Oh no, the A-Rod/Jeter "rift" might be detrimental to the season!!!!!11

Wait, this has been going on for YEARS now, whew. Let me catch my breath on that one.

/somehow I don't think Bernie Williams not being there is going to sink the season either

Too intense, I think, blowback from undergoing weeks of sports columns and screamathon ESPN shows insisting that that's true, rattling my head.

And I fear Schilling, a time-tested certified diamond, a shiatload more than a fat Japanese guy. Once Irabu twice shy.

Oh, shiat, I think you can blame me for the headline. I didn't RTFA and told the admin to fix it or else it sounds like a pr0n movie.

/very sorry

Geez, lots of tears here. Just because I haven't said Red Sox fans aren't the most homophobic in baseball doesn't mean it's not true or I've backed off the point. Still as true as it ever was, I just didn't see any fans lampooning a thin guy in a gay pride parade as having AIDS recently, and the most recent "A-Rod and Jeter are wicked quee-ah together, LOL!!!!!Sleepovers!!!11" headlines were at least amusing, so no need to take offense.

On the subject of Irabu and Matsuzaka, I didn't say they're exactly the same. I just said "I'm gunshy around megahyped pitchers from Japan" in a different way, thus "once Irabu twice shy." Gunshy, shy, etc.

/not gonna agree with Nomo, he was supposed to be a pitching god when he got here, then he played more than one season and hitters figured out his twirling, aside from my not knowing of anyone else who thinks Nomo lived up to the hype
//question then becomes why would Zulu say that about Nomo, hmm



///ohhhhhhhh, yeah

See, Tom Servo, everyone comes to my point of view eventually.

On the scale of The Finnley Wren Memorial "On September 11, 2001, I had a view of Logan Airport. Thanks for asking" Dumb Comments, Zulu saying "If you doubt a Japanese pitcher with no MLB experience coming to America's ability to live up to enormous amount of pre-Opening Day hype, you're a racist" notches a solid 8.5.

/thanks for ceding the point that you're defending Nomo out of team allegiance, though
//strangely at that, it's not like Nomo came over to join Boston, I guess it's just caused by the first Boston no-no in 36 years at that point

Yeah, I'd just love to see proof of "Matsuzaka is going to be just like Irabu," but coming from a brain that produces the total inanity of a comment like "If you don't think Matsuzaka is going to live up to the hype, you're a racist," I'm not going to hold my breath.

Backtracking? "Once Irabu, twice shy" - do you even KNOW the saying I was referencing there? Tell you what - ask around, go look it up, then come back.

I like trash talking in sports threads as much as the next guy, but I prefer it when it's at least somewhat grounded in fact and reality. And, you know, at least knowing what the fark you're even talking about.



Hmmm, the above pitcher is taken right next to him, and YOUR picture is taken further away. Go back to trying prove Fenway didn't boo Damon out of the building his first game back some more, Zulu, you'll have better luck there.

At least it'll come off better than "Hideo Nomo lived up to the monumental hype! Do not pay attention to the Red Sox jersey that once hung in his closet!"

*trying to

And it wasn't a good place to bring up Boston's wussiness problem in a thread (at least originally) about No-mahhhhhhh. But to prove I'm not slipping, hey Zulu -



Duck.

People wondered what the smell was and where it was coming from. Compare that to Boston turning into NuFrance 2007, and then get back to me. Don't worry, big guy - 1-31-07 NEVER FORGET.

"Shy" and "gunshy" allude to the same thing and you know that. But alas, you're too stubborn and/or cowardly to say, "You know what, I lost my head there and accusing someone to be a racist because they're not sure Matsuzaka will live up to the hype, that was dumb of me." Too bad. And if you DO know what "once bitten, twice shy" means, then "riddle me this," Mr. I Hate Pop Culture References (Especially to Crappy Entertainment Like The Principal, DAMN IT!) - why're you insisting it means "MATSUZAKA = IRABU, OMG!!!!!!11" It means "I'm hesitant because of past experiences I have had." Sorry, as much as your rabid Yankee hating wants to play pretend that means the same thing, it just isn't so.

