It must not mean what he thinks it means
So Chipper Jones has just had enough of the Mets and the Phillies – especially Cole Hamels, Jimmy Rollins and Carlos Beltran.
These two teams are constantly going at each other verbally. You know, win with class, lose with class. Just keep your mouth shut and go play your game.
Dwight Evans Photo by Elsa/Getty Images
I’m not a big fan of folks using the word “class” whenever they discuss sports, but since Chipper brought it up – let’s talk about class.
Is class schtupping a Hooters waitress and having a child with her while you’re married to someone else? Destroying a marriage that spanned almost seven years and produced a son just to get your rocks off with another woman? Is that how class is defined these days?
I get it. That happened off the field. Doesn’t matter what happens off the field as long as you stay classy on the field, I guess. Every ball player cheats, so cheating on your wife and child isn’t indicative, really, of what type of person you are, is it? Cole Hamels is without class because he called the Mets “choke artists” during a radio interview? Let’s get THAT quote, shall we?
…he was asked outright, “Do you think the Mets are choke artists?”
“Last year and this year I think we did believe that [they were choke artists],” he said. “Three years ago we didn’t because they smoked everybody, and I think we all thought they were going to win it all. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. But, yeah, that’s kind of what we believed and I think we’re always going to believe that until they prove us wrong.
“For the past two years they’ve been choke artists.”
Not exactly evil sounding, is it? Doesn’t even sound all that “classless” to me. Maybe Chipper’s too busy banging waitresses to look up the meaning of the word? I believe if Chipper is so eager to become relevant again that he’s going to throw himself into this fray, well, maybe he should choose his words more carefully. I look at Chipper Jones and, in all honesty, the first thing that comes to mind is “he cheated on his wife with a Hooters waitress”. I don’t think about his stats. Not about how good he was or all his success with the Braves.
I think about what a scumbucket he is.
So when I read that he’s calling others out for being classless it really got a chuckle out of me.
In any other field, your morals and your standards define what kind of person you are. No one says “He’s a great accountant. Sure he cheats on his wife and shoots up, but he’s a tax wiz!” People call that guy an ass behind his back, because that’s what he is. In baseball, the type of person you are off the field only seems to matter when you’re a good guy. Everyone wants you to know that this player devotes a lot of time and money to charities or that player spends all his free time with his elderly grandparents. We get beaten to death with those stories. But you’ll never hear about a pitcher touted as a fabulous guy who was screwing a groupie while his longtime girlfriend was planning for their future or about the married catcher with a different girl in every city his team visits. The press knows these stories, the players know these stories, and they all ignore them. You’ll read everywhere about what wonderful people these players are. Great guys, a tribute to their teammates…but you’ll never hear about their personal lives. Because it doesn’t matter, right? They’re fabulous players and all their teammates love them so who cares if, when they walk off the field, they have no problem cheating and lying?
I have a problem rooting for these men. I do it for some on my team, so I’m a bit of a hypocrite here. But I’m not whining about the lack of class in an area where I’d be throwing stones in a glass house. Chipper is surrounded by glass and he needs to mind his own business.
Chipper also needs to get the hell off his high horse and leave the likes of Cole Hamels alone. The Braves finished in 4th place in 2008 and third place in 2007. Maybe he should focus on helping to improve his team instead of whining about the way other players are handling their successes?
12 Comments
Comments are closed.
I don’t have a problem rooting for them-I *really* wanted Derek Lowe to perform well in the ‘04 ALCS even though he was running around with everything that had two X chromosomes. I would hope the Red Sox try to resign Tek even if he IS having an affair with Heidi Watney. But that doesn’t mean I would want to be married to them or buddies with them.
It’s not just baseball. I felt exactly the same way about Bill Clinton. I voted for him twice even knowing he was a dog. But I’m sure glad I’m not Hillary.
While we’re on the subject, this is an interesting site:
http://baseballdirty.com/
I also wonder why Chipper cares what’s going between the Mets and Phillies?
Those sites aren’t interesting to me. Just schlock, no better than the movie star/gossip rags. I clicked on that one, scrolled down a little, and saw a picture of an athlete’s wife, then a pic of him with another woman, calling her his “hookup” and making the audience think this man is cheating on his wife with this woman.
Thing is, the picture is of him in a public place, smiling AT A CAMERA, with the woman’s face next to his. He’s not kissing her, it’s not even a candid shot. He could be posing for a pic with a fan, who stuck her face right up next to his for the shot. Or it could be his cousin. I hate to think that if someone came up to me in a public place, asked to take a picture with me, I said yes, and posed for it, that anyone would take that picture and use it to implicate me.
If a guy, or girl, in any walk of life, happens to be cheating, and someone catches them and posts it somewhere, fine. They deserve to get caught. But to try to fool people into thinking someone’s doing something that they have no idea as to the validity of, that’s not fair.
You’re pretty much dead on about that particular site, Jere.
