L.A. Times Skaggs illustration: Tasteless?

[Taylor]

I think so.

[mulwin444]

9 minutes ago, Taylor said:

I think so.

[arch stanton]

I don't get it

[Stradling]

I had no idea yk was an artist. 

[Dtwncbad]

Exclusively tasteless (not clever, not interesting, not funny, not smart, not creative, etc.).

He should be embarrassed, but probably isn’t.

[Blarg]

Wow. I get the feeling the LA Times is going to get a lot fewer press passes next season. 

[Stradling]

@Jeff Fletcher what are your thoughts on this journalistically?

[Blarg]

Well, it is a flawed representation. Skaggs wasn't a hitter. 

[Stradling]

Any idea who wrote the article?  I don’t subscribe to the Times?

[Jay]

What I see in the illustration is a group of players, some of whom have a drug and/or alcohol problem, with one of the players turning a blind eye, presumably ignoring the problem.

It targets the Angels, obviously, but not necessarily Skaggs.

Edit: in other words, others on the team also have a problem and nothing is being done about it.

 

[arch stanton]

I thought it was supposed to represent a new "murderers row" that literally killed a pitcher with the blindeye being the one that we're supposed to find provocative

[failos]

Wow F*ck them that is utterly ridiculous

[John Taylor]

Imagine being a member of Skaggs family or a close friend, opening up the LAT and seeing this. I do support journalistic free speech but I also think this is tasteless. I also admit my own bias in my reaction.

[tdawg87]

I don't believe any of the "players" there are meant to represent Skaggs, or any person in actuality. I think it's saying that all of those things are "players" in the MLB and on the Angels and all of them are "deadly" in their own way. That's my interpretation of it, at least.

Still, could have been done without the shock value. That in and of itself is indeed tasteless.

[Revad]

How do pitchers handle pain?  When I learned recently that MLB doesn't test for opiates I was astonished and could only assume it is too complicated to determine appropriate use, yet MLB tests for steroid masking agents.  Seems like MLB as a whole does have a blind eye.

[tdawg87]

3 minutes ago, Revad said:

How do pitchers handle pain?

Yk's alarm just went off.

[UndertheHalo]

Jesus.  Yikes.  

[UndertheHalo]

I don’t get why there’s this thought that there needs to be a brand new discussion about drug abuse.  People use drugs.  Sometimes when they use drugs they OD and die.  

It’s like Tyler Skaggs death has introduced some people to the concept of drug overdoses existing.  Fuc*king get it together.  Shit like this is embarrassing.  Baseball players are actually people that are subject to the same issues that other people deal with.  Tyler Skaggs probably encountered far more drug use education shit then the average person.  Definitely more drug testing shit.  And he still was apparently doing drugs.  

We don’t need a new discussion.  We don’t need more testing.  It would be nice if there was a little bit of good taste and maybe umm, restraint exercised when discussing the story.   There’s no cure for the human condition.  

Edited September 8, 2019 by UndertheHalo

[cysomeawfulpitcher]

If this were Prince, that illustrator would be fired and rightfully so.  Disgusting and too soon.

[Jeff Fletcher]

1 hour ago, Baghdad Strad said:

@Jeff Fletcher what are your thoughts on this journalistically?

I don’t know if it’s tasteless. I think it’s just bad. The “blind eye” is not a thing, like the drugs. Also, alcohol shouldn’t be a skeleton because its legal and lots of people drink it.

So if you’re trying to make the point that the Angels were ignoring drug use, this illustration doesn’t do it. It doesn’t really make any point. It’s just kind of weird and creepy looking.

Also, as far as I can tell it’s a stand alone illustration on the letters page. It doesn’t go with a story. 

[Fish Oil]

Seems like a pointless illustration more indicative of a publication like the National Enquirer than the LA Times.

 

Edited September 8, 2019 by Fish Oil

[UndertheHalo]

10 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

I don’t know if it’s tasteless. I think it’s just bad. The “blind eye” is not a thing, like the drugs. Also, alcohol shouldn’t be a skeleton because its legal and lots of people drink it.

So if you’re trying to make the point that the Angels were ignoring drug use, this illustration doesn’t do it. It doesn’t really make any point. It’s just kind of weird and creepy looking.

Also, as far as I can tell it’s a stand alone illustration on the letters page. It doesn’t go with a story. 

I just don’t get what people think.  That one member of the organization  died doing drugs and perhaps some other member or small number of members of the organization got the drugs or knew about the drugs thus signifying a macro organizational level tolerance for drugs ? How many people could reasonably be characterized as “members” of the Angels organization from top to bottom ? 

The whole concept is ridiculous.  It’s almost like a hysteria or something. 

Edited September 8, 2019 by UndertheHalo

[Claude]

9 hours ago, Taylor said:

I think so.

The blind eye represents all professional sports. The Angels are not alone. 

[Jay]

4 minutes ago, Calzone 2 said:

The blind eye represents all professional sports. The Angels are not alone. 

Maybe, except the blind eye is holding an Angels cap.

 

[AngelsLakersFan]

1 hour ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

I don’t know if it’s tasteless. I think it’s just bad. The “blind eye” is not a thing, like the drugs. Also, alcohol shouldn’t be a skeleton because its legal and lots of people drink it.

So if you’re trying to make the point that the Angels were ignoring drug use, this illustration doesn’t do it. It doesn’t really make any point. It’s just kind of weird and creepy looking.

Also, as far as I can tell it’s a stand alone illustration on the letters page. It doesn’t go with a story. 

Im trying to understand the point it's attempting to make. The multiple players in Angel uniforms seems to imply that there are many players on the team with 'a problem' and many who know about it but are covering it up or ignoring it. That is a pretty strong accusation to make in a cartoon without any journalistic backing. One might argue that they are saying that this is a league wide or sports wide problem, but if that is the case why is every player in an Angels uniform? 

Edit: Looking at it more I think it is trying to put blame on the team itself for what happened to Tyler, implying that his demons were around for all to see but no one paid any mind or did anything about it.