why the name "giles" should be reserved for the butler...

Nick Cafardo applies nicely a scalpel to Brian Giles' decision to stay with a lackluster team in a lackluster city when he could've gone to the Baseball Mecca. Even so, this line rankles even as it brings the point home:

The Red Sox probably are better off not having such a player. If you don't have enough fire to play when the heat is on, in a city that has passion for baseball, and would rather stay where you're "comfortable," in a place where your lifestyle takes precedence over your job, then the Sox surely were making the wrong choice in Giles to be the protection they were seeking with their injury-riddled lineup.

I get that Cafardo values the Protestant work ethic here, particularly when your job requires you to put the pedal to the metal 24/7. But if you're an everyday Joe, you're likely where I'm at -- prioritizing "lifestyle" over "job." Any day. If you already have a comfortable lifestyle, you don't need a job to fuck it up. It's derived from the adage: "Nobody's ever been quoted on their death bed as having said, 'Gee! I wish I spent more time at the office!'"

Having said that, I'm pretty certain that in order to have a decent lifestyle, one usually needs to work in order to sustain it. I'm just sayin'.

Meanwhile, Cafardo's right, of course, about not wanting to have such a player. After their unloading of Manny the Fanny, I find myself genuinely rooting for the Sox again, i.e., versus nursing a palpable indifference.

And what of poor Brian Giles? The suspicion here now is, given the immediate reaction to his decision, he's gotta be thinking he just screwed the pooch.

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Update: Not to disparage butlers, mind you. In fact, by any unit of measure -- Anthony Hopkins in The Remains of the Day, for example -- butlers are pretty serious (and hard-working) cats.