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Going to See the Ballet

But there’s still no doubt in my mind that, as we reported yesterday in the AJC, Griffey has decided to be a Brave. A conversation with Chipper Jones 15 minutes ago only underscored that belief.

"All signs are good" said Chipper, who's talked to Griffey daily for the past week. "But I'm not going to smile until he's signed."

For the record, Chipper smiled as he said that.)

--7:23 a.m., Atlanta Journal-Constitutional

Atlanta Braves officials denied Wednesday they have signed outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. and believe Griffey is leaning towards signing with the Seattle Mariners.

--9:38 a.m., WSB

"I really don't know,'' [Braves GM Frank Wren] said. "I think he's contemplating the decision, so we're waiting to see what he decides.":

--10:41 a.m., Larry Stone

4 recs  |  230 comments

Comments

I think SBN already knows.

“Ken Griffey Jr. (CF – ATL)”

I wish I had put that in a tag.
I've gotta say

Every time I see a Griffey update, I just start laughing. This strange phenomena began yesterday afternoon and has not really stopped since.

Wish you put that in a tag too!

I call bullshit.

Griffey as a CF???

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Woops.

I don’t look at the tags most of the times.

Damn

Looking for a gif of the bears on the little scooters. Not finding one.

How are these?


No,

needs to be an actual gif from the Simpson’s episode.

That bear looks like it's doing some badass shredding on that bike, actually.
Best Griffey post yet.

As for the scooters, this isn’t it but i think it does the trick:

it is past aggravating and is now just funny

Welcome to yesterday

Let me add that Griff using Chipper as his go between nearly doubles the hilarity
This is hilarious! The circus music made me chuckle.
Jeff do you have a copy of Yakety Sax

Exempli gratia

BRILLIANT!

Now an ICHIRO! version

Uh oh… Robert, don’t watch this.

(this is the greatest website ever!)
I once got drunk and watched that clip for 45 minutes straight.
Well done Jeff!
You mean Matthew, right?

Or is there some sort of meme that I am not aware of?

Way to kill it already.
Better me than one of you
Well I am not a meme parrott so it would have been better if it was me and not you.
I meant the royal you, sorry
Hey.
I never got royalties for the gifs either
I would pay a shiny quarter for each one.
I like this idea
Who is Rick Reilly, and why is he the Queen Mother?

Assuming that the USSM post relates to Griffey in some way…

Beltre defense

Reilly said that if Beltre was roid-free, “then I’m the Queen Mother”.

Rick Reilly is the obnoxious sportswriter who baited Sammy Sosa about steriod testing

beyond that, I dunno. Maybe you should e-mail DMZ

Rick Reilly is the worst "sportswriter" in the history of sports and/or writing

He didn’t used to be bad, just boring, but now all he seems to write are schmoopy feel-good stories about Underdogs Who Triumph Over Long Odds In Improbable Ways And Why That Will Save America. His stuff’s on ESPN now. I’d recommend avoiding it.

In addition to what I said, everything pdb said is also correct
Also, his piece totally ignores

the likelihood of people beyond A-Rod, Giambi and Bonds having used steroids. Like, say, Albert Pujols, whom he gushes over.

It’s my most hated part of baseball steroid writing. See also: any list that asterisks or crosses off players.

For a smart article about PEDs

read Joe Posnanski’s article that I just fanshotted.

I love Joe Posnanski
At least 32 people are truly stupid
Just today, I had at least 20 people take the time out of their day to call me an idiot.*

*I just looked. It was 32 people.
When he's not talking about Bruce Springsteen, I agree.
This is the worst comment in LL history.
You're absolutely right.

My opinion that Posnanski wrote a few too many Super Bowl about Bruce Springsteen is the worst thing that ever happened in the history of this blog.

People use fanshots?
Only faggoty ones
I like how he rips Beltre for his 2004 numbers, but praises Luis Gonzalez for his 2001 numbers.

I don’t see how he separates the two situations. Gonzalez is by far the most glaring career year that doesn’t fit at all. Yet Beltre must have done steroids while Gonzalez was clean.

I hate Rick Reilly.

Gonzalez looks white

so there’s that

He really is an embarrassment.

DMZ, on Twitter:

MLB should abolish drug testing and just ban whoever Rick Reilly says he knows is using. Saves time, money, restores confidence in the game.
The fact he moved to ESPN kind of shows he's a joke

Everyone on that network anymore is a waste of space.

This argument is similar to the Alex arguments when he left Seattle.

ESPN offered him a ton of money and like a sane man he accepted said money.

I wish they would have used that money to keep Dan Patrick around instead.

I liked listening to the radio show, at least.

I like Jim Caple and Keith Law, off the top of my head.
Keiran Darcy

John Hollinger, Rob Neyer. I like JA Adande most of the time, too.

