And the Asshat of the Week Award goes to…

…Shelley Duncan!  You remember him?  Yankees "phenom" who all the Yankees fans were crowning the newest ‘it’ boy a while back?

Well, on Friday night, he gave a 10 year-old Red Sox fan, on his first visit to Fenway, an autograph.  Pretty cool, I’d say.  Most of the younger baseball fans I know haven’t reached the point where they buy into the rivalry stuff.  And a lot of them actually (gasp) like the Yankees.  No accounting for taste, I know.  😉 But an autograph from any player, even a Yankee, is a big deal to them.

So this kid asks Shelley Duncan for an autograph, and let’s be honest, Duncan should be thrilled ANYONE even knows him let alone wants his signature on a piece of paper, and what does Duncan give him?

Griffin Whitman and his autograph.  Photo lifted from the Boston Herald. 

Now, had he done this to an adult, I would have laughed my butt off.  I mean, really, it’s a play on the Yankees Suck chant, and I get it.  But to do this to a kid is pretty shitty.  Especially a kid who thinks so little of the ‘rivalry’ that he wanted to get an autograph from a no-name Yankee player. 

In the grand scheme of things, is it that big a deal?  Certainly not to Shelley Duncan.  But he made a kid feel lousy, and that alone is worth pointing out to folks.  Especially this weekend.  It’s interesting to me, on a different level, to see how the rookies are brought up.  Joba throws at Youk’s head, twice.  And now Shelley disses a 10 year-old fan.  Do they have no rookie development program in New York?  One where they teach the young players how to act properly?

Again, does this affect the weekend series?  Not at all.  Does it matter in the big picture if Shelley Duncan is an asshat who thinks it’s funny to upset little kids?  Probably not.  But it bears mentioning, I think, because it just shows another chink in the armor that is that "Yankees Class" we hear so much about.