I was with him to a point. Here’s what he said in response to TJ Simers of the LA Times, who fecetiously refers to Kent as “Mr. Chuckles”: “It’s serious work playing baseball, the dedication, the sacrifice and suffering. It’s serious business making a lot of money, playing hurt and doing your best for the family of four that comes to the ballpark and spends $150 expecting you to play well. That’s supposed to be fun? I laugh at your patheticness. A better way to say it would be, I laugh at the world you live in.”

I get that being a professional athlete is hard work. I understand that these guys, even baseball players, have to work pretty hard to keep their jobs and do them well. I also understand that TJ Simers can be an unwavering sarcastic prick. I hated him for a long time… though you might not think my reasons are very good ones.

He used to hate on Ryan Leaf. Almost as soon as he was drafted, Simers was calling him a prick at every opportunity. Way before it became apparent that Ryan was revealed to be… well, not quite cut out for the job of NFL quarterback. And when he was drafted, there was no bigger Ryan Leaf fan than yours truly. I’d have taken a bullet for him. Anyway, at the time, there seemed to be no call whatsoever for the Leaf-bashing… there was no reason visible to the public eye. But Simers continued with it, and I haven’t forgiven him… even though he turned out to be kinda right. But I’m not yet giving up on Ryan Leaf becoming a great QB.

Anyway… the point is, I get that MLB’ers work hard, but Jeff Kent the baseball player doesn’t need to be laughing at anyone else’s world. The IQ required to play 2nd base in the majors is hovering somewhere below Brick Tamland’s. 99% of baseball players have less real impact on the world than do most janitors. So I’m really sorry if all the sufferring isn’t worth it to Jeff Kent, but he could always feel free to go get another job. Very few families of four will be paying $150 to come watch him mop jizz.