OK, now a more serious note about the Mariners’ team meeting. Ken Rosenthal is in Baltimore and is talking to Mariners’ players. Here’s Mike Sweeney:
“We will support and fight and take a bullet for
Ken Griffey Jr. if we have to. He’s our teammate . . . Nothing is going to divide this clubhouse,
especially a makeshift article made up of lies.“
Sweeney went on:
“We don’t think there are two players who said that (about Griffey sleeping). I challenged everyone in that room — if they said that — to stand up and fight me. No one stood up.
So Mike Sweeney has either (a) accused Larry LaRue of the Tacoma News-Tribune of making up a story; or (b) has decided that browbeating and intimidating his teammates into agreeing with him that it never happened is the best way to make the story go away.
Not exactly the coming-together moment I would have expected after all of this, but hey, it’s their team. If they want to create their own reality, let them do it. Personally, if it were my team, I’d try to make this a teaching moment to the young players about keeping dirty laundry in-house instead of telling reporters about it and have everyone leave the meeting talking about the past being the past, how it’s nobody’s business and about how all that matters now is baseball.
But make no mistake: If what Sweeney says happened in that team meeting really happened, the Mariners are now less a baseball team than they are Ken Griffey’s P.R. firm.
UPDATE: Here’s a story describing Griffey’s response when asked point blank if he was sleeping in the clubhouse. There was an initial forceful denial, but it was followed up with what sounds like some serious equivocation to me. Obviously you can judge it for yourself, however.
My thoughts on the ultimate truth here: why on Earth would two players make up a story about all of this. Alternatively, why would a reporter make it up?
Whatever the answers are to those questions, I think the way the team appears to have handled the aftermath is pretty poor.
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- Max - May 11, 2010 at 4:47 PM
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If you’re Ichiro, you have to start snoring halfway through Sweeney’s rant. You just have to. You’re the only one with the chops to pull it off and not doing it is a crime against comedy. Good job outta Sweeney setting up the joke. Bad job outta Ichiro.
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- Jonny5 - May 11, 2010 at 4:55 PM
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So shouldn’t “tough guy” Sweeney go kick the crap out of Larry LaRue? I mean he talks a good talk and all. Back it up tough guy.
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- Mike G. - May 11, 2010 at 4:58 PM
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This isn’t about Sweeney browbeating his teammates. It’s about Sweeney calling out LaRue.
It’s always amusing to me that members of the media have zero memory or recall about previous incidents where a) a member of the media reported something and then b) that report turned out to be untrue.
See the Cole Hamels/Brett Myers incident from the 2009 World Series. See the Jerry Manuel/Jose Reyes batting order flap from this year. In both cases, a reporter ran with a story that turned out not to be true.
I don’t know if that’s the case here or not. But why rule out even the idea that LaRue made this up or – more likely – stretched the truth when this has happened with reporters more times than I care to count?
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- theodors astifan - May 11, 2010 at 4:58 PM
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seattle should not release a great player like ken griffey jr because of him sleeping other player do more problem then sleeping they should go worry about those player that maked the lies up
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- Mike Sweeney - May 11, 2010 at 5:05 PM
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I challenge anyone making fun of me on this blog to a fight!
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- monkeyball - May 11, 2010 at 5:23 PM
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I’d like to note that Milton Bradley was most likely not in that team meeting.
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- oompaloopma - May 11, 2010 at 5:23 PM
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I found the truth, he was just resting his eyes.
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- oompaloopma - May 11, 2010 at 5:26 PM
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What happens if Griffey had some horrible stomach cramps went into the locker room closed his eyes for a couple minutes. Cramps you think that will turn into craps.
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- Funzo - May 11, 2010 at 5:49 PM
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Pretty rich for Griffey to twice challenge his teammate to “be a man” about this and then refuse to give a straight answer to poor Robo.
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- the bigcat - May 11, 2010 at 5:57 PM
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Man,I was falling asleep just reading this article.
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- rhdow - May 11, 2010 at 6:10 PM
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Much ado about nothing, Griffey has a 40 pt. higher batting average than
Big Floppy and he is in a huge park,compared to tiny fenway. Boston
fans probably with Ortiz was napping all of April instead of striking
out and making easy outs. Griffey will come around at the plate, but
Seattle needs to pick up a few bats.
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- mariners101 - May 11, 2010 at 6:15 PM
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wait for reals mike sweeney well sefish
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- robnyack - May 11, 2010 at 6:17 PM
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yea he should. theres no need to start kicking a hall of famer now that he is no longer the player he once was.
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- Jamie Neff - May 11, 2010 at 6:23 PM
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Sounds like the author is butthurt his colleague got caught crapping out an article full o’ bullshit. I love the irony of him defending his colleague then calling out someone for defending his colleague. Internet cowards, oh me oh my.
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- Albert Bell - May 11, 2010 at 6:26 PM
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At least he didn’t cork his bat.
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- pull my finger - May 11, 2010 at 6:32 PM
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I fell asleep at work many times, I will do it again too.
buh bye
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- Trish - May 11, 2010 at 6:32 PM
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No matter what happened, it seems to me that this is an opportunity for him to turn things around. Griffey is an amazing player and it would be a shame for him to go out with these numbers.
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- Bill Hewlett - May 11, 2010 at 6:33 PM
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I think the truth will come out in one maybe very sad way. If the story is true and Jr has lost interest then sometime in the near future he will announce his retirement. If not then you will see the Mariners support him and he won’t retire until the end of the year. Hopefully the later is true.
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- Buckwheat - May 11, 2010 at 6:41 PM
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Where do all these fools come from that have to put this drival out for the public to see. Don’t they (including me) have much more important things to do? Besides, who really cares what the media has to say about almost anything?
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- Suz - May 11, 2010 at 6:45 PM
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Craig – chill! The Media always gets things wrong, and the Tacoma News Tribune is no exception.
What’s so wrong with Sweeney calling someone out? At least he’s got balls!
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- Wayne - May 11, 2010 at 6:46 PM
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It’d have been awesome if Gutierrez stood up and said, “I’d fight you, but we all know how badly you swing and miss whenever you try to hit something. It wouldn’t be fair.”
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- fred117 - May 11, 2010 at 6:49 PM
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Griffey asleep in the clubhouse is nothing compared to the thousands in the stands and at home dozing off watching this team this year.
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- Paul - May 11, 2010 at 6:49 PM
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Just think of the endorsements Griffey could cash in on in Seattle:
Starbucks double americano?
No Doze / Sleepless in Seattle angle?
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- FLPatriotMom - May 11, 2010 at 6:49 PM
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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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- Jin Slagg - May 11, 2010 at 6:52 PM
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A non-story again. Once more leave it to the wonderful folks at MSNBC to have another “not-news” story much like the news on the rest of their site…
