Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke?
What is with all the anti-Kendall sentiment? I don't think a majority of fans would share your view on that.
See, the thing with Kendall for me is this, he always said that he loved Pittsburgh, he wanted to be Willie Stargell, he always wanted to wear black and gold, etc. etc, but he was never telling the truth when he said it. I never really believed him when I heard it, but then he left. He bashed Pittsburgh once he got to Oakland, both publicly and privately, never realizing how many people worshipped him and looked up to him here. Then something else happened, him being gone made us realize how overrated he was by us Pittsburgh fans. He was a poor defensive catcher, something he always worked on but never improved much at. Despite all the BS from Oakland and elsewhere, he is absolutely awful at managing a pitching staff. I kind of suspected this the year he got hurt and Joe Oliver turned our staff into what seemed like a bunch of studs, but seeing the improvement in guys like Kip and Dave Williams, as well as the abject failure of the young guys in Oakland and the regression of Zito, well, it's pretty clear that Kendall is not good for a pitching staff. So it's a combination of things, somewhat frustration that this overrated catcher was our best player for so many years and we were too blind to see just how overrated he was, and somewhat that the guy just had no idea how much he meant to people here and couldn't keep his mouth shut.
Zito and Rich Harden, who was a very promising (and talented) young pitcher, started the year a combined 2-13. Zito, who won the Cy Young 3 years ago. It doesn't help that their team is rancid, but these guys are supposed to keep their teams in games and they haven't been this year. I can't say this is because of Jason Kendall, but I can hazard a guess that he isn't helping the situation. He's right up there with Brian Giles in my book - a guy who left Pittsburgh's love for him go unreturned, who people were sad to see go without realizing how much damage they were doing to our team.
Everybody says they want to stay in the same town, it's traditional and romantic, but everyone wants to win too. I take no ill towards that.
Overated, yeah probably. I think Jason Bay is overated but it doesn't mean I don't like him. Kendall and Giles always tried. They never punted on this team. Remember when Giles made that catch in left, or when Kendall jumped over the catcher in San Diego. Those guys were ballers. Hell, Kendall knew how to back up a play, something Cota sometimes forgets.
As for the pitching staff, I just can't see how a catcher has more impact then a coaching staff. And touting Joe Oliver helps you loose a lot of credability in my book. Neither of us our changing our minds in that book, so let's drop it.
What did he say exactly, cause I never heard it? If he did say some not nice things about Pittsburgh, I can kind of see where you're coming from, but if those things are true I won't be understanding much more.
OK, this is quickly taking on its own life as a rather lengthy post of its own magnitude in my head, so look for that probably on the off day on Thurday. Hopefully I can explain myself a little better then than I have thus far.
it's not that crazy that a lot of O's fans showed up to the series. baltimore is not that far away, after all. i'm from western maryland, about two hours from each city, and there are a lot of bucs fans, a lot of o's fans. i knew probably 50 people from cumberland alone who made the trip - i went with some o's fan friends and watched mack o wack tear up bruce chen and co. after all, how many times do we get to see these two teams play?
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