Whether hype means anything or not, it's happened, is happening, and will continue to happen whenever a pitcher outside of MLB starts amazing people. It's hard enough to make the jump, and it's especially hard for pitchers. And no matter how hard you hope other people see me as mean or CRAAAAAAAAZY!!!11 to wonder if Matsuzaka will live up to it, it's still a worthy question, especially considering the bid placed for him.

And definitely sorry, you trying to pretend that that means anything, and especially can be compared to "If you don't think...that means you're a racist," I don't think so. For one thing, that's actually the clear intent of what you said, whereas mine was of course delightfully muddled by Bostonians and Yankee haters of all locations pretending (or maybe actually dumb enough) to not know what "led to" means. Sorry, grasp for straws elsewhere. I think Alexander needs another editing job, Oliver Stone, while you're desperately seeking the truth about the standing ovation Damon received when he came back to Fenway.

"I have no answer to any of the above. I know, allude to James Joyce."

And I'm "incomphrensible." Talk about needing another debating class.

I mean, points given for the thought process that takes one from "I have no answer" to "pretend to have read Ulysses," but still. Pretty bad.

First off some more nonsense avoiding "I have no answer to anything that was said," that's cool. "Random capitalization?" I mean, seriously?

I picked Irabu because he was a pitcher with a massive amount of hype who burned the team for which I personally cheer. Not because I'm secretly a racist. As said, stop being stubborn and actually have the balls to say, "Lost my head, sorry," which I think is a lot closer to your actual intent. However reticient you are to admit to it, of course.

Oh no, I made fun of France, horrors. Grow up. Maybe you'll accuse my friend Jacqueline of being self-loathing every time she jokes about eating cheese next, can't tell where that "hesitant to endorse Matsuzaka's hype" = "racist" brain's going next.

The Joyce joke is just referencing the guy's most famous work, relax.

Seriously, are you Scoop Jackson, only one that notes supposed racism against Asians everywhere you look?

You italicizing "FROM JAPAN!!!!!!111" as "proof" of racism...I don't know, it just oddly reminds me of the video of David Caruso One-Liners from "CSI: Miami."

"In a conversation about the difficulty pitchers coming to MLB from Japan have, this guy STRANGELY mentions that Matsuzaka is..."

*put on sunglasses*

"FROM JAPAN."

*YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! riff hits*

Philip Hughes can be white, green, purple, or ravishing magenta. Pitchers coming up from the minors have a BIT better track record than being hyped to the moon and being FROM JAPAN!!!!!!111, sorry.

See, the league Matsuzaka, Nomo, Irabu, et al came from - that's located IN JAPAN!!!!!!111 - can be accurately judged as having lesser talent than that in MLB. MLB is pretty much agreed to have the best pitching and hitting talent in the world, and coming FROM JAPAN!!!!!11 to a place with better hitting talent can be a bit rocky, as shown by...previous examples I've noted, but then, I'm just a big racist, what do I know?

Aside from just issues with facing a whole new grade of hitting talent, there's more. Coming up from the minors, along with not being FROM JAPAN!!!!!!11, gives players more of a chance to graduate to MLB with a lot more smoothness. You know, culture clash (being FROM JAPAN!!!!!111 and all), dealing with a...verrrrrrry special group of fans and pressure completely unlike the Seibu Lions (who are, incidentally, FROM JAPAN!!!!!!111), this can be very rough on a pitcher. But no, you've not only totally ignored Servo's attempts to patiently explain how noting the ways a pitcher FROM JAPAN!!!!11 can face a difficult transition and yet NOT be a racist, you've stayed at the wheel of the RMS Titanic that is "be hesitant to endorse Matsuzaka as the next Rocket" = "racist." Nice work, E.J.

Thank God that Eye-Talian Joe Torre has kept all the guys FROM JAPAN!!!!!11 off the team I root for! Nice all-white baseball team I root for...well...

GOD, I sure hate it when that Matsui, who actually is FROM JAPAN!!!!!!11, helps the Yankees win ballgames!



