Conference back40::soapbox

The guy was making a million bucks when he was nineteen, so what do you expect?

    
    Recognized as potential superstars early on in life...
    
    Sheltered and focused in on just that one aspect of life.. sports...
    
    Never grew up... never knew how to handle "normal life"...

  Strawberry is one guy. There are a few more with his types of problems out
of 700 guys who play big league baseball (when they are not on strike).

  If you were to select 700 guys at random ages 24-36 would you expect a lot
fewer head cases?

  George

    
    
    They are all basically spoiled brats...
    
    Some more than others...

So, this Strawberry - is he a ball player, er what?

    i realize this... i just used D.S. as an example...
    
    Chip

  Darryl Strawberry is a 33 year old outfielder who's been around the big
leagues for about 10 years. He's a home run hitter who played most of his career
with the Mets. He was playing for them in 1986 when they beat the Red Sox in
the World Series. 

  For the last few years he's been with the Dodgers but he missed a lot of time
with back injuries. Last year he went to the Giants but now he's out due to
flunking a drug test. 

  When he's on his game he crushes the ball. A few years back when the Dodgers
and Braves were in a pennant race he pretty much dismembered Tommy Glavine and
the rest of the Braves pitching staff. He can crank out a 400 foot home run and
make it look easy. 

  Problem is he's a head case. He has a terrible work ethic, always complains,
acts like a poor sport and is a pain to have around the club house. When he was
playing up to his all-star ability teams were more than willing to work around
these problems but now that he's got back and drug problems it's not so much
of a given that someone will sign him to a big contract.

  But Strawberry is the exception. For the most part the 700 or so guys hanging
around the big leagues are no different than any group of 700 guys in their 20s
and 30s. There are good ones and there are bad ones. 

  George

    Take a kid with minimal education, a questionable environment growing
    up, and give him more money than he can spend. Is it any wonder they
    turn to cocaine?

    Mark,
    
    It's understandable, but it's still no excuse.  Lots of folks do not
    like Neon Deion Sanders, but he's squeaky clean on drugs; he works
    with young kid quietly, behind the scenes urging them to stay drug
    free.
    
    Sanders bought 65+ acres in the county where I live.  At the time he
    said he was going to put in a T-ball field and a Pop Warner football
    field and open it to as many kids as possible.  'Course that was
    before he wound up playing for SF and Cincinnati :-0
    
    

	A guy on my basketball team talked about how it didn't matter if we
won or lost, as long as he "looks" good. I simply told him he has the Wade
Boggs syndrome. His silence told me he wasn't happy.


Glen

FYI...  I am strongly resisting the evil urge to
start the Sports Stars' Knives topic.

TYVM.

    Yastrzemski was a bumb!!

	bumb  n. an explosive device that won't detonate.

No, a bumb is what your car's bumber protects you from.  And bumbershoot is
what Gene did if he hit the pickup's bumber.

    
    I thought that bumb was the hair on a bee.

If I had been wagering, I would've surely put money
on "Yastrzemski" being misspelled, not "bum."

Good thing Jimmy The Greek wasn't in my office.

  So what was wrong with Yaz?

  He was one of the great Red Sox hitters of all time and I believe the last
to win the triple crown in the American League.

  George

    The last to win the Triple Crown, *period*.
    
    Mark.

  Yeah, like he said.

  So what's wrong with Yaz?

  George

    
    I thought Secretariat was the last one to win the Triple Crown.

  Different crown. Lot's bigger and holes for pointy ears.

  George

>  So what's wrong with Yaz?

I don't think it's been decided whether being a "bumb" is good or bad...

    
    I wouldn't like to be the hair on a bee, myself.

    George:
    
    Yaz won the triple crown with a 301 average.  It was a fluke.  He was a
    good fielder and actually not a bad hitter.  Yaz was a bumb because he
    treated people like dirt.  Crapped all over Tony C when they played
    together and didn't even have the decency to go to the mans funeral. 
    Didn't like kids and like Jim Rice, had a lousy disposition toward
    people.  It's this kind of thing that makes sports legends
    memorable...or bumbs (Yes, I said bumbs...as is arses...back ends!)
    
    John Havlicek was a great ball player and wasn't a bumb.  Yaz was a
    very good ball player, but he was a bumb.  Clinton may be a great
    president some day...but he won't be re-elected because...you guessed
    it...he's a bumb!
    
    -Jack

    All these experts...
    
         <<< Note 286.24 by MKOTS3::JMARTIN "You-Had-Forty-Years!!!" >>>

>    George:
>    
>    Yaz won the triple crown with a 301 average.  It was a fluke.  He was a
    
    Wrong!  Thank you for playing....
    
    
    1. Yaz won the Triple Crown with a .326 average, 44 homeruns and 121 RBIs.
    
    2. Yaz spent countless hours volunteering for the Jimmy Fund.  How can
    you say he didn't like kids!?
    
    3. Yaz circled the field after his last game at Fenway, shaking hands
    with the fans as a tribute to their support over his long career.
    
    You should think before speaking.  
    
    And the word is "dumb".
    
    Mark.
    Mark.

    
    Just what is it with the American society that allow these
    type of misplaced hero-worshipping anyway?
    
    He is ONLY a baseball player, for goodness' sake!
    
    Maybe if he wasn't paid that kind of dough in the first place,
    his "problems" wouldn't have been escalated as it is now.
    
    
     
    

In 22 years, he was on the DL only once.

I'll never forget in '76, watching Yastrzemski stepping up to the 
plate with one wrist wrapped and a wearing a back brace while the camera 
panned the dugout to show Lynn, who was sitting the game out 
with a hangnail or something, snapping a towel at another player.

