The Other Team in Town - MFY News 2019

[MFS62]

They have reportedly signed Troy Tulowitzki to a league minimum contract.
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/report-tro ... 51777.html

Later

[seawolf17]

Points to LWFS:

Gotta say, though... to me, Tulo has the weird whiff of somebody from whom the Yankees squeeze a crazy, fan-favorite-dead-cat-bounce season.

[nymr83]

Yankees closer John Wettland joins what is becoming a long line of Yankee Criminal closers as he has been arrested on charges of sexual abuse of a child

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Wetteland always struck me as a complete fucktard

[Centerfield]

So for those keeping score at home:

John Wetteland: Child Sexual Abuse

Chad Curtis: Underage sexual assault

Jim Leyritz: DUI Manslaughter. Domestic Abuse.

Aroldis Chapman: Domestic Abuse.

Chuck Knoblauch: Domestic Abuse (repeat offender)

Who else is there?

[seawolf17]

Mariano Rivera: murdered two members of his family by poolicide

[Centerfield]

Mariano Rivera: murdered two members of his family by poolicide

To be fair, that was an accident. He was only trying to kill neighborhood dogs.

[Fman99]

Derek Jeter: Gave STDs to 14% of the women in Manhattan

[Edgy MD]

Mel Hall is the big one: Three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child. He got 45 years!!

Luis Polonia: Statutory rape.

Shane Spencer and Karim Garcia: Became Mets and peed all over St. Lucie.

Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson: swapped families (probably not technically criminal).

Derek Jeter: Gross contempt for housing ordinances.

Jon Olelrud: Tried to legally force his neighbor to cut down his fucking tree.

José Canseco: Battery, drug smuggling, all-around incorrigibility.

[Edgy MD]

Steve Howe: attempting to bring a loaded, unlicensed handgun on an airplane.

Esteban Loiza: Ten counts including stuff like sale, trafficking, attempting to distribute. Basically trying to become a drug kingpin.

Raúl Mondesí: Embezzling.

Pedro Ramos: Drunk driving, carrying a concealed weapon.

Darryl Strawberry: drug possession, solicitation of prostitution.

Brien Taylor: distribution of the crack.

In fairness, the Mets have their share of players who took up the practice of criminality during and after their Met careers, including at least two killers (Ricardo Jordan, Ambiorix Burgos). And who doesn't think Lenny Dykstra has a body or two buried somewhere?

[seawolf17]

including at least two killers (Ricardo Jordan, Ambiorix Burgos)

/raises hand awkwardly

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, I think that's who I meant. Ricardo was convicted of drug trafficking but not murder.

[nymr83]

Mariano Rivera: murdered two members of his family by poolicide

To be fair, that was an accident. He was only trying to kill neighborhood dogs.

it would still likely have been judged a criminal act in this country. and he's a Yankee so why defend it?

[Edgy MD]

Centerfied has indicted Mariano more than most.

I just read that article, and lest it go unsaid, Wetteland is more than just some horny athlete with terrible judgement getting pervy with a teenager (which is plenty bad). "Continuous sex with a child under 14." He's going away for a LONG time. What a horror.

[Centerfield]

Yeah. My "defense" of Mariano was tongue in cheek, if not evident from the post.

All kidding aside, the coverage of that story was just mind-boggling. As if every member of the media had lost all common sense.

Look, I get the tragedy of two lost lives, and I don't doubt that the pain Rivera felt was real. But there was some real culpable behavior there.

First off, who electrifies a pool? Everyone just skipped over that as if this is something you see every day. Is this common in Panama? If so, then that's gotta be front and center in the story. "For those that may be wondering, electrifying pools is a common practice in Panama where, blah blah blah..." Or, if it's not a common practice, then there should be, "WTF WAS HE THINKING ELECTRIFYING A POOL" articles. It's like saying "Jon Smith died tragically when the guillotine in his living room doorway malfunctioned...." without questioning the existence of the living room guillotine.

Secondly, the justification was that local dogs kept swimming in the pool, so electrifying the pool was necessary. Again, this was glossed over. I don't know if dogs have some way of sensing the electricity (again all articles were silent on this point), but to me, electrifying a pool seems less like they are trying to keep dogs out of a pool rather than frying them once they jump in. This is a really big deal. I don't know how anyone can be ok with this. Michael Vick went to jail (and rightfully so) for dogfighting. PETA was all over him. Where was the outrage here? He was trying to electrocute dogs. You know what else keeps dogs out of a pool? A fence. Or, if you're into the electric thing, an electric fence. This is like "I'm gonna send a message to them damn dogs..."

And finally, if you're going to electrify a pool, at the very least, you have to:

a. Tell everyone
b. Put up warning signs (presumably, Panamanian dogs cannot read, so this won't undermine your objective to fry them)
c. Put the voltage at a level that would make it painful to jump in, but not lethal

This is criminally negligent homicide. But no, he's a True Yankee and he's the Sandman and all the other barftastic Yankee crap.

