Seattle Sports Insider

R-E-S-P-E-C-T Dept: QED in 500 words, eh :- )

Posted by

11/20/11

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In a slow news week, Dr. D skateboarded around the block and .... folded waist-first over a steel handrail of scoffing over at his favorite site.

Six (6) separately-identifiable jeers in the first 100 words .... slap me silly. :- ) This is just baseball, right? This much toxicity over a difference of opinion over baseball moves?

Okay, well, if tonight's movie runs the High Noon call out into the street, amigo ... what's good for the goose is good for the gander, right? ::spurs clinking::

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Dr. D's baser instincts were not helped by the comments section to that thread. Put on some leather hightops first, if you're going to go check it out. It starts out vicious and mean-spirited, and then they get loose. Sacre bleu, somebody take a nap.

We ain't real sure that we need to be chortling over having "fueling up our hatred" of a Times writer for his intellectual positions on baseball.

Way to give it to him, man! I'm unfollowing Baker right now! Thanks so much for your epic a** slam! Can't wait to see you kick his can again!

::whew::

... I'm unfollowing. I'm not reading. I don't listen to him. He's an idiot. He's a punk. I haven't read Baker in ages. HAHAHA. Time to fuel up my hatred of Baker for another year.

This is not the language of enlightenment. And I did not notice any reference to the fact that Jack Zduriencik has stated a desire to execute Geoff Baker's recommendations.

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I like Geoff Baker. But I don't think he's wisdom personified. He ain't got 950 of 1,000 light bulbs on. Not sure anybody, other than maybe Zduriencik, has more than 250/1000 in Seattle.

And he don't need me at his his back. B'lee Dat. Am looking forward to his next, most gleeful, column in three months.

But you wanna crucify Baker, drag Zduriencik up the same hill. They're in step together this winter.

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Lemme ax you. Do you get the game that goes on in America right now?

One time a political pundit was challenged by an NBC host. "You claim you're lied about. Can you give an example of a lie?"

The response was as thought-provoking as it was instant. "It's all ONE BIG lie! Stop here. Read no further. Everybody who believes that is stupid or crazy or both, so do not engage them. Laugh at them, avoid dealing with their ideas, we know that they're idiots, so don't think about what they say."

Stop here, read no further, the enemy has been trivialized, we can shun him proudly, and we can return to the friendly confines of our own groupthink.

Much better to heap contempt on alternative points of view, and cross authors off read lists, than to --- > bother with having to oppose dangerous views each time they rear their ugly heads.

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No, tell ya what. How about we just talk. The best ideas will rise to the top, never fear.

By this time, we imagine that Gentle Reader is aware that Dr. D considers this syndrome a real threat to the American democracy. Sometimes, DaddyO, it takes a bit more than all-caps to light Dr. D's roman candle. :- ) It takes the erosion of democracy.

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If anyone cares, SSI will point out that a simple list of 9 bad moves, over a period of 5 years, does not rise to the level of a QED and a triumphant "at this site, we deal in facts, not macho-ism."

How many good moves did the Seattle Mariners make from 2004-2008? In baseball don't we usually ratio bases over outs, or do we just say "Wow! Dustin Ackley made 200 outs last year!"

Did the Mariners make 9 bad moves out of 12, or 9 out of 35, or 9 out of 102, or what?

Did the LA Angels make 9 bad moves in the last 5 years? Did they make fewer than 9, or more than 9? Was the Vernon Wells signing a better, or worse, signing, than that of Carlos Silva?

Comments

Oh snap!

I was wondering when the USS Mariner would finally get you angry enough to come out swinging, Doc. They hit that threshold for me about three years ago, but welcome to the disillusioned tent. :\
As a conservative, I know the syndrome all too well...as my political views are the stuff of Hollywood satire and revisionist history...but the USS Mariner is not much different...a collection of very smart people who have fallen in love with their own intelligence and abandoned reason for madness. Sorry...that's just how I feel about that cult.