The guy had a work ethic that was/is unparalleled. 

daryll

    Saw Yaz at a book signing. He wasn't a bubbly personality by a long
    shot but considering he had a LONG line of people there, with everyone
    wanting to shake hands, etc., I could understand him not feeling too
    cheerful. I don't think Yaz likes the celebrity bit at all. Then up
    came some new parents with their baby boy, named Carl Yastremski (last
    name can't remember) and they asked him if he would autograph the
    baby's birth certificate. He got up, stopped with the book signing,
    signed the certificate and held and played with the baby and posed for
    pictures with the baby and then with the parents and baby, all the
    while grinning like a little kid himself. It was obvious that he was
    greatly flattered by something like that. The parents were so excited
    that he would do that, I was wondering if they would ever get the
    smiles off their faces. Despite his foibles there hasn't been anyone
    since Yaz to win the Triple Crown and with the present Red Sox I doubt
    you will see anyone like him in a long time on that team. And, as he
    himself said, he had to work hard for every bit of it. Hats off to him.
    

    just smells like one of Jack's typically venomous (albeit unfounded)
    cheap shots...
    
    looks like you missed again Jack, but thanks for trying... Ow... was
    that my leg?
    
    Chip

	had lunch at the table next to his one time.  i'm happy to report
	that he didn't slurp his soup and that he picked up the check for
	his table.

	was at the game where he got his 3000th hit.  that was pretty
	memorable too.  ;>

    
      So why do Polish Americans have all those extra letters you can't
     say anyway ?  Sounds like Yastremski.  Spelled Yastrzemski ?  You
     even do it here in the box, George and Andy ?  You're hogging the
     alphabet !
    
      bb

    
    They all end in "ski" cause...
    
    
    
    
     We can't spell toboggan!!!!!!
    

RE                      <<< Note 286.31 by GAAS::BRAUCHER >>>

>      So why do Polish Americans have all those extra letters you can't
>     say anyway ?  Sounds like Yastremski.  Spelled Yastrzemski ?  You
>     even do it here in the box, George and Andy ?  You're hogging the
>     alphabet !
    
  Beats the hell out of me. Our name was once spelled Majewski (and some of
my cousins still spell it that way) but the j is suppose to be silent and my
Grandfather got tired of people calling him "Mah-Juice-Key" so he changed it.

  Most of the people in my family now pronounce the name "My-Yes-Key". It's
actually supposed to be pronounced something like "Me-Yev-Ski" with some sort
of huffing sound near the v.

  When people ask, I just tell'em to call me George.

  George

If bumb is the hair on the bee, then what are the bees knees?

    
    
    there is a woman in my group with the last name 'skrzyniarz'...wouldn't
    even want to think about how that is pronounced in polish...)i am just 
    proud that i can spell it without having to look it up each time) and
    she just says it 'skry-narz'...now why couldn't they spell it that
    way????
    
    
    -raq (who is polish, but with a french last name that LOOKS polish as
    if i had dropped the 'ski'...but we didn't... honest...)
    
    

    	Hey!  I went to school with a kid whose last name was Skrzyniarz!
    	He was a weak speller, and we speculated that he became gun-shy
    	to spelling because of having to learn to spell his last name.

    
    mz debra
    
    I believe that Seattle Slew was the last one to win the Triple Crown
    back in 1977. Affirmed did it in 1973.
    
    HTH
    
    Mark

I coulda sworn it was Secretariat in 1973.

    The Affirmed/Alydar contests took place while I was paying attention to
    horse racing.  1973 seems a little early for that.

    Secretariat it was in 73. Seattle Slew in 77 and Affirmed in 78.

    
    Gerald, you are correct, my brain must be fried!!!
    
    Secretariet was 1973, Seattle Slew in 1977, and Affirmed in 1978 or so.
    Spectacular Bid tried in 1979. Secretariet still holds the Belmont
    record by winning by 31 lengths, also the time, but forgot what that
    was. Maybe 2:24??
    
    Mark

    .25
    
    Excuse me, but Yaz won the Tripple Crown in 1967 with a BA of .301.  He
    was the only hitter in the AL that year to hit .300+.
    

    Anyone catch the little bit on WBZ sports where Wade Boggs claims he's
    not selfish for wanting more and more and more, he's worth every darn
    cent he can get?  What an ego, yikes!
    
     

    < Note 286.42 by USAT05::WARRENFELTZR >>
    Excuse me, but Yaz won the Tripple Crown in 1967 with a BA of .301.  He
        was the only hitter in the AL that year to hit .300+.
    
     Your exused, it was 68' that he batted .301

RE             <<< Note 286.43 by MKOTS3::KERR "Hell has our URL" >>>

>    Anyone catch the little bit on WBZ sports where Wade Boggs claims he's
>    not selfish for wanting more and more and more, he's worth every darn
>    cent he can get?  What an ego, yikes!
    
  Well actually there is some truth to that. Last year he hit .343 for the
Yankees and was on a pace to hit 18 home runs. His Bill James Runs Created per
Game was 8.72 which is really good. That means that a team of Wade Boggs could
be expected to score about 8.72 runs per game. 

  Yeah, I'd say he's worth quite a bit. He could probably make a run for 3rd
best third baseman after Matt Williams and Travis Fryman. He's up there with
Ken Caminiti and Bobby Bonilla.

  Although I'd be careful of signing him to a long term contract, at 36 years
old his production will probably start falling off fairly soon.

  George

Yastrzemski's 1967 stats:

.326 BA
44 HR
121 RBI

    Why can`t the Red Sox get players like him (Wade that is):')