Celizic Still An Idiot

Even though I haven't written about Celizic in a while, it is still good to know that his idiocy remains intact.

The bad news is baseball is losing what [Albert Pujol's injury] was shaping up as exactly the story it needed to get people’s minds off Barry Bonds and steroids.

If people really wanted to get Barry Bonds and steroids off their minds, they would treat him with a culture of indifference and not one of hate. There would no more articles related to Bonds, no more books written about him, no more live look-ins at his at-bats, no more nationally televised games with him in them, no more Chasing Ruth and Chasing Aaron updates, no more signs made about him, and no more booing from the fans.

Face, it Celizic. People do not want to get their minds off Bonds or steroids because it allows them to feel morally superior to him or any other player who took the 'roids.

Pujols is the anti-Bonds, quiet, humble and liked by his teammates and the media, his muscles apparently completely organic.

Thank God Pujols is quiet and doesn't have an opinion because we really hate athletes who have strong opinions. Boy, do we hate them.

And how exactly do you know Pujols isn't taking steroids? Because he said he wasn't? Because he hasn't tested positive for any? Because you hope he isn't so you can use him in your battle against the big bad Bonds? Because you want to do an exclusive interview with him in the near future? Give me a break.

As much as he meant to the Cardinals hopes of finally winning the World Series again, he meant more to baseball’s hopes of finally getting beyond the stench of steroids.

No, I actually think Pujols meant more to the Cardinals' hopes of winning the World Series, seeing as he is compensated for that purpose and will receive no salary bonus should he succeed in the latter.

But let’s face it, the home-run record isn’t what it used to be, not with long balls as cheap as they’ve been over the past eight years.

The record [Hack Wilson's 1930 season of 191 RBI] hasn’t had a lot of play, and it doesn’t have the mystic aura of any number that has Ruth’s name attached to it, but it is a phenomenal number set during what remains the most prolific offensive era the game has ever seen.

Wait a minute. So you're saying the home run record is cheapened by the fact home runs have become so common in this era, but the RBI record is still phenomenal despite coming in what you admit is the most prolific offensive era in baseball. Does that logic make sense to anyone? Anyone at all?

Pujols had 65 RBIs in 54 games, which is exactly one third of the season, meaning he was on pace for 195.

Why everyone insists on using games played as the basis for on-pace predictions is completely beyond me. Not every baseball game is the same for a hitter; there will be some games where a batter will get as many as five at-bats and others where he will get only two counted at-bats. Therefore, it is more accurate to predict how a player will end the season based on his at-bats, provided there is enough of a sample size to make it accurate.

Pujols has averaged 591 at-bats in his five seasons in the majors. Whether or not he sees that many again now seems unlikely, but if he was to continue on his RBI/at-bat ratio of .35, he would finish the season with 208 RBI in 591 at-bats.

If Pujols had done it [broken Wilson's RBI record], no one would have mourned the assault on Hack Wilson, who, by all accounts, drank his way through his career and never captured the public imagination, not even when he was playing.

I seem to recall another player who drank his way through his career. What was his name again? Oh yeah, that's right. Babe Ruth. Too bad Hack Wilson didn't eat hot dogs to excess, too. Maybe then the assault on his record would be mourned.

The Reds have managed to stay within three games of the division lead and can now see a reason to continue the chase.

With Pujols playing, the Reds had already conceded defeat and have only been going through the motions of playing good baseball.