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Gregg Zaun gets on his soapbox and spills the beans on getting hazed as a rookie (in order to try to make a point about how Brett Lawrie and other young current MLBers would be better off if this still went on today). It blows up. Hilarity ensues.

Summary:
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-l ... 43606.html

Keith Olbermann tearing him a new one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKBuzCOVqmg

Ouch

Has Ripken spoken publicly about this yet? I'm not about to crucify Cal about this because there are probably a thousand stories like this across sports that people just haven't told. Zaun is the only one stupid enough to think this was a valid opinion that wouldn't receive any attention in 2015.

Who the **** would consider Gregg Zaun a success? The guy is one of the most colossally stupid human beings i've ever had the displeasure of seeing on TV and hearing on the radio.

Nights King wrote:Who the **** would consider Gregg Zaun a success? The guy is one of the most colossally stupid human beings i've ever had the displease of seeing on TV and hearing on the radio.

Whether he's a good analyst is entirely up for debate, but he did have a 15 year career in major league baseball. That seems fairly successful by any standard.

Randle McMurphy wrote:

Nights King wrote:Who the **** would consider Gregg Zaun a success? The guy is one of the most colossally stupid human beings i've ever had the displease of seeing on TV and hearing on the radio.

Whether he's a good analyst is entirely up for debate, but he did have a 15 year career in major league baseball. That seems fairly successful by any standard.

He was a backup catcher when he started his career and pretty much stayed that way for most of his career, if we're gonna argue that physical abuse somehow made him a better player than we need a better example than Gregg **** Zaun. And its not like the abuse helped him gain any insight about the game of Baseball that he uses in his broadcasting career.

That's what he was arguing, players like Brett Lawrie apparently would have thrived if they were "kept in line" by the veterans.

hahahaha

Hazing doesn't do anything for anyone. It completely ruins people and makes them feel uncomfortable. Just play baseball. Ripken isnt a hall a famer because of hazing or off field BS it's from the longevity and way he played the game.

But yeah hazers usually take it too far, IMO.

Santoki wrote:Has Ripken spoken publicly about this yet? I'm not about to crucify Cal about this because there are probably a thousand stories like this across sports that people just haven't told. Zaun is the only one stupid enough to think this was a valid opinion that wouldn't receive any attention in 2015.

Yeah he denied it (saying that Zaun is his good friend and Zaun "used the wrong words"), Zaun came out and said he "used the wrong words" but didn't rescind the stories or take back their accuracy, general awkwardness all around. The takeaway is that Zaun is a bit of an idiot for talking about this (and taking it a step farther by actively advocating it) without realizing the repercussions and Olbermann drove a truck over him.

Nights King wrote:

Randle McMurphy wrote:

Nights King wrote:Who the **** would consider Gregg Zaun a success? The guy is one of the most colossally stupid human beings i've ever had the displease of seeing on TV and hearing on the radio.

Whether he's a good analyst is entirely up for debate, but he did have a 15 year career in major league baseball. That seems fairly successful by any standard.

He was a backup catcher when he started his career and pretty much stayed that way for most of his career, if we're gonna argue that physical abuse somehow made him a better player than we need a better example than Gregg **** Zaun. And its not like the abuse helped him gain any insight about the game of Baseball that he uses in his broadcasting career.

That's what he was arguing, players like Brett Lawrie apparently would have thrived if they were "kept in line" by the veterans.

So he was at least one of the 60 best catchers in the world for a period of 15 years. Again, hard to construe that as anything but a success.

And I'm certainly not defending his ridiculous opinions about hazing or young players needing to be kept in line by veterans, but there's no doubt the guy was a successful baseball player in his time. Belittling Zaun's MLB career as Olbermann did in that video lacks some perspective and takes away from the real issue.

It's one thing to keep young guys in line, but it's another thing to humiliate and abuse them. I understand where he's coming from but this is taking it to an extreme that I'm glad doesn't exist anymore.


