Does this really need to be a big deal?

Red Sox and Yankees are fun, there's no denying that. But is it really as big a deal as ESPN would have you believe? After watching the first 10 minutes of the 6p edition of Sportscenter I had had just about enough. I mean... is there really a bigger non-issue than A-Rod's slide? First off, look at the play carefully. The dude was way, way, way off-balance. And maybe he intentionally threw himself off. But, the way I see it, he was trying to break up the double play, and somehow or another managed to get his body confused between a pop-up and a take-out slide. That's why, if you keep watching after he "throws the elbow," as John Kruk so lovingly put it, you'll see Alex stumble to the ground and fall flat on his backside. Kruk is, not surprisingly, still an idiot. No, the play was not dirty. Alex was not going into 2nd with the intention of giving Dustin an ugly bruise in the crotch.

And, you may say to yourself, "Dustin who? Who is this guy? How dare he talk smack about A-Rod!" Listen. If you actually heard what the little guy said in his post-game, he was not putting anybody down. He said just enough to keep from looking like a coward, but he also went out of his way to say that he was only doing what he had to for the team, etc, etc, etc. Dustin doesn't care. Alex doesn't care. Does Curt care? I guess we'll see tonight. To my knowledge, he hasn't yet commented on the issue on his personal soap box, the Don Patrick show. But I have this to say - if Curt does drill A-Rod tonight, which he won't, I will view it as one of the lamest moves in baseball. If you hit the guy, you're only playing into this whole ESPN-propagated rivalry hype. ESPN loves to make something out of nothing. But there are always a couple guys on every team that like it even more. A-Rod and Varitek fighting down the baseline? That was a heat of the moment, legit fight. Curt drilling A-Rod would just be stupid and childish. Hopefully he has enough sense to know that.

Lets see some comments boys...

Are John Kruk and Steve Philips stupid? - April 10th, 2006