Bread and Circuses

Brett Myers is the Phillies relief pitcher who was arrested in 2006 for striking his wife in the face and pulling her hair after they got in an argument while leaving a bar.

Why do I bring this up two years later?

Because of Myers behavior after the incident, and because the Phillies organization has never really dealt with, or even acknowledged it. Their statements after his arrest, to a man, involved concern for Myers. Nobody seemed particularly distressed by the cowardly, unmanly nature of what Myers had done. Least of all Myers.

How do you follow up hitting a woman on a public street? In 2007 Myers found a way, responding to a reporter’s question by calling the man a "f—ing retard". Myers, who apparently limits his bravado to women and much older men, had to be restrained from physically confronting the reporter.

Once again, the Phillies did nothing.

Myers has now, with the Phillies cooperation, recast himself as a merry prankster. With the cooperation of the team’s Manager and GM (there is something more than a bit ironic in that) he was part of a practical joke that involved telling a young pitcher he had been traded to Japan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPB9IglzxG8

This was widely hailed as being hilarious, and maybe it would have been amusing if it had prompted any response at all from Kyle Kendrick. But Kendrick said little or nothing, which didn’t keep Myers from responding as if he closed out the 9th inning of the World Series. "You’ve been punked!" shouted Myers.

He got that right.

Jimmy Rollins is the star of the Phillies and Brett Myers a useful, but replaceable, part. Not to hear Myers tell it. In an article on Rollins in yesterday’s "New York Times" Myers came up with this classic quote:

“It’s not an individual game. It took all of us to win. It took all of us to make him the M.V.P.”

Let’s see. Rollins batting .296 with 30 HR and 94 RBI, stole 41 bases, scored 139 runs, and turned 110 double plays. And he was MVP because of Brett Myers contributions, which included going 5-7 with a 4.33 ERA? I’m not seeing it.

Myers even took retroactive credit for Rollins prediction of a Phillies division title last year. “Some guys’ personalities are not going to come out and
try to tick people off and say, ‘Hey were the team to beat.’ But we
stood behind him because we felt like we were the team to beat. He said
it, but we believed it.”

OK. Myers is the soul of discretion and Rollins is just lucky he had a pitcher with a lifetime 4.34 ERA backing him up. Good thing for him the great Brett Myers bought into the program.

Bottom line. People make mistakes. Myers made one in 2006 and is lucky his wife didn’t press charges. Some people would take that second chance and do something with it. Brett Myers appears to have taken the Phillies non-response to that incident and the one last year with a reporter to crown himself as some sort of oracle whose opinions have some value.

They don’t.

It’s time for the Philadelphia Phillies to explain that $5 million a season gives them some rights. And one of those is NOT to have to listen to Brett Myers. Not now, not in 2009, not in 2010, and not until he grows up.

It could be a long wait.

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