2. There was a time, 1970's maybe early '80's, when Steve Rudman and Art Thiel would simply write up the truth and publish it in the local newspapers the next day. I thought that was cool, even then. But most of the time, the readers don't give much -- or any! -- credit for the risk and sacrifice that is incurred.
Just for starters, you don't get to be Ken Griffey Jr's pal when you're more worried about your readers than the people you're covering.
The primary motivation isn't "getting a reputation" so a writer can be promoted. Uncomfortable writing tends to cost a guy like Baker more support than it gains them.
Rudman, Thiel, Baker, guys like that sacrifice their work environments for you.
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3. Baker will be off to ESPN or CNNSI very soon (he's photogenic and likeable as well as hyper-competent). My guess is that he'll cover the Mariners for one more year, so you have that long to get the truth about them. Enjoy.
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3. It's interesting that Baker is willing to call his peers out, revealing their small-minded resentment of his crazy-popular video blogging.
This is a guy who has walked around locker rooms with big men who might punch at any moment. Whether a writer on the next stool over, gives him the silent treatment, doesn't blip very bright on his radar.
Why it is, that fans don't buy a writer like that a sody pop, I dunno...
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4. I don't mind so much when a young American gets rolling into his career and then feels entitled to nice pay for not-very-hard work.
I do mind it, very much, when that young American resents an Asian, or a Canadian, or a Romanian, who comes over here and wants to excel -- merely because it creates the possibility that the American will then have to perform well, too.
That is what was going on with Ichiro during the Beltre-Silva-Hargrove era. SSI will side against the Ugly American, and with the Ambitious Guy, every time.
There are some things, you don't care what it costs, you don't care who doesn't like you - it's a matter of principle. Death to American Entitlement. You resent a guy for working harder than you and being better than you?, then you deserve any and all pain that you incur as a result. We mean it in a good way.
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5. The part about insisting that he secure his Green Card before asking his lass' hand in marriage? Throwback to the Age of Chivalry, Geoff. :cpoints:
From what we got off his video blog, Geoff's fiancee has quite the career herself, though. What does she do next year, when Baker gets the big offer in New York? :- )
We should all have such problemos...
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