Go Randy!

Despite the fact that he's playing for the Yankees, I confess that it would have been mighty hard for me to root against Randy Johnson if he continued the treat the media the way they deserve.

You all know the story; here are the highlights:

"Get out of my face, that's all I ask," Johnson said, according to a video of what occurred, which was posted on the station's Web site.

"No cameras," Laveroni said.

"Don't get in my face," Johnson then said. "I don't care who you are. Don't get in my face."

"I'm just taking a picture," said the cameraman, identified by the station as Vinny Everett.

Responded Johnson: "Don't get in my face, and don't talk back to me, all right."

(Note: Laveroni. Great name for a security guy. Also Vinny for a cameraman.)

I say, all hail Randy! Where do these media scumbags think they get the right to pester a guy as he's walking down the street? If you think you have the right to shove a camera in my face and all over my private life, then at the very least I have the right to push that camera out of the way. Even if I'm in a provincial town like New York where it's been years since the local media rubes have seen a decent pitcher walking down the street.

Of course, the high-class NY media immediately responded by trashing Johnson every which way but loose, and Johnson immediately capitulated by apologizing not once, not twice, but three times in his introductory press conference. And if he wanted to, that's fine. But I say he didn't need to. Baseball is not a popularity contest. If the media doesn't like him, that's their problem. I love seeing players who don't care what anybody thinks of him or what the media writes about him, who just go out and play ball.