Dropped Third Strike

The baseball universe seems to be conspiring against our desire to post often and vigorously throughout the weekend, providing little of interest and little worthy of comment. With the important and interesting side of baseball lacking in compelling stories, we’re forced to turn to the petty and ridiculous side. With that, we present Adam Dunn, 4-year old. As many of you may know, Toronto Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi stuck his foot in his mouth on his radio program last Wednesday, saying of Dunn:

“Let me ask you something. What do you know about Adam Dunn? He’s a lifetime .230, .240 hitter that strikes out a ton and hits home runs.

“Do you know that the guy really doesn’t like baseball all that much? Do you know the guy doesn’t have a passion to play the game that much?”

Ricciardi, rightly, found himself on the receiving end of a fair bit of flack for this particularly unscientific piece of baseball “wisdom.” Dunn, after all, does possess a 130 career OPS+ (and a 130 OPS+ so far this season) so whether he has a child’s love of the game or not, he’s far more productive than, say: Vernon Wells, Lyle Overbay, Alex Rios, Matt Stairs, Scott Rolen, and yes, you guessed it, every single one of the Blue Jays’ players. But to his credit, Ricciardi issued a heartfelt and profuse apology, saying,

It’s my fault. I take full responsibility for it. I tried to get Adam’s phone number from the Reds … and if he wants to talk to me, I’ll talk to him and apologize personally. But I apologize to him and the Reds. I need to be better than that. I let my guard down.”

Certainly one of the best apologies you’ll see anywhere in sports. He admitted he overstepped the line, admitted he had no one to blame but himself, apologized publicly, apologized privately, and will likely try to apologize face-to-face. What did the wronged Dunn have to say in response to this gracious apology?

Sorry doesn’t fix it.”

Sorry doesn’t fix it? What? Did J.P. give you a boo-boo Adam? Did he steal your bike? It’s sad really; in a rare instance of a sports figure acting like an adult, J.P. Ricciardi accepted full responsibility for a stupid remark. And in response we saw a much much much more common occurrence: a sports figure acting like a spoiled child.