I enjoy plenty, like Neyer, Gammons, Hollinger, Clayton, Simmons

But then there’s Digger Phelps, and Lou Holtz, and Mark May, and Woody Paige, and Skip Bayless, and Emmitt Smith. And now, Rick Reilly.

It’s way too much to handle for the gastrointestinal system if you’re a die-hard college sports fan.

If you don't like them, don't read them

ESPN has some good writers and some bad ones. Just like anything else, if you consciously avoid the crap, you’ll find good stuff in there.

Rick Reilly is quite possibly the most annoying sportswriter on the planet

everything is black and white, black athletes are all thugs, steroids ruin everything, jump to random nonsensical conclusions with no evidence or trace of writing ability, etc.

Essentially, you are a better sportswriter than Rick Reilly. I am a better sportswriter than Rick Reilly. Coach Owens is a better sportswriter than Rick Reilly. Rick Reilly is really God damn annoying.

Yes, Bruin. Thank you.
Just google the title. There is a story second down I think that explains.
I need a picture of Rick in a lovely bejeweled & ermined crown.
Vatinius? Please pick up the white courtesy phone.
No crown, and I didn't feel like doing the veil

But this gets the idea across:

That article was the worst writing that I have read in a while.

Maybe I have been spoiled with USSM/LL

Then you haven't been reading enough Rick Reilly and/or Jemele Hill

it’s incredible that Page 2 has both writers that good (Caple, Darcy, Simmons) and that bad (Reilly, Hill, post-breakdown-creepy-Easterbrook)

I wandered over to the ESPN conversation after Hill wrote her latest piece

where she decided that Phelps got off easy (from media speculation) because he’s white.

Ever Jemele Hill column :

What I learned from Jemele Hill

1. There are two kinds of people in sports – white people and black people.
2. White people have it really easy.
3. Everyone hates black people because they’re black.
4. There are no Hispanics or Asians in sports.
5. White GMs hate black people and black GMs hate black players.

My favorite comment ever to pop up under a Hill column (about the city of Detroit, the Pistons, and of course Race)

“U R a bad person Jamal”

It has now become one of my friend’s favorite lines.

Normally I think people are too quick to dismiss race as a factor in arguments, but you're absolutely right.

Hill is awful about it. Everything she writes is just a gross generalization. It’s the laziness that irritates me the most.

Let's just put it this way

If say, Joe Posanski were to (hypothetically, of course) write “Carlos Beltran was treated unfairly because he is Hispanic,” I would read the article and then determine if Posnanski put forth the necessary evidence to make me believe that he was treated unfairly due to race.

When I see a Jemele Hill article with the word “black” or “white” in the title, I first think “awww shit, not this again…” then eagerly click and think “train wreck! train wreck! train wreck!”

You're only feel that way because Posnanski is white and Hill is black
I'm way over my typo quota for the day. Time to scrutinize more carefully.

Lo siento, LL :(

That font would only be used for flavor text, not rules text.

COME ON!

Phelps got off easy? I call bullshit.
Easterbrook could still be good

if you skip any time he gets creepy about cheerleaders, talks about politics, television or science.

His football commentary isn’t terrible, the rest of his shit is.

And the cheerleader stuff is just creepier each week when I remember he has a kid who is old enough to talk.

Not only old enough to talk, but isn't his kid like 14?
I have a 16 and a 19 year old (well they will be later this week),

what’s wrong with liking cheerleaders?

I assume you don't devote 300-600 words a week

to specific professional cheerleaders on a widely read sports column.

It's not just 300-600 words, it's 300-600 really creepy words

I think there was one time when he offered to let one of them dominate him.

Yeah

it used to be he just congratulated them for being in good shape and being smart or having nice jobs or whatever but in the past year or so he started tacking on creepy lecherous stuff.

There was also this gem
Satellite Note 2: Geo-Eye sounds an awful lot like GoldenEye, the satellite designed to destroy the global financial system in a James Bond movie. GeoEye was launched on Sept. 6; the global financial meltdown began on Sept. 14.

Linky

I just got chills down my spine for some reason.
Could someone post a link of this?

 I am curious to read?

He wrote like 20 columns this year, it was in one of them. Unfortunately, I can't go through them all right now =/
I find it creepy that he has a Cheerleader of the week.

I don’t know, just an older guy admiring young cheerleaders just doesn’t seem right.

Well he used to say that people should be attracted to cheerleaders instead of supermodels

because cheerleaders were in shape/fit from dancing, which made sense. Then he started having a cheerleader of the week. Then he started fawning over them and staining his keyboard with drool. That’s when it got bad.

Mental development is slow in the Easterbrook family.
Is it possible to sum up the Easterbrook-meltdown in a nutshell?

