What comes first? Fun or success?What a freaking baby. "Find a way to have fun"? Are you joking, AJ? If you can't have fun playing a game for millions of dollars then you might as well just quit.
Watching Yankees starter A.J. Burnett labor last week in Chicago, there were no signs of either when he couldn’t qualify for a victory despite being handed a 13-1 lead.
Tonight when the enigmatic right-hander faces the Angels at Yankee Stadium, he would like more bite in his filthy curveball and his above-average fastball to paint the black.
And he is looking for something else.
“I know it’s my job and I know I get paid a lot of money,” Burnett told The Post. “But I have to enjoy it. I have to find a way to have fun.”
Am I the only one who can't stand quotes like this from professional athletes?
You turn on news these days and all you see is people in this great nation suffering to pay bills, money being lost in the market (by all but the top 2% of the nation), soldiers being killed in two wars while their families suffer here at home, and we have to hear the sob stories of a guy who isn't having fun while he gets paid $15 million to throw a ball. Maybe he should just shut the f**k up and appreciate how good he has it.
Anyway, moving on...
Burnett vowed that tonight we are going to see a different pitcher than we did against the White Sox when he said his focus wasn’t on himself.That's the problem. Burnett, on the mound, IS inconsistent. That's just the type of pitcher he is and to expect anything different would be foolish.
“I can’t [care] about what hitter is up there,” Burnett said. “It’s about me on the mound.”
...
Now, with his season traveling a similar route — he was 6-3 with a 3.86 ERA in early June and is now 8-9 with a 4.54 ERA — Burnett was asked if he still felt that way.
“I know I am,” Burnett said. “I just have to get the consistency of being me on the mound.”