Still lovin’ the Dan Uggla trade. My friend Stephen Silver pretty much summed up the whole deal last night when he tweeted “I had no idea they were giving away free Dan Ugglas today. I wish my team had known in advance.” Yep.
But one thing has struck me in the aftermath of the trade: people calling Dan Uggla a “blue collar” player. The Miami Herald’s Marlins blog called him “a blue collar workhorse” this morning. The Herald’s Mark Spencer called him “the blue-collar slugger” in the paper’s main story. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez called him “as blue-collar as they come” yesterday. Those quotes have been re-tweeted, blogged and mentioned on message boards all over the place since the trade went down. And if you think Joe Simpson isn’t going to call Uggla “blue collar” ten times in the first month of Braves telecasts next season, well, you’re just not that familiar with his work.
Such a curious description. I assume it refers to work ethic, but I can’t help but think it’s really just another form of “gritty” and “gamer” and the sorts of adjectives which are applied almost exclusively to white ballplayers. I love me some Dan Uggla and I’m going to root for him like crazy next season, but ask yourself: if a black ballplayer was (a) known for home runs; (b) was pretty crappy on defense; and (c) just turned down a four-year, $48 million contract that just about everyone in baseball thought was more than fair, would he be called “blue collar?” I kinda doubt it.
And while we’re at it, the guy Uggla was traded for played wherever he was asked, hustled and didn’t make much money. So tell me: why isn’t Omar Infante the blue collar guy in this trade?
