Outs Per Swing

The Height Of Professionalism

By Erik Hahmann | March 18th, 2008

The guys over at FireJoeMorgan have already attacked this, but I felt like it was worth mentioning in a Rays blog as well. The guys at FJM responded to a piece written by FoxSports.com’s Ken Hench. Apparently he writes a weekly “Hit List” column where he lists 10 sports related items/topics and kills them through the art of journalism. In his March 14th Hit List he went a bit too far and attacked the ever likeable Rocco Baldelli. Everyone here loves the Rocco, so it’s sad that a guy who has probably never stepped foot in St. Petersburg is trashing such a stand up person. There’s nothing more I can say that FJM hasn’t already, so I’m going to just show you their response. Kevin Hench’s statements are in bold.

”Baldelli has appeared in 127 of a possible 486 games the last three seasons. And — surprise! — he will begin this season on the disabled list. His latest DL-inducing “injury” is exhaustion.”

“Well, Rocco, we’ve been looking over the tests.”
“And? What is it, doc? Give it to me straight.”
“SURPRISE! You have an extremely rare combination of metabolic and mitochrondrial abnormalities, which prevent the muscles in your legs from working and recovering properly.”

Baldelli’s condition is straight up unfunny. Doctors still haven’t pinpointed the nature of his disease, but they know that it will affect his ability to perform the most basic of baseball skills. He’s 26 years old, and his once promising career is probably over. And Kevin Hench is going to put the word “injury” in quotes? As if it’s fake? Are you freaking kidding me?

Who does he think he is, Mariah Carey?

I prefer Julio Lugo’s response:
“I read it in the newspaper and my heart dropped,” he said.Again, there is nothing funny about this. Kevin Hench owes Rocco Baldelli an apology. Simple as that.

And what is he exhausted from, the off-season?HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no his mitochondria aren’t working properly.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 2:25 pm and is filed under Rocco Baldelli, MVN Rays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.