Former professional baseball player Doug (Droppin’ Science Like Galileo Dropped an Orange) Glanville has been contributing columns to the Times for some time now. Today, he tackles infidelity in the world of professional sports (thanks to Think Factory for the link):
In an athlete’s environment, money can be its own pollutant; you can become desensitized to the significance of what it can buy. Typically, if a person spends hundreds of dollars on arrangements to pass time with someone, that someone would be important in his life. But when you have extensive financial resources, it’s easy to send similar signals to people who are meaningful only for a moment. Even worse, you might only concern yourself with what it means to you. As the money flows in, so do the toys — cars, clothes, bling — and once in the stratosphere, a la Tiger, it is amazing how easy it is, if you are not careful and grounded, to start seeing women as another accessory in your life.
The pro athlete’s world is self-centered at best. Schedule is fixed, practice a must, travel a given. Anyone choosing to share that has to get on board and fit in. It can get to a point where the relationship is strictly one-way (the athlete’s way), and the other party becomes insignificant, more a prop than a true relationship partner.
If the player dares to take the next step — marriage — there will likely be a legal team at his disposal (via his agent) that can set up a prenuptial agreement. This negotiation is often dragged out for months as a way of seeing whether the future spouse shows an ugly side during the process. But it’s a red flag for your relationship if you have to resort to such tactics to force the worst in someone, and the prenup becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, set up not just to distribute assets but to deal with an inevitable break-up or philandering. In fact, it might as well be seen as a pre-meditated agreement (I may do all of this dirt, so when I do and you want to leave, I still win because instead of half you only get a check for X dollars and one house).
Nice job by Glanville.
Lives They Lived has piece on The Bird. Cleaned his own mound so not to step in the footprints of others, talked to the ball, and flapped his arms. Original to a fault. Too many innings for a kid. 24 complete games. Gob Grimm lasted longer.
Watched the game against Yankees, August 3, 1976, the year the Yankees came back to the stadium under Billy Martin. Messersmith, McNally, Vida Blue. Looked it up on Retrosheet. Yankees won 4-3, despite making three errors. Gamble and White homered. Figgy started and went two, walking 4 and allowing 2 hits and 2 runs. Billy brought in Rudy York for 1 and then gave the ball to Grant Jackson, a little known gem in the Yankee pennant drive, who went 6, earning the win. Jackson ended the season 6-0 with an era of 1.68. Bird lasted seven taking the loss after giving up a two run homer to Oscar. His record stood at 11-4.
Frankly, I'm not sure I buy the relationship between fidelity, prenups and ballplayers. 50% of marriages don't last. 60% - 80% of men have affairs. Plenty of rich people aren't athletes.
I remember having a Topps 1980 Grant Jackson card; I think he was on the Pirates by then.
Hey Thelarmis, I had a weird dream about myself sitting in at drums on a gig at some bright, but hazy cafeteria-looking place and holding my own a little, though we went through Phil Collins pieces as though we were part of some college brass band. I remember missing the cymbals a few times on Another Day in Paradise and trying to make up for it by going off on them in an impromptu solo. Everyone, including the band, looked at me like I just ripped a huge fart at the end of a downbeat.
I was so distraught by this that I ended up climbing up the front of a nearby newspaper office to the second floor and robbing them of their throw pillows, thinking "so this is what it feels like to be a drummer, huh?" >;)
Automatic score, just like the Yankees
Got over on Ms Crabtree like my main man Spanky
Everyone seen this?
How Jeter got younger at age 35
http://tinyurl.com/yb5545h
“We discussed how we can keep him in the game as long as he wants to play,” said Jason Riley.. “Derek said it may not be eight to 10 years at shortstop, but that he wanted to play that long."
Oh my!
[5] Kinda makes me wonder. What if he started doing these workouts 15 years ago? : )
I love Jeter, but are we gonna be paying him $20m/yr even after he loses his teeth?
[3] But did you bust out some kicking solos on "Easy Lover"??
[0] Great article, thanks for the link.
[8] IIRC, yes and no. Everything sounded like the drum major from those ESPN college football bumps. I also recall having an argument with a group of friends about whether Fat Albert was the face on the hundred dollar bill or not. I won, but probably because it was my dream...