I’m in a Fight with Baseball
Posted by:
Wil Cordero
()
Date: April 05, 2016 11:16PM
I am coming to terms that I’m in a bit of a fight with baseball. I am frustrated by the general state of affairs here in DC, especially with the situation surrounding Jonathan Papelbon, our new closer, who is a lamentable human being. His chokehold on Bryce Harper’s throat was the nadir of my sports memory in DC. That one moment of heated toxic masculinity worse than hundred loss seasons, worse than last place finishes, worse than crushing losses in the playoffs.
The end of last season was part Greek Tragedy, part Farce, and part crushing blow to my morale.
I had hoped the Nationals would cut him loose for the act, or that they might trade him for a bag of baseballs, or an usher, or even a beer guy from Milwaukee, and the $15M that the Nats would likely eat would be penance for ruining the career of Drew Storen, whom Papelbon replaced, and the ill-advised trade of Tyler Clippard.
If only our ownership was so devoted.
Instead, the Nationals doubled down on their commitment to the mistake, and to making the best of a bad situation, and they are trying to rehabilitate the image of Papelbon. They know that DC fans are fickle and desperate for a winning franchise, not having had one since before I was in high school. They know just how many local losers are willing to trade away their integrity for a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, ending at the White House, where President Obama will take a picture in Bryce Harper’s trademark Raybans.
That’s the bet that the Lerners have placed, and it’s not an un-savvy one.
I just can’t be part of it.
This guy grabbed his teammate by the neck and squoze, and he paid a small fine for the privilege.
In fact, he filed a union grievance over the three game suspension the Nationals added to the four game suspension the league doled out.
And this is the crotch grabbing yahoo I’m supposed to cheer? Or even tolerate?
This is broken. This is wrong. And while I’ve been hoping that the Nationals would trade Papelbon at the last minute, or that he might suffer some injury in a clumsy manner, or that he might be devoured by a rogue bear, none of those things have happened to serve as a Deus ex Machina that could let me go to Opening Day - for this year, I have our good seats on my former best day of the year - with a clean conscience.
Instead my seats are on stubhub.
And I miss my friend, baseball, but while it tolerates, even celebrates, lamentable human beings with no common decency, I think I am finally past being willing to trade my integrity for borrowed glory.
And it hurts, and it makes me sad.