Nick Piccone
Raise your hand if you’re surprised.
Now a Texas Ranger, Jake Diekman has pitched in 37 games this season and has a pretty good 2.90 ERA to go along with it. Diekman was often a good bridge to Jonathan Papelbon when those guys both shared the mound, but he ran into trouble at times like pitchers often do. And a good look at his mentions on Twitter (@JakeDiekman) while he was with the Phillies would probably not surprise you after hearing him say this to Rickie Ricardo on WIP last night.
I feel like it’s like a different feel for a different part of the country. I feel like they realize it’s a marathon not a sprint, so if you have a rough game they don’t send you death threats on Twitter.”
Ah, good ol’ baseball heaven in Texas, eh? I know that Diekman knows the blowback he’d receive for his comments, so I’m not gonna light into him right now. It’s probably worthless at this point. He’s not even a Phillie. If Diekman only was with the big club from 2007-2011 he’d realize that we, in fact, do realize it’s a marathon. Most of us, anyway. He just had the unfortunate circumstance of playing for the big club when the Phillies were bad. As in, not good. And that’s when creeps come out of the woodwork.
But that doesn’t excuse the morons who do send death threats to professional athletes. And yes, it happens here all the time. So next time a Philly athlete screws up, maybe a tweet saying, “You suck!” will suffice. That’s much less threatening. And a lot less lame.
Sometimes you have to tip your hat to the hitter and vice-versa. Professional sports are very pressure intensive and any Athlete worth his weight doesn’t go out to try and stink up the place. The fan who is quick to judge and expects a great performance because of what a player makes financially is totally clueless ! Most major cities have a huge fan backing and the word ” fanatic ” is what Philly fans are and very knowledgeable but for all intent and purposes please cut the players some slack. If it was easy every one would be capable of doing it and that’s not the case !!