AJ Pierzynski vs. Jay Mariotti: Evil versus Pure Evil

by CliffX on May 22, 2006 6:18 PM CDT

I guess Cub killer AJ Pierzynski isn't as bad as I always make him out to be when describing him to the entire world. Pardon the Interruption had him on as a guest for their "Five Good Minutes" segment, talking to him about his fight with Michael Barrett.

When asked about how the incident either helps or hurts his reputation, Pierzynski responded that he always seems to be antagonized when someone like this comes up (a fair point, considering it was the umpire, and not Pierzynski, at fault with the third strike in last year's ALCS).

Offering an example of his unfair treatment, Pierzynski had this to say about Chicago Sun-Times columnist and ESPN personality Jay Mariotti:

"Your guy Jay Mariotti wrote an article about me the other day saying how it was all my fault. So Jay, here's an open invitation to come to the clubhouse and say 'hello' to me. If you want to write an article about me, then come speak to me face-to-face."

Both Kornheiser and Wilbon immediately burst into laughter, with Tony responding, "He's not my guy!" and Wilbon jibing at his cohort, "Tony will love that!"

Pierzynski added that as far as he knew, Mariotti had never been inside the White Sox' clubhouse. Tony Reali (aka 'Stat Boy') did not deny that fact near the show's finish, but did say that Mariotti was in the interview room when Pierzynski was speaking to the press after the game.

Here's a link to the Mariotti's article: http://www.suntimes.com/output/mariotti/cst-spt-jay21.html

I commentate frequently at deadspin.com, and we just LOVE to say nice things about Jay Mariotti. I'm sure most of the people here have nice happy thoughts about the man with greasy hair as well...right?

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of SB Nation, Bleed Cubbie Blue, or Al Yellon, editor-in-chief. FanPost opinions are, however, valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable baseball fans.

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hmm...

for "getting into zambrano and barrett's heads" AJ sure failed. i mean didn't zambrano strike out a nice chunk o' sox en route to a victory, fueled by a michael barrett triple?

AJ gets WAYYY too much credit for his "mind game" tactics. he's big whiney cancer. when he pops up, he slams the bat down and sulks halfway up the line. don't pretend like getting Zambrano riled up after homering off of him is something that is hard to do. don't forget last year when Z plunked AJ and they had some words at wrigley.

bottom line is that AJ is an ok catcher that is really the 4th best catcher in his division (well behind martinez and pudge, and certainly will be outshined by mauer when he really hits his stride), a cancer that whined himself out of 2 cities in 2 years, and a personality that takes advantage of a white sox frenzied media vaccuum. i'm glad he's not on my team and i'm glad that we have a psycho venezuelan K-machine that doesn't need to whine for attention. he screams for it:)

by Bebo1060 on May 23, 2006 1:10 AM CDT 0 recs

Barrett said he was looking to start a fight...

Just before the game on Saturday Barrett was on THE SCORE, where he said that maybe the Cubs needed to, "Go out there and STIR SOMETHING UP AND FIGHT SOMEBODY."

Barrett was talking about how the Cubs needed to a spark, so was it a premeditated sucker punch? Maybe so, considering Barrett's comment. We do know that many of the reasons held out so far have fallen flat.

* 'AJ running into Barrett was uncalled for since Barrett didn't have the ball."

Barrett grabbed AJ by the waist and said, "I didn't have the ball bitch." Then Barrett sucker punched AJ.

During the game when Baker was interviewed Baker said that that was the reason Barrett gave for sucker punching AJ. Barrett then changed his story after the game saying he punched AJ because AJ made a move towards him.

Dusty and later Barrett have acknowledged that the hit was clean.

* 'AJ must have said something to Barrett.'

This was grasped onto by many but Barrett and AJ agree on this, AJ did not say anything to Barrett after the collision. The only one to spout off after the collision was Barrett.

* 'AJ's slapping the plate pissed off Barrett.'

Barrett was flat on his back when AJ did that and Barrett confessed that he did not know that AJ did that.

So what are we left with? Barrett's now well-known propensity to overreact AND his comment about starting a fight to ignite the Cubs. The Cubs won after the fight, leading many Cub fans to believe Barrett's tactic worked. The Cubs getted beaten back by the lowly Marlins may prove otherwise.

by DrCrawdad on May 23, 2006 1:21 AM CDT 0 recs

hold up

What do you mean the Cubs won after the fight? They won the following day, but they did lose the Barrett/AJ game.

That may be just splitting hairs, but I thought I'd point that out. But I think that whole situation is best left for Unsolved Mysteries, because we'll never know. There's nothing immediate that should have set Barrett off (he knew it was a clean play, he didn't see AJP slapping the plate, AJP didn't say anything to him), and he had all ready made up his mind to do something before AJP did anything to him (when they initially meet up and Barrett grabs him, AJP does give Barrett a pretty good elbow).

We'll never know what that was all about.

"If it takes forever."

by JDay on May 23, 2006 1:47 AM CDT 0 recs

Clean or unclean...

Barrett's initial comments indicated that he didn't think the hit was clean, "I didn't have the ball, bitch." It was only later, after the game, that Barrett seized on the 'AJ moved towards me...' excuse. However, even that is a slippery excuse since Barrett then grabbed AJ, Barrett then mouthed off and finally Barrett sucker punched AJ.

I hope MLB is aware of Barrett's comments from just before the game, that comment about wanting to start a fight, show possible premeditation on his part.

by DrCrawdad on May 23, 2006 1:57 AM CDT up 0 recs

initial comments

This is the first I've heard about any of those initial comments, so I'll just have to take your word for all of that.

"If it takes forever."

by JDay on May 23, 2006 2:12 AM CDT 0 recs

AJ "pure evil?" Ortiz says no...

