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April 24, 2004
A GREAT COLUMN ON SPORTSMANSHIP
John Kruk has always been one of my favorite baseball players. He permanently won a place in my heart as a member of the 1993 Phillies that went to the World Series. You remember them, don't you -- the mullet-wearing, no-shaving, pot-belly-having, chew-spittin' guys who looked more like the guys you play softball with than professional baseball players, yet still won the National League pennant in 1993?
Anyway, Kruk has since retired, and become a sports analyst on cable -- first for Fox (which almost cost him my loyalty -- no one working for that network on anything except The Simpsons is above contempt) and now for ESPN. He wrote a column this week about what he sees in baseball players today, and I couldn't agree with him more. (Kruk is 43 and only retired in 1995, not like he's too many generations removed from the game... and yet this generation of players only ten years later has changed and forgotten to respect the game.) The part I especially loved about this column was this:
Do you people out there see how many players are standing and watching their home runs? I know some players think this is a job, but it isn't. It's a game. And everyone who plays this game is taught at a young age to respect your teammates and your opponents. Barry Bonds watches home runs. But Bonds has over 600 home runs and he's breaking records. So the rest of you put your head down and take your bases.
Guys like Karim Garcia on the Mets, Orlando Cabrera of the Expos and Matt Lawton of the Indians -- they're not bad players, but they're not good enough to stand there and watch home runs. With today's smaller ballparks and the watered-down pitching, you don't need to be a home run hitter to hit a home run. So relax, you're not as special as you think you are... Is that what baseball is coming to now? Just another "me first" sport? "Hey, everybody, look at me! Look what I did!" I thought part of sports was sportsmanship? I don't see much of that anymore.
Other than him granting Bonds a flyer, I love it. But he's wrong on Bonds. Sportsmanship is sportsmanship -- do you mean to tell me that good athletes don't need to show respect to their opponents? Bonds is the poorest sport in all of professional athletics right now. But he's by far not the only one. And it's great to have a guy like Kruk pointing out just what punks many of today's players are.
