I hope the Red Sox kill the fucking Rockies.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

Here’s why.

I know that a lot of athletes are hands-to-the-sky, Born-Again Christians who think that Jesus gets involved in games but that generally doesn’t bother me much unless a player is really overbearing about it. I’ve never seen such an obnoxious front office in my life, though.

The team’s chief executive is a born-again Christian. So is the general manager and the team coach. Their two star players, along with many other members of their regular line-up, are not only believers but attend team-organised Bible studies.

The team doesn’t like to talk about it much – mainly because the overlords of Major League Baseball don’t think it’s good for business – but they have an explicit policy to recruit as many Christian ball players as they can.

In other words, the Rockies – uniquely, even in a country as religion-obsessed as America – play faith-based baseball. And, in their view, God just rewarded them – big time.

“You look at some of the moves we made and didn’t make,” general manager Dan O’Dowd said in the only interview he has given on the subject, long before the Rockies’ remarkable ascension over the past few weeks. “You look at some of the games we’re winning. Those aren’t just a coincidence. God has definitely had a hand in this.”

See what I mean? There’s more:

Until O’Dowd and other club officials talked about their faith, in an article that apppeared in USA Today, the Rockies’ faith-based approach was kept so secret it came as news even to other ball players and managers who face the Rockies 15 or 20 times a year. After the USA Today piece came out, the team managers clearly felt embarrassed at the revelation and have never mentioned it again.

But Christianity guides their clubhouse like nothing else. Players are not allowed pictures of naked women on their lockers. They don’t listen to loud, obscenity-laden rap music like other clubs. Players are strongly encouraged to attend chapel every Sunday, and Bible studies on Tuesday nights.

For some people, the God-squad approach is too much. “They have a great group of guys over there but I’ve never been in a clubhouse where Christianity is the main purpose,” one former Rockies player, Mark Sweeney, told USA Today. “You wonder if some people are going along with it just to keep their jobs.”

There’s more in this piece – the Rockies think God cheated for them in the San Diego game (which they won because of a blown call at home plate), and they released Danny Neagle a couple of years ago (who got busted for trying to solicit a prostitute) for the sake of “moral purity.”
Not only do they think they’re morally superior to all other teams, they actually think they’re victims of persecution:

When Charlie Monfort, the chief executive, talked to USA Today, he was even more explicit about what it means to be blessed with divine favour. “I don’t want to offend anyone,” he said, “but I think character-wise we’re stronger than anyone in baseball. Christians, and what they’ve endured, are some of the strongest people in baseball. I believe God sends signs, and we’re seeing those.”

Nobody suffers like MLB executives. I don’t know how they stand it.
I hope Beckett and Schilling (who is a BAC himself, incidentally) drop back-to-back no-no’s on these pricks. I hope the Rockies get fucking swept. I hope they lose every game by 20. Fuck the Rockies and GO SOX!

[wolfman]

I’ve never seen such an obnoxious front office in my life, though.

Yeah, so obnoxious and overbearing, that nobody even fucking knew about it for three years, and they still try to keep it quiet and personal.

[Hampshire]

I’ve always had the habit of pulling for the underdogs during the big games.

I think for the first time I’ll be changing my ways and be pulling for the BoSox this year.

(morally superior my ass…)

[storyteller0910]

@wolfman

Yeah, so obnoxious and overbearing, that nobody even fucking knew about it for three years, and they still try to keep it quiet and personal.

Well, I mean, but who cares if it’s quiet? Quietly believing that God wants you, personally, to win, because you are morally superior to the rest of the heathens in the league is just as arrogant as announcing that belief. Isn’t it?

[Lamar_Mundane]

Diogenes’ head gonna asplode in game two when they face Curt Schilling.

[lieu]

Don’t stop there, Dio. Go Ezekiel 25:17 on their fuckin’ asses.

[Hippy_Hollow]

sox fan here… not sure why this matters. I certainly hope that the sox sweep the rockies, but I don’t get the vitriol.

they keep the faith stuff on the d.l. for the most part. now if someone gets chased out of town for not being a christian, that’s wrong. but it doesn’t sound like that’s the case…

[Cluricaun]

I was going to root for the Sox anyway, but just because I hate when expansion teams win anything (read any team created after I was 5 or so).

But this takes the cake for me. I’m totally rooting for the Bostan Satan Sox now.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

@Lamar Mundane

Diogenes’ head gonna asplode in game two when they face Curt Schilling.

Why? I already said I don’t have a problem with the individual players being overtly religious. I might think they’re being kind of silly sometimes, but it doesn’t get me upset. The Rockies are instutionalizing it, though, and appear to be coercing the players into going along with it. I actually think it’s they that are going to have a logical conundrum if CS beats their asses (and he’s historically been money in the WS).

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

@Hippy Hollow

sox fan here… not sure why this matters. I certainly hope that the sox sweep the rockies, but I don’t get the vitriol.

they keep the faith stuff on the d.l. for the most part. now if someone gets chased out of town for not being a christian, that’s wrong. but it doesn’t sound like that’s the case…

Actually, it IS the case. They did it to Neagle and hey admit that they “actively seek to recruit Christians.” They kept it quiet because they knew how obnoxious they would appear to normal Americans. Fuck them.

