08 August 2010

Puppet Show

It's pretty evident Gonzo benefited from PEDS. No clean player in history enjoyed such a late career power transformation. I dont think that makes him a pariah, necessarily, or all that unusual among contemporaries - nor does it negate earlier franchise glory, within such a broadly corrupted sport.

But if I was Kendrick, blustering about the game's old fashioned virtues whenever it suits me, I might think twice before eagerly tatooing '20' on the stadium next to Jackie Robinson. The same owner who planted "whispers" about Gonzo before contract negotiations, today cant fill seats with his own whisper of a team. So a compromised Kendrick finally adopts the popular WS hero to nudge ahead of the Nats and Reds in attendance - subordinating pious PED 'principle' to profit.















By all accounts, it was a welcome event for a near sellout throng, who paid premium rates to send off Gonzalez for the twenty ninth or thirtieth time. Ah, the joys of club sponsored, canned "tributes". Some say it signals a change of policy, or even of heart. Diamondhacks isnt so sure. We bristled when these stewards actively erased our heritage, and yes, we're complaining now when they embrace it. Because timing and track record are everything.

Gonzo's well attended and, let's face it, long underdue, honor is the latest in a string of puppet shows manipulated by Kendrick and Derrick Hall. It's what you dish out when you cant deliver the real thing. Dolls, puppets, cheap mass produced reproductions. Wide screen reruns of a distant World Series, co-opted by Kendrick after years of sneering at everything associated with it.




It's early August and we're already waist deep in increasingly dubious bobbleheads, which are plastic (formerly ceramic) puppets. Daron Sutton's oleaginous bidding and spasmodic theatrics evoke puppetry of a different kind. AJ Hinch was a figurative puppet. Ungainly characters in the ill conceived "Legends Race" are, literally, puppets. This entire organizational cast is inflated and painted for the show, yet relatively hollow inside.

Ironically, Luis Gonzalez seems to be the most human character among them. Fifty thousand came out to say so. To affirm that even with his wooden cliches and the spectre of steroids dancing overhead, something about Gonzalez is still more real and worthwhile than anything the current organization has to offer.

4 comments:

BannedFromSnakepit said...

I have a question Mr. Hacks - I voted in your most recent poll. Afterwards it says total votes so far (3) but when I hit results, it shows that 18 votes were cast so far. Am I doing something wrong?

Diamondhacks said...

Since the Dbacks furnish such a broad range of indignities, voters in this particular poll may select more than one option.

Thank you for voting.

Russell said...

I left two Greg Schulte bobbleheads standing on a table in the bar of my hotel on my last visit to Phoenix. Three days later they were still there. Of course now I see that they are going for $5.27 on Ebay so I guess that the joke is on me.

And yes it's richly ironic to see the current fulsome embrace of the time before "year zero".

(Insert "Sedona Red"/"Khmer Rouge" joke here).

Diamondhacks said...

Losing one Schulte bobblehead may be regarded as a misfortune; losing both looks like carelessness.