Steve Stone on Fairness

[Brownie]

Fair is fair, only except when life's not fair:

What else do you expect to see from the new contract?

I see another playoff round. I see hopefully steps towards an international draft. I believe that's the only thing that's fair. Why should the Yankees and Bostons corner the market on very good Japanese players. It seems to defeat the purpose of the draft. I believe it should be for everyone. People who spent money on academies in the Dominican Republic will be upset. You know, sometimes life isn't fair.

[Yeti]

Fair is fair, only except when life's not fair:

What else do you expect to see from the new contract?

I see another playoff round. I see hopefully steps towards an international draft. I believe that's the only thing that's fair. Why should the Yankees and Bostons corner the market on very good Japanese players. It seems to defeat the purpose of the draft. I believe it should be for everyone. People who spent money on academies in the Dominican Republic will be upset. You know, sometimes life isn't fair.

Who is he crappin'?

[CT III]

Fair is fair, only except when life's not fair:

What else do you expect to see from the new contract?

I see another playoff round. I see hopefully steps towards an international draft. I believe that's the only thing that's fair. Why should the Yankees and Bostons corner the market on very good Japanese players. It seems to defeat the purpose of the draft. I believe it should be for everyone. People who spent money on academies in the Dominican Republic will be upset. You know, sometimes life isn't fair.

Yeah, why should big market teams be the only ones who get to wildly overpay for AAAA players?

[Shooter]

Would Japanese players even be draftable? The guys that come over come from the Japanese major leagues (in most cases), not from the amateur ranks.

[Bort]

Would Japanese players even be draftable? The guys that come over come from the Japanese major leagues (in most cases), not from the amateur ranks.

And the general quality of players makes me assume the Japanese major leagues are on par with a solid MLB farm team.

[Brownie]

Joe Cowley's pilot was either male or was able to get good directions to get him from MSP to ORD today, so he's at Wrigley asking erstwhile analyst Steve Stone to dance on Kerry Wood's grave.

It's not a happy ending. But it's one that Cubs fans embraced, identified with. Wood symbolized decades and decades of Cubs fans hoping for better, only to be disappointed. He was their poster boy.

"From a Cub perspective, and you have to look at the entire career, for every Game 5 in Atlanta [to get the Cubs to the National League Championship Series], there was a Game 7 in Wrigley Field against the Florida Marlins where he didn't get the job done,'' broadcaster Steve Stone explained on Friday. "But one of the reasons he will always be engrained in the pantheon that is Cubs legend and why he will always be close to Cubs fans and their team is because like so many of them in their lives, he was always supposed to be better.

"The unfortunate part is he was very good, but it didn't matter what he did, he had the gifts to make him better.''

That sums up Wood's career perfectly.

He was 1969, 1971, 1984, 2003. He was the Goat. He was Bartman. If it could go wrong, it did. And it did with Wood, specifically an across-the-body delivery that wasn't going to hold up over time.

The Mount Rushmore of impact rookie pitchers the last 30 years was Wood, Dwight Gooden and Stephan Strasburg. According to Stone, Wood was better than both.

"Gooden it was the overhand curveball and the fastball,'' Stone said. "Strasburg it was pretty decent curveball, very good fastball, he throws really hard. 'Woody' threw harder than both when he wanted to and had a distinct curve and slider that no one could hit. I mean his stuff was overwhelming.

"The only problem was that motion, that motion of throwing across his body really hurt him. Unfortunately, the most games he ever won was 14. That's reality. That's a non-debatable issue. However, had he been able to stay together, to correct that delivery flaw, he might have been a guy like Fergie Jenkins, who for six years in a row won 20 games.''

[CT III]

Joe Cowley's pilot was either male or was able to get good directions to get him from MSP to ORD today, so he's at Wrigley asking erstwhile analyst Steve Stone to dance on Kerry Wood's grave.

It's not a happy ending. But it's one that Cubs fans embraced, identified with. Wood symbolized decades and decades of Cubs fans hoping for better, only to be disappointed. He was their poster boy.

"From a Cub perspective, and you have to look at the entire career, for every Game 5 in Atlanta [to get the Cubs to the National League Championship Series], there was a Game 7 in Wrigley Field against the Florida Marlins where he didn't get the job done,'' broadcaster Steve Stone explained on Friday. "But one of the reasons he will always be engrained in the pantheon that is Cubs legend and why he will always be close to Cubs fans and their team is because like so many of them in their lives, he was always supposed to be better.

"The unfortunate part is he was very good, but it didn't matter what he did, he had the gifts to make him better.''

That sums up Wood's career perfectly.

He was 1969, 1971, 1984, 2003. He was the Goat. He was Bartman. If it could go wrong, it did. And it did with Wood, specifically an across-the-body delivery that wasn't going to hold up over time.

The Mount Rushmore of impact rookie pitchers the last 30 years was Wood, Dwight Gooden and Stephan Strasburg. According to Stone, Wood was better than both.

