Well, that didn't take long. A few unanswered questions and tense moments in the locker room, and Gary Matthews -- he of the $50 million contract and HGH suspicions -- went and pissed off T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times:Matthews, now occupying Darin Erstad's locker, which is a disgrace when you consider what a stand-up guy Erstad was here, begged Modesti to ask a question after I said, "Do you think you have to earn the fans' respect here after being Mr. HGH" this spring?As you can imagine, none of this went over well with Simers; he proceed to rip Matthews and the Angels organization for another 20 paragraphs or so. As much as I appreciate his desire to be every bit the tough journalist his first metro editor knew he could be, the column comes off more petulant and bitter than it does measured and informed.
...I asked Matthews whether he was familiar with Ryan Leaf, since Matthews reminded me of the punk, and got nothing. I asked him whether the questions were too tough, and got nothing. Now he began to remind me of Mike Garrett.
He told Jenkins, "Growing up in this game helps me deal with things," and so I said, "Didn't growing up in this game help you to deal with tough questions?"
"I've got nothing to say to you; you started off on the wrong foot," said Matthews, who signed a $50-million contract to spend the next five years filling up Page 2. "Maybe next time you will start off on the right foot."
Don't get me wrong: Simers has the moral high ground here, and has every right to ask the needling questions Matthews doesn't like, just as Matthews has the right to decline questions without taking a verbal beating for it. Still, when you write a column like you're a teenage girl composing a "Burn Book," well, you don't exactly state your case well.
I mean, Ryan Leaf? Low blow, dude.
