I’m wondering if the Giants present Melky Cabrera with a World Series ring and a share of the championship winning spoils? I know I wouldn’t.
Why reward this bum for pumping his body full of PEDs and subsequently missing the stretch-run of the regular season while serving his 50-game suspension for a positive test? Some help that was in the Giants winning the pennant.
Oh, and that little prank Cabrera pulled with the fake website…that doesn’t earn a free pass, either. In fact, it only made matters worse, making his suspension a bigger distraction for the Giants and an even bigger joke of Melky himself. Seriously Milk Boy, grow up.
It’s no wonder the Giants left Cabrera off the postseason roster. San Fran knew they didn’t need him to win…and they were right.
But the fact remains Melky is still listed on the 40-man roster, and that’s often the players who receive the hardware.
Now, there’s no denying Cabrera was the Giants best player up until his suspension. He also played a key role helping San Francisco gain World Series home field advantage with his MVP performance in the All Star game, albeit as an unknown cheat at the time.
But ultimately it’s up to the Giants players on how the postseasons earnings are divvied up–and left up to the organization on who receives World Series rings. So it’s possible, unfortunately, one side could have a soft spot for the Milk Man. Although personally, I hope neither side does.
If bet if Melky has his fingers crossed for one of the two awards it’s most likely the paycheck over the ring. The Cardinals divided up its World Series earnings last year to a handsome share of $323,170 per player.
Cabrera, meanwhile, lost $1.6M while suspended…and will likely miss out on cashing in on what once appeared a huge contract opportunity for him this offseason.
But hey, that’s the price of cheating…and a pretty lenient one in my eyes.
To baseball’s credit, the league chose to eliminate Cabrera from consideration for the league’s batting title award following his suspension (please spare me on Melky’s publicity stunt to also ask for his removal) and my hope is the Giants will follow suit.
The last thing baseball needs is a known steroids user walking away with postseason earnings or a coveted world championship ring–or both.
So it’s up to the Giants organization and players to send the right message that a drug cheat deserves neither, whether he’s served his suspension or not.
No clean drug test. No rewards. And especially not for the tainted Milk Man.
A collective facepalm for Ohio Bobcat fans this weekend, the likes of which include some recognizable sports names: Bob Brenly, Mike Schmidt, Thom Brennaman, Bulls radio man Chuck Swirsky and Sports Illustrated’s Peter King…and of course Bullpen Brian (Ha!)
More to the point, our Bobcats pulled a total Cubs move on Saturday losing to its long time rival Miami of Ohio 23-20.
Instead of playing for the tie with 9-seconds left in the fourth quarter, the heavily favored Bobcats made a risky decision to play for the win.
With the ball at the Rehawks 7-yard line, and facing one of the worst-ranked defenses in the nation, Ohio figured to have enough time for one last shot at paydirt before settling for a game-tying field goal.
The Bobcats, however, blew both chances in one snap.
On what turned out to be the game’s final play Ohio quarterback Tyler Tettleton lost track of the clock and took too much time trying to avoid a sack–he also forgot the Bobcats were without any timeouts.
By the time Tettleton was sacked there wasn’t enough time to spike the ball and kick the field goal. Game over, and with it Ohio’s undefeated season.
How Cubs.
Similar to the Cubbies’ woeful ways, the Bobcats have been long-time losers in its football department since the early 1970s. But the hiring of former Nebraska head coach Frank Solich brought a Theo Epstein-esque excitement to Athens in 2005.
The program slowly but surely turned around under Solich with the Bobcats winning a league-best 46-games since 2006, advancing to three-straight bowl appearances and winning its first ever bowl game by defeating Utah State 24-23 in the Idaho Potato Bowl last season.
In fact, the past five seasons have been the best run in the program’s history. And when Ohio jumped out to a (7-0) record this year (including its Week 1 win vs. Penn St.) they popped into the Top25 rankings (No.24) for the first time since 1968.
Then in true Cubs form, Saturday happened and reminded us the Bobcats are still not ready for the big-stage but remain susceptible to its old bumbling ways.
In some fashion it’s a good lesson to learn regarding the turnaround of the Cubs as they rebuild from its 101-loss season.
It’s very possible Cubs fans could witness a long stretch of regular season successes once this rebuild gathers steam. But the true measuring stick will be how the Cubs perform under the pressures of October, when they’re the heavy favorites with a championship on the line.
If the Cubs’ learning curve to reaching a World Series takes a similar path to Ohio football, it seems we’re in for more North Side heart-break. But no one ever said losing habits are easy to break.
