Not even Fredi deserved this

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Not that it will make a difference; Fredi Gonzalez fired as manager of the Atlanta Braves after the team falls to a Major’s worst 9-28.

So often times is the case, not just in baseball, but in all professional sports, when a team is playing poorly, the manager is thrown under the bus and fired.  In some cases, it’s well deserved, like a coach showing unwavering loyalty to a veteran player and giving them premium playing time when a younger, more talented player rides the bench. 

However, in more often than naught cases, the coach/manager is shit-canned for no other reason than being a sacrificial lamb; as if it’s their fault the place kicker missed a field goal, the team can’t shoot free throws, or the hitters can’t hit the ball.  This is often times the case, because in the perplexing world of professional sports, accountability is demanded, and regardless of logic or truth, coaches and managers are representative of those who should be held do it, and are the first ones to go when things are going bad.

I’m not even going to pretend like I was a Fredi Gonzalez fan.  At first, I supported his hiring, because I was one of many going through the post-Bobby Cox separation anxiety, and a guy like Fredi, who worked so long under Bobby Cox seemed like a good guy to transition the Braves organization into a new era.  Opinions quickly changed, as Fredi managed the team like a robot, quick with clichéd statements that became memes within the Braves community, and decision-making that went against the ever-evolving game.

Ironically, if Fredi were shit-canned at any point between 2011 and 2014, I would’ve said that it was well deserved, because Fredi Gonzalez simply was not a talented nor competent manager for today’s game.

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Why don’t final bosses ever get their comeuppance?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I make no promises that the things I write won’t blurt out spoilers to certain works of storytelling.  I can tell you right now two things I have in mind are Netflix’s Jessica Jones and the Game of Thrones television show, which has begrudgingly surpassed the novella, and will probably utilize plot points that will be spoilers to us book nerds but anyway.

Okay, it’s kind of a spoiler, but I’m not going to go into specifics; but the final conflict of Jessica Jones was pretty unsatisfying.  It’s a show that could’ve been wrapped up in 6-8 episodes, but since 13 is the magic number in terms of “seasons,” the song and dance kind of repeated itself twice over before it finally reached its conclusion.  Somewhere around the eighth episode, I knew the ending was finally coming, and I had an idea of what I wanted to see, but then I told myself to not hold my breath; because final bosses never get their comeuppance.

Needless to say, the fate of Doctor Who was not what I was hoping for, and I was left with this Kermit face when the final credits began rolling.  Perhaps this is a chief reason why I so unanimously and without hesitation, anointed Daredevil as the superior show, among the Hell’s Kitchen chapters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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I will be nobody’s measuring stick

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Every now and then, when watching The Price Is Right, you’ll come across an episode where during the bidding part of the game, where someone bets something like $500, and then the last bidder bids $501.  And if and when $501 wins, you can just see the look of disdain and hate from the person who bid $500.

Well, not really, but it’s fun to imagine that the person who lost by a dollar is infuriated and driven homicidal by the troll who bets a dollar more than they did, and wins.

Anyway, the $1 more person, is an asshole.  Sure, they sometimes win, but they’re still an asshole.

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Strengthening today at the cost of tomorrow

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Impetus: Washington Nationals sign pitcher Stephen Strasburg to 7-year deal/extension, worth $175 million dollars

The best thing about baseball contracts like this one is that when the day is over, seldom do the initial headlines come remotely close to the actual payouts by the teams that make these ludicrous deals, paying grown-ass men to play kids’ games.

Case in point, one of the most notorious ironically humorous baseball contracts in history is Bobby Bonilla’s contract signed in 1996.  On paper, Bobby Bonilla signed with the Florida Marlins on a deal that dictated he would be paid $23.3 million dollars over four years.  Sounds simple enough, right?

The Marlins being the Marlins (read: cheap), would eventually trade Bonilla away in 1998, but the rules of a contract state that the acquiring team assume responsibility of remaining salary, unless negotiated in the deal.  The Dodgers paid the remainder of is 1998 salary, before trading him to the Mets after the season, so the Mets would be on the hook for the 1999 and 2000 portions of his deal.

Bonilla was such a clubhouse cancer with the Mets that after 1999, the Mets wanted to be rid of Bonilla, and Bonilla was more than happy to continue his career elsewhere.  The problem was that the Mets were still contractually on the hook for the remaining $5.9 million dollars on the deal, but frankly didn’t want to pay it, citing the need to cut payroll and organizational rebuilding.

