I’ll be watching tonight’s Milwaukee at Philadelphia game on ESPN (provided it isn’t snowed out!), hoping to hear Rick Sutcliffe, the color commentator, say something about the remarkably brilliant baseball fan he sat next to yesterday on a flight from KC to Detroit, the first leg of his trip to Philly. The remarkably brilliant fan, of course, was little old me.
Through the ministrations of Delta Airlines, I found myself seated next to Sutcliffe, the 1979 National League Rookie of the Year and winner of the 1984 NL Cy Young Award. We did happen to talk a little baseball. My famous memory worked its quirky charms and even managed to backhandedly insult him – somehow I remembered he was traded from Cleveland to the Cubs for Mel Hall and forgot Joe Carter was in the deal. Mel Hall was a borderline player; Joe Carter was a perennial All-Star. Oops.
For all you long-suffering Cub fans – did you know that Major League Baseball took home field advantage away from the Cubs in the 1984 playoffs? In the best of five series, the Cubs won the first two at Wrigley, lost the next two at San Diego, and had to win game five to head into the World Series for the first time since 1945. However, because there were no lights at Wrigley Field in those days, MLB decreed game five would be played in San Diego because they wanted the game broadcast in prime time. Who knows if playing at home would have made a difference, but the Cubs managed to lose that game and their World Series drought continues unabated decades later.
After the 1984 season, coming off the Cy Young, Sutcliffe was a free agent and was courted by his hometown Kansas City Royals. They offered him a lifetime contract – similar to the deal they had given George Brett. How many of us have that sort of chance in life? But something happened in Kansas City that winter – the intensity of the attention got to Sutcliffe. He told me that reading about it every day and being approached everywhere (he mentioned being “cornered” in a restaurant) repelled him. He didn’t want to be that famous – he thought of his two-year-old daughter and he wanted a chance for her to have a normal life. So he rejected a lifetime of financial security and re-signed with the Cubs. I thought that was a marvelous story of someone standing at a crossroads and seeing the down side of the things so many of us fantasize about.
Another crossroads came as his career was waning. He said he was aware of players using steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. He even “named names” of former teammates he could hardly recognize anymore because of the physical changes that had happened to them. He made the decision not to use – and wondered for years if he’d made the right choice. After all, look at what steroid use did for the late careers of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens – they defied time and became better players late in their 30’s than they had been when they were younger. At that time steroids were not illegal in baseball. There were millions of dollars at stake. The health risks were not as well documented as they are today. Why not do it?
I thought of how easy it is for fans to look down on players who chose to use steroids – but we have no idea what we’d do in similar circumstances. How many people reading this have left a few million dollars on the table? And, even today, what are the consequences for those who did choose steroids? The record books aren’t going to be changed. Nobody is making Mark McGwire or Alex Rodriquez give back the tens of millions they earned. Why shouldn’t they have done it?
Sutcliffe mentioned his daughter to me again, and said, “She tells me I have the benefit of being able to fall asleep at night with a clear conscience.”
It’s a remarkable thing to think about. As I raced through the Detroit airport yesterday in a mad dash to get from gate A21 to gate C24 in 17 minutes, I was reflecting on how cool it was to have been able to talk to him for an hour or so. If you don’t have anything going on tonight, turn on ESPN and listen to the big guy for a while. It might help you keep in mind our common humanity, and the twisting paths our lives take.
I'm sure you dazed and amazed him.
ReplyDeleteWhat a treat to sit by the big red head. I've always loved him, how can you not when you go 16-1 for the Cubs in '84 after not landing on the team until June?
ReplyDeleteI think he is a Christian, did that ever come up in conversation?
As a die hard Cubbie, I never knew we couldn't play game 5 at home because of the lights and prime time. I do remember the game too well. I cried after it was over.
Damn Steve Garvey.
Brett -- I had that idea somewhere in my mind, too, but didn't bring it up. I also had a memory that he'd had an on-air slip up, but I didn't bring that up either. A spontaneous encounter like this would be so much easier if one had the opportunity to do research ahead of time! For the record (according to Wikipedia): he has done a lot of speaking for Fellowship of Christian Athletes, he was at a game in San Diego once and was put on the air as a guest and apparently wasn't quite in full control of all his faculties, and he was the losing pitcher in game 5 of that playoff series. To all of that, I say in retrospect, who cares? It was fun to talk baseball with him.
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