Ken Rosenthal Is Not A Journalist

I really didn't want to write about the following topic. For those of you who know me, you know that I like to have fun, joke around and I definitely don't take myself too seriously. But this is one of those times when I've got to Cowboy Up and write about something that's really been bothering me: Ken Rosenthal.

A few weeks ago, Rosenthal reported the following on FoxSports:

The Red Sox look very white. The trade of left fielder Manny Ramirez and loss of shortstop Julio Lugo to injury left the Sox with a predominantly Caucasian roster. Why bring this up now, with the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series? Well, the free-agent market will open in about a month. The makeup of the Red Sox's roster could be a concern for players they pursue, whether it's this offseason or in the future.

Of the Red Sox's current players in the ALCS, the only African-American is outfielder Coco Crisp. The only Latin Americans are designated hitter David Ortiz, who is from the Dominican Republic, and utility infielder Alex Cora and reliever Javier Lopez, both of whom are from Puerto Rico. Center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury is Native American. Pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima are from Japan. Reliever Manny Delcarmen is of Dominican descent, and injured third baseman Mike Lowell was born to Cuban parents in Puerto Rico... a perception has long existed among some African-American athletes that Boston is hostile to players who are not white... The question is whether the Red Sox will lose players they want because of the makeup of their club, the perception of the city or both.

So let me get this straight, Ken: The Red Sox are a mostly white team, except for all the non-white players in the clubhouse, which some people might mistake for a meeting of the United Nations? That's one of the most idiotic things I've ever read.

And what is with Rosenthal's notion that "Boston is hostile to players who are not white?" Is he writing this story based on data from 1960? Did Rosenthal even bother to do any research for this column at all? And why would any editor let this drivel pass off as a column?

Does he know that David Ortiz is among the most beloved sports figures in all of Boston sports history? Yeah, he's right up there with Larry Bird, Bobby Orr and Bill Russell. Last year, the Red Sox ownership honored Ortiz with a made up clutch player award so they could give him a brand new car.

Let's take it a step further than Ortiz. This team features Daisuke Matsuzaka, whom the club paid a record breaking $53 million to his Japanese team just for the right to negotiate with him, knowing that there was no guarantee that he would sign. And after they signed Matsuzaka, the Sox went out of their way to sign Hideki Okajima, in part to help ease the transition for Matsuzaka. But the Red Sox only like white players, according to Rosenthal.

Digging a little further, we'll all remember that fans demanded the Sox bring back Mike Lowell after last season. Even though he's on the downside of his career, the Sox did end up signing him to a lucrative deal, even though he isn't white. You can also look at the popularity of guys like Jacoby Ellsbury and Coco Crisp. Their popularity seems to grow every day, despite what they've accomplished on the field, which isn't a whole lot. But, according to Rosenthal, Boston only embraces white players. Except for all those other non white players.

I also want to address Rosenthal's comments regarding Manny Ramirez and Julio Lugo. I'll address Lugo first because he's easy to do. The Sox signed him to a four year, $36 million deal two years ago. He has stunk for both years and was in jeopardy of losing his job before he got hurt earlier this year. It has nothing to do with the color of his skin and everything to do with the fact that he probably couldn't even be the backup infielder on this team. . . if he were even healthy.

Now on to Ramirez, a tougher act to tackle but I'll give it a shot. Despite the millions of reasons that Manny gave the fans of Boston to hate him (and I mean hate in the worst sense of the word), the fans embraced him for nearly eight years. We put up with his quirkiness, we put up with his running mistakes, we put up with him throwing traveling secretaries to the ground, we put up with him not talking to anyone in the media, we put up with him not going to visit injured war veterans, we put up with him fighting players in the dugout, we put up with his showboating and the list goes on and on. Here's the thing, though: race has nothing to do with why Manny was traded. Manny shot his way out of town. He quit on his teammates, management and the fans. This was a guy who said he had a sore knee and couldn't play for two weeks, had an MRI done that showed nothing was wrong and was promptly traded to the Dodgers where there were never any issues with his knee. It was strictly about one thing and one thing only for Manny: money.

To further show how much of an idiot Rosenthal is, I went back to one of his earlier columns, where he pretty much writes the exact opposite when discussing New York Mets General Manager Omar Minaya earlier this year:

The Red Sox are a better example of a melting pot, but they are not just a cultural melting pot. The Sox are a blend of players young and old, gifted and ordinary, wealthy and hungry. The pieces — from Manny Ramirez to Dustin Pedroia, Daisuke Matsuzaka to Jonathan Papelbon — could not be more disparate. But somehow, under the leadership of manager Terry Francona, they all pull toward a common goal.

But, just like Manny, we're not going to get any answers from Rosenthal. We won't have an explanation of what he meant or a carefully crafted PR statement proclaiming that he was intoxicated when he wrote those columns. All we have to go on are the articles. And the articles clearly show that Ken Rosenthal is a horrible journalist.