Comments on: Scenes from Spring Training: I get the Jeff Francoeur love

By: Kave Krew

Kave Krew — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 04:35:40 +0000

Craig, good piece of writing. Enjoyed it.

By: grizz2202

grizz2202 — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:55:32 +0000

And let’s be serious for a minute. Would you read this site if it was all sunshine and rainbows? Couldn’t you watch an hour of SportsCenter for that?

The fact of the matter is, no one would come here if every other article was something like, “Jeff Franceour Loves Puppies: A Long-Haired Story”, or “Milton Bradley: Why the long face? Buck up, fella! Those fans will turn around.”, or “Dennys Reyes is in the best shape of his life!”. Wait, omit that last one.

Point is, if I want happy, shiny sports people holding hands, I turn on ESPN. If I want to find out the REAL story that I heard on ESPN, I come here. Criticality is a fact of life, whether it’s why Jeff Franceour blows, or why that fat chick in Accounting is fat. Doesn’t make it nice, or happy, or something we should do in a public setting. Just makes it a fact of life.

By: Craig Calcaterra

Craig Calcaterra — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:15:59 +0000

Really? Who’s being critical? The newspapers who covered Francoeur on the Mets and Braves? MLB.com? The TV broadcasters? He’s been given a virtual tongue bath by those outlets for years. Yes, some blogs have been critical, but for as much as I love them, the blogs with highly critical voices don’t reach a very wide swath of baseball fandom.

Take a look around sports media and ask yourself how critical it really is. The vast majority of people working in the space depend on teams for access and player cooperation for quotes. As a result, the sports media is far more pliant than you assume. You may say “it’s just sports” but sports are a multi-billion dollar industry that people care about. Anything that holds such a place of significance in our society should be questioned and criticized when warranted.

By: mykolm

mykolm — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:08:30 +0000

This is what I don’t get. Why do you need to be critical? There’s enough writers and broadcasters being critical all the freakin’ time. How about a site where the blogger *isn’t* critical for a change?

Mama used to say, if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. It seems that the sports media, despite never playing ball or even knowing the players themselves, rarely have anything nice to say.

By: Mike Luna

Mike Luna — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:02:36 +0000

I’m Jeff…

Yeah…yes, that’s right….

By: Craig Calcaterra

Craig Calcaterra — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:58:25 +0000

I didn’t say that I found it surprising. Indeed, it’s something about which I’m quite familiar. But most people don’t assume it. If they did assume it, they wouldn’t say things like “Player X Sucks” as freely and easily as they do.

That said, the knowledge that these guys identify themselves with their job performance is not going to keep me from being critical because that’s my job. Thus I try — I don’t always succeed, but I try — to keep my criticisms as polite as possible. Ballplayers can, in fact, be bad. Indeed, so can lawyers for that matter. That doesn’t mean one can’t or shouldn’t criticize.

By: thebrettman

thebrettman — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:53:47 +0000

Is it really that surprising that someone identifies with their chosen career? If someone tells me that I am a bad lawyer, I am going to take that personally. Why? I have dedicated time and sacrificed to get to where I am. I have made personal choices and sacrifices in an attempt to be as good as I can be as a lawyer. You can interchange “lawyer” with any other profession/job. Bottom line is, people take pride in their work and will inevitably take criticism of their performance at said work personally.

I really am shocked you find this surprising.

By: tomemos

tomemos — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:45:31 +0000

GMC: I recommend you read the Posnanski piece I linked to above. It’s all about the conflict between wanting to root for Francouer and realizing that he almost certainly is what he is, player-wise.

Francouer has expressed strong distaste for the idea of playing off the bench, by the way.

By: cur68

cur68 — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:36:28 +0000

Add ‘mit schlag’ to your Germanic lexical gymnastics. You’ll never regret it. Comes in handy for all sorts of things.

By: Jonny 5

Jonny 5 — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:18:13 +0000

Alright Old Gator, come clean. Your offspring are also touring the grapefruit league……. Your concern over their well being is admirable I must admit.

By: gmc173

gmc173 — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:02:12 +0000

Craig- I never understood why you really disliked Jeff. I was actually hoping he would come to the Phils and be a nice bench player. He is also a great guy as well. My family is good friends with the family in this article.

http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2008/10/12/news/srv0000003663218.txt?viewmode=fullstory

Well respected, great guy.

