Grow Up, Mat Latos

I really dislike Mat Latos. See, here's the thing: it's okay to dislike players of a rival team. But I can at least have some respect for a guy like Troy Tulowitzki, who is classy (as far as I know). Here's an example: he grew a mullet for charity. Also, I believe he's friends with Tim Lincecum (not that that's a measure of classiness)...so while I hate what he does to the Giants, I can respect the guy. He's a professional.

Mat Latos, on the other hand, lacks all professionalism. I first became aware of this when I read of what he did to Dave Flemming's car. If you read comment #3 on that Extra Baggs post, you can see what I mean. Baseball players should adhere to a certain level of professionalism, and that crossed the line. Then there were his comments about the Giants. In case you forgot about them, here they are:

"Baseball works in funny ways. The only way I could honestly put it is, we could be like the Giants and go and change our whole lineup, put guys with 'San Francisco Giants' across their jerseys. We didn't. We added two guys (Miguel Tejada and Ryan Ludwick) We've been the same team all year. We haven't just gone and grabbed guys from other teams."

Again, these comments lacked professionalism. Enough words have been scribbled in response to his ignorance in this situation, so I need not elaborate.

Then, there's this. The gist of it: Mat Latos signed three baseballs on January 13th, with the words "I Hate SF." And it's pathetic, it really is. It's actually saddening that a professional ballplayer, especially one of Latos' talent (yes, he has talent, I said it), would stoop to that level.

Moreover, I'm disappointed by RJ's Fro. I know little about the blog, but I'd also hold them to a standard of professionalism. This -- "to all of you Giant fans reading this I know you're a little slow, so the SF stands for San Francisco" -- is childish. I'm certain that a quality Padres blogger -- like Ducksnorts -- would never utter such ignorance. It's neither amusing nor clever. It's just puerile.

Grow up, Mat Latos, and grow up RJ's Fro. Your attempts to manufacture a Giants-Padres rivalry out of the Padres' second-place finish are futile and unnecessary. Spend your time evaluating the team, rather than LOLing along with your two-year-old ace.

Allow me, please, to take a brief moment to respond in a most unprofessional manner...

Here ya go.