by Mean Dean » Mon Jul 24, 2006 1:06 pm
Act as shocked and use as many smiley faces as you like... that doesn't make your point any stronger. One of the reasons these guys are in MLB at all, in addition to genetic athletic skills, is because they had the mental discipline to practice incessantly and to perform consistently at the very highest level. I never heard of anyone buying a MLB ticket, jumping the fence and making the team. Of the tens of millions of people who would like to be pro baseball players, only a couple of hundred at any given time succeed. All of them worked like hell to get there. And once they get do there, one of the reasons those that stick around do so is because they're capable of making it through a 162-game season, which is physically taxing. Anyone involved in baseball can tell you that after about May, no one is playing at 100%. Most of all, I'm mystified as to how you know how much pain someone else is in, and that someone who isn't playing would be capable of it.
I've personally never experienced having a "bit" of dyslexia, but, whatever; apparently Greinke has a whole lot more serious social anxiety disorder than most people do. When it gets to the point where you can't function in society, that's the point at which it is a serious mental illness. He can't just suck it up and deal. The chemicals in his brain are not right.
What are you even [i:1d9673f3f2]saying[/i:1d9673f3f2] about Greinke and Ankiel? They'd prefer not to make millions of dollars a year? They'd rather get one year's minimum MLB salary and then get drummed out of the game? Because that's exactly what's happening to them. If they could just get over it, why the hell wouldn't they??
[b:1d9673f3f2]Aray[/b:1d9673f3f2], I agree that New Yorkers at least definitely prefer a brash, confident star to A-Rod's overly political, eager-to-please personality. He's going through a rough time right now, but he'll end up fine; he has hit in the playoffs before, he has hit in the clutch before, he has always been an RBI machine; this too will pass. He is still one of the very best players in the game, and most likely in the [i:1d9673f3f2]history[/i:1d9673f3f2] of the game.