Baker's sin is his tone.

This doesn't absolve everyone for the level of contempt shown him, but Baker has a really annoying habit of writing as if he's omniscient. His penchant for talking down to his readers doesn't help, either.
Amusingly, Cameron does the same thing and he's rude.

No link

Good comments Jeff! I had not noticed but USSMariners do not have a link on the local M's coverages to Mr. Baker. Probably old news but good for them. I have never been a fan of his. Always opposed to arrogance. Thank goodness for Larry Stone!
Sad news about Halman. Baseball is great but simply a game. I have dealt a lot of on scene tragedy but, with two sons, cannot imagine the horror that lies behind that one.

It is hard to think and talk about a game

When you read 30 minutes ago about the brutal death of a player. It's not something I say very often, but my thoughts are very much with Greg Halman's family.

This syndrome seems to be opaque to those propogating it, eh

If you remark, "Hey, you're dismissing the author, and not dealing with his ideas," they seem genuinely mystified. "Isn't that what you do to us?"
No, it ain't.
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As to the threshold, that author has driven me batty for a long time ... nobody really wants to read spitting wars, though. We want to read about the M's.
This series is not really in character for SSI going forward, but once in a while -
Thanks for the post Matt. :cpoints:

:cpoints: Steen

I agree that if there is a basis for the USSM annoyance, that's where the basis would be. Your comment is reasonable from where I sit, for what that's worth...
As Billy1 put it one time - amazing that anybody from USSM should object on the basis of hubris. Life has taught this pokey, at least, that it is the man who wanted to be the life of the party who is precisely the man most angry at the one who put a lampshade on his head.
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Here's my reaction, Steen m'man ...
Can see how people would feel that Baker is talking down to them, even pulling rank once in a while with respect to his access and his experience on the East Coast.
I could be wrong, but for whatever reason his material just doesn't hit me that way ... not sure why the disconnect...
When people disagree with Baker, he responds with (some) respect and with ideas, as when SSI went to town on his Josh Leuke campaign. You probably saw where Baker came on this site and, patiently, calmly, presented his defense against every attack leveled at him.
You're not going to see Baker empowering people who say things like "This really fuels my hatred for Baker for another winter. Thanks!"
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So am not real sympathetic to a "moral equivalency" here. But for those who find Geoff's tone annoying, I concede that the annoyance probably has some basis from their point of view.
Is it oversensitivity on the part of those taking offense, or genuine condescension on Geoff's part? I'd like to hear from G-Money, Taro, Silentpadna, and others as to that question. I may have a blind spot.

Well, that's one voice

If Rockies Jeff casts his black pebble into the hat alongside Steen's, that weighs with me. Thanks for sharing your judgment, Jeff.

Enjoy the balance

Jeff, the words above do make me appreciate reading your's and others comments on here even more. I do greatly respect and enjoy the insights shared here but more than that even, the attitudes that go with them. Thanks all!

Baker

It took Baker a little over a year to burn through his good will with me. He projects a sense of "I know more than you so shut up", which is unfortunate, because he brings a different POV than Cameron/Sullivan. IMO Bakers problem is tunnelvision, he focuses in on a single aspect of a situation and if there is a grain of truth to his point, he expects you to agree with the entirety of his point.

Definitely see Baker's point here

The Mariners haven't had a hitter of Fielder's caliber since Edgar. And he's left handed. This is a dream scenario, picking up Edgar II in the free agent market. He's not blocking ANY prospect, he's not costing any young talent. This, guys, is a freaking no brainer. If you are arguing over Fielder vs. some Civics, you really weren't paying attention during the Mariner glory years. You were either watching or playing a different game. There is a reasonSafeco is rimmed with luxury boxes, because luxury players are expected to show up.
This, men, is the player the Safeco was built for. He's entering his prime, he's a stud, a truly great hitter and is building HOF credentials in the post roid era. Don't over -hink this. The Mariner lineup and organization needs Prince Fielder.
Get 'er done, Z.