Reading Griffin: Like A Snail Crawling On The Edge Of A Straight Razor
"They lie. They lie, and we have to be merciful, for those who lie. Those nabobs. I hate them. I do hate them."
-Colonel Walter E. Kurtz
I know Mr Jorn promised a moratorium on Toronto's own nattering nabob of negativism, but come on, you never really believed that, did you? Especially now that he's moved on from championing the Jason Frasors and Johnny MacDonalds of the world to a much stranger figure...
Tim Johnson's 88 wins as manager in 1998 continues as the team's best mark since '93. Great results for a first-year skipper, yet the only reaction Johnson's name evokes across North America is ridicule and laughter for his infamous lies about Vietnam. It's been long enough.
TIM JOHNSON!!!! Yes, Griffin's going Delta Force on this one, venturing deep into the shadowy recesses of his mind to rescue a baseball POW. But where Rambo had steroids and an M-16, Dick has to make due with a full arsenal of intellectually bankrupt, dishonest arguments. For instance, 1993 is a great cutoff. That year, the Jays won their second consecutive World Series under Cito Gaston, a manager who has never received another chance in the bigs since the White Jays fired him, despite two titles. Guess it hasn't been long enough.
Grimace goes on to point out that Johnson is not alone in having lied about his Vietnam service, though presumably he is the only guy to tell bogus stories about going over the top to get Pat Hentgen to move to the bullpen. He's right. Tim Johnson came clean about his years of deception, brought on my enormous guilt and anxiety, He made a mistake, paid the price, and deserves forgiveness.
My problem with this piece isn't about Tim Johnson. It's about Richard Griffin.
(I'll give you a minute to get over the shock).
His lone attempt since then to return to the majors was as advance scout for the Brewers. He didn't make it to Opening Day. Stress and guilt did him in.
"Have you ever thought about any real freedoms? Freedom from the opinions of others...even from the opinions of yourself?"
-Colonel Walter E. Kurtz
I know Mr Jorn promised a moratorium on Toronto's own nattering nabob of negativism, but come on, you never really believed that, did you? Especially now that he's moved on from championing the Jason Frasors and Johnny MacDonalds of the world to a much stranger figure...
Tim Johnson's 88 wins as manager in 1998 continues as the team's best mark since '93. Great results for a first-year skipper, yet the only reaction Johnson's name evokes across North America is ridicule and laughter for his infamous lies about Vietnam. It's been long enough.
TIM JOHNSON!!!! Yes, Griffin's going Delta Force on this one, venturing deep into the shadowy recesses of his mind to rescue a baseball POW. But where Rambo had steroids and an M-16, Dick has to make due with a full arsenal of intellectually bankrupt, dishonest arguments. For instance, 1993 is a great cutoff. That year, the Jays won their second consecutive World Series under Cito Gaston, a manager who has never received another chance in the bigs since the White Jays fired him, despite two titles. Guess it hasn't been long enough.
Grimace goes on to point out that Johnson is not alone in having lied about his Vietnam service, though presumably he is the only guy to tell bogus stories about going over the top to get Pat Hentgen to move to the bullpen. He's right. Tim Johnson came clean about his years of deception, brought on my enormous guilt and anxiety, He made a mistake, paid the price, and deserves forgiveness.
My problem with this piece isn't about Tim Johnson. It's about Richard Griffin.
(I'll give you a minute to get over the shock).
Should it rank at the
same level of disgrace as Kobe Bryant,
Michael Vick, Tim Donaghy, Floyd Landis, Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe,
Jayson Williams, Ray Lewis, Rick Tocchet, Pacman Jones, Bill Belichick,
Mike Tyson, Ben Johnson or the F1 McLaren racing team?
His lone attempt since then to return to the majors was as advance scout for the Brewers. He didn't make it to Opening Day. Stress and guilt did him in.
Oh, so he has been given another shot, but he's still dealing with his personal demons.He hasn't been blackballed. So what was the point of this column again? Because you have nothing to write about, don't want to do any research, so instead want to pull yet another column out of your ass based on a beer-drinking session with a guy during the glory days of the Ash regime? Thanks for coming clean. That wasn't so hard, was it?
My continued exposure to Griffin's thought makes me long for the cleansing insanity of the Big Colonel:"Have you ever thought about any real freedoms? Freedom from the opinions of others...even from the opinions of yourself?"
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.
I can't believe Tom Callaghan Sr. lied about his Vietnam service:
"Dennehy was a struggling young actor and he started telling stories about being there, being wounded there, being a heroic Marine ... and he wasn't," writes Burkett. "He worked in a gym in Okinawa handing out footballs and basketballs."