Ortiz: A.J. is OK

David Ortiz defended A.J. Pierzynski, a former teammate in the Twins' minor league system, after Saturday's brawl in Chicago in which Pierzynski took one on the chin from Cubs catcher Michael Barrett after their collision at the plate. While replays gave rise to hoots in the Red Sox clubhouse Saturday, Ortiz felt he needed to stand up for the oft-maligned Pierzynski. ''When you get hit, when you get in contact with somebody, you kind of lose it for a minute," Ortiz said. ''He's a talker, but he's not one guy that's gonna do anything about it. He's not a bad person. He's just a [trash] talker. I remember at one point I was struggling really bad with the Twins. I'm sitting at my locker after this one game, all [screwed] up, and A.J. was the guy that came right at me and told me, 'Hey dude, hang in there. Hang tight. Sometimes things [don't] work the way we expect them to work, but hang in there, man. Nothing you can do, you're trying.' A.J. Pierzynski, you know what I mean. I look to the side, and the guy that [people] want to kill is talking to me like that. That tells you he's not what he seems like."

by DrCrawdad on May 23, 2006 7:40 AM CDT 0 recs

I've got Mariotti as the "pure evil" one

Perhaps I should've entitled it "AJ Pierzynski vs. Jay Mariotti: Evil versus Pure Evil, respectively".

...right downtown and PRINT IT!!!

by CliffX on May 23, 2006 8:49 AM CDT up 0 recs

Thanks

for calling me out on the AJP thing--especially when there were about 500 people here and around MLB who said the exact same thing I did.

"Aw, how could he lose the ball in the sun, he's from Mexico!"--Harry Caray

by cubbiejulie on May 23, 2006 9:17 AM CDT 0 recs

Can't you see

Julie, you're the evil one. Not AJ nor Mariotti. You evil Cubs fan. How dare you root against the White Sox...or hope to see AJ get punched in the face. What a horrible person you are.

I'm being completely sarcastic of course Julie, don't let any self-righteous Sox fan get to you.

Crawdad is always here trying to prove that Cubs fans hate White Sox fans and the White Sox just the way that we claim they hate us. Well, I for one will tell you, I absolutely hate the White Sox and I hate everything about them. I own more than one Sox Suck shirt. I would be extremely happy to see them lose 162 games. Don't care who knows it either.

by Slaky311 on May 23, 2006 12:40 PM CDT up 0 recs

No denial for you...

And that's good. Be candid about your Sox hate.

by DrCrawdad on May 23, 2006 12:44 PM CDT up 0 recs

Why not?

I think a lot of people would feel better if they did the same. It doesn't mean I'm going to go out of my way to piss off Sox fans or start fights though. I have Sox fan friends, like everyone else.

by Slaky311 on May 23, 2006 10:21 PM CDT up 0 recs

I hear you...

I've had Cub fan friends my whole life. In fact, a guy I grew up with, who lived across the street from me, and who was a HUGE Cub fan died a short time ago. When we were growing up we kidded each other about our respective teams, "Our team doesn't suck as much as yours..." but it NEVER got near to the point of fighting or even having mean-spirited arguments.

My brother is also a HUGE Sox fan, and despises the Cubs. My brother had of course never worn a stitch of Cubbie stuff. He broke with that "tradition" (for lack of a better word at the moment) got a Cub jersey from another friend and wore it to our Cub fan friend's wake.

Our friend was a great guy and way too young to die.

I got this message from my friend a few months before he died:

"Hey thanks for the invite but I probably won't be able to make it ... go go White Sox (I) want to see them win the world series because it might be the only time I might see one of our teams do anything exciting."

He did live to see the Sox win the World Series. I wish that he could have lived to see a Cubs World Series Championship.

Sorry for the tangent. Just was thinking a bit of my friend tonight.

Best wishes,
DrC

by DrCrawdad on May 23, 2006 11:08 PM CDT up 0 recs

re

While I would agree that AJ did not deserve to get cold-cocked, and that Z is not exactly "stable", I don't understand how you can possibly defend a jerk like Pierzynski. The guy is almose universally hated throughout baseball, and his teammates cheer when he leaves a team. There are numerous documented incidents of AJ being a world-class idiot, including kneeing a trainer in the junk for no good reason. the story can be found at http://sporlitics.blogspot.com/2006/05/thank-you-michael-barrett.html
And comparing AJ Pierzynski to Michael Jordan is laughable. He did not deserve to be attacked, but don't be an AJ apologist just because he is on your favorite team.

by billswersky on May 23, 2006 10:54 AM CDT 0 recs

Sure, AJ is irritating...

but a cancer? C'mon, do you really believe Brett Tomko on this?

Living in Minneapolis and being a Sox fan means I've seen AJ play a lot over the years, and he sure can get under people's skin, but I think a great deal of evidence exists against him being considered a cancer.

AJ became the Twins' starting catcher in 2001. In 2001, the Twins (coincidentially, I'm sure) posted their first winning record since 1992. In 2002, the Twins won their first division championship since 1991 and, in Game 5 of the ALDS, AJ hit the homer that lifted the Twins over the Athletics.

His one year in SF (and wouldn't the Giants like to have that trade back) was a bad one all the way around. After the Sox signed AJ, the Giants' trainer, Stan Conte, said that AJ kneed him in the groin, on the field, during a Spring Training game. Interestingly, none of the Giants' beat reporters ever reported that incident.

In 2005, AJ signed with the Sox, and they won, well, I won't open any wounds here. But, to me, that looks more like the early career of a winning ballplayer than a "cancer".

Oh well, I can't wait until Round Two at Wrigley.

by Mplssoxfan on May 23, 2006 4:02 PM CDT 0 recs