The latest mailbag entry from Tim Cook :
“Perhaps tired of writing on topics as diverse as “Putz has Hyperextended Elbow,” “Putz to DL, Mediocre long reliever recalled,” “Mariners are as batting as badly with runners on as off,” and “R.A. Dickey to Start tonight vs Nationals,” the Seattle Times’ Mariners beat writer Geoff Baker writes at length appearing on a Canadian sports chat show with the “impressive” John Rocker :
Having sat and listened to an unscripted Rocker the other day for just a few minutes, I can see how he got himself into trouble. He is, as I said, a funny guy. Always looking for the next one-liner. He said too many of the wrong one-liners to Pearlman and got himself in serious trouble. As I mentioned yesterday on the Rick Sutcliffe thing, you just can’t mess around when you’re saying things for public consumption. If you do, then you need some serious guidance from a professional on this matter. There’s a difference between being yourself and being the kind of yourself you would be with a close friend of 30 years, especially when a reporter is involved. I give interviews all the time and trust me, I don’t relax and let it all out. I relax to a certain extent. But I don’t joke around with reporters to the point where it could get me in trouble. You can’t. You have a responsibility to your employer and to the public at-large when you give an interview. Rocker forgot about that when he spoke to Pearlman. As smart a guy as he is, he made a mistake.
Adds Tim, “elsewhere in Mariner news, the 2008 Seattle Mariners’ highlight film Salo is to be issued by the Criterion Collection in August, hopefully in time for the non-waiver trade deadline.”