This is a situation that Google is unable to answer. Or is it just the creepy lechery discussed in the above thread?

I can't even remember exactly when it started.
Well there was this one
Cheerleader of the Week: Lauren of the Baltimore Ravens, who according to her team bio is the co-owner of a printing shop. The Ravens are the sole NFL team that have muscular cheer-hunks in addition to buff cheer-babes. Here are the guys — but not only do they not strut on the sidelines shirtless, they don’t get a swimsuit calendar like the Ravens’ women and they don’t even get individual bios on the team Web site. Come on Ravens, it’s the 21st century, have the men wear as little as the women!

Linky

It's kind of hard to tell if he is joking or not.
I really don't think he is
Any idea if he has talked about the seagals at all?
I think he did once.

Later on I’m going to go through his archive for the year and post some of the stranger things he’s said. This year was a total Easterbrook meltdown, and it was pretty funny, actually.

You could probably make an OT thread about it.

Speaking of cheerleaders, did you guys know that the Florida Marlins have cheerleaders?

Probably a better idea than this one
You could probably make an OT thread about it.
Was that a bad idea?
That was a good idea

going OT in this thread was my bad idea. Sorry for confusion.

Just as Peter King isn't joking when he believes that everyone reading SI

should be treated to some of the stuff he puts in his articles.

Thankfully KSK has done a good job of handling those.

For some reason, he also posted this photo

Should've posted a guy
Wait, I'm confused

Is Brett Favre retiring or not?

God I hope not
He's returning to his original city, Atlanta

to play LF.

Wouldn't he make a better pitcher?
Only if the batter is double covered
Otherwise he's going to run around the mound until the third baseman goes and stands next to the batter.
I love this comment.
Only if the opposing team's catcher is behind the plate.
The MLB already has Clemens anyway.
Now is your chance to set the record straight.

Fain is calling for people to tell him how much more money they would spend at Safeco were Griffey on the team, because by golly, everyone he knows say they’d be spending the big bucks on jerseys and tickets and tchotckes.

Honestly?

I’d buy several extra tickets myself.

A caller just said a couple of thousand ....

and someone else is planning on season tickets

I'm a cheap bastard.

But even still, I’d probably buy about 10 tickets above and beyond what I normally buy (which isn’t very many).

They'd make a lot more on jersey sales if they take my idea and not let him wear #24
Give him #51. That will do wonders for Jersey sales.
I doubt it

Most people don’t wear the same shirt size they wore 10 years ago

Not around their legs, anyway

I want the people of Atlanta

to flood him with promises that they’ll all attend twice as many games.

Especially the season ticket holders

Junior! If you come to Atlanta, I will attend 162 games next season!

Yeah right.

They can’t even fill the stadium during playoff games.

Baker has video up of ballplayers stretching in the sun.

sigh.

Sounds like Yuni's already nursing a sore hammy

Sigh.

But he came to camp in Great Shape!?!
Holymoly.

I’d not gone past the webcam chat screen before.

Anyone else read this piece about Tanner Smith on ESPN's front page?

really, really good human interest piece

I think I posted this in the wrong thread.
It is a good read, but I was confused as to how it related.
Maybe the dog is named Ken Griffey Jr?
Yeah... I think I thought I was in the faux-off-topic thread for today...

Oops.

See now

Rick Reilly could learn from a story like that.

How?

He would hate on the teenagers because they’re all probably taking steroids to help with recovery.

The best part of the song

Is that it’s called “Entry of the Gladiators.” Can anyone think of a less intimidating song for Gladiators to enter to? Or, alternatively, a more perfect song for the Ms?

Just heard...

Brian Bosworth has been talking to Griffey almost daily about coming to Seattle and playing left field for the Sonics. Or something like that…

I'd still rather have Gary Payton thanks.

He’s much better at returning 3 pointers for an RBI.

He can't turn the triple-double play though,

and that means less assists.

I think Shawn Kemp would be cheaper.
He wants to be closer to his families though.
Well, a couple of them are here in Seattle.
It's a percentage thing though.

And he’s still trying to figure out the numbers.

Shawn Kemp: Proof that money can get you plenty of action even if you’re ugly.

So he will be moving to Kansas City to be close to all of them equally?
He's the personification of the Battle for Grass Creek
Probably move to which ever one makes the most money now.
Dude child support ain't cheap
Just ask Travis Henry
I asked him about the price of weed versus the price of condoms
Why ask? The results from Henry's child support payments speak for themselves.
Kemp, Bosworth and A-Rod headed to Sounders

What’s the MLS drug testing policy?

No Dice.

"MLS has one of the strictest drug policies in professional sports and holds its athletes both responsible and accountable for what they put into their bodies,"

Here

This drug policy brought to you by McDonald's and Coca-Cola
However

Steve Largent made a counteroffer to have Griffey play center for the Thunder.