Why the hate?

By: tomemos

tomemos — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:52:25 +0000

Now ain’t this a coinkydink: http://joeposnanski.si.com/2011/03/01/frenchy-and-hope/

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:30:50 +0000

Don’t go barefoot, and watch out for little skittermarks in the dirt. There are horned toads at the ends of them, even if you can’t see them.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:29:11 +0000

My college German comes in handy from time to time. I have other favorites – elementargedanke, doppleganger, vorstellung, chronologische umdrehung, zeitgeist, zauberberg, schnitzel a la Holstein, Lowenbrau, a few others.

By: Craig Calcaterra

Craig Calcaterra — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:26:02 +0000

Yes — the practice fields are out behind the ballpark and the Royals (and I presume the Rangers) take their pregame BP and stuff out there. More accessible than a lot of places I’ve seen.

By: theblackening

theblackening — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:19:53 +0000

Craig,

Heading to Phoenix next week. Is the Surprise facility pretty fan friendly? Practice accessible for viewing in the morning?

By: spudchukar

spudchukar — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:14:30 +0000

I swear I have never seen anyone use my favorite word in the English, er German, language before, outside of reading Nietzsche or Kant. Thanks, Gator.

By: xmatt0926x

xmatt0926x — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:56:57 +0000

Sounds like basic human nature to me. It’s easy to rip someone to shreds from afar. Then you meet him as a media member and he actually looks you in the eye and treats you half-decently so now he’s not such a bad guy after all. I bet every guy in that business has had 50 of those same moments in their career. It’s like Bradshaw and Rothlesburger this year. Big Ben up to this point had been very arrogant and dismissive of Bradshaw and Bradshaw ripped him at every turn (rightfully so). Then before the superbowl Ben and Terry have a sit down and Ben is calling Terry “sir” and being very gracious. Now all of a sudden Terry realizes he needs to give Ben a chance. It’s just basic human nature.

By: BC

BC — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:21:29 +0000

Gotta love me some Frenchie.

By: Jonny 5

Jonny 5 — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:18:16 +0000

You met Francoeur and he didn’t kick your balls right off as soon as he found out who you were? Or did you tell him you were Enus Baginski from the Kansas City Journal?

By: heyblueyoustink

heyblueyoustink — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:15:33 +0000

Nice kum-by-ya moment there Craig……glad you got out of the litigation business before it transformed you into a Gorgon

By: lampdwellr

lampdwellr — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:14:43 +0000

You were pretty critical of Francoeur-the-person before, too. Do you think it’s really just a question of detaching the personality from the skills?

By: Mr. Jason "El Bravo" Heyward

Mr. Jason "El Bravo" Heyward — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:13:37 +0000

Don’t lie, you broke the Guinness world record for longest awkward pause in conversation.

By: alexpoterack

alexpoterack — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:06:57 +0000

I was expecting more like Michael’s exit interview of Toby on the Office:
Q1. “Who do you think you are?”
Q2. “What gives you the right?”

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:05:12 +0000

Well, Craig, look at it this way. If he doesn't have a good year you may not have Jeff Francoeur to kick around anymore. Ergo, screw your courage to the sticking post (or are we finished being pedantic already this morning?) and start whacking away at the poor old weltschmertz before you have to go out and find another whipping boy, even one less deserving. Face it: your animosities were formed and waiting before ever you two met.

By: yankeesfanlen

yankeesfanlen — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:00:59 +0000

Are you SURE that-

A) You didn’t get the clubhouse-manager treatment- that would buy a lot of hot dogs and Old Style
or
B) You didn’t get the feeling of J.P.Morgan after coming out of FDR’s office- very charmed, but nothing in your favor had been said after reflection?

I’d hate to see you not have Frenchie to kick around anymore.

By: stealofhome

stealofhome — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:59:37 +0000

So it went something like this?

Craig Calcaterrano: You wanna give me a juicy quote?
Francoeur-Wan: You don’t want a juicy quote from me.
Craig Calcaterrano: I don’t want a juicy quote from you.
Francoeur-Wan: You want to go home and rethink your place in the baseball writing world.
Craig Calcaterrano: I want to go home and rethink my place in the baseball writing world.