WOW, I sure hope this guy sucks balls, you know, because I'm so terribly biased against pitchers...FROM JAPAN!!!!111



Seriously...this racism thing? It's one of the dumber things a Red Sox fan has said since "I sure trust that Schiraldi to close out games for us." You're obviously just pissy I called out 1) this comment as being incredibly dumb and 2) the fanbase to which you belong as being massively homophobic. As much as you're obviously straining to say, "Yeah? Yeah? If we hate gays, you hate Japanese people, so THERE!" it just isn't sticking. Sorry. Here's another horrible, terrible, no good very bad pop culture reference - "Next time you have a thought, just let it go."

/only one of those guys I can stand
//and yeah, the only guy I know who insists Nomo lived up to the hype just incidentally being a rabid Red Sox fan, the team for which Nomo pitched the team's first no-hitter in 36 years...that's a coincidence if I ever saw one

Hahaha. "I referenced...LIT-ERATURE, certainly not cheesy '80s films belonging to the...OEUVRE of Mr. James Belushi!" Grow. Up. I've even made a reference you once caught, it was nice.

That aside, I guess you're just going to ignore friendly ribbing can exist and if I make a cheese eating surrender monkeys joke, I'm a Republican who poured French wine down sewer grates back in '03. Like I said, I guess my friend just HATES her French self, aw shucks.

Not to mention, thought just occured to me - you're from BOSTON and you're accusing OTHERS of being racist?

Uh oh...here it comes...I can FEEL it...Pop Culture Reference Everyone in Boston Hates Coming in 5...4...3...2..1...



/what IS it William Monahan, a Bostonian Irish Catholic soon-to-be Academy Award-winning screenwriter wrote about Boston and black people, hmmm...

Hehehe, c'mon, don't be scared - two good years (eh, if that) doesn't equal the hype he got coming here, hmm? What you don't say carries weight too, and being too stubborn to say "Nomo didn't live up to the hype" (aside from the whole "if you don't think Matsuzaka's going to live up to the hype, you're a racist" thing) is dragging you down.

Awwww, Marty make a movie critical of Boston? So sorry. Hmm...the "I reference LIT-ERATURE!" thing, the common snob hipster insistence "The Departed doesn't hold a candle to Infernal Affairs"...very interesting.

/seen the first two IA movies, The Depahted beats 'em both, too bad
//the rat on the balcony was pretty farking obvious - all of the big human "smart" rats wound up dead, the rodent "stupid" rat is still alive, being only one reason to have the rat there - a comment on the best laid plans of mice and men, etc.
///see? I can reference LIT-ERATURE too

Wow, your lust for having a comparable stat to "Red Sox fans hate gays" knows no bounds, hahahaha.

Leave the idea that there even WOULD BE stats on that for a second and use your brain. Better pitchers come from the minors than pitchers FROM JAPAN!!!!!111 Once you realize how dumb THAT argument is, you'll just go back to "much smaller sample, you're Wrongy W. Wrongenstein!" So let's just save the effort and not pretend that because I don't have a chart statistically proving players from the minors do better than those FROM JAPAN!!!!!11 means my point is wrong, it just means this is a ridiculously dumb idea. "Show me stats that prove it!" Good Lord.

Besides. I'd take my two Japanese players over YOUR two Japanese players any day. :)

Where does that come from? Oh, I don't know...

"You're a black guy in Boston, you don't need my help to be completely farked."

Might be seen as "critical" in some circles, I don't know.

Yeah, too bad Hitchcock's not alive, you should've raced to tell him to branch out of thrillers and horror films. Do a nice family drama for a change.

/heh, still won't say Nomo was a bust in comparison to his hype
//nope, first Boston no-no in 36 years wouldn't have annnnnnnything to do with that, no no

Concerning the rat on the balcony, well, not every comment in the background about the story has to be subtle. And if you're looking for that in The Departed, watch it again and note the X's that show up during the film. Another horrible no good very bad movie reference, all of them are, but.

YTG, c'mon, note the eleventy billion posts accusing me of being somehow anti-Japanese and racist because I said "once Irabu twice shy." As I said above that, "BOSTON - RACIST," "Pop Culture Reference Everyone in Boston Hates Coming..." Talking about The Departed is just a sidetrack to the bigger, infinitely dumber issue of Zulu's insistence of "if you're hesitant to believe the hype about Matsuzaka, you're a racist." Be fair.

