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Live and Let Puig
There has been a lot of ridiculousness going on with Yasiel Puig lately.
Puig made his debut on June 3. In 34 games he is batting .407 with an OPS of 1.101. He has eight home runs, 19 runs batted in, seven unintentional walks and five stolen bases. He batting average has never seen the south side of .400. Since he made his debut the Dodgers are 21-13, the best record in the Major Leagues in that span.
When Puig made his debut, the Dodgers were a horrible team firmly entrenched in last place in the NL West nine games under .500 and 8 1/2 games out of first place. Heading into today the Dodgers are in second place in the division only 2 1/2 games out of first.
The Dodgers were a joke on June 3. The Dodgers are now dangerous.
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Just over a year ago Puig took his life in his hands trying to escape from Cuba. As Yahoo! Sports writer Jeff Passan wrote, Puig made a failed defection in April 2012.
Finally he was successful, established residency in Mexico and signed a big contract with the Dodgers.
He left behind family members who, if history is anything to go by, are probably not smoking Cohibas on the beaches of Cuba.
This 22-year old has uprooted his life, moved to a completely different country with a completely different way of life, probably left his family in peril and is trying to adjust to all of this by himself.
So we're going to bitch about him not talking to us?
One thing I know is true: no one cares about the media. I can bitch about players not talking, players being openly hostile, working conditions being awful, the shitty media meals, the shitty coffee. I'm sure they could make for good stories amongst the media.
But all readers and the public care about are the games and the players.
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Now there was this little story from Dan Bickley of AZCentral.com about Puig "disrespecting" Luis Gonzalez.
Puig must be a self-centered asshole.
What Bickley didn't say was what Gonzalez was wearing. Having seen Gonzalez around Dodger Stadium in the past in his current role as "special assistant", he's usually wearing a polo shirt with a Diamondbacks logo and slacks. If you have no idea of history or faces, you would have no idea that this guy was a baseball legend.
Puig, who didn't know the Dodgers color is blue, is supposed to know a polo-shirt-and-slacks wearing guy is THE Luis Gonzalez who hit a walk-off single off of Mariano Rivera in Game 7 of the World Series in 2001?
So Puig helped bring a floundering team back into contention and relevance. His first month can be compared to only Joe DiMaggio.
We're really going to kill him for his state-sponsored ignorance and inability to deal with the free press? Give me a break.
More stupid shit: One month after the Dodgers and D-Backs brawled at Dodger Stadium, Skip Schumaker finally heard back from MLB after filing an appeal to his two-game suspension. Despite not throwing a punch, his suspension was upheld for what MLB called "aggressive actions". Schumaker's suspension began tonight.
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Josh Beckett successfully had a rib removed to relieve stress on his nerves. No word yet on whether they have made a woman out of that discarded rib. Although if they did, what would his wife say?
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