Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado Rockies, media compete for low road

(The following is an editorial comment.)

Former Colorado Rockies, and current Toronto Blue Jays, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki has been in the “news” since yesterday for answering questions with a little bit of honesty, which often results in saying things people don’t want to hear.

I use the term “news” loosely because what a former player thinks of the spring training clubhouse doesn’t really qualify as pertinent information in my book. His opinion — that the nice surroundings promote a “softer” environment and that he prefers a more traditional “roughing it” atmosphere — has been reported as Tulowitzki being completely incapable of “getting over” last year’s trade. Still harboring resentment.

Of course, this conveniently leaves out the part where Tulo was simply responding to specific questions about the differences in facilities and that what he said really wasn’t a cheap shot or a low-blow. The man likes it one way, the Rockies do it another way. As someone who has recently changed teams, I can attest to the fact that sometimes you start to revel in the changes you like — some you didn’t even know you would like — especially when asked about them. And that doesn’t have to be a repudiation of everything you once stood for. He didn’t say “I hate Coors Field” but I’m not sure if he had that there was any more room for appropriate outrage given the reaction to these comments. How would people have responded to that any differently?

Of all the asinine, mundane, inconsequential things to say, “I like this spring training atmosphere better than that one for this reason” is not a news story. It is reported as one and blown out of proportion, the middlemen telling you that this is a big deal and should be treated as such because people click on articles about star players and controversy.

This was seen in its worst form last season after the phenomenal Denver Post reporter Nick Groke made a simple mistake in a tweet that made Tulowitzki look a lot worse than what was actually said, but the fans and media who were already looking for reasons to either bash Tulo or the team were ready to jump on the misleading statement as confirmation for the beliefs they already had.

The same is happening today. The media is conflating two things: Tulowitzki’s bitterness over the trade and his singular comment about the facilities. I don’t care what he says to Ken Rosenthal, Tulo is still bitter and angry, but that seems very human to me and to use his comments from yesterday as some kind of confirmation of a character flaw that has always been there, suggests a search with an answer in mind. Either way, if your position is that Tulo shouldn’t feel bitter, nothing that happened yesterday should change anything as it only confirmed what we already knew in that regard.

It wasn’t that long ago that the narrative was being woven that Ubaldo Jimenez was the “bad guy” who couldn’t “get over” being traded and Tulo was the “good guy” for going after him in the media. Oh, how quickly the narrative changes when it no longer fits for selling controversy. Tulo can’t be the obviously more well-reasoned person now that he is on the other side. He has always been the bad guy. We have always been at war with East Asia. 

There are no innocents when a story like this dominates the discussion. The Colorado Rockies don’t look good for overpromising, making the trade personal, and then going with the strategy of acting like Tulo never existed when no matter how you slice it, he is still one of the most important players in this team’s short history. The refusal to say anything at all and act like nothing ever happened is just as childish as being open and honest about your emotions.

Obviously, Tulo doesn’t look good. Regardless of how terrible the media can be at providing nuance or context, there is always the choice to drop “that’s a clown question, bro” on somebody and surely he knew any comments about his old team would be covered like a political gaffe no matter what he said. Also, his legitimate bitterness colors everything he does at this point, so it was probably best to just not comment. He is angry and quite frankly, I don’t think it makes any more sense to demand he has no right to feel that way than it does to demand Jeff Bridich tell us his plan. People have their own agendas and as adults, we should be capable of understanding that without creating the false dichotomy that someone here has to be the villain.

And let’s not be so naive as to pretend that Tulowitzki went out of his way to take shots at the Rockies because he just couldn’t wait to tell everyone about that “country club” atmosphere! This story was written by the reporters asking the questions before they starting asking them. I’ve watched this happen countless times. Those reporters weren’t leaving without some kind of quote where Tulo said that thing X about the Blue Jays was better than the Rockies. If Dexter Fowler had given the same quote, no one would care, or maybe even know.

Also, you know what? This will be my fourth consecutive season down at Salt River Fields and he is right, it’s a pretty cushy and relaxing place. Of course, I kinda like it. See how easy that was? He likes it one way, I like it another way. This isn’t a controversy, it’s a boring opinion.

 
The fans are not completely innocent either. If you want more stories about baseball, actual news, and analysis, don’t buy every “controversy” sold to you. When the fans stop buying it, they’ll stop writing it. I promise.