Shane Victorino Disputes Claims that he is Tantrum-Throwing Crybaby, for Some Reason

"“One person made a (bleeping) false statement.  That’s the problem with social media, and it pisses me off. It’s all over the news, fans thinking I’m sitting because I (complained about) hitting seventh. That’s not me. You know that. … Now the whole baseball world, and fans think I’m this crybaby, and I’ve never been that guy.”—Shane Victorino, via the Delco Times"

So you guys remember when Shane came into the Phillies clubhouse, saw he was hitting seventh, screamed and cried and stormed out?  Apparently, somewhere between the clubhouse and the media coverage things got–somehow–confused.  It seems that the cartoonish dramatics we just assumed were true of our center fielder were actually just gross exaggerations that were reported wrong and cultivated by online media outlets who used the incident as joke fodder.

And I mean, like, when does that ever happen?!

We may be a dusty site in the corner of the blogosphere that nobody reads, but I know I used the phrase “temper tantrum” to describe the actions of a man I do not know personally at an event I did not witness.  So that, in turn, makes this site a gear in the grotesque war machine that helped barrage Shane’s public persona with accusations.

Hell, I probably even used a picture of Shane in which he wasn’t smiling, as if it was in that very moment that the the incident went down.  When realistically, I’m just using a picture of Shane being pissed that he struck out in an article about him being allegedly frustrated about nine other things because the hope is that you’ll go ooooh pictures this article will be fun to read.

“HERE IS A PICTURE OF WHAT SHANE LOOKS LIKE WHEN HE IS UNHAPPY.  THEREFORE HE CLEARLY HAD A COMPLETE MENTAL BREAKDOWN BECAUSE HE WAS BATTING SEVENTH.  THE END.”

And yeah, sure; that’s kind of exactly what we do here, all the time.  And usually we incorporate the gross caricatures of the Phillies players that have sprouted and grown on the internet into it, too.  But there’s a vile disposability by the media, thinking that they can make assumptions based on someone else’s lie, shrug it off when it’s disputed, and move on.

Now, countless mouth-breathers across the state will recall that time Shane went ballistic in the locker room when he saw he was hitting seventh.  “Didn’t he have that issue that one time, just because Charlie hit him lower in the lineup?” they’ll ask, using a faded memory of a news article they didn’t read completely as a source for a personal belief.

And there are countless other moments where a statement like this could have been made, and wasn’t.  And there will be more in the future.  Which makes this whole process feel cheap and disorganized.  Which it is.

But that’s not what happened, and while I’m still not any closer to being in that room on that day, we’re at least getting a response from the guy who the story is about, not a third party tweeter.

So, it’s not like Shane or anybody else will ever read this, but I guess I figured there might be some very minor vindication in all of this if at least one site acknowledged that Shane isn’t the pants-pooping crybaby everybody is going to know for certain that he is now.

"“Why are you choosing now to be serious when this site is usually just jokes about crap or references to alcoholism?”–you"

I don’t know.  It’s hot.  And Shane was my first favorite player of this golden era when it was starting.

And he might be traded soon and he’s in a contract year and he’s not performing well and the team’s not performing well and it’s all a bit much, really; so maybe clearing the air here will help… something… happen… or whatever.

"“So now you think you’re going to make some kind of prolific statement that shames all other media outlets?”–you"

No, as usual, I’m just screaming in the dark.  But this is the only morsel of media I have control over, so I’m doing this because I’m accountable.