My Spat With A Minor (Single-A) Celebrity

Pete Abraham is a troll, both in social media and in appearance.

I’ll admit I have enjoyed reading his “Extra Bases” blog on boston.com as he provides some good insight on the Red Sox and his summaries offer quick notes before each game.  However, there are times when Mr. Abraham has taken an attitude that chaps my ass and affects my overall opinion of him.

Here is the anatomy of these Pete Abraham posts:

Pete:  *Offers a series of stats that puts the team or a player in a bad light* 

Victim:  “Well, the team should do (X).” 

Pete:  “You’re stupid.  Look at these other facts I did not include in my original post, yet seem to have handy after you posted your silly response.” 

Victim:  “I’m not stupid.  You’re a hack!” 

Pete:  “No.  You are.”

The conversation starts to devolve from there; and woe onto those who use the improper version of ‘you’re.’

I had been annoyed when witnessing these baiting tactics, but my ass-chapping reached its zenith when I fell victim to them; hence the ease with which I made my earlier ad hominem attack.  In early August, Pete had tweeted where in the batting order Boston first baseman Mike Napoli had typically hit.  He ended the tweet saying the team was being patient with him.  I used this as an opportunity to ask if he felt Napoli would break Mark Bellhorn’s regular season team record for strikeouts.  Below is the exchange.

Now, I might be overly sensitive, but I felt Pete’s attitude was very dismissive; and he may have thought the view was “senseless,” but he used the word in an exchange with me, so I took it personally.  I probably didn’t use the best of baseball logic, considering I borrowed the “strikeout is the most unproductive of outs” from Tim McCarver, but if you dig through enough of his dirt, you can find some gems.  At any rate, Pete seemed uninterested in discussing Napoli’s strikeout total, until less than a week later he made this tweet:

WTF, Dude?!

I continued to follow Pete on Twitter, making comments on various tweets, including a link to an article he wrote that read like an apologist’s statement for John Lackey.  Contrary to Napoli, I find very little to like about Lackey.   I had no further engagement with Pete until Game 3 of the ALCS last week.

Again, perhaps I’m being overly sensitive, but doesn’t his response seem kind of douchey?  “Ask a baseball fan?”  The assumption being I’m not one, or don’t pour over stats to compare WARs, VORPs, GLOPs, and GLEEPs, thereby making my opinion worthless?  Sorry, I enjoy the game between the lines and then find something to do afterwards.  I wasn’t the only one to respond to his tweet about how often Napoli has struck out in the Postseason, and the exchanges support my earlier statement of Pete Abraham being a troll.

Then I noticed one of the responders was Justin Napoli.  I don’t know if he is truly a relation to Mike, but I couldn’t resist the joke.  After Napoli hit a home run for the only run in the game, the commenter continued in the same vein.  My response was more of a commentary on the fickleness of fans, myself included, but Pete took the opportunity to savage me again.

I didn’t say I forgave Napoli his past sins.  It was just one home run and there was no indication it would be enough to win the game, although it turned out to be.  The fact remained Napoli had struck out 10 times during the Postseason and homered only once in the ALCS up to that point.  The Red Sox needed a lot more production from him, and others (Drew), in order to make it to the World Series.  Now that they’ve made it, here’s hoping Napoli finds that swing again and Pete Abraham continues to be an asshole.