Ultimately, the Mets and Bonilla came to an agreement, which has to this very day, become one of the greatest jokes in all of baseball history, and a huge contributor to why the Mets remain such a butt of baseball jokes. 

Instead of paying Bobby Bonilla $5.9 million dollars in 2000, the Mets would pay him $0.  However, it was agreed upon that starting in 2011, the Mets would begin paying Bobby Bonilla approximately $1,193.248.20 every July 1st – for the next 25 years.

It doesn’t take a genius to quickly realize the math doesn’t even come close to equaling the $5.9 million dollars that he was owed in 2000, but closer to five times the amount, $30 million dollars, by the time 2035 rolls around.

The Mets have to live with always having Bobby Bonilla thrown at them in tacky arguments, while Bobby Bonilla, whose career ended in 2001, will cash in every July 1st for pretty much the prime of his retirement years, laughing all the way to the bank, along with the baseball fans who love to make fun of the Mets.

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Catching up with stories

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

During my weekend alone, I think I made it kind of clear that I wasn’t feeling too great, emotionally.  Catching up on writing about things kind of helped, but along the way, in between posts written, I found myself getting distracted.  I would check Facebook or play a League of Legends match, and then I’d chastise myself for squandering the opportunity of time that I had, and that I shouldn’t be wasting time doing what I could do at other times.

This was Saturday afternoon.  Since then, I haven’t played any League, and I closed Facebook everywhere; my browser, the tabs on both my iPhone and iPad, and on my other laptop.  More than anything, I think not looking at social media has been something cathartic and the forced separation something of a good thing.  What started as an evening became a day, and then it’s become several days, and at the time I’m writing this, I still haven’t checked Facebook.

The funny thing is how many times I’ve had to stop myself from almost doing so, especially over my phone, while I’m at work, in between assignments, or those fleeting moments where I want to not be doing work, catch my breath and see what’s going on elsewhere in the world.  I’ve frantically forced quit the app numerous times since then.  Eventually, I’ll check again, once routine settles back down.

But the time not spent playing League or looking at social media and thinking about either, I’ve actually, not surprisingly, been somewhat productive, in a manner of speaking; by catching up with stories.  And not “stories” as in hicks talking about television shows per say, although I am talking about some television shows; but if it weren’t for the fact that I finished reading one book, then I’d basically have entitled this whole thing “catching up on movies and shows.”

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Oh, Atlanta #543

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Wince-worthy: Atlanta’s HIV diagnosis percentages compare to, wait for it, Africa.

This is pretty much the face I made when I read the headline; just the headline.  Not just any old part of Africa, but the Third World status parts of Africa.

Like, I know it’s a serious issue, and AIDS shouldn’t really be a laughing matter, but come on now.  Busting out a story like this is just begging for all sorts of criticism, but given the fact that depending on whom you ask in the media, there’s no such thing as bad publicity, WSB is swinging at some pretty low-hanging fruit at releasing an article like this one.

It’s no secret that Atlanta is a city with an extremely heavy African-American population.  But then to go and seek out scientific evidence that a predominantly African-American area actually share one of the less reputable stereotypes about Africans in Third World Africa in general?  That’s some fucked up shit, man.

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Alone time

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I have no idea what I’m going to do when my brog is up and running again. Am I going to retroactively timestamp posts I made on the dates in which the impetus stories took place? Am I going to just post them in order as soon as things are up and running again? I don’t really know.

Frankly, I don’t know about a lot of things, and I’ve been feeling really vulnerable and uncertain about my life now, and for quite some time throughout, well, maybe all of this year. The lack of having my brog I think has given me an exorbitant amount of time to stay within my own head and think about things that probably need to be thought about, but I don’t really want to, mostly out of trepidation and anxiety.

For a site that has literally maybe six regular visitors, it means nothing to anyone really, except for me, and it’s got me dealing with some separation anxiety for my greatest and most dedicated hobby over the last 15 years. I imagine to some, it’s a place for me to spout off about opinions and veiled commentary about things in my life, which aren’t inaccurate statements, but honestly it’s a means for me to mentally vent and not just share my thoughts with those who want to read, but to kind of chronicle my thoughts and remind me that these are things that I’ve thought in my life.

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