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:
