The No-Nonsense Writer

As I approach the important milestone of 500 stories written and published on Vocal, I want to spend a few moments of everyone's time to discuss the reasons why I'm so harsh towards certain players and teams. When I first joined this platform nearly 10 years ago, I wanted to write about anything from my personal experiences to current events happening right now. I do my due diligence to encourage everyone to take something away from the stories I write and learn from them. In this story, I'll go over some people and teams that I've called out and heavily criticized. Some people need to hear the truth, and I refuse to make excuses for other people's wrongdoings. Plus, I won't sugarcoat anything in order to make someone feel comfortable. I stand by everything I've written so far, making zero apologies.

Justin Verlander

In case you haven't heard, the longtime veteran pitcher recently announced on his Instagram page that he would be retiring at the end of this season. To be honest, I'm glad that he's calling it a career. This isn't me saying it in a callous way, but I won't miss seeing him pitch at all. In my latest story about him, I stated that he'll always have the Cheater attached to him forever, as well as the players who were with the Astros between 2017 and 2022. He may be retiring from baseball, but I'll never acknowledge him as a World Series champion or Cy Young Award winner. Even if he's inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, I won't acknowledge him as a Hall of Famer. Finally, he doesn't deserve to be called a legend. That title is reserved for a select, respectable few. He'll always be a cheater in my eyes, and no one can convince me otherwise. He and his cohorts stole a World Series title from the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2017. I'm not a fan of the Dodgers, but they should've won by default. I used to like Justin Verlander, but after the cheating scandal and him making excuses for his fellow teammates, I've since lost respect for him. Justin Verlander will always be known by name only and nothing else.

Aaron Judge

I loved and hated Aaron Judge for years, but my feelings for him have since been on the latter side. The reason? He won his third consecutive AL MVP award: an honor that he stole from Cal Raleigh, who many people thought would win it. I blame fans and MLB for always making him the center of attention in other people's moments, which is selfish. It clearly shows how biased they are, especially on their social media pages. Another writer on here wrote about this last year. He also disagreed with Judge winning that award. I also told him that there was a Yankees-Dodgers agenda in this league. That always seemed like Judge and another player I'll discuss in a bit were always talked about non-stop and no other players, which still annoys me to this day. Praising players and giving them credit when needed isn't a bad thing. The problem is that MLB making the same players as their main focus all the time. Everything doesn't revolve around them. They're not the main characters in this league. Going back to Aaron Judge: he'll never win a World Series title. Even if he did, I still wouldn't give him any sort of praise. What he did to Cal Raleigh was both twisted and conniving. It was an injustice towards Raleigh, and I'll never forgive Aaron Judge for that. He's very selfish overrated, and a joke. He's not a good guy and don't let his smile fool you.

Shohei Ohtani

I thought that I was done talking about him, but now, I have so much more to say. After the 2025 MLB regular season, I officially disowned him altogether. The entitled demeanor of him signing an almost a billion-dollar contract (with almost all of it deferred), his shady relationship with his former interpreter, being shady in general, and acting spoiled are some of the reasons why I don't like him anymore. I respect players such as Yu Darvish, Ichiro, Shota Imanaga, and Seiya Suzuki. Why? It's because they're great players who don't act entitled or are attention hungry. You never saw them act entitled and they have great personalities. They're great people who are kind to themselves and their own fans. Shohei should take notes from those players. You can be an outstanding player and have respect for yourself. What I mean by respect for yourself, I'm saying that you don't need to show off or act like you're above everyone. Those are toxic personality traits I personally dislike the most from anyone, famous or not. Just because I love baseball, it doesn't mean I have to like every single player in the league. I wouldn't hesitate to call them out for their behavior, whether they're active, retired, or no longer with us. As far as Shohei is concerned, I liked him when he first made his MLB debut with the Los Angeles Angels. Soon as the 2020s arrived and signed with the Dodgers, my feelings about him had changed. He's one of the reasons why I heavily dislike the Dodgers.

Houston Astros

For the final point on this list, let's talk about the other team in Major League Baseball that I've since disliked and disowned. 2027 will mark 10 years since the Astros stole a World Series title from the Dodgers. I said the word stole, because that's what they did. I've talked about them in multiple stories and my feelings about them hadn't changed since. I still won't and will never acknowledge them as World Series champions. While everyone has been praising Justin Verlander online, I refused to join in on this nonsense. Before 2017, I liked the Astros. Anytime I would watch them play against the Rangers on TV, it was exciting to see. Some of the Astros players that I love and will ever respect are Craig Biggio, Lance Berkman, Jeff Bagwell, and Nolan Ryan. Yes, Nolan Ryan played for the Astros at one point, for all of you much younger people who didn't know that. The legacies of the Astros players who were part of the cheating scandal nearly a decade ago and the team itself are forever tainted. As the old saying goes: Once a cheater, always a cheater. I just leave them be. I believe in that adage so much and it 100% applies to the Astros and it still does.

I call myself the No Nonsense Writer, because I believe in holding people accountable for their actions and also calling out behaviors that I don't approve of. Call me every name in the book all you want, but I refuse to tone down my criticisms of those who act unbecoming. I have zero tolerance for BS or people making excuses for others who don't take any personal responsibility. You might think I'm some sort of a hard ass. To an extent, it's true. However, I'm a really good guy who cares about others and causes I'm passionate about. I want people to do better and become better people. I don't think that's too much to ask. That's the takeaway that I want everyone who has read this story or any of my other stories. Personal responsibility begins with us. When I say us, I'm also including myself. This story might ruffle some feathers and hurt a lot of feelings, but at the end of the day, I stand by every story I've written and published on Vocal. I will not apologize for my feelings. If you love my stories and believe in honesty and accountability, please feel free to like this story and subscribe to my page. Also, you can reward me by sending a one-off tip, which you can at the end of this page. Big or small, it will support content creators like me to keep writing new stories.