Bill Plaschke started to make me really, really angry two years ago when he embarked on his crusade to remove Paul DePodesta as G.M. of the Dodgers. In particular, he made a lot of noise about how horrible the Encarnacion/Mota/LoDuca trade was. He eventually won, with the McCourts giving in to the L.A. Times' pressure and sacking Google Boy. Despite the fact that he has never offered any concrete evidence to support his ideas, Plaschke continues to attempt to create/support the Legend of the Good Olde-Tyme Baseball Man. Wednesday's article in the L.A. Times goes well beyond the simple art of ignoring evidence, into the realm of propaganda. Or, as I like to call it, lying. In the article, Plaschke claims that "old scout" Al LaMacchia discovered "an unknown double-A outfielder named Andre Ethier" in the Oakland A's minor leagues. There are two possibilities here:
1. Bill Plaschke is a gigantic ignoramus and didn't know--and believed that the Dodger front office didn't know--that Ethier was the A's minor league player of the year and MVP of the Texas League last year, or
2. Bill Plaschke is a dishonest liar who doesn't tell the truth and who is violating one of the core tenets of journalism by intentionally misleading the readers of the L.A. Times so that his story has more impact, and his agenda is served.
Considering that the very first thing that I ever read about Andre Ethier was the fact that he was the Texas League's MVP last year, I'm going with option number 2. This, by the way, in no way precludes me from thinking that Bill Plaschke is a gigantic ignoramus. I think that Bill Plaschke is a gigantic ignoramus.
Rather than go through the sappy article line-by-line, allow me to refer you to a send-up of the article by Ken Tremendous at Fire Joe Morgan dot com. I think he does an excellent job, except for the parts where he mistakenly demeans the Dodgers/NL West. Ken, the Dodgers would be just a half-game behind the Cardinals in the NL Central, and that ignores the fact that members of the NL Central get to play stiffs like the Pirates and Cubs a lot due to the unbalanced schedule. Every team in the NL West is still in the wild card hunt, despite having a schedule full of teams in the wild card hunt. Anyway, the article really is funny.
I used to like to laugh at Plaschke's articles, too, until the McCourts started responding to his pressure. I'm sure Mr. LaMacchia is an excellent scout, and it seems like he has a special relationship with Andre. That's great, and it doesn't need embellishment like claiming that he had "Dodgers executives staring at him in amazement" as he extolled Ethier's virtues. I'm sure his opinion influenced Colletti, and they both deserve a lot of credit for making a good choice. As a Dodger fan, I'm grateful. Why can't Bill just stick to the truth, like complaining about the slothful service in the food lines?