Griffey's left handed, so he'd be left footed too

And the Sounders still need a left back. Plus think of all the extra jersey’s he’d sell! Sign Griffey now!

Those jerseys are too expensive, even with Griffey's name on the back
No kidding.

I really want one, but at those prices????

Of course Everett Silvertips (minor league hockey) jerseys run about $150.00, without any name or number on them (those cost extra).
$99 replica, $199 authentic + $65 for name and numbering on Thunderbirds

thanks for pricing me out WHL

No 22 Kelly for you
About the same for the Silvertips.

I guess the proceeds go towards helping the “foster” families the kids stay with, but still….

Mine was a gift so I was happily able to ignore that bit
Left handedness doesn't mean left footedness though
Not always,

but I would guess it works that way a majority of the time.

Tiny sample size alert,

but most of the lefties I’ve met in life are right-footed.

Me too

Myself included

Ditto.
I kick with my right foot, but I use my left foot for dunking and popping wheelies.
I'm fine kicking with both, but I have notably better control right footed
I have the same issue. I think part of this comes from basketball, though.

As a lefty, the majority of my one foot jumping has been off of my right foot. I would imagine that has helped my coordination in that leg over the years.

Really?

Every left-hander I’ve ever met was left-footed (my brother included). I know a lot of lefties who learned to golf, throw, etc right handed because all that was around was right-handed equipment (gloves, clubs, etc), but I’ve never met anyone who was the reverse.

Learn something new every day.

I'm useless with left-handed scissors because of the scarcity there,

but my right hand is woefully inept at throwing, etc. I do hit almost as well from the right side, but that’s due to a two handed tennis backhand.

I’ll go see if I can find a study about the handedness/footedness relationship.

Not that big of a deal.
Unless you feel like paying for the article, see what you think about the abstract:

here

I'm a righty that does pretty much everything sports lefty except for throwing.

Batting, golfing, kicking, back foot/strong hand boxing, etc.

He doesn't have the legs to play center anymore so he should be in at left or right
I'm left handed and right footed.
Left footed and right handed would seem like it would be more common.

How did you end up right footed?

How did you end up with 10 fingers?
I thought it would be common that if you are left-footed, you would be left-handed.

All the people I know that deviate from that were forced into it at some point in their childhood (for various reasons).

I wasn't coerced either way. My sister actually is left-handed right-footed as well.
Huh.

I’m 100% right/right. My entire left side is almost useless, except for the fact that I can switch-hit a tiny bit.

It is less common now, but once upon a time the left hand was considered evil.

My father was forced to be right handed as were most lefties in the Midwest during the 40’s and 50’s.

Evil or just "wrong".

I know some people that were “born” left handed that forced to be righties in school or by their parents.

LL is probably not the place to tell the back story, but yes evil was the correct word.
I am doing the opposite now.

I am forcing myself to learn how to write with my left hand so I can be able to write with both hands.

Planning on losing one?
You know how it is with those bookies...
Well, think of it as wearing a seltbelt.

It rarely comes to use, but it is very useful when it does.

I'll learn to use my left when the need arises.
Hence, "Sinistro"
Easier to steal the ball from other right-footies?
So, was Griffey supposed to announce today or something?

Because it hasn’t happened yet.

That was the rumor.

Maybe he’s waiting until 11:59pm just to make sure he’s making the right decision.

I am sorry.

I am just getting antsy because nothing has been announced and the activity level is low right now here.

This is like the week of the winter meetings, about the 6th time I've made a sweep through LL since lunch.

And why is this Griffey issue such a big deal? The outcome isn’t quite like getting a new GM.

It's really not a big deal either way,

but I still want to know WHAT"S HAPPENING.

That is what is bothering me too.

You would think Geoff Baker would post an update on his blog or something by now.

Update: Nothing has changed.
Are we there yet?
Don't make me turn this car around.
I think I read over at Stone's blog that the announcement could come tomorrow instead.

I fully expect Griffey to announce his decision on September 30th.

I say we sign Chris Snelling.
At least give him a minor league deal or something.

The boy has always been able to hit.

I hope he never picks a team
Griffey is signing with the Mariners
From WWB - Griffey agrees to terms with Seattle

http://www.wsbtv.com/sports/18745652/detail.html

Dude, the news has killed USSM.
PI

“Just over nine years to the day after he left, Ken Griffey Jr. is back with the Seattle Mariners.”

Times

Although one TV station is Atlanta reported that Ken Griffey Jr. had picked the Mariners over the Atlanta Braves, he remained a free agent Wednesday with no official announcement.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2008758528_griffey19.html

Sources: Griffey chooses Mariners

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3917214

An ending to the seemingly never ending story!

So…what do we do now?

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