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Here's a brief refresher on why I hate Gerrit Cole with the heat of a thousand suns. Gerrit Cole pitched for my favorite team, the Houston Astros, in 2018 and 2019. He was brilliant. Exceptional. One of the very best pitchers in baseball during that time. I was a huge fan.
It was pretty much a given that Cole would be leaving the Astros as a free agent after the 2019 season, but that was okay. He was so dominant and great that we Astros fans just wanted to enjoy watching him as long as we could.
He was a huge reason the Astros made the World Series in 2019 and he was fantastic in Game 5, allowing 1 run in 7 innings and giving us a 3-2 series lead. Even though he threw 110 pitches in Game 5, there was heavy speculation that he might be available in relief in Game 7.
The Astros led Game 7, 2-0 in the top of the 7th. After Zack Greinke gave up a home run and a walk, AJ Hinch brought in Will Harris (and not Gerrit Cole) to pitch. Harris gave up a home run to Howie Kendrick and the Nationals went on to win the game and the World Series.
Obviously this was a bitterly disappointing loss for the Astros and all their fans. Billions of pixels have been slaughtered to debate whether AJ Hinch should have left Greinke in or brought in Cole instead of Harris. I don't intend to revisit those arguments.
Suffice it to say that if Gerrit Cole was extremely frustrated at not getting the chance to pitch in that situation, that's completely understandable. His decision to sign with the Yankees for three hundred barzillion dollars? Completely understandable and forgivable.
What happened next was not understandable or forgivable. In the locker room right after the game, surrounded by teammates dealing with the worst loss of their careers, Gerrit Cole disowned them and his team. https://twitter.com/dtexanz/status/1190015985912340480?s=20
Asked for an interview by reporters, Cole said, "Do I have to do it? I mean I'm not employed. I'm not employed."
Then, after one of the Astros PR guys asked him to please grant the interview, Cole stomped over to the media wall, saying, "All right, as an affiliate of myself..."
He then answered a few questions.
He then answered a few questions.
Everyone quickly noticed that Cole was not wearing an Astros cap, but a Scott Boras cap.
Scott Boras. His fucking agent.
Scott Boras. His fucking agent.
Quite simply, this is one of the most disgraceful things I have ever seen by an athlete in a locker room. Cole revealed himself to care nothing about his teammates or his team (which, by the way, transformed him from an underachiever into a dominant Cy Young candidate).
All he cared about was himself and his own mercenary ambitions. He turned his back on his brothers at their very lowest point. He represents everything I hate about sports. And I hope the Astros hang 8 runs on him in the top of the 1st today.
As I said before, I don't begrudge Cole leaving the Astros. And I don't hate him for taking the $324 million from the Yankees. In fact, I hope he holds on to that money real tight.
Because without a heart or a soul, it's all he will ever have.
Because without a heart or a soul, it's all he will ever have.
