Look, I don’t have anything against Michael Young. Fine player. For all I know he’s a nice guy. But the level of adoration he gets from the baseball press has always vexed me.
It’s been some time since he was the best player on his team, yet he is treated as though he is. He has been involved in the sorts of little clubhouse and front office controversies that get most players branded “difficult,” yet they instantly become part of his legend, with Young “putting such adversity behind him” despite the fact that he created the adversity in the first place. Again, this doesn’t make him a bad guy. He’s human just like anyone else. But why he gets such great press when no one else who has performed, who has behaved or who has been paid like him gets the same treatment is beyond me.
He’s back in the World Series and the Michael Young love-fest begins anew. Danny Knobler of CBS Sports.com had a feature on him over the weekend. There’s another in the New York Times today. I’m guessing we’ll see many more in the coming days. I’m assuming we’ll see more stories about Young than we will about Adrian Beltre, Mike Napoli and the rest of the Rangers roster combined.
