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Burnitz Is Sorry

Matskralc caught this in the comments.

"I apologize for that," Burnitz told the Post-Gazette in an interview this afternoon. "It seems like I'd hit 20 balls in a row like that, rollovers to first. ... The fact is, I went and looked at it, and the guy had no chance. He would have thrown me out. But the effort that they expect - and they jumped on me for it ... I apologize if I don't play hard enough. I have a reputation for playing hard."

I'll give Burnitz somewhat of a pass on this - it's human nature to decide there's no chance when you do the same thing you just failed at 20 times in a row. And I can certainly understand his frustration.

But only somewhat of a pass, because he is making more money for eight months' work than I will ever see, and because it's just not that hard to run out every grounder when you only bat four or so times a day. And because his actual play has been unforgivably awful.

He was asked how he felt about manager Jim Tracy sticking by him and keeping his name in the lineup every day.

"Are you kidding me? What else is he going to do?" Burnitz replied. "In this situation, of course he's going to stay with me. This is the first team I've been on in a couple years where I'm Joe High-Paid Free Agent. That in and of itself should tell you the big picture that the team's in. If I'm just another guy on one of those big-market, big-paying teams ... that's not the way it is here, and I understand that. I'm cool with it."

Wow. As Matskralc says, that's unbelievably depressing.