[Captain_Carrot]

@Hippy Hollow

they keep the faith stuff on the d.l. for the most part. now if someone gets chased out of town for not being a christian, that’s wrong. but it doesn’t sound like that’s the case…

@Dio

they released Danny Neagle a couple of years ago (who got busted for trying to solicit a prostitute) for the sake of “moral purity.”

Looks like Danny Neagle was released for not being Christian enough for them, to me.

[Captain_Amazing]

@Diogenes the Cynic

Actually, it IS the case. They did it to Neagle and hey admit that they “actively seek to recruit Christians.”

I don’t know that they did anything to Neagle because of Neagle’s religion. They used the drunk driving/prostitution scandal to get out of the contract, if that’s what you were referring to, but the real reason they wanted to get out of his contract was because of the elbow injury.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

@Captain Amazing

I don’t know that they did anything to Neagle because of Neagle’s religion. They used the drunk driving/prostitution scandal to get out of the contract, if that’s what you were referring to, but the real reason they wanted to get out of his contract was because of the elbow injury.

In the article it says they did it “for the sake of moral purity.”

[Slithy_Tove]

Is this something particular to Colorado? We heard reports of Christian coercion at the Air Force Academy, and Colorado Springs is to Evangelicalism what Geneva was to Calvinism, now the baseball team are all queer for Christianity.

Can’t be the thin air - Reno is wallowing in sin just fine atop the Sierras.

[Swampwolf]

So named because of the rocks in (their) head(s)!

-Columbia,
RHPS

[Captain_Amazing]

@Captain Carrot

Looks like Danny Neagle was released for not being Christian enough for them, to me.

Danny Neagle was released because he had spent a year on the DL from complications due to his elbow surgery. The arrest just let the Rockies exercise the moral clause of his contract (which is standard for all MLB contracts, btw. It’s not just a Rockies thing), and avoid paying him for the one year he had left.

[Lamar_Mundane]

You know, I just read that article, and it’s beyond fucking stupid.

First, it’s from a UK publication, and it’s based on a single USA Today article. It brings in things like Coors beer and Focus on the Family, which have nothing to do with the team, but it makes good copy.

Some other beauties -

The game is dominated by players from the Caribbean and Latin America, but somehow the Rockies have a roster with one fresh-scrubbed all-American farm boy after another. Their catcher is Venezuelan, their second baseman is Japanese, but otherwise they are whiter than white.

Except for their center fielder, who is Dominican. Oh, and pitchers count, too, so two of the four starters are Latin American (another is Canadian), their 7th inning guy is black, and their closer is from Panama. If they win this, the MVP should be their Director of Latin American scouting.

P.S. Check out the Boston roster if you have a problem with white guys. Not to mention the Red Sox history of integration (i.e., being the last team in baseball to have a black player on their roster, only 12 years after Jackie Robinson.)

The Rockies’ come-to-Jesus moment came three years ago, when a pitcher called Denny Neagle was charged with soliciting a prostitute. The club decided to swallow the $16m (£8m) remaining on his contract – a huge sum, for a club with a total budget less than three times that – and let him go for the sake of moral purity.

Complete bullshit. They got rid of Neagle because he sucked. Check the stats. He never played again.

This article is stupid, stupid, stupid. It pulls together a bunch of unrelated and sometimes bogus anecdotes and “facts” and throws them all together to create a false impression for those who wish to take offense. This is worthy of the editors at World Net Daily.

[Lamar_Mundane]

@Diogenes the Cynic

In the article it says they did it “for the sake of moral purity.”

You’re quoting the article, not anyone from the Rockies. It’s complete bullshit.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

@Lamar Mundane

You know, I just read that article, and it’s beyond fucking stupid.

First, it’s from a UK publication, and it’s based on a single USA Today article. It brings in things like Coors beer and Focus on the Family, which have nothing to do with the team, but it makes good copy.

Some other beauties -

Except for their center fielder, who is Dominican. Oh, and pitchers count, too, so two of the four starters are Latin American (another is Canadian), their 7th inning guy is black, and their closer is from Panama. If they win this, the MVP should be their Director of Latin American scouting.

P.S. Check out the Boston roster if you have a problem with white guys. Not to mention the Red Sox history of integration (i.e., being the last team in baseball to have a black player on their roster, only 12 years after Jackie Robinson.)

Complete bullshit. They got rid of Neagle because he sucked. Check the stats. He never played again.

This article is stupid, stupid, stupid. It pulls together a bunch of unrelated and sometimes bogus anecdotes and “facts” and throws them all together to create a false impression for those who wish to take offense. This is worthy of the editors at World Net Daily.

Did they make up the quotes? The quotes speak for themselves.

[lieu]

Thanks, Lamar, for saving me the trouble. As I research I keep seeing the same oft quoted article and little else, save maybe a couple of quotes from ex players. It’s weak beyond belief, especially the “whitest”, racial, steaming pile of bull claim.

I’m underdoggin’ it, in part because of my ex guy Taveras. Go Rocks!