1-Man’s Opinion on Sports-Wednesday “Tatis-No Longer El Nino”
‘Tatis-No Longer El Nino’
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He was humbled.
He was hurt and hurting.
He used the word ‘sorry’ 4-times in just under 2-minutes
He used the words ‘I failed’-5 times in a 30-second span.
And so Fernando Tatis has begun paying a steep price for all the bad decisions he has made in the last couple of years.
His exile from the Padres is now underway, after a weekend ot tough love conversations, not with his father Fernando Tatis-Senior-his enabler, but with his employers, owner Peter Seidler and GM-AJ Preller.
He was told he would have immediate surgery on the chronic dislocation problems with his left shoulder.
He was told he would stay in San Diego and do all the rehab here under view of the Padres doctors-trainers, not back in the Dominican Republic, home of Voodoo physicians and black market drugs.
He apologized to his teammates in early afternoon, the same roster of players struggling to stay in the playoff race, while the highly paid shortstop was riding motorcycles, getting hurt, and getting haircuts and infections he treated with a steroid.
Tatis said he will earn the respect back of those in the clubhouse. Manny Machado called America a ‘forgiving country’.
But the reaction from at least 8-teammates was pretty hostile since this news broke two weeks ago.
If this team fails to make the playoffs, the catastrophic collapse will be placed in part at his front door, or next to his Bentley, or the Harley Davidson he rode.
The surgery means 6-months of rehab, but still allows him to rehab and get ready for spring training. The suspension carries over to the start of next season, meaning May 1st might be the target date he could rejoin the team.
The rage towards the maturity, honesty, lack of responsibility and stupidity of Tatis has been strong, from within the team, to the fans, to some of the media.
Rightfully so.
He spoke extensively about the need to regain trust. That’s going to take alot of time and alot of work. He admits that, knows that and will have to work towards that.
His dream has turned into a nightmare. Tough crap. Don’t want to hear any sad sack comments, he brought all this on himself.
He betrayed the benevolence of his owner; betrayed the GM-who gave him a contract he has yet to show he can handle. He betrayed the fans who have poured into Petco Park to see his talents.
He also created additional questions about how he got so good so fast, was that steroid related in the past?
He took the steroid Clostebol-something you cannot buy in the US, but can be bought on street corners in the Dominican. He may have tested positive in July, but did he sneak thru other testing, as a young minor leaguer became a 42-home run hitter just like that-overnight?
If the Padres fail to make the playoffs, this collapse will be worse than last year’s (12-36) failure, and this town might not be so forgiving.
He says a ‘whole new story begins today’.
Only time will tell going forward. Cannot forget this episode, not ready to forgive him yet.
El Nino has been downgraded to a tropical storm, leaving a mess behind.
His actions going forward must speak more than the words he spoke in the Padres dugout on Tuesday.
If you are keeping score at home, Tatis gets an ‘E’….biggest error of his career for some very egregious personal decisions.
The Padres deserve better, so does this baseball community of rabid fans.
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When MLB let the cheating Astros players get away with stealing a World Series, the message sent is we don’t care about the rules. Tatis is only worried about his paycheck, not his integrity as a reflection of MLB.