Cheaters are liars. Their behavior off-field doesn’t say beans about their baseball skills. But it says loads about their character which DOES affect teamwork and that sort of behavior on the field. So although I’d cheer my team on…even if it consisted of someone who cheated on their wife…I’m rooting for the name on the front of the jersey, not the back.
another texan broke me of that habit long ago, unfortunately
Albert Sapplewhip, a young an upcoming pitching phenom meets with Scott Boras…
AS: So what do you think?
SB: Doable, but not guaranteed.
AS: What’s not guaranteed?
SB: We can be certain that the 4/50 offer is solid.
AS: Yeah?
SB: Post season incentives are there, as are provisions for AS picks, IP, SO and other milestones.
AS: Yeah?
SB: Luxury suites for your family on the road, seats at the game; all are in the bag.
AS: Yeah, great but what about…
SB: Look, we can do just about everything, but cannot guarantee your picture winds up on baseballdirty.com
AS: Then refuse the deal…
I’m with Tex on this one.
On the flip side — I do feel to a certain extent, what they do in their private life – is truly none of our business.
Baseball players, politicians, actors – they’re human. Some are better humans than others – but they’re all human. We shouldn’t expect perfection out of someone because they’re a professional athlete. If a person has poor character, they have poor character; their career field of being an athlete isn’t going to change that.
And on top of it all — who are we to pass judgement. When we all become perfect then we can critique others.
I’m not at all saying cheating is acceptable. I agree 100% that its disgusting. But I do think that we expect our “heroes” to be perfect when the truth of the matter is that they’re only people. And sometimes even good people make mistakes when they’re exposed to fame and money. Power can often lead to corruption.
I don’t expect perfection from anyone. I also don’t expect other people to talk about what amazing human beings people are who do the types of things Chipper did/does.
I also don’t expect someone with a closet full of skeletons to come across as a total douchebag the way Chipper did.
And if they don’t want to be on a site like Baseball Dirty…there are ways to avoid that.
All humor aside, the real thrust here is not who are heroes are, or should be. The notion that Chipper takes shots, when his own house appears in disarray seems to be the issue.
For that, he’s not above it all, and finds himself the subject of a certain amount of hypocrisy.
There was a time when we knew nothing of the goings on away from the glare of what the lights are shining on, whether in sports, politics, or whatever. I mean for goodness sakes, The Nelsons and Ricardos had me wondering if my parents were violating laws because they didn’t have twin beds…
Chipper was an idiot for opening his mouth dissing others when he was classless himself. I agree Cyn
One of the things I try to keep in mind when reading these things is how easy it is to take something, ANYTHING, out of context. The media does play to the audience…or what they feel the audience wants to see, read or hear. Tru’s example illustrates that well, I think. Did the public think it was wrong to show married adults in the same bed and so TV/Hollywood went along with it…or did the public grab onto what they were shown as being acceptable?
With that being said…I don’t believe that all of what is said is a lie. Sure you can choose to ignore a rumor or two, but anyone making as much as these guys could sue and make a BIG statement if they felt they had been wronged completely. Sometimes, personally, it just all seems like too much backpedaling and not enough arguing back, and then I just say “ugh”. Very subjective, possibly hypocritical, I know…I root for laundry, so to speak, but sometimes a person irritates me and I just cannot be a fan. Just like sometimes a person tickles my fancy and I cannot hear a word against them.
So, let’s take all of that out of here. Tru’s point is a very good one. Let’s pretend for a moment we have no opinions about Chipper jones and his morals or personal life, and just look at him as a player on a tam. When the chips are down, where is Chipper? Helping to lift his team up and taking responsibility, or pushing them down and using them as a step up onto his own personal soapbox? I don’t care if he appears to be the most virtuous man on the planet. Taking shots at his teammates is not cool, IMHO. I might find it easier to take if he was doing it with more to back up his own views from any point, but right now he sounds like a petulant child.
I remember having a conversation in college with a woman who said she and her pal were in Daisy Buchanan’s years ago, and they saw Carlton Fisk tomcatting around. Now, obviously, I have no idea whether this is true or not-but it was one of those “oh, yeah, Carlton Fisk is not just your boyhood hero, he’s a GUY, too,” moments.
I was just passing through, haven’t checked out Cyn’s blog in a while.
I’m going to be in the minority here, but wasn’t Chipper’s Hooter affair thing from 1998? I know it doesn’t make what he did right, or classy, or anything close to it, but at what point does the door close? I’m not saying everything should be tidied up and forgotten, by any means. At what point can a douchebag at least be a reformed douchebag?
He owned up to it, went through some well-deserved (but probably not enough) public hell, then married the Hooter’s girl (I think).
And as far as an Atlanta Brave taking a shot at a Mets team… it’s not quite the NYY / Boston rivalry, but the New York Mets are absolutely HATED down here. Not many New Englanders would get bent out of shape if a Red Sox took a few shots at the Yankees, no matter who took the shot.