Another vote for dick move by Thomas. If the President invites you to the White House as part of a team recognition ceremony thing, you go, shake his hand, and otherwise make polite noises. It’s not about politics.
“Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein was conspicuously missing from both White House visits in 2004 and 2007 when Republican President George W. Bush was in office.”
For all you yip-yapping liberal toads, Thomas was just an individual MEMBER of a championship team. THEO EPSTEIN WAS THE FACE OF UPPER MANAGEMENT - THE GM! AND he did it not just ONCE, but repeated his ‘statement’ of dissent 3 years later when he supposedly would have had the benefit of more maturity and self-reflection on the impact of his first snub!!
Were all of you howling in indignity when Theo snubbed Bush … TWICE, decrying his behavior as selfish and inappropriate and impervious to input from those around him - ESPECIALLY given his position of prominence as a representative of the Sox and Boston!!!
Oh yes, I’m SURE you were, since liberals are SO principled and apply their ‘rules’ equally without bias or judgment. (… yah, right!!)
The Hockey News’ Ken Campbell disagrees (with the disparagement of Thomas), saying:
“This is not Michael Moore saying “Shame on you, George Bush,” at the Academy Awards or the Dixie Chicks calling Bush a moron – which are both entirely acceptable as well, but far more controversial. This was a very thoughtful, articulate and pensive athlete respectfully declining an invitation.”
:rolleyes:
Way to make an impression with your first post.
And, btw, I happen to be a conservative amphibian, who rarely yips or yaps.
I doubt that he polled hockey fans before he did this. He is, in fact, a RICH white guy, and they object to Obama because he wants to revoke the Bush tax cuts for rich people.
Some golfers on the 1993 Ryder Cup team, also rich and white, did not want to meet President Clinton, but cooler heads prevailed and they went.
Do not insult other posters outside The BBQ Pit.
[ /Moderating ]
I made the same error.
Needless to say, I won’t be asking you for a cite on the claim that Harrison is known as a dirty player.
This is false. Cite:
But good to know you checked your claims unlike some “liberal toad”. That said, if he had decided not to attend for political reasons, I would be come down as hard on him as I have on Thomas. That said, I am waiting for your retraction and apology.
Local hockey station personality, Bill Watters who knows Tim thinks that Tim he knows would never do that and that someone might have nudged him a bit to do what he did.
If you’re in Toronto area you take Bill’s word for it.
Have you even read this thread? If you had, you might have noticed that this is not going down liberal-conservative lines.
Why? What was his reasoning, and does he know Thomas?
So either Tim Thomas is a fine Tea Party Stalwart or a little pussy who lets people tell him what to do.
I’m not sure which one reflects more negatively on him.
I’m a big Bruins fan, and I’ve always liked Thomas, but I admit that this leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. I respect his right not to go, but I wish he would just have shut up, gone, and not made it about him.
I’m not sure that’s fair. His statement was posted on NHL.com, and I suspect it was the league or the team that made him post one at all.
Why didn’t he exercise his Rights as an INDIVIDUAL and tell them to go pound sand?
I seriously doubt that the NHL would have *made *him post a statement of any kind, but especially not one that would be at all controversial. Hell, I’m surprised that the NHL (which is, of course, a business) *let *him post that on their website. Not when it would have been the easiest thing in the world to simply leave it at “Tim couldn’t be with us today.”
He posted it on his Facebook page first, as far as I know.
In the spirit of completeness, Chicago White Sox manger Ozzie Guillen also skipped the trip to the White House to visit then President Bush after the Sox’s 2005 World Series win. If memory serves, Guillen’s reasons were that the visit had been rescheduled a couple of times and that he was visiting with his family in his home country of Venezuela on the date the event was rescheduled to, and besides as a Venezuelan citizen he didn’t feel any particular need to visit with the American president. Some people got upset with Ozzie about this, but because there are always some people upset with Ozzie about something he didn’t take much notice of it.
I’m just glad Thomas is actually a US citizen, and not one of the 57 Canadians on the team. Now that would have sucked.
At least he had a legitimate logistical issue.
Still, the punishment was pretty stiff: he’s going to have to wear those hideous Marlins uniforms for at least a couple of years.