Pisses me off.

[Fman99]

(presumably, Panamanian dogs cannot read, so this won't undermine your objective to fry them)

Don't be so sure about this!

[stevejrogers]

All kidding aside, the coverage of that story was just mind-boggling. As if every member of the media had lost all common sense.

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/16/spor ... reams.html
It is curious that this piece from that week is the only “investigation” piece on it in nearly 15 years.

Especially when the 10 anniversary hit right at the height of the Deadspin/BarStool era of TMZ/social media sports journalism.

Equally especially in an era of “oh yeah, Laura Bush killed a guy” and finding out what a hateful and evil excuse of a human being Mother Theresa really was, you’d think this would still be drudged up when Rivera’s pristine character is discussed.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Laura Bush killed a guy?

And Mother Theresa was hateful and evil?

[Frayed Knot]

Yanx deal Sonny Gray (and a minor leaguer) to Cincy. Yanx get a prospect who they then flipped to Seattle for different prospect.
Gray immediately signs a three year extension with the Reds

[stevejrogers]

Laura Bush killed a guy?

As a 17-year old she ran a stop sign, and crashed into a car that killed the other driver. It was an accident and she wasn't charged.

The line "Oh yeah! Laura Bush killed a guy!" is from Family Guy, and not meant to say its her Chappaquiddick or anything, but as an example of skeletons from a public person's past that is still open for anyone to research and find out about. Something no one has seemingly done with the Rivera pool tragedy since it happened.

And Mother Theresa was hateful and evil?

Yes, very much so. There are a slew of books and documentaries about her iron fist rule of her "mission." About how she would rather not heal the sick, but keep them in the impoverished conditions, etc.

I could also use worse kept secrets of the #MeToo era, from Cosby to R. Kelly that come to light only because something about them just happen to hit the news cycle.

[Frayed Knot]

The late British writer Christopher Hichens was solidly in the anti-Mother Teresa camp and wasn't shy about saying so.

[stevejrogers]

The late British writer Christopher Hichens was solidly in the anti-Mother Teresa camp and wasn't shy about saying so.

Not a yardstick by any means, but in the last year or so I’ve listened to two podcasts who’s focus have nothing to do with anything about her, including an uber popular one, mention how horrible she really was (to say nothing about horrible persons list videos she appears in) without any sort of counter balance (getting it from one extremely biased side, etc) so I’m wondering if its now getting to be “generally accepted” that she shouldn’t be respected at all.

Which gets back to what CF is saying about Rivera. Does seem odd that the linked article is the lone comeback that the “why are you still on this about Rivera” crowd has in their arsenal. You’d think there would have been more pieces (audio, text, video) trying to get to the real story over the years.

[41Forever]

The late British writer Christopher Hichens was solidly in the anti-Mother Teresa camp and wasn't shy about saying so.

Not a yardstick by any means, but in the last year or so I’ve listened to two podcasts who’s focus have nothing to do with anything about her, including an uber popular one, mention how horrible she really was (to say nothing about horrible persons list videos she appears in) without any sort of counter balance (getting it from one extremely biased side, etc) so I’m wondering if its now getting to be “generally accepted” that she shouldn’t be respected at all.

The woman is literally a saint who devoted her life to helping the sick and poor.

https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/04/europe/m ... index.html

Hitchens, while certainly colorful speaker -- I got to see him once -- said horrible things about many religious people. This is from Wikipedia, so apply the usual caution with anything from Wikipedia.

In 2007, while promoting his book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Hitchens described the Christian evangelist Billy Graham as "a self-conscious fraud" and "a disgustingly evil man". Hitchens claimed that the evangelist, who had recently been hospitalized for intestinal bleeding, made a living by "going around spouting lies to young people. What a horrible career. I gather it's soon to be over. I certainly hope so."

[Fman99]

Sorry, no one is "literally a saint" to me.

[stevejrogers]

BTW, my point about the uber popular podcast, was that since both hosts are highly noted persons in their professions, and generally lean towards not being very negative towards anyone’s private persona.

Case in point, a more well known guest, on a live recording in front of an audience of the show, inadvertently revealed a private fact about a dceased person involved with the podcast’s topic. The person was well known in his profession, but the detail was only known by those close to him, and has never been made public, even over a decade now since his passing.

It wasn’t said maliciously, and intended to be an example of his perseverance, but because it was something never publicly disclosed (even if among those who knew him it was a “worse kept secret”) the hosts of the podcast omitted that part of the discussion from the released recording.

Yet they’ve trotted out the negative aspects and opinions about Mother Teresa from Hitchens and other biased sources as if they were generally accepted truths.

Hence why I wonder if the negative stuff about her is now, no pun intended, gospel when it comes to discussing her. And not just to be dismissed with a “consider the sources” handwave as 41Forever suggests.

And therefore, why a NYT piece from the same week is the only investigative piece on the Rivera pool tragedy.