I had a great conversation with Michael Unger (@UDeck1990 on X) about his baseball card postings on social media; it was a wonderful discussion about baseball players from the 1990s.

While that was a great discussion, as I mentioned during the episode, people are vicious if they don’t agree with you.

There’s an example of a situation with a coworker many years ago, when I mentioned that a certain player (who made his major-league debut in that same decade of the 1990s) was overrated. That player happened to be my coworker’s favourite players — or at least one of his favourites. This was an in-person comment that I made when we were discussing baseball.

The coworker began targeting me ever since, for the duration of my time in that organization. First, he sent me a lengthy email stating why I was wrong and why that player was not overrated. Then he just stopped cooperating with me at work. He eventually attempted to get me fired, coming up with a devious scheme.

I left that organization shortly after, but I’m better for it. It was a toxic environment and not just because of that coworker. Management was incompetent, for the most part, and did not appreciate hard work. They appreciated those who kissed asses while not working hard or working smart.

After leaving, I went through a period where I became productive with other projects and also learned who my friends were and who weren’t. I reached out to some “friends” and lamented that I had left my company — and most of them never contacted me again. They cut me off, cut me out, because — apparently — they thought I was a lowlife who didn’t have a job.

But I was productive in other areas, and I’m proud of some of the things I did during that time.

Anyway, that’s just one story. And this one started because I made a comment about a baseball player (who, incidentally, has already passed away) that the coworker liked.

Seriously?

Like I said, people are vicious. They just are.

(Note: The player whom I said was overrated had the same pitching style as another pitcher that I mentioned in the podcast, but I won’t say that deceased player’s name.)