The source of such distraction was the Boston Red Sox. More specifically, it was the closer for the Boston nine, Mr. Jonathan Papelbon, giving his rather frank and unvarnished opinion of his former teammate, the esteemed Manny Ramirez, to Esquire magazine. And by "rather frank and unvarnished," I mean that Papelbon absolutely flamed Manny, calling him a cancer, and a quitter, and quite possibly making fun of the way he dresses as well.
So, in the grand tradition of honoring those who do great things, either for good or ill, in the world of baseball, here is a card for Papelbon.
Our baseball card this week is a 2008 Jonathan Papelbon Opening Day special edition by Topps. Kind of a blah card, really, but hey, you takes what you can gets.
I'm not going to beat around the bush on this one: I don't particularly like Jonathan Papelbon. Honestly, a fairly big portion of my disdain for him is probably just that he plays for the Boston Red Sox, of whom I am not much of a fan anyway, but I also don't much care for him personally, either. I've never been a fan of the loudmouth athlete, the guy who just doesn't know when to shut the fuck up. Then again, I also have to admit, I'm the first one to check out whatever those guys have to say, so maybe I actually secretly do like them and just don't realize it. (Or don't want to admit it.)
So just for fun, in addition to the Esquire piece, let's have a peek at some video of Papelbon last summer, talking again about -- what else -- Manny Ramirez, shall we? (Well, technically, he's talking about a bunch of different things, but the interesting Manny stuff is right toward the end.) You know, the kid may be crazier than a shithouse rat, but you've got to give him this: he certainly has balls.
