Sports Commentary July 4, 2005

B&G Imagination Junction


Words And Emotions From The Mouths And Hands Of Athletes ………………

Sometimes it could be said that an athlete should be seen and not heard as one cannot be reasonably sure that whatever comes out of their mouths will make any sense.

Of course, to the media whose jobs are not to care if what an athlete says is as important as long as they just babble anything, IQ or insight is not a prerequisite.

The stereotype is of an athlete being all brawn and no brain but, as we know, stereotypes are just that and far from reality.

In fact, athletes can get a perspective on life so involved and so different from us mere mortals, that only observe, that what they utter can-at times-actually be profound.

Yet-sometimes-we scratch our heads over both the words and actions of athletes and end up asking, “What were they thinking or doing?”

In a past column I pontificated on what might it really feel like to be an athlete? Unless we walk a mile in another’s shoes we cannot know. Still, although their shoes can never be for us to wear, we have enough common sense to know that what they are saying or doing is wacky.

There must have been something in the water coolers of a number of sporting figures as this was one of those weeks.

Speaking of water coolers the top wacky and weird sports star going around the bend story began with a water cooler—here, words was not the tale but reactions and actions.

This is not about Kenny Rogers the singer/actor but Kenny Rogers the left-handed baseball pitcher. Rogers is forty years old, is currently employed by the Texas Rangers and has been rather good at his trade for nearly two decades for many prior employers—among his many past victories, in the major leagues, was a no-hit game.

In fact, even at such an advanced stage of career, Rogers is having one of his best seasons for a Rangers club that is a genuine contender in the American League West division.

Rogers has not been a happy Ranger, though, this season. Last winter Rogers was looking to extend his current contract and negotiations bogged down—Rogers still is not extended beyond this season.

During the negotiations news reports came out that upset the veteran pitcher. Becoming so upset with what certain media said about him, Rogers decided to not speak to all members of the print or electronic media. Rogers is hardly the first athlete to clam up to us journalists and will not be the last.

Though Rogers has maintained his no-talk ban, through the 2005 season, it had not affected his pitching.

Last week, however, Rogers had a rare bad performance. When removed from the game, by Texas manager Buck Showalter, Rogers took out his frustration by smashing his non-pitching right hand on a water cooler in the dugout—the hand was broken requiring that he would miss his next few starts.

If punching out a water cooler were all to the story it would not be such big news as athletes have showed similar stupidity often in the past the same as not speaking to reporters.

Yet, on Wednesday night before a home game against the Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim, Rogers snapped and no one seems to know why.

When the Rangers came onto the field, for its pre-game stretching out exercises Rogers attacked and shoved to the ground a news video cameraman from a Dallas television station and then a few moments later went after another TV cameraman first shoving him then pushing him to the ground and grabbing his camera and throwing that to the ground as well.

Finally teammate, catcher Rod Barrajas, restrained the incensed pitcher and got him off the field and back to the clubhouse.

The attacks were obviously pre-meditated as the video shows Rogers emerging from the dugout and going right to the first cameraman then later doing the same to the second. Both cameras were rolling and other news video showed what happened after the attacks.

One of the cameramen needed medical care, at a nearby hospital, though not seriously injured—he is threatening a lawsuit and the possibility of assault charges is still present.

What penalties the Rangers and Major League Baseball will impose are still pending.

Rogers does have a long-standing reputation of being surly but not violent—why he did this no one yet knows and that is what makes this so bizarre. Though Rogers was looking to rough up some media members he had no known beefs with the two victims.

Such is the mystery of the athlete.

The other strange tales from this week, involving athletes, concern only words but headline-making and head-scratching words they were.

Moises Alou is one of the best veteran baseball outfielders of this generation—he won a World Series as a member of the Florida Marlins in 1997. If not for injuries, during his career, he would be a legitimate Hall of Fame candidate.

As with most professional athletes Alou is very competitive.
This season Alou is playing for the San Francisco Giants, a club that has struggled mightily without the mighty Barry Bonds who has yet to play a regular season game in 2005 due an injured knee. With Bonds and Alou in the lineup the Giants would have contended—without the injured slugger, Alou and the Giants have not been very good.
In all fairness, the current Giants lineup is sprinkled with both young and journeyman players.

