A TALE OF 2 CITIES--CLEVELAND VS NEW YORK

To Mr. Cashman and others in the Yankee organization:

• With all due respect, you allow unelected and unvetted individuals to define the discourse about you and your team. I refer to baseball media. The biggest baseball drug scandal in 2007 emerged at the ALCS with Paul Byrd AND NO ONE TALKS ABOUT IT. Cleveland baseball writer Terry Pluto said no one in Cleveland cares about the issue (interview on SportsMediaGuide.com 1/08).

A separate question is what would it get a baseball writer to bash the Indians? Would anyone at MLB be jubilant about that? Would it increase a baseball writer's chance of moving up in the hierarchy, of being named to one of the Hall of Fame committees? Would it get him more work at ESPN? The answer to all of these is no.

• The delivery of the so-called Mitchell report was another example that the Yankees will not fight back, are easy pickings for those seeking fame and fortune. It was not a report about baseball, just a xerox of work already accomplished by a different investigation on 2 NY area guys, yet MLB/baseball media gave it huge pomp and circumstance. You should have loudly protested this.

Worse, you sent Randy Levine to Mitchell's DC TV appearance to "support" him.

• Paul Byrd's unlicensed dentist and his $25,000 HGH purchases were mentioned, but his name was allowed to be delivered more creatively by ESPN employees, which helped his team lose the ALCS but allowed the Indians to escape the big "Mitchell" unveiling. And you said nothing.

• Why the difference in New York?

The difference, Mr. Cashman and other Yankees, is YOU. BY ACKNOWLEDGING ANY PART OF, FOR EXAMPLE, WHAT'S BEING SAID ABOUT ANDY PETTITTE, YOU GIVE BASEBALL MEDIA ENCOURAGEMENT TO DAMAGE YOUR TEAM AND YOUR PLAYERS FURTHER. MORE LIES AND DISTORTIONS WHICH COULD EASILY BE STOPPED.

• BOSTON AND NY BASEBALL WRITERS HONORED CLEVELAND INDIANS' GM AND MANAGER LAST MONTH WITH THEIR ANNUAL AWARD FOR BEST BASEBALL EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR & BEST MANAGER OF THE YEAR.

• CAN YOU SEE THE MEDIA GIVING YOU THAT AWARD FOR HAVING THE BIGGEST CHEATER IN BASEBALL AS THE INDIANS DID? HARDLY.

• NO MEMBER OF THE YANKEE ORGANIZATION SHOULD ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS FROM THE MEDIA ABOUT THIS ISSUE.
• WHY WOULD ANY PLAYER WANT TO COME TO THE YANKEES? YOU'RE JUST PATSIES FOR THE MEDIA WHO ARE ONLY INTERESTED IN PROMOTING THEMSELVES.
• TAKE NOTE OF TERRY PLUTO'S RECENT EXPERIENCE--NO ONE IN CLEVELAND HAS HAD TO PUT UP WITH THIS EXPLOITATION FOR PROFIT.
• BECAUSE OF A MEDIA CREATION,
• IE. ISSUES AND FACTS INVENTED AND SOLD 24/7.

• Per Terry Pluto, 1/8/08 in Sports Media Guide interview, on the media circus with Paul Byrd's outing at Fenway Park, his reported $25,000 spent on HGH:

"I wrote a lot of steroid columns and nobody cared. Even my last column off the Mitchell Report - I said Bud Selig should go after players where there is a clear paper trail -

• "I got maybe a dozen e-mails, which is hardly anything. They were six and six down the middle.

• I think sports fans just don't care....

• Sport is soap opera for males...."

Q. Does that make you an entertainment writer?

• A. Sure. You want to get it right, but c'mon. I ain't covering the city council meeting, and I ain't writing about crime in the streets."

Reference: SportsMediaGuide.com Interview with Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, 1/8/08 (SMG thanks Terry Pluto for his cooperation)" (SportsMediaGuide.com now requires signing in and password).

• P.S. Since I have no interest in working at MLB/ESPN, I'm free to note things which others consider politically incorrect. (sm)

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