The High Court

Deep Thinkers Only...

The Big Gavel...Frustrated Jocks

October 7, 2005

 

David Wells is the kind of guy that elicits a response from you.  Because you will always get one from him.  And there is a pretty good chance it will range from uncouth to humorous to moronic to honest.  You just never know.  And that causes you to form an opinion about him.  Some love the guy, some…well, not so much.  After his column for SI.com and Yahoo this week, we can be sure that Tom Verducci belongs to the last group.

 

Verducci is a talented veteran baseball writer for Sports Illustrated.  He is clearly a passionate fan of the game, and while I don’t know him, I would feel fairly safe in characterizing him as a baseball purist.  A purist who believes there is a certain “right” way to play the game and a proper way to conduct one’s business on and around the diamond.  David Wells clearly offends most of those clearly held sensibilities Verducci has about the game.  Nevertheless, I was shocked to see Verducci hammering away at Wells after his loss in the second game of the Red Sox-White Sox divisional series.

 

Verducci used Tony Graffanino’s costly error to launch his veiled tirade against Wells.  While many were choosing to draw parallels between Graffanino’s gaffe and Bill Buckner’s misfortune, Verducci used the situation to slam Wells.  Verducci put the blame for Boston’s come-from-ahead loss on Wells, for giving up a three-run homer to Tadahito Iguchi following Graffanino’s error on what could have been an inning ending double play.  That Verducci chose to put responsibility on Wells is not such a big deal; that he used his column to bash Wells for past failures and transgressions is.

 

Verducci began his column by suggesting that the notion of Wells a clutch big-game pitcher was mere myth.  He noted his failures in the 2002 and 2003 postseasons, and he made sure to provide a reminder of the poorly conditioned Wells’ disdain of fitness.  Verducci threw in the fact that Wells stomped off the mound on Wednesday night without acknowledging Red Sox skipper Terry Francona.  He suggested that Wells wasn’t smart enough to consider that he might have to return on short rest for Game Five (assuming there is one), and also wondered aloud if Wells wasn’t being selfish based on his post-game comments.

 

Now allow me to address the many issues on the table here.  First of all, yes, Wells is the guy who hung the breaking ball Iguchi hit out of the yard.  Wells is the guy who couldn’t protect a 4-0 lead.  But had Graffanino made the fairly routine play, Iguchi never comes to the plate.  And nobody knows that better than Tony G.  As a former middle infielder, I can promise you nothing smarts more than making a mistake that costs you two outs.  And yes, pitchers pitch around errors all the time.  That’s their job.  But when they do make mistakes, the defense has to take responsibility for those extra outs given to the opponent.  Now Graffanino does not deserve to be portrayed as a goat; it was just one play out of many.  And for that matter, Bill Buckner has never deserved the treatment he has received over the years.  That wasn’t a one-play series back in ’86.  Or a one-game series.  So everybody let it go.

 

So if Verducci wants to call Wells the goat, that’s fine.  But let’s leave the discussion to Wednesday night.  How is the past relevant to Wednesday night’s events?  If Verducci simply wants to poke holes in the notion that Wells is a great big-game hurler, then just do that.  There really isn’t any reason to bring up statements Wells has made about physical fitness in the past.  There isn’t any reason to bring up his behavior coming off the mound during Game Two.  And there really isn’t any reason to question his foresight concerning Game Five, or to twist his post-game comments to make him seem selfish.

 

Terry Francona knows that when he goes to take the ball from certain people that the reaction won’t be positive.  And that is a fact I am sure he loves.  You think Joe Torre relishes going out to remove Randy Johnson in a tough spot?  I am sure Joe wishes he could take an armed escort out to the mound.  Because the Unit will not be pleased.  And that is just how you want your starters.  Competitive as hell and having every intention of finishing what they started.  It also isn’t the starter’s job to be thinking about a start he might make on Sunday.  His focus should be on Wednesday.

 

Most importantly, you have to remember that we are talking about actions and statements in the heat of battle.  How do you think Wells was feeling after losing a four-run lead in the biggest game of the season to date?  Not terribly happy, I would guess.  So if his statements seem to be negative, so what?  It’s perfectly understandable.  Verducci’s father was a high school football and baseball coach, and Verducci himself was an athlete through high school.  He should know better than to take comments made after a discouraging loss and start using them to read somebody’s mind.

 

I found an interesting interview with Verducci conducted by an amateur site much like ours from December of 2003.  In the interview Verducci was asked if most writers were frustrated jocks.  He said no, not in his opinion.  I assume (see…I can play mind reader, too) he was including himself in the no group.  I found it odd seeing that, especially when I recalled a piece Verducci did for SI in spring training, when he was a Toronto Blue Jay for a few days.  Verducci was given the opportunity to train with the ballclub and play in a spring game for his story.  And I find it hard to believe that Verducci wasn’t using his profession to live out the lifelong fantasy of a frustrated jock.

 

And don’t get me wrong…I am not suggesting that “frustrated jock” has a purely negative connotation.  I came much closer than Verducci to living the dream of being a professional baseball player, and I can admit to being a frustrated jock.  Everything I do to keep myself immersed in the world of sports is based on the fact that I miss being a player.  Nothing…not being a coach, instructor, or writer…has adequately filled the hole left by not being a player.  But that wouldn’t give me the latitude to take shots at the guys fortunate enough to be playing at the highest level under false pretenses.

 

And that is what bothers me most about Verducci’s column.  He operates as an objective, top-flight journalist.  He is not some renegade internet hack like yours truly.  He isn’t even an opinion columnist for his own publication.  He is their lead baseball writer.  And his most recent column was beneath him.  If Tom Verducci wanted to take shots at David Wells because he doesn’t like him, he should have just said so.  I can assume he didn’t because his publication doesn’t approve of that sort of thing.  And I say if you can’t be honest about what you write, don’t bother to write at all.  The title of his column on Wells’ effort was “Careless Mistake”.  The same could be said of the column itself.

 

Court is adjourned.

 

 

You can reach The Chief at chiefjustice@thehighcourtofsports.com.