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Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
Randy Johnson says hello and "%#$& you!" to the New York media. This is going to be fun. Plus: The readers write about Randy Moss.
Jan 11, 2005 | Randy Johnson's career in New York is off to a ring-a-ding start. I always thought he'd fit in beautifully there.
On his way to a physical Monday in Manhattan, Johnson, who was to be introduced as a Yankee Tuesday, got into a beef with a cameraman from a local TV station. The physical was part of the process of Johnson's trade from the Diamondbacks, which has been in the works for most of the last century. The Yankees sent Javier Vazquez, Wally Pipp and Red Ruffing to Arizona.
The cameraman's offense was -- get this -- trying to take pictures of Johnson as he walked along a sidewalk. Johnson reached out and covered up the camera's lens with his hand.
"Get out of my face," he said, which was odd because he'd had to stretch out his very long right arm to grab the camera. "I don't care who you are," Johnson said in response to the cameraman identifying himself as being from WCBS-TV in New York, "don't get in my face."
Jerry Laveroni, the Yankees director of security, was with Johnson. "No cameras," he said. Please note, everyone: The Yankees have decreed no cameras on the sidewalks of New York.
"I'm just taking a picture," the photographer said.
"Don't get in my face," Johnson said again, "and don't talk back to me, all right?"
Don't talk back to me? It's no secret that baseball players have an exaggerated sense of self-worth, but "Don't talk back to me"? Who says that to another grown-up, much less a professional in the course of plying his trade? Good grief. Johnson has the worst nickname in sports: "Big Unit." Big tool is more like it.
He issued an apology later in the day, saying, "I hope that everyone will understand that the past few days have been a bit overwhelming and I wish I had handled the situation differently."
The funny thing is, there was no situation to handle. Someone was taking his picture as he walked around in public, which is the kind of thing that happens in New York if you're a very famous person, like a ballplayer for example. It kind of goes with the job. The only "situation" going on was that Johnson got mildly violent and laughably petulant with a photographer.
