Donkey Clogging
by Texy
2008 June 3 at 4:22 pm
File this under: “Things I Wish I’d Never Heard”.
“We haven’t been able to cash it in very much,” catcher Jason Varitek said, “but it puts an extra amount of pressure on the other team, which we haven’t been able to do. We’ve got a lot of big donkeys who clog up the bases.”
Jason Varitek… taking a page out of Dusty Baker’s book? Say it ain’t so! It’s like all of a sudden, down is up, left is right, black is white, and Tek has somehow managed to morph into evil incarnate.
Of course, FJM says it even better than me:
Anyone seen that HBO documentary “The Curse of The Bambino”? It’s fine, whatever.After the Scottish Dribbler (you know what I’m talking about), one Bostonian recalls heading out of his house in Newton MA, thinking he’d be going out for a long, solitary walk, only to find hundreds of other Sox-fans-turned-zombies walking the streets. A brokenhearted old man crosses paths and says: “Son, this is the dahkest day in New England since Jack Kennedy was shawt.”
That’s how I feel about today, after reading this quote.
oh man, Fire Joe Morgan is gonna have a FIELD DAY with that quote.
and oh wow – they already did. how did I miss that in the post?
/dummy slap myself
*picks up nearby blunt object, throws at Tek*
But Tek is qualified to speak on these matters because:
1. God knows he doesn’t do much clogging himself.
And,
2. He’s one of those big donkeys, too, so he can rip on others who run like dinosaurs.
But yeah. Not cool. I may stop loving him for a couple of hours.
Because of my love for the captain, I will try to defend him…maybe he said it in a joking kinda way. Maybe he considers himself to be one of those “donkeys” and is poking fun at himself…?
That’s so out of character for him, it had to have been said in jest.
Yes. That’s it.
I still don’t get the big deal of the quote
Read the linked FJM piece, and anything else they’ve written about clogging up the basepaths – helpfully gathered together under their tag “clogging up the basepaths”.
If the horrendous awfulness inherent in the phrase still isn’t clear after that, I’d suggest getting a job working for Dusty Baker or Joe Morgan. They’ll love the way you think.
To defend Varitek: I’ve seen base-clogging this week and it had nothing to do with anti-small ball sentiments from management. It had to do with Prince Fielder occupying third base while Corey Hart was merrily on his way to it with what he thought was a triple. End result: 2 outs.
IMO, Tek was probably saying that the Sox have a lot of slow guys on the team. Which, unfortunately, they do.
Eh, I don’t think it’s a big deal. He’s talking about himself and his team mates. I liken it to when they were all calling themselves Idiots. Now, if someone from another team said that, then I’d have a problem with it.
Well if you subtract Ellsbury from the mix, they are pretty slow if you consider Crisp and Lugo aren’t really ever on base. Between Manny, Ortiz, Pedroia, Youk, Varitek, Lowell, they have some slow people
Meril: Fielder wasn’t base-clogging… that was poor direction by the 3rd base coach and/or bad baserunning skills. The Sox have had a couple of moments like that this year, too.
Aside from miscues and foibles like that, there’s rarely (and I mean RARELY) ever a situation where it is worse to have someone on the basepaths than not. The whole point of baseball is to avoid getting outs, so anything that’s not an out = good.
Now, after saying all that, obviously I don’t think Tek seriously subscribes to the Dusty Baker School of Baseclogging Philosophy. If I thought he did, I’d be a lot more distraught. I think Tek was being a little sarcastic, a little self-deprecating… that’s all.
Adam: It’s not the donkey part – it’s the baseclogging part. Tek saying he and his fellow lumbering baserunners are slow donkeys… funny but true. Tek implying he might subscribe to the idea that they clog the bases… frightening.