Yet, this week, Alou popped off that this Giants club has the worst team chemistry than any other club that he has ever been on. Though all have a right to express an opinion this hardly qualifies as showing team espirt de corps.

Even in an era where professional athletes are thought selfish there is still the unwritten rule that thoughts as that should not leave the locker room—if Alou has an issue he should deal with his mates privately. If he made the comment publicly to light a fire under the Giants it likely will not work.

By the way the Giants manager is on record as disagreeing with the evaluation. In this case the manager could heap revenge by changing his will as San Francisco’s skipper is Moises father Felipe Alou. Bizarre.

Are professional athletes selfish, as I posed above, or are they spoiled as many have thought?

In writing about sports unions, just last week, I pointed out how well the modern major athlete has it.

Yet, in a past column and already mentioned briefly this week, I wrote about us really not knowing what it takes to be a top of the line athlete—yet the media and public still have put the spoiled tag on these elite figures often.

So, are major athletes spoiled? Hockey star Jeremy Roenick very emphatically says no.

Roenick has played a long and productive National Hockey League career previously with the Chicago Blackhawks and Phoenix Coyotes—he is currently a member of the Philadelphia Flyers.
The yearlong NHL player’s lockout that wiped out the 2004-2005 season might soon be over allowing for next season to begin on schedule in October.

Holding a news conference this week, at a charity golf event run by Pittsburgh Penguins owner and star Mario Lemieux, Roenick spoke intelligently about many aspects of hockey trying to restore itself with the public.

Then, though, he lost it with his tongue as Rogers lost it with his hands by saying repeatedly that if the fans think that NHL players are spoiled they can just kiss his behind (only he did not say behind). Jeremy continued on that those folks should not even bother returning to the arenas if that is what they think as Jeremy does not want them there.

Yes, there is this thing about free speech but this does not seem the best approach for getting the fans to forgive and forget not having an NHL last season.

If Mr. Roenick does not think that he and his mates are spoiled he did nothing to eradicate the stereotype of his breed being stupid.
When all-star games approach it can be hard not to think of some of those star athletes not being spoiled. Stories of players opting out of playing, if they play not playing for long, leaving the stadium well before the all star game ends and feeling that being an all star means a fat bonus are numerous.

The annual Major League Baseball All-Star Game will be held a week from Tuesday in Detroit and it has already begun though the rosters do not begin to be filled until tomorrow.

New York Mets pitching star Pedro Martinez says that he doubts that he will be available on July 12—Martinez is having another outstanding season and likely would begin the game, on the mound, for the National League.

Starting pitchers, in the All-Star Game, rarely pitch more than two innings—it is hardly as if Pedro would be overly taxed. Martinez is currently healthy and he is the best yet Pedro knows that he is the best so might not want to break up his three-day holiday for an exhibition game.

The All Star Game is for the fans to see the best all in one spot but without using the same words as Roenick Martinez seems to be saying that those that worship him can also kiss his behind.
One more grouping of words from an athlete, that made headlines this week, seemed to raise eyebrows but I wonder why.

Like Rogers Jeff Kent, of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is a long-time baseball player with a surly disposition with the media—Kent will talk to them but he would rather not have to do it.

The press wants to speak with Kent because Jeff is a terrific baseball player who will someday be on Hall of Fame ballots.
This week, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Kent announced that playing baseball is hard work and not a lot of fun—this caused a stir. My question is why?

Kent did not say that he did not like being a major league baseball player but was only saying that to do it, at that level, is not easy and quite a chore.Again referring to my past piece on not really knowing what an athlete goes through are we so naive and stupid to think that when the very best make it look so easy that we actually think that it is easy?
Jeff was telling it like it is. What he said was not bizarre as with Rogers meltdown, Roenick’s misguided missile, Alou playing left field with blinders or Martinez not wanting to play at all.

With the Kent quote, what is bizarre is such a statement of the obvious is thought newsworthy.

Maybe us fans are really the ones that are spoiled.

Anyway, surely, this was a week of odd happenings around and about the sporting life.
No matter what, it again proves that sports and its athletes are never dull—sometimes dangerous but never dull.

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