Remarkable Alan Schwarz column on Lidle

I very much doubt that Lidle was offering to take him up on his cross-country trip to California.

 

i liked this one, too:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/story/461174p-388013c.html

 

In an age where everyone plays dumb and spouts the company line, Lidle's comments on Bonds were just an enormous, enormous breath of fresh air. He was so truthful and genuine about it.

My take, if I were a columnist (and maybe someone has already written this) - Lidle was treated like he had hurt the game. Meanwhile, this steroid freak, in his mind, really had hurt the game, and no one would speak out against it because of the sanctity of the "fraternity."

 

The whole scab thing is being way overplayed. The issue was settled 10 years ago. Guys suffered the consequences, understood why and moved on. Most of their teammates let it go at that. You can't stay hostile for more than a decade at people you essentially live with for six months a year. Every once in a while some animosity surfaces but for the most part veteran players, while they haven't forgotten, have turned the page. Another thing to keep in mind that not all scabs were held with equal disdain. A player who had had MLB service before crossing, for example, took a lot more heat than a marginal player who may have been threatened or duped. And several of the scabs (Kevin Millar and Frank Menechino come to mind) are pretty popular figures in their clubhouses.

 

MLB players griping about scabs crack me up. The ultimate capitalists acting like communists. It's absurd. It was relevant once upon a time, back when, you know, these guys weren't all among the nation's wealthiest 5 percent, but now it's just a cartoon.

 

Communists? Maybe you should stick to cartoons.

 

Pardon my hyperbole.

 

The Schwarz column is a terrific read, but one thing nags at me.

These conversations, he wrote, were off-the-cuff and not taped.

Well, how convenient is it, then, that Lidle has the perfect, spooky quote to wrap up the ending in a nice package?

 

C'mon ... do we have to be so cynical that we question everything? Some things you just remember and that's not what one would call and complicated and/or detailed quote.

 

It's weired, but in time of tragedy such as this, off the cuff conversations can flood back to you, maybe not verbatimin its entirety, but phrases or passages will hit you like a ton of bricks, no matter how innocent or redundent the conversation was. I can still remember conversations, word for word, with my sister who passed suddenly a little more than 10 years ago, and at the time I thought nothing of the conversations. They were no big deal, but now they are some of the things I remember the best, for whatever the reason.