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Holy cow olberman is a Grade A $h1t talker!! Its amazing, he actually does research to **** talk you!

Randle McMurphy wrote:

Nights King wrote:

Randle McMurphy wrote:Whether he's a good analyst is entirely up for debate, but he did have a 15 year career in major league baseball. That seems fairly successful by any standard.

He was a backup catcher when he started his career and pretty much stayed that way for most of his career, if we're gonna argue that physical abuse somehow made him a better player than we need a better example than Gregg **** Zaun. And its not like the abuse helped him gain any insight about the game of Baseball that he uses in his broadcasting career.

That's what he was arguing, players like Brett Lawrie apparently would have thrived if they were "kept in line" by the veterans.

So he was at least one of the 60 best catchers in the world for a period of 15 years. Again, hard to construe that as anything but a success.

And I'm certainly not defending his ridiculous opinions about hazing or young players needing to be kept in line by veterans, but there's no doubt the guy was a successful baseball player in his time. Belittling Zaun's MLB career as Olbermann did in that video lacks some perspective and takes away from the real issue.

Never understood why people think being a benchwarmer or a back up is a failure. You're a bench warmer on a major league team, meaning you are in the top 2-3% in the world.

Zaun wasn't a star, but he had a solid career, and anyone would be proud to say they had a career (sporting wise) even close to his.

Top 300-400 baseball player in the world where millions of people try to make it? Yeah, you're a success.

Is it shame? Is Zaun's ego so grandiose that he can't admit he was abused even as he's telling the story of Ripkin and others torturing him? He's gone about this in such a convoluted way as to come off worse than Ripkin. He's an idiotic marvel.

So he is either a big pussy who let the abuse continue or such a fanboy of Ripkin that he got battered wife syndrome and convinced himself that the boys actually really loved him. High collars and three-piece suits are supposed to fool us into thinking he's neither of those things.

Hanging around in the majors is an accomplishment, the caveat to that being he was on gear. If you consider Virgil a successful pro wrestler than Zaun is a successful major leaguer. The fact that he has a Nick Kypreos reputation on set is the least surprising part of the story (at least to me).

I loved Virgil.

Santoki wrote:I loved Virgil.

I saw Virgil wrestle alongside IRS against the Steiners at the Memorial Centre in Kingston in 1990 or so. At one point he loaded up his mouth with Chicklets and spat them out when one of the Bros hit him. Pro move. Later he got crotched pretty bad on the top rope and spent the remainder of the match doubled over. Virgil hustles autographs at wrestling conventions these days if you want to meet him. He goes to most of them.

Nights King wrote:Who the **** would consider Gregg Zaun a success? The guy is one of the most colossally stupid human beings i've ever had the displeasure of seeing on TV and hearing on the radio.

Im going to guess he is a lot more successful then you professionally and financially

Are you people really this thick? I use the word "success" the same way Gregg Zaun and Keith Olbermann used, i was judging his career as a baseball player relative to the average big leaguer and given where he started, not to the average person. Read what Zaun said, he didn't say he "turned out okay" relative to me or a kid in a refugee camp in Africa, he thinks the abuse somehow made him a better player when if you look at the simple fact he started out as a backup catcher and stayed there for almost all of his career.

speedythief wrote:Virgil hustles autographs at wrestling conventions these days if you want to meet him. He goes to most of them.

And willing to give you free pointers on technique if you share a hotel room with him:

http://deadspin.com/in-which-virgil-tel ... 1596581696

Schadenfreude wrote:

speedythief wrote:Virgil hustles autographs at wrestling conventions these days if you want to meet him. He goes to most of them.

And willing to give you free pointers on technique if you share a hotel room with him:

http://deadspin.com/in-which-virgil-tel ... 1596581696

Great read that just made me love Virgil more.

I wonder if this was just a calculated move on Zaun's part to finally get this off his chest. In other words he felt abused, but using it as a support for hazing keeps his manly persona and doesn't make him look like a victim, while at the same time bringing it to the public eye.