Who's giving you a rash this week? Overpaid player? Underhanded agent? Obnoxious team owner? Some other sports wretch? Well, take your best shot. Sign your name, if you dare.
Just remember, Ray Buck, CBS SportsLine national columnist, has the last word. E-mail your comments to: rbuck@sportsline.com
E-mails over cocktails ... while wondering if Bobby Valentine -- if his name really is Bobby Valentine -- can be just a little more phony.
"DESPITE MY OBSESSIVE Mets fandom, I don't have any major problems with your Bobby Valentine article. But when you attack Valentine for calling a reporter's suggestion that sending righty Mel Rojas out against lefty Paul O'Neill was a 'stupid' move (because it went against the book), that's where I draw the line.
"Sending Mel Rojas to the mound in any situation is always a stupid move. But it's never stupid because he's right-handed.
"Baseball's obsession with lefty-righty matchups is downright ridiculous. Criticize Valentine if you must. Personally, I'll take him over any manager the Mets have had since Davey Johnson, but don't go the lefty-righty route. Now that's stupid."
(signed) Stephen Tiszenkel
BUCKSHOT: So you say Bobby Valentine is a better manager than Bud Harrelson, Mike Cubbage, Jeff Torborg and a sixtysomething Dallas Green. Big deal!
"VALENTINE IS A GOOD MANAGER who has done things with this team that many other managers may not have been able to do. Just look at the damn outfield! A combined .230 with 11 home runs? I think that the Mets have done a good job to stay above .500 with most, if not all of their hitters having sub-par years.
"To conclude, what does it say about an author who whines about a whiner?"
(signed) Jeffrey S. Swiatowicz
BUCKSHOT: I give up ... observant?
"YOU GOT HIM RIGHT. Hope he read your report and thoughts. He will love it!"
(signed) Bill Lawler
BUCKSHOT: Fat chance. I'm afraid Bobby V's skin is too thin for that.
"I JUST READ WITH SOME amusement your article on Bobby Valentine. Let me say up front that I have been a Texas Ranger fan for years -- both before and after Valentine's reign."
"He didn't make many friends in the Lone Star State while he was there. Many players, after being traded or released, ripped him in the media. I remember reading some of the comments and thinking that maybe it was just sour grapes from the players. Then there were more and more players joining in - especially after he was finally fired.
"It makes me ill to watch him on TV last Sunday putting on a happy face when I know full well how he really is. Apparently you know how he is, too."
(signed) Greg Fulton
BUCKSHOT: Valentine always has a career in politics, if he so desires.
"YOU ARE SOOOO CORRECT!
"I have seen every athlete and coach/manager in New York over the last 25 years, and most of them survive by one rule -- DON'T FIGHT THE MEDIA!!! New York is a town that loves winners, or if not (winners), nice guys.
"Don Mattingly never won, but he is loved eternally because he played hard and didn't whine. Jeff Van Gundy is criticized, but generally is liked. Valentine likes to think he is smarter than everyone, but has he won anything? Not even a playoff trip!
"Granted, he has much less talent than the Yankees, but he must stop trying to fight for attention. Unless, of course, this is all a calculated scheme to turn the organization against him, so he can rejoin his buddy Lasorda (and take Piazza back) next year."
(signed) Jonathan Goldberg
BUCKSHOT: What? A shrewd schemer on top of it all?
"NEW YORK IS THE CITY of idiots! Bobby fits right in with all the other 'doofuses' that grace our fair Liberty metropolis -- from 'Jungle' Jeff Van Gundy to 'Tuna Fish' Parcells. 'Iron Fist' Mike Keenan (a Scotty Bowman wannabe) to Mike 'I do not have a clue what a NHL coaching staff is' Milbury.
"From Neil 'Super Doofus' O'Donnell to 'My Cousin' Vinny Testaverde. From Larry 'Aunt Esther' Johnson to Alonzo 'Christy' Mourning (I know 'Zo plays in Miami, but his coach used to be an idiot in NYC, too. No offense to Christy Martin, however.).
"This city is so wrapped up in winning, they are paranoid about mistakes."
(signed) Elwood J. Harris, Jr.
BUCKSHOT: Paranoid ... now there's an adjective that fits our favorite Valentine.
"WHAT, THE METS IN the World Series? I wouldn't count on it.
"Now, take the World Champion Florida Marlins ... please ... there's a world champion team for ya.
"If they could just double their winning percentage, they'd only be about 40 (percentage) points behind the Yankees. Why, only the Diamondbacks can make a claim like that. The way things stand now, Bobby Valentine just might have to replace that National League wild card team, like it or not!
(signed) Gary Peters
BUCKSHOT: To me, the NL wild card is the Mets to lose.
"DONT YOU GUYS have anything else better to do than pick on Bobby Valentine?
"When Piazza starts hitting for power -- and he will -- and Hundley returns, he may shut you up. Why don't you pick on (Joe) Torre for losing a game. After all, that's not acceptable for Yankee tradition."
(signed) Mike the Met
BUCKSHOT: Hey, we get on Torre. But only when he deserves it, like I remember once last year...
"WHY THE PUFF PIECE on Bobby? This guy makes Stalin look like Mother Theresa.
"John Lovitz had a character that could have been modeled on this self promoting fake. He was called 'The Liar.'
