BY DAN
KENNEDY
Notes and observations on
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For information on Dan Kennedy's book, Little People: Learning to
See the World Through My Daughter's Eyes (Rodale, October 2003),
click
here.
Monday, October 20, 2003
Gordon Edes has questions.
Media Log has answers! The Boston Globe's Red Sox beat
reporter was in full
defend-Grady mode on
Sunday. Trouble is, he only served to underscore the idiocy of Grady
Little's non-decision to bring Pedro Martínez back out for the
eighth, and to leave him in while the Yankees took batting
practice.
So let's roll the tape.
EDES: "Would people be as inclined
to fire Little today if the Sox had been blown out in Game 7, if
Pedro Martínez had been knocked out of the box in the first
inning instead of the eighth?"
MEDIA LOG: Of course not! You don't
get fired for losing a game. You should get fired for
gift-wrapping it and handing it to the opposition, which is what
Little did last Thursday.
EDES: "What if Jorge Posada's broken-bat
popup is caught by Todd Walker on the infield dirt instead of falling
in shallow center field? Does Little get fired then?"
MEDIA LOG: Nope. Luck plays a role.
However, most fans, after getting over their heart palpitations,
would still have thanked their stars that the Sox had escaped from
Little's incompetence.
EDES: "What if Posada had gotten
his game-tying hit off Alan Embree or Mike Timlin?"
MEDIA LOG: Then Little would have
been following the plan! Yes, some would bitch -- especially since,
as Edes points out, Posada was hitting only .191 against
Martínez. But nearly all fans know that the Red Sox got as far
as they did by bringing in Timlin and/or Embree in the eighth and a
closer -- increasingly, Scott Williamson -- in the ninth.
Again, you don't get fired for
losing. You get fired for stupidity. Martínez, at this stage
of his career, is a seven-inning, 100-pitch guy. He was clearly
running out of gas in the seventh. Little sycophants who say
otherwise are lying out of loyalty.
EDES: "What if Little had played it
by the book in the eighth, and Embree and Timlin and Williamson can't
hold the lead?"
MEDIA LOG: See previous
answer.
EDES: "Call me a Little
apologist."
MEDIA LOG: Okay.
Grady Little seems like a pretty
decent guy. The most difficult job of the modern manager is to get
his overpaid charges to play hard, and Little has done a good job of
that.
But the Red Sox can't possibly
bring him back after he -- all by himself -- blew the biggest game
since the 1986 World Series. One senses that Larry
Lucchino understands: he
wouldn't be as reticent with the Globe's Dan Shaughnessy today
if Little were staying.
The difference between Clinton
and Schwarzenegger. Globe columnist Cathy Young today
blasts
Bill Clinton defenders for
hypocrisy in their full-throated denunciations of Arnold
Schwarzenegger's can't-keep-his-hands-to-himself style of interacting
with women.
I'm not even going to try to parse
whose behavior was worse. You could say that Clinton's philandering, unlike Arnold's groping,
was consensual, but that would overlook Juanita Broaddrick, whose
unprovable claim that Clinton had raped her in the late 1970s strikes
me as at least passing the threshold of credibility.
So -- Broaddrick aside, since one's
view of Clinton depends on how you view her story -- let's just agree
that both men have behaved in a piggish manner toward women. "Double
standard," as Young calls it?
No. With a few exceptions,
Clinton's conduct was roundly, heatedly condemned by Democrats as
well as Republicans when the Monica Lewinsky matter became public
knowledge in early 1998.
The difference -- which eludes
Young entirely -- is that the allegations about Clinton's sex life
were fueled by a $50 million government investigation, which led to
his impeachment and near-removal from office. Independent counsel Ken
Starr's official abuse of his powers was one of the factors that led
to the law that created his office being repealed.
In Schwarzenegger's case, the
allegations were driven only by a few newspaper stories. He won the
election anyway. And the groping and other humiliations he visited
upon women are already fading into the woodwork.
If Young would really like to
eliminate the double standard, perhaps she could push for California
attorney general Bill Lockyer to spend a few million taxpayer
dollars investigating Schwarzenegger's peccadilloes.
Tune in tonight. I'll be on
Greater
Boston this evening
talking about Little
People. (WGBH-TV; 7
p.m. on Channel 2, midnight on Channel 44.)
posted at 8:38 AM |
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
