Are The Nats Baseball’s Promises Center?
December 4, 2007
It sure is looking that way. They’ve been fairly successful with reclamation projects from pitchers fresh off surgery no one else wanted to take a chance on to players with off-field baggage. With the trade of minor league pitcher Glenn Gibson yesterday for Elijah Dukes, I thought back to the others the Nationals “took a chance on”. The Nats have had their share of unsavoryish characters through the clubhouse. Jose Guillen, Mike DiFelice, and Damian Jackson come immediately to mind. Robert Fick is a character with some sour history to be sure, but I thought of him as more amusing than dangerous during his tenure with the Nats. Ronnie Belliard had issues before being signed, but he was never considered a danger to others and was the victim in that instance. Dmitri Young reluctantly drew fans in with his teddy bear looks and charming smile, not to mention staying completely clean last season. Lastings Milledge comes with minor attitudinal baggage, mainly over being excited and high fiving fans after his first major league home run (something I frankly find quite cool) and putting out a gangsta rap CD. Ok, whatever.
With Dukes now, who I would put in a whole different category than any of the above, I started thinking about the winter caravan and covering pre-game activities. Will Dukes be trotted out to fans over the winter of community appearances as a way of easing him in? Will I want to stand within ten feet of him or just employ a zoom lens and steer far clear? You can bet I won’t be asking stupid questions about lighthouses if I end up face to face!
I had no fear standing next to Fick, Belliard, or Young. As a photographer, I have to admit a little apprehension about being in the vicinity of Dukes. I know I’ll swallow it, do it anyway, and probably get over it after a while, but I am a woman with children and being around someone who is on record as threatening the lives of others makes me a wee bit nervous. I wonder what interviews Debbi Taylor is preparing for him? My consolation is that he has no record of threatening a journalist or photographer. And heck, maybe all this proves is I’