"Garbage Can Incident" Explained

From "Dodgers' Kemp works to improve image" by Bill Plaschke at the LA Times (reg.):

Remember last year when [Matt Kemp] was criticized for loudly complaining that a garbage can had been put next to his locker?

"If I see that trash can this year, I'm going to call a press conference with all the writers and say, 'See, I'm moving it without complaining,' " he said.

He pauses and smiles.

"No, no, just kidding," he said. "This year, I'll just move that trash can without saying a word."

That trash can incident was part of the reason that last year's veterans complained about youngsters such as Kemp and James Loney.

The veterans thought the kids didn't respect winning. They thought they didn't respect the game.

The veterans quietly complained about everything from late clubhouse arrivals to dumb baserunning errors to smiles after losses.

Those complaints reached the ears of Dodgers management, whose thoughts reached me, so I wrote a column about the possibility that Kemp would be traded.

It wasn't my idea, it was the Dodgers' idea, yet judging from the angry responses I received, you would have thought I put a "For Sale" sign in front of Kemp's locker.

Overall a nice article by Plaschke.

Nice of him to revisit a controversial subject from last year.

But it's disingenuous of Plaschke to write that because trading Kemp wasn't his idea, that he didn't play a role in encouraging it.

He easily could have written an article about the importance of keeping Kemp despite the clubhouse turmoil.

You can't be a high-profile voice in the Los Angeles sports scene and disavow culpability when people disagree with you.