"I have been a Met fan since the start. Once we had a manager named Gil Hodges. He was a man of grace and dignity. He was also a man who commanded respect. I know we might not have a manager like him again, but must we suffer this?"
(signed) Joe Donohue
BUCKSHOT: Sorry, I was soft on Bobby V. But I had a date last night. Yeah, that's right ... a date with Morgan Fairchild.
"YOU ARE A DILUTED two-bit reporter.
"Look Ray Buck If you think Bobby Valentine is such a bad manager, why has he turned a complete 360 on the Mets franchise? This is a team that has not had back-to-back winning seasons since the late 80s early 90s. The man has instilled a brand of baseball that has the Mets competing for a wild card.
"The Mets have the best starting pitching in all of baseball and the best defense behind that pitching. Granted, they are not an offensive juggernaut, but that will change when Hundley provides some protection for Piazza.
"Valentine goes with the guy that gets left-handers out best and the guy hits a home run and now Valentine is a jackass. So, back off Buck. Go drool over a cut-and-paste team like the Yankees, and we'll see who's on top in October.
(signed) Eddie Gonzalez >
BUCKSHOT: I'm still trying to figure out why you're so giddy over Valentine's ability to take over your sorry team two years ago ... and turn it around 360 degrees.
"BEFORE BOBBY VALENTINE, the Mets were losers. With Bobby Valentine, the Mets are winners.
"Let the man manage the team and quit the psychoanalysis."
(signed) Jim Wrynn
BUCKSHOT: Before this column, Bobby Valentine was thin-skinned and paranoid. After this column, Bobby Valentine is thin-skinned and paranoid. End of session.
"GEEZ, BOBBY SAYS 20 WORDS about it, then you (and the Post, the News and he Fan) say about 10 thousand. Sports reporting just gets more and more boooooooooooring."
(signed) Phil Kline
BUCKSHOT: Sorry we disturbed you. Go back to sleep.
"I DIDN'T EXPECT THE METS to sweep or even win the series against the Yankees. The Yankees are the best team in baseball, and the Mets are struggling for a wild-card spot.
"Valentine is such an easy target for the press. I wonder why you guys don't challenge yourselves and pick on someone else. I honestly become upset when the Mets lose. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna bitch about it to everyone I talk to.
"I can understand Valentine being thin-skinned. How is he different (than anyone else)? Just because he's a little more touchy, or isn't as funny as Casey Stengel? It's easy to hate the press when all they do is put negative thoughts in your head when you lose. I'm starting to hate the press, too.
"What good does it do to spread the negativism? To me, that's not a true fan. A true fan, like in a marriage, will stand by the team, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer. That's a fan.
"Bobby stands by his convictions, and I respect him for that. If you're going to criticize the Mets, criticize them as a team. There's no reason to single people out and say that they're the reason the team isn't successful. It's bad for the person, and the team as a whole.
"I like Bobby, and I love the Mets. You obviously don't like him, or love the Mets. Maybe you should just be a Yankee fan, or only be a fan of those teams that win all the time (i.e., a fair weather friend). Of course, then you wouldn't have anything to complain about, and then you'd feel as small as the people your trying to belittle. Sucks to be you."
(signed) Kevin P. Connell, information specialist, Albany, N.Y.
BUCKSHOT: Thanks for the e-mail, Kevin. Actually, I read it twice. By the second time, I was able to stop laughing.
"I DIDN'T LIKE THE TONE of the remarks about Bobby Valentine. Combing his life for errors and detractors doesn't seem quite fair. Would 'Buck' bear up under such scrutiny?
"As for losing the series to the Yankees, that was to be expected. The Yankees have a lot more talent. In fact, the one really valid criticism of Valentine is that he was silly (and unwise) to belittle his opponents. It might have been a breath of fresh air, but he did lose the series.
"Overall, I just thought 'Buck' sounded too much like a good, old-fashioned sportswriter. It's depressingly common for members of the press to project their own resentment of criticism onto anyone who challenges them."
(signed) Greg Hutchinson
BUCKSHOT: Opinion never goes out of style with a columnist, Greg. Now I'll go real slow with this ... 'Buck' writes a column.
"RAY, YOU COULDN'T be any more accurate. The best thing that ever happened to my Texas Rangers is that Bobby Valentine got rode out of town.
"Too bad for the Big Apple, and sorry for the Dodgers if Lasorda is dumb enough to hire him there."
(signed) Al Yarrish
BUCKSHOT: The Dallas media grew to loathe Valentine -- and vice-versa. In Texas, they prefer straight shooters.
"IF YOU THINK VALENTINE is a whiner, wait 'til you New Yorkers get a load of Piazza!"
(signed) Tom Mauer
BUCKSHOT: No wonder this is the city that never sleeps. Too much whining.
"THE BIGGEST WHINER in sports is obviously Jim Thome of the Cleveland Indians.
"I heard after he won the starting spot on the American League All-Star team, he went crying to his mom because her lasagna tastes like dog crap."
(signed) Dwight A. Powell, BUCKSHOT: Momma Thome did ask for a recount.
"HOW ABOUT THE U.S. soccer team? Blame everyone but themselves."
(signed) James A. Saloka
BUCKSHOT: We considered it, James. But we've decided to limit the Whine Cellar to competitive athletics only.