There are two items from baseball that demand comment today. You may recall a couple of days ago that I said that Clinton Portis was a fool for talking about Michael Vick and dogfighting when he didn’t have to. And then what he said was outrageous on its own merits. Well, despite those comments, Portis looks like Plato when compared to recent allegations against Elijah Dukes.
Dukes is a 22-year-old outfielder with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He’s been starting recently since Rocco Baldelli went on the DL. At the moment, he’s only hitting .231, but he does have 8 HR in 130 at bats. On the assumption that 22-year-old players tend to improve, Dukes would seem to have a future in the game. Cue Stephen A. Smith: HOW-EVAH…
Dukes’ wife has twice sought a restraining order to keep him away from her and her children in the past month. She alleges that Dukes has threatened to kill her and her children; she says Dukes sent a photo of a handgun to her cell phone; she played a voice mail that she alleges came from Dukes saying she was a “dead dawg” and “your kids too”. There was an AP report that Dukes and his wife had an angry encounter at the school where she is a teacher and that she sought the intervention of the principal to maintain order. Another report said that Dukes has fathered five children by four different women – recall he is only 22 years old so he certainly is on his way toward “Shawn Kemp status” in terms of fertility – and another report alleges he has threatened at least one of these other women too.
Clearly, all of that behavior is sufficiently anti-social that it might endanger the career of a guy only hitting .231 and that behavior is such that it could land Dukes in the hoosegow for a period of time. Leaving threatening voice mails and sending threatening photos via cell phones compounds the stupidity of threatening the life of your wife and children. But Dukes went an extra mile and took his anti-social attitude to new heights. The St. Petersburg Times asked him what he had to say for himself in light of these allegations. Instead of declaring his innocence or expressing sorrow for his wife and children or avowing that the safety of his wife and children are paramount to him or even issuing the standard no comment on advice of counsel, here’s what Dukes had to say:
“I’m just going to play ball, that’s it. I’ve got to go. I’ve got a video game to finish.”
Like I said, Clinton Portis sounds like Plato by comparison…
Since I referred to Clinton Portis and his remarks a few days ago, there is a delicious irony involved in that situation that hasn’t bubbled up yet. I’m surprised that the Political Correctness Police haven’t jumped on it. After Portis’ unnecessary comments and Chris Samuels’ giggling at them, the Washington Redskins found it necessary to issue a statement saying that the organization did not associate itself with nor did it condone such insensitive and offensive remarks regarding dogfighting. Good for them. However, the Washington Redskins organization has been accused of being insensitive and offensive by dint of the organization’s name for quite a while now. I’m surprised that the Native American activists and the “People Primed To Exhibit Righteous Indignation At The Drop Of A Hat” have not jumped all over that one.
The second baseball related issue relates to the death of Cardinals’ pitcher Josh Hancock. Hancock’s father has filed a lawsuit for unspecified damages against Mike Shannon’s restaurant in St. Louis, the manager of that restaurant, the towing company whose truck Hancock ran into, the tow truck driver and the guy whose stalled car on the Interstate was being assisted by the tow truck and the tow truck driver. The suit alleges that Hancock spent over 3 hours in Shannon’s restaurant after playing a day game where Hancock was “a regular” and for the entire time he was there, he was “handed drinks”. The suit alleges that the driver of the stalled car was negligent because he didn’t get his vehicle off the road and away from traffic and that the tow truck was on the scene for “an exorbitant amount of time” without removing the stalled vehicle. The attorney representing Hancock’s father said that other defendants might be named at a later date.
According to police reports of the incident, Hancock had a BAC nearly twice the legal limit when he plowed into the tow truck. Oh, and there was marijuana in his car too. And he was speeding. And he wasn’t wearing a seat belt. And he was on his cell phone.
I guess the other defendants who might be named later could include the seat belt manufacturer because they weren’t designed to secure the driver automatically and the car manufacturer for designing a vehicle that could attain speeds in excess of the speed limit and the cell phone manufacturer and the cell phone carrier for providing the distraction and the local marijuana merchant who provided that illegal substance to Josh Hancock. Hell, why not sue Spiderman while you’re at it? If he hadn’t been so wrapped up in confronting some fictional super-villain, he could have been at the scene and used his spider powers to prevent the accident…
Look, Josh Hancock’s death was a tragedy. Looking at the actions of a bunch of baseball teams in removing alcohol from their clubhouses, one might think that Hancock got buzzed in the clubhouse and then met his demise; but this lawsuit would seem to change that perception. This suit is an example of a current mindset that no one is responsible for bad thing that might happen to him or her; someone else is always at fault. Things could obviously have worked out for the better for Josh Hancock and his family here, but the person who was driving drunk and speeding while talking on his cell phone without a seat belt was the one and only Josh Hancock.
Here’s a public service announcement. Today begins the Week Of Solidarity With The People Of Non Self-Governing Territories. Some of those folks might take solace in the knowledge that they don’t have to deal with a government they elected full of goofs such as the ones currently in the White House and the Congress… I’m beginning to feel as one with those folks already.
Finally, a comment from Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle:
“Terrell Owens likes the new laid-back attitude of the Cowboys’ new coach Wade Phillips. But there will be a tough transition for T.O. to deal with. He’ll have a whole new playbook to not learn.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…