Thursday, January 10, 2008

Isn't this strange?

"The Giants have become accustomed to excellence at first base, but this year they'll settle for mere competence." "[Outside of signing Aaron Rowland]...they've made no moves to strengthen the offense, which ranked at or near the bottom of most significant statistical categories." Sounds like the lunatic fringe, right? Actually, it is from the Giants website, sfgiants.com. Both snippets are by Chris Haft, a writer from MLB.com. These posts are not terribly complimentary of the Giants, even if true. Settle for mere competence? Offense ranked at or near the bottom of most significant statistical categories? Surprisingly, these articles both appear on the Giants website, sfgiants.com, or more precisely: sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com.
http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080108&content_id=2342011&vkey=news_sf&fext=.jsp&c_id=sf
http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071217&content_id=2328740&vkey=news_sf&fext=.jsp&c_id=sf
Why would the Giants have such critical articles on their own website? Isn't the number one rule on any team that you can't criticise your teammates, management, fans or opponents (which is one reason we get, "yes, thanks to my teammates and the good lord above, I was lucky tonight and sound as intelligent as a rock"). Can it be that they can't even control their own website content anymore? It was clear a couple of years ago when mlb took over all the team websites (making them much less interesting to visit) that they were being standardized and homogenized. And, I guess, marginalized, in that you can find much more interesting and insightful content on dozens of websites and blogs that can pick up on news almost as fast as the Giants can. Nevertheless, I find this just a little weird, that the Giants have SO little control over their own website content. What the hell is the point of having a website if not to post YOUR spin on stuff, not some other hack's? I guess Darth Selig has made it illegal for teams to have websites, maybe he is afraid it would spur fan interest. Maybe they would post MOC's vignettes there.

3 comments:

M.C. O'Connor said...

What about "dust bunnies?" Are we just going to leave 'em up our arses?

I've noticed that Chris Haft's take on the Giants is far more open and dare we say critical of the Giants than the clown who wrote for them before (Rich Draper). Draper was a bad writer, plain and simple. Haft can put together a sentence, and seems willing to stick his neck out. Like all sports-writers, I'm sure I'll get sick of him soon.

Anonymous said...

I was up throwing up some bad food last night, and of course, that got me thinking more about Bud Selig. Mr. Selig has never been a commissioner, except as a self-appointed title. By this I mean that he has never had the interests of "the game" at heart, insofar as it balances owners, players, fans and media. He is an owners' representative, and every one of his statements and actions has been on behalf of the owners and to put more money in owners' pockets. Remember "contraction", the transparent attempt to force public financing of stadia? How about the stupid idea of putting Spiderman webs on bases? There is no fetid, shit-filled sewer so foul that Mr. Selig would not fish in for extra quarters. And now that baseball revenues have passed $6 billion, does anyone think he is really going to resign "to preserve the integrity of the game"? Hah. Why should he? Case: Revenue Sharing. If revenue sharing were about competitiveness, instead of lining pockets, there would be a requirement to spend the luxury tax on salaries. Several articles, none of which I can quote here, point out that the money transferred + revenues is lower than the player salaries of some teams. It may be that "there is no such thing as bad publicity" or it may simply be that, as revenue and fan attendance has increased, Mr. Selig has realized that the steriod controversy is an artifact of the ego-inflated media with some help from a few blowhards in Congress. Look for ways to make you pay more to see America's pastime coming soon!
EOR.
ps. The location of the dust bunnies is your issues, not mine.

JC Parsons said...

I really like what I have read so far from Haft. Maybe it is just in comparison to Draper, who was a hack. Haft had a good thing in there the other day about yoga being too hard for ballplayers.

Perhaps this new angle of writing is a planned way to get lowered expectations. Just like in politics, where they can spin a third place finish into a "comeback."

Zo can deny it all he wants, but issue of the missing dust bunnies is not going to go away...