River Avenue Blues

River Ave. Blues ยป Fascism

Possible sign-and-trade mini-rant

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In what could be the first step in an NBA-esque sign-and-trade move, the Twins made an offer to free agent reliever Juan Cruz late last night. Cruz, like The Orlandos (Cabrera & Hudson), has been having a devil of a time trying to find a job this winter because teams are unwilling to part with their first round pick to sign him, and now that Spring Training is underway his agent is really starting to feel the heat. You probably remember seeing the blurb earlier this week in which MLB basically said it would be willing to look the other way as teams try to circumvent the free agent draft pick compensation rules, and it’s looking more and more like this might actually happen.

Forget A-Rod and all the PED nonsense. If baseball is willing to essentially amend it’s rules with almost zero advance notice to the benefit of only some teams, then that’s the game’s biggest problem. The Yankees played by the rules and coughed up the draft picks needed to sign free agents this winter, ditto the Mets, Angels, and Dodgers, and now you’re telling me that other teams have a chance to operate under a completely different set of rules? Sorry, but that’s just not fair. If Juan Cruz wants to get paid, then he should have accepted arbitration. There’s a reason David Weathers and Darren Oliver have contracts for 2009 right now and he doesn’t. He doesn’t get to be above the system because his agent misread the economic climate. Life doesn’t work like that.

I swear, the Yanks (and the Mets, Halos and Dodgers as well) better raise some frickin’ hell if this is allowed to go down.

Yankee Stadium, now with less facepaint

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A story from Tuesday, courtesy of my mom. She witnessed the following incident while putting the stuff she brought to the game in one of those flimsy terrorist-proof, clear plastic bags.

As I was putting food into a clear plastic bag, 3 guys were stopped by the person giving out the bags because their faces were painted. One face was half white and half blue; the other two had the interlocking NY on their cheeks. She told them that facepainting was not allowed in Yankee Stadium. She told them that they had to wash it off before entering the stadium. They were incredulous and asked where they were supposed to do that. After a bit of back and forth, she let the guy with the half white and half blue face into the stadium to wash his face while the other two waited for his return. I never did see the outcome because I went inside but I think the idea was that the friends were kind of like hostages so the first guy would come back out to get them. I don’t know if they had to wash off too, maybe one at a time.

I thought the whole incident was ridiculous. Who’s rule is that? How many times have I seen facepainted people on TV at other stadiums?

Last month, we wrote about the ban on the “Box seats suck” chant (which may or may not have been related to anti-Semitic slurs hurled at Shawn Green). But this story is ridiculous. The Yankees don’t allow facepaint in the Stadium. Are you kidding me?

If the Yankees really think facepainted fans are a threat to those around them or interfere with the enjoyment of the game, they need to remove the giant stick from their collective asses. Facepainting has long been a part of the fan experience, and to ban seems ridiculously over-the-top. If they haven’t banned facepaint, then this security guard needs a stern talking-to.