See, YTG - me bringing up The Departed was just tweaking Zulu's nose, that's all. Much like his now seeing "because you hate Asians" as the result of everything I say.

At least I hope. That WOULD imply some degree of sanity, and "if you're hesitant to buy the hype on Daisuke, you're a racist" sure doesn't lean in that direction.

It doesn't help that he's suggesting "a three-year stint in the majors" can be graded as a "success" for a pitcher FROM JAPAN!!!!!11 coming over to play in MLB.

And he's pretending that the $103M price tag, Boston media, and Boston fans (adding up to a whole bunch of hype) don't add up to one HELL of a biatch in transitioning from one league to another...that also suggests soft spots on the skull.

/dude, I started saying "FROM JAPAN!!!!!11" first, don't jump on my jock and try resizing the word "hype," that's like insulting someone with the same insult they just used on you
//it's wicked quee-ah, as you Bostonian homophobes might say

Really, "once Irabu twice shy" was used 1) speaking from a Yankees fan perspective, knowing how all of this can suddenly go up in smoke, 2) the emphasized syllable in Irabu starts with a B, thus recalling "bitten," and 3) because the phrase "once bitten twice shy" means EXACTLY what I was putting across - "as a Yankee fan, I'm hesitant to believe the hype in this situation because of our dealings with Irabu." Yeah, it was kind of a dumb joke, but no, I had no idea someone desperate to have a corollary to "Red Sox fans have homophobic tendencies" would start jumping up and down and screaming about racism.

Touchy touchy touchy. I'm really getting the feeling that you got a snit when you heard that laugh line (you know, 'cause people laughed) when you attended a screening of The Departed. Seeing as how it was very early in the movie, maybe you sat there with a prejudiced mind for the rest of it due to taking offense at said earlier line.

And I thought Nicholson did a great job. It's a bit unfair that when he plays anyone with a colorful personality nowadays, critics automatically start moaning, "Oh, he's just playing Jack." He can't be Warren Schmidt in every movie he makes. Playing a charismatic crime lord in Boston who gets high on coke a rather lot of the time would, I think, require someone to show a lot of outward emotion. Just me, I suppose.

OK, that's the term. "Because Irabu was a bust, Matsuzaka will be too." Prove it. The closest thing I can think is "Irabu Version 2.0" when I was on a "that guy sucks, that guy sucks" streak about the Boston rot

Jesus, he's really serious, isn't he? Even after YTG said this was pretty dumb.

"I don't hate you for your sexuality?" From what comment did you get that I'm gay? Hmmm...I can only assume the reasoning behind that would be...

"Only other gays defend gays" - pretty homophobic thing to say. And hey, it's not like you said it in a referential way to what Bostonians say, as I said "wicked quee-ah." Hmm, what to think.

/I think GimpyNip is gimpy, Aaaaaaaaasian, and gay, maybe you should take up your issues with him

Boston rot-ATION, hehe, forgot to finish that. From the context of the comment, I think it'd be obvious I was joking, but anyway. I doubt context matters to "if you're hesitant to believe the hype about D-Mat, you're a racist."

Oh no, misused "in Boston" in that sentence. O God, how whilst Thou forgive me? Grow. Up.

You say "act like he does in most of his movies," I say "show me an actor who doesn't have a base personality, from which he/she deviates occasionally to show 'range,' i.e. Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt, The Pledge, etc."

Well. Not only do you insist bizarre ideas are true, that being the whole "don't believe in D-Mat, you're a racist" idea, that even another Red Sox fan called bullshiat on...apparently that whole "I'll never talk to you about baseball again!" thing that you've obviously broken for this thread caused a LOT of hatred to build up.

Simmer down, Zulu. You sound farking crazy from that last post, farked up bold tag or not. Spare the vitrolic bite and spewed hate for baseball conversations. Just because you have nothing to say back and have to rely on insanely untrue stuff like "you hate Asians," "barely-readable crap" (that somehow you read well enough to quote chapter and verse in order TO scream your inanities at me), etc.

Funny, the whole bit about "ranting, spittle-flecked posts," you know...

The ironing is delicious.

Well, don't light the popcorn yet, it's 4:03 in Manhattan and the same up there. The job awaits. 'Til tomorrow, crazy dude.