Changing perspectives

It's funny how rooting for the laundry changes our outlook on certain players and situations. As last night's shenanigans between Donnelly and Guillen unfolded, I was as puzzled as the NESN team. Once they'd finally sorted out the history it all came back to me. I watched that Angels / Nats game and wrote about the pine tar incident the next day, praising Guillen's restraint (!) and delighting in him shutting Mike Scioscia up. Now, of course, Donnelly's our guy, so Guillen goes back to his default "hotheaded asshole" setting on the Baseball Desert character-meter.

Baseball feuds are always a source of endless entertainment. Something gets made out of nothing, and suddenly there's a whole lot of public yelling going on, and I then spend the rest of the series hoping that Donnelly gets to face Guillen again and we get some real fireworks (as opposed to what NESN called a "bench-clearing shouting match").

You can call me a big kid if you like, but I can rest easy knowing I'm not the only one:

"I don't need to talk to him," said Guillen. "What do I need to talk to him for? Come on, man, we're all grown-up people. He don't need to talk to me, either."

"If he wants to take care of this problem, our clubhouses are pretty close, so he can have one of the batboys come get me outside and we can take care of this as men. That's it. That's all I have to say."

You can't beat a bit of macho posturing to really get the season started.

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Obsessive Anal-Retentive Game Counter: 7