics were discussed, including sensitive ones like religion and politics.

In my era, a broad range of topics were discussed, including sensitive ones like religion and politics.

And I suspect that unlike many of us internet loudmouths, you were able to agree to disagree on certain things instead of letting political or religious differences ruin your ability to function as teammates

And I also suspect that if asked your opinion about what kind of teammate so-and-so was, you'd answer the question on the basis of things like how he went about his business and how he treated the other guys on the team instead of on whether he was a member of the John Birch Society or the Socialist Worker's Party.

player wives' looking for horns on my wife's head

like SOSH's comment for example :)

player wives' looking for horns on my wife's head

“Felix is my friend,” he says. “I give him a hard time. The reason why I give him a hard time is because there are certain people you deal with and you go up and talk to them, and it doesn’t work. They don’t understand. … I tell him about some of the ways he’s acted: ‘Look, you’re acting like an animal, you’re acting like a savage.’”

He also explained why he throws banana chips into the helmet of his Dominican teammate.

“Here are my banana chips to remind him that whenever he acts like an animal, ‘Hey, that’s what other people are thinking. They’re just not telling you, but that’s what they’re thinking about. And I’m telling you so that you’re aware of that so you can make a cognitive decision to not behave like that.’”

One Orioles team source explains it like this: "He's not John Rocker. He took the time to be bilingual; he spends more time with his Spanish teammates than Americans. This ain't John Rocker, but he says some John Rocker type s---. My question is, why?"

“Felix is my friend,” he says. “I give him a hard time. The reason why I give him a hard time is because there are certain people you deal with and you go up and talk to them, and it doesn’t work. They don’t understand. … I tell him about some of the ways he’s acted: ‘Look, you’re acting like an animal, you’re acting like a savage.’”

He also explained why he throws banana chips into the helmet of his Dominican teammate.

“Here are my banana chips to remind him that whenever he acts like an animal, ‘Hey, that’s what other people are thinking. They’re just not telling you, but that’s what they’re thinking about. And I’m telling you so that you’re aware of that so you can make a cognitive decision to not behave like that.’”

Racist? Not for me to decide. But Luke Scott has said and done some pretty racist ####.

If only judging people's souls were that easy.

Honestly, Sox fans. Would you trade Bobby V. to get Joe Maddon straight up? I suspect that would take about 4 seconds of hard thought before you said yes

Your guy beaned AGon because AGon 'promised to homer'.

I don't know if you can hear me all the way up there on that horse, but I simply pointed out that the words and actions in that quoted excerpt are racist. I specifically went out of my way to not call Scott a racist.

Honestly? Nope.

Words and actions can't be racist in themselves. It depends on what's in the speaker/actor's heart.

With two men on base already? Whether Moore wanted to hit Gonzalez or not in that game I don't know (though I'm quite sure that if he did it would have been his decision and not something the coaching staff requested) but I find it highly unlikely that he intentionally hit Gonzalez in that situation.

Oh, ########.

Words and actions can't be racist in themselves. It depends on what's in the speaker/actor's heart.

Honestly, Sox fans. Would you trade Bobby V. to get Joe Maddon straight up? I suspect that would take about 4 seconds of hard thought before you said yes

Also, criticizing racist actions is something we can all do, whether we know what a person's co-workers feel about him or not.

So why bend over backwards to defend Scott? Liberals don't like birthers, therefore birthers must be defended?

You may be comfortable casually labeling someone a racist or saying that they are engaging in racist behavior.

And you may be comfortable with casually dismissing racism or racist behavior. I'm not.

One more time: What ultimately matters is what Scott's AA/Latino teammates think of him, not what we think. And to date they seem perfectly fine with his loony comments.

But then what do you say if we learn that Scott and Pie are close friends, and that the sort of banter we see in that quote was completely understood by Pie as a sort of running joke?

Weasel word time! they seem fine? How do you know that? David Price wouldn't know you from a turd on the sidewalk.

It's just as likely that their silence could be for a number of reasons other than "Our buddy Luke is no racist!" Scott is a marginal major leaguer; they don't think he's worth the time. They don't want to rock the boat, and openly calling their teammate racist would cause a huge fuss in the local sports media. They don't feel they'd get much support from their manager - for all we know, Joe Maddon is a right-wing racist himself, and Buck Showalter didn't exactly project a touchy-feely liberal agenda. Many of their teammates are very right-wing themselves, and they don't think they'd get support from their teammates either. They very possibly haven't been silent at all, but it's just stayed in-house. Heck, maybe Scott is playing some sort of Andy Kaufman-esque joke on baseball writers.

let's err on the side of trashing the dude's reputation

Could you please point out exactly where Flynn did that?

Adam Jones, who is black, says it doesn't bother him because he knows Scott is a good person and the words do not come from a bad place. If it bothered Pie, who is a dark-skinned Dominican, it might be a different situation. "He's not a redneck racist; his beliefs are his beliefs," Jones says. "Their relationship is uncanny, and Pie ribs him just as much. I don't think Luke means any racist thing by it. Trust me, if I see racism, I'll say some s---. Quickly. "I've told Luke there are some things you should and shouldn't do that might offend … if he crossed the line I would have already said something."

Pie laughs when asked about the names Scott calls him. "Like 'Bogeyman?'" Pie says. "Luke is my friend. He's like a brother. It doesn't bother me because I'm the kind of person [where] you're going to know when you do something that bothers me. This is my friend. He doesn't hurt me, people know that. If you met him you can see that, too."

Humberto Quintero, the Astros catcher, was teammates with Scott in Houston and said he, Scott and Taveras would get three rooms on the road that all connected with Scott's in the middle. He loves Scott, says he helped save his career in 2007 after Quintero needed to lose weight. Scott, a health nut, cut out red meat and taught Quintero how to eat and cook well. Quintero lost 20 pounds. As Scott called Taveras and Pie, he also called Quintero "savage" and "animal," and he, too, laughs when asked about it. "He's not racist; he's a good friend," Quintero says. "I give it right back to him, too."

Bob and Lisa,

Thanks for introducing a touch of reality into this conversation.

This is also ########, by the way. Failures of mindfulness are failures of mindfulness. Almost nobody is intentionally malignant; that doesn't mean their actions aren't stupid, ill-considered and destructive.

I enjoy calling people vile names just because of the color of their skin. My company only hires white people. And I like to wear a fancy white silk robe and hood at secret meetings with other people who talk and act the same way. But don't you dare call me a racist unless you know what's in my heart.