Swept in Yankee Stadium, Dad Gets Mad
My Grade 7 teacher, Mr. Sanchez, had a temper. Combining a man with a temper and 12 year olds was often explosive. When some of us were especially naughty, he was not above whipping a piece of chalk to the back wall of the classroom and yelling, “J’en ai assez!!!!”
Which translates to “I’ve had enough!” (I realize that it was highly inappropriate, but it happened. He also had a rock he’d bang on his desk if he needed extra emphasis. It was nicknamed Mr. Spanky by students. It had a smiley face drawn on it. In general, he was a very kind man and rather soft spoken. But he had a temper.)
I thought of Mr. Sanchez yesterday when I watched John Gibbons watch Kevin Pillar make the third out in an ill-advised attempted steal of third base, yell at him for a while and then jump up and yell at an umpire before being ejected.
Gibby had had about enough.
I’ve been thinking about managers in general lately, especially with all the “is Gibby done in Toronto?” talk of the last few weeks. It’s really a thankless job.
He does nothing, it’s he’s not doing enough. If he does something, it’s too late or embarrassing or whatever. Pillar is aggressive, it’s Gibbons’ fault for not controlling it.
Oh look, another Gregor tweet!
Pillar was penciled in the lineup against the Orioles, though there was some question of benching him.
In other news, Pittsburgh's Clint Hurdle benched Starling Marte due to "lack of hustle."
It really does make me wonder if benching actually ever works. Benching, of course, a form of shaming. There is a tonne of chatter about it on the interwebs, particularly about coaching children.
But Pillar's issue is not lack of hustle, but brain-fart inducing over hustle. Also, does shame work for grown men?
Who wrote this tweet?
Ok, the Blue Jays are not playing well and have had a shitty season. But by no stretch of the imagination is this a “ near record low in the standings”. The Orioles are really, really terrible and the Jays are just ordinary terrible. There is nothing spectacular about their terribleness. Much like the rest of this rather sad season, it's just there.
This doesn’t help the sports discourse to blow things out of proportion. Stop it, Sportsnet.