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Friday, November 1, 2013

Freedom of the Press? Not in Frederick!

Hello, my friends!  Sorry  it's been so long since my last post - life was pretty busy with work, out-of-town guests, soccer games, and of course lots of playoffs and World Series-watching.  How about those Red Sox?  While I was rooting for the Cardinals (because I don't usually root for American League teams, plus the Cards had Carlos Beltrán and Yadier Molina in their lineup and José Oquendo coaching third base - all Puerto Rican), it's always nice to see a team win the World Series at home, and besides, how can you resist David Ortiz and his contagious smile?

So we're officially in the off-season, a time when General Managers start wheeling and dealing, free agents are signed, and salary arbitration is a hot topic.  New managers are hired too, as is the case with the Washington Nationals, who are formally announcing Matt Williams as their new manager.  As the Nationals blogger for my local newspaper, I wrote a little ditty about Williams and what I thought of him as a former player.  The post was published in the newspaper's website, but one of my sentences was edited.  Now, I know the newspaper has the right to edit any submission made to their website, but if you've seen the number of typographic and grammatical errors in our local fishwrap, you know the editing is not top-notch.  Besides, they have that legal disclaimer indicating that the views expressed by their bloggers are not necessarily those of the newspaper.  Doesn't that give me the right to say whatever I want (within reason)?  Here's what I wrote, with the removed sentence highlighted:

"Hey Nationals fans!  I hope you all had a safe Halloween – did you all see my son dressed as Jayson Werth?  Anyway, now that the World Series is over, the Washington Nationals can make it official:  Matt Williams has been hired as their new manager.

Williams, 47, becomes the fifth full-time manager in Nationals history. The team made the announcement on Thursday morning, and Williams will meet with the media Friday afternoon during a 2 p.m. press conference that will be televised live on MASN HD.

A five-time All-Star, four-time Silver Slugger award winner and four-time Gold Glove award recipient at third base, Williams played 17 seasons in the big leagues with the Diamondbacks (1998-03), Indians (1997) and Giants (1987-96).  I remember him most with the Giants, on the same lineup as Kevin Mitchell and Will Clark;  I guess that means I’m getting old!

Williams has spent the last four years on the Diamondbacks' coaching staff, serving one year as first base coach and the last three years as third base coach. This will be Williams' first big league managerial job, so going from legendary manager Davey Johnson, who was around for about 90 years or so, to a rookie manager will take some getting used to.

Williams was chosen over a handful of other candidates, including Randy Knorr, who is expected to return as Nationals bench coach and has been with the organization since 2005, third base coach Trent Jewett, Padres special assistant Brad Ausmus and Blue Jays bench coach DeMarlo Hale. My personal candidate, Sandy Alomar, Junior, was not even considered.  But I’ve always suspected that Nationals’ General Manager, Mike Rizzo, doesn’t seem to like Hispanics, so that came as no surprise.  Randy Knorr, however, had the endorsement of several Nationals players including Ryan Zimmerman, Ian Desmond, and Tyler Clippard, so I hope they can all adjust to the new guy coming in as opposed to working under a guy who has been there since the team moved here from Montreal.


And wasn’t Matt Williams included in that Mitchell report that listed players who had used performance-enhancing drugs?  I guess that shouldn’t affect your abilities as manager (look at Mark McGuire, who has excelled as the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals despite “mis-remembering” if he took PEDs or not).  So I’m going to be open-minded about Matt Williams – there’s no need to dislike the guy before the season has even started.  I just hope Mike Rizzo does SOMETHING during the winter meetings in December, they don’t re-sign free agents Dan Haren and Chad Tracy, and Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg, and Adam LaRoche recover nicely from their recent surgeries (Harper had the bursa in his knee repaired and Strasburg and LaRoche had bone chips removed from their elbows)."

 What's wrong with thinking that someone doesn't like Hispanics?  It was my opinion; that's why I said "I suspected."  I didn't go right out and say "Rizzo is a racist" (which I wouldn't say, because I don't know that for a fact); I just gave my opinion based on the fact that the Nationals' coaching staff is comprised of older white guys (since Bo Porter left in 2012) and their roster has always had less Hispanic players than other teams.  Just my opinion; no need to remove it from my blog post!  Besides, I've read blog posts from other Nationals fans and beat writers who have complained that the Nationals lack minority players and coaches, so I'm definitely not the only one out there with that kind of opinion.  

Thanks to all of you for allowing me to express myself in my own blog.  I appreciate everyone's comments and opinions and am glad that Blogger doesn't seem to care what I publish.  I would probably explode if I wasn't allowed to share my feelings with all of you!  Embrace the off-season, have a wonderful holiday season with your loved ones, and remember that Spring Training will be here before you know it!