Welcome to New York, Randy Johnson

On Randy Johnson's first day as a Yankee in New York, the red carpet wasn't exactly laid out for him. On his way to report for the final hurdle before making his change of uniform official--the physical--Johnson got into an altercation with a television news photographer. The national media jumped on it like Warren Sapp on a doughnut.

Put aside for a moment the absurdity of a team like the Yankees acquiring a guy like the big unit. Let's not focus on the fact that the Yankees starting rotation makes more money than the entire Minnesota Twins roster. Rather, let's turn our attention to what happened on the streets of New York between Johnson and the photographer.

Because of this incident, Johnson has been made out to be the bad guy and granted, he was obnoxious and completely out of line. But why isn't anyone talking about the other person who was completely out of line? The photographer had as much to do with this as Johnson. When Johnson told him to "get out of his face" the photographer didn't necessarily have to turn the camera off and leave (although it would seem like the obvious thing to do.) If he felt that he had a job to do and Johnson, as a professional athlete, had a responsibility to put up with it, I would agree that he had a valid point. But be cordial about it.

Rather than turning more aggressive and baiting Johnson into the outburst that occurred, he could have stood back and shot his footage from some place outside Johnson's personal space. He wasn't using a hand-held cam-corder, his footage would have looked fine.

Should Johnson be praised for his actions? No. But at least he publicly apologized for them. The photographer is just sitting around basking in the national notoriety of being the guy who got Randy Johnson all worked up. If you ask me, the whole episode was as much about the photographer as it was the unit.