OFFICIAL: 2014/2015 OFFSEASON THREAD

[Geddy]

Zaun must have been on PTS last week and talked about how Cal Ripken and other Orioles vets hazed him and beat him when he was a rookie. The story is now making the rounds in the American media.

[Fairview4Life]

Zaun must have been on PTS last week and talked about how Cal Ripken and other Orioles vets hazed him and beat him when he was a rookie. The story is now making the rounds in the American media.

Stoeten posted about it a few times and Zaun even responded to him. Basically Cal Ripken is going to have a bit of a light on him, especially considering the anti bulling book he pushed.

[Schad]

And after it hit the media, Jamie Campbell informed Zaun that he's still too new to media to be running his mouth about such things, threw him down a flight of stairs and sodomized him with a broomhandle.

[vaff87]

Admit it, you guys would haze and beat Zaun if you had the chance, too.

[Schad]

http://deadspin.com/report-josh-hamilton-had-relapse-that-involved-at-lea-1688108614

Even the presence of a full-time minder -- who holds all of his money to prevent him from having the ability to use it to buy drugs, among other things -- hasn't prevented relapses. The truly saddening thing is that, in a couple years that layer of protection will vanish along with his career...the end of his baseball days will likely be followed very shortly by the end of his sobriety.

Edit: apparently they 'downsized' that role prior to this past season.

[Nights King]

Its amazing how much sympathy Josh Hamilton gets compared to the average athlete struggling with substance abuse problems, not saying he doesn't deserve it but it would be nice if other athletes struggling got the same support. There's never any character judgements or lectures about "personal responsibility" or judgements about their families and parents, wonder what's different about him.

[Schad]

Its amazing how much sympathy Josh Hamilton gets compared to the average athlete struggling with substance abuse problems, not saying he doesn't deserve it but it would be nice if other athletes struggling got the same support. There's never any character judgements or lectures about "personal responsibility", wonder what's different about him.

Guessing it's two things. The sheer depth of his fall/how quickly he rose back up; he went from being an elite prospect to being a junkie (who attempted suicide on multiple occasions) and back to an elite player. It's a ready-made redemption story.

The second is the fact that his drugs of choice were crack and heroin. Even though alcoholism is far more prevalent, I don't think that people have quite the same understanding because hey, I have a few drinks and I'm not in a gutter somewhere, why can't he? Heroin conversely is something that few have personal experience with, and is pretty much universally considered Really Bad and Really Dangerous (it is!), so people are more sympathetic to the idea that someone could find themselves unable to escape its clutches.

[Santoki]

Initial rumours have it as cocaine.

[satyr9]

Yeah, I think there's a lot to unpack about why Josh Hamilton gets widely forgiven his trespasses. I think it's easier to forgive him screwing up before he even makes it. I think it's harder for fans to let it go for a guy at the peak who falters, Darryl Strawberry springs to mind. Falling down in the minors and making it back is different than failing as an all-star. You had everything and threw it away is harder to forgive for those with less.

That's not to say the Josh that became an addict wasn't privileged, but so many of us have had that moment considering young athletes and imagining how stupid we would've been with millions of dollars in our late teens. So when we're faced with the more grown-up Josh talking about being that kid, it's an easy sell, it's about as human as these guys are likely to get, even if what we're talking about—drug addiction—is something very few of us have personally gone through.

Also, in general I don't think it's true that fans are unforgiving of these failings when they get what they believe is owed. In all celebrity, you can come clean, give an honest mea culpa, and as long as it doesn't come off disingenuous, still be well liked, although there does have to be a punishment component that feels appropriate otherwise it can fester. There is a problem with repeat offending and we'll see if Josh hits that wall, but something like this was handled very well by him, or his PR team, so I don't think it's the end of the forgiveness road for him yet.

Now that doesn't cover performance enhancers, which is a whole different category. That's seen as cheating rather than drug abuse. In celebrity terms, that's far more Brian Williams than Robert Downey Jr. And while I'm vehemently anti- PEDs use, I do think you're right the individuals caught deserve a lot more forgiveness than we tend to give them. I don't want people using, but it's very understandable why players go that route. In these cases, I think you can use the same honesty route and get partial forgiveness, but not re-admission. People may like Brian Williams again after he's done a 60 minutes interview, but they're not going to want him back on the nightly news. Same goes for PEDs guys. Maybe fans stop hating them if they come clean, but it's unlikely they'd ever want them back on their team.

[Fairview4Life]

Ooo, sorry, no, the answer we were looking for was 'skin colour'. Good luck next time.

[Michael Bradley]

Just in case people forgot we were the Blue Jays....

[tweet]https://twitter.com/shidavidi/status/570935834070749184[/tweet]

[satyr9]

Ooo, sorry, no, the answer we were looking for was 'skin colour'. Good luck next time.

I'm sure there's a component of that to it, and you're being clever, which I like, but look at Larry Sanders yesterday. Do an honest review of where you're at and people forgive pretty easily. Not everyone to be sure, and yes likely the percentages play out better when you're white, but I don't think race makes it such a black and white issue.

Or maybe I'm just naive.

[satyr9]

Just in case people forgot we were the Blue Jays....

[tweet]https://twitter.com/shidavidi/status/570935834070749184[/tweet]

This sucks.

[LBJSeizedMyID]

He hasn't even touched the turf yet and torn meniscus.

[spykelee]

Awesome!

FFS

[satyr9]

This may explain the last second Corey Dickerson addition. It may've already been known and just been released today 'cause it's report day. Anyway, Dirks and Dickerson will battle to be the LH part of the LF platoon with Pillar, right?

edit: Chris, not Corey. Corey would obviously be quite nice.

[J-Roc]

Just in case people forgot we were the Blue Jays....

[tweet]https://twitter.com/shidavidi/status/570935834070749184[/tweet]

Deserves its own thread. He stepped on a soft spot by a sprinkler head. WTF Blue Jays!!!!

[J-Roc]

Grass fields FTL!!!

[BramptonYute]

Lost a decent bat....ugh.

[T-d0t]

I kinda laughed awkwardly after I got this notification