Sunday, August 23, 2009

You Can't Rag On Derek Jeter.... Or Can You?




It's Another Red Sox - Yankees , Old School - New School Battle ..
Baseball is a game of rivalries. Sometimes, it's between two teams: Red Sox-Yanks, Dodgers-Giants, Tampa Bay-Kansas City..... OK, skip that last one. But, as long as there are retired ballplayers in any sport, they will argue that the talent in their day was much better than it is today. Yes, the Oldtimers Retirement Home is full of former stars, muttering 'these kids couldn't hold my jockstrap' until the day they die.
Enter Jim Rice. The Anderson native, former Red Sox slugger and recent inductee in the Hall of Fame, made some comments to the kids at the start of the Little League World Series about today's stars. Here's what he said.... "You see a Manny Ramirez, you see an A-Rod, you see Jeter...... Guys that I played with and against, these guys you're talkign about cannot compare."
Sounds like your normal retired guy pro-Boston, anti-everyone else statement. But, Rice says he was misquoted. he said he made references to players with dreadlocks and baggy pants - neither of which do Rodriguez or Jeter have. After all, there was an important series between the Sox and Yanks this weekend -in which the Yanks took two of three. BTW, both Jeter and Rodriguez homered, and now my Yanks are 7 1/2 games up. Sorry, I couldn't help it. But, it is not uncommon for statements to be taken out of context a week later.
Do I believe Rice? I'm not sure... No, those descriptions of pants and dreadlocks don't apply to either, but with Rodriguez's admission that he took steroids, my guess is he may have mentioned A-Rod, then mistakenly lumped Jeter in there as well. Rice was a guy that you hated because he was on the other team, but you wished he was on your side. Jeter is the same. The guy's been playing in the New York Media Circus for 14 years now, and the only thing you can knock him for is that he has gotten hot babes than any one man should be legally entitled to.....
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