I was going to say something about Kevin Cullen's column today

Michael Gee says Cullen should've written an article honoring Dom DiMaggio, or written a redundant article criticizing Manny Ramirez, but not mixed the two together.

I would agree if I thought Cullen was obligated to write about Dom DiMiaggio. I assume a Globe sportswriter and a Globe obit writer are obligated, but not Cullen. Yes, Dom DiMaggio rates his own center stage, but that's not Cullen's job.

Cullen observed the small irony in two events, and then used the contrast of the two men to make a point about the men, their teammates, and their generations. That's within his purview as a columnist.

And Cullen's article was incidentally not a bad way to honor a man, in an era when the fake and superficial too often trump the genuine and substantial, when a man is called out for not wearing a flag lapel pin by those who are destroying what the flag is supposed to represent.

We need our heroes, and to honor them, but we shouldn't get so caught up in glassy-eyed ritual of rigorous flag waving that we forget why we started waving the flag in the first place.

I think Cullen gives DiMaggio a nice little tribute. He does so by comparing DiMaggio to Ramirez. So? Because he belittles Ramirez, and others, does that diminish the tribute to DiMaggio? No. It makes the tribute. The comparison IS the tribute. Where's the problem here?

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com