"Gooden it was the overhand curveball and the fastball,'' Stone said. "Strasburg it was pretty decent curveball, very good fastball, he throws really hard. 'Woody' threw harder than both when he wanted to and had a distinct curve and slider that no one could hit. I mean his stuff was overwhelming.

"The only problem was that motion, that motion of throwing across his body really hurt him. Unfortunately, the most games he ever won was 14. That's reality. That's a non-debatable issue. However, had he been able to stay together, to correct that delivery flaw, he might have been a guy like Fergie Jenkins, who for six years in a row won 20 games.''

Bah, Joe Cowley.  I try to make a point not even react to his shit but here goes:

I wouldn't piss on Cowley if he was on fire.

I wouldn't wipe my ass with one of his columns even if the other option is walking around with a shitty crack all day.

The only reason Cowley beat cancer is that cancer couldn't stand to share the same body with that guy long enough to finish the job.

[Eli]

I appreciate the idea of Stone criticizing how Kerry Wood threw a baseball, when Stone himself threw like 85% breaking balls and retired when he was 33 because it destroyed his arm.

[Brownie]

I appreciate the idea of Stone criticizing how Kerry Wood threw a baseball, when Stone himself threw like 85% breaking balls and retired when he was 33 because it destroyed his arm.

Or because Stone said it wasn't until he started seeing a psychologist that he actually put it all together, for that glorious year and a half, where he was one of the best pitchers in baseball...

(But Mike Norris probably should have won the 1980 AL Cy Young)

[Eli]

I appreciate the idea of Stone criticizing how Kerry Wood threw a baseball, when Stone himself threw like 85% breaking balls and retired when he was 33 because it destroyed his arm.

Or because Stone said it wasn't until he started seeing a psychologist that he actually put it all together, for that glorious year and a half, where he was one of the best pitchers in baseball...

(But Mike Norris probably should have won the 1980 AL Cy Young)

He led baseball in wins, which is the only stat that matters. Therefore, he WON the Cy Young.

[Slaky]

Joe Cowley's pilot was either male or was able to get good directions to get him from MSP to ORD today, so he's at Wrigley asking erstwhile analyst Steve Stone to dance on Kerry Wood's grave.

It's not a happy ending. But it's one that Cubs fans embraced, identified with. Wood symbolized decades and decades of Cubs fans hoping for better, only to be disappointed. He was their poster boy.

"From a Cub perspective, and you have to look at the entire career, for every Game 5 in Atlanta [to get the Cubs to the National League Championship Series], there was a Game 7 in Wrigley Field against the Florida Marlins where he didn't get the job done,'' broadcaster Steve Stone explained on Friday. "But one of the reasons he will always be engrained in the pantheon that is Cubs legend and why he will always be close to Cubs fans and their team is because like so many of them in their lives, he was always supposed to be better.

"The unfortunate part is he was very good, but it didn't matter what he did, he had the gifts to make him better.''

That sums up Wood's career perfectly.

He was 1969, 1971, 1984, 2003. He was the Goat. He was Bartman. If it could go wrong, it did. And it did with Wood, specifically an across-the-body delivery that wasn't going to hold up over time.

The Mount Rushmore of impact rookie pitchers the last 30 years was Wood, Dwight Gooden and Stephan Strasburg. According to Stone, Wood was better than both.

"Gooden it was the overhand curveball and the fastball,'' Stone said. "Strasburg it was pretty decent curveball, very good fastball, he throws really hard. 'Woody' threw harder than both when he wanted to and had a distinct curve and slider that no one could hit. I mean his stuff was overwhelming.

"The only problem was that motion, that motion of throwing across his body really hurt him. Unfortunately, the most games he ever won was 14. That's reality. That's a non-debatable issue. However, had he been able to stay together, to correct that delivery flaw, he might have been a guy like Fergie Jenkins, who for six years in a row won 20 games.''

I'm pretty amazed that he's already been able to look back on Strasburg's entire career. What a luminary.

[Saul Goodman]

Steve is telling his #1 fan Bernstein how he told MacPhail to trade Wood but he didn't listen. WHY WON'T SOMEONE HIRE STONEY AS A GM?!?! The Cubs would've won ten World Series by now! Baseball genius!

[Eli]

Steve is telling his #1 fan Bernstein how he told MacPhail to trade Wood but he didn't listen. WHY WON'T SOMEONE HIRE STONEY AS A GM?!?! The Cubs would've won ten World Series by now! Baseball genius!

Trade Wood for whom?

Even in hindsight, I bet that trade would have sucked.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Steve is telling his #1 fan Bernstein how he told MacPhail to trade Wood but he didn't listen. WHY WON'T SOMEONE HIRE STONEY AS A GM?!?! The Cubs would've won ten World Series by now! Baseball genius!

Trade Wood for whom?

Two high-level prospects?

[Tinker to Evers to Chance]

Steve is telling his #1 fan Bernstein how he told MacPhail to trade Wood but he didn't listen. WHY WON'T SOMEONE HIRE STONEY AS A GM?!?! The Cubs would've won ten World Series by now! Baseball genius!

Trade Wood for whom?

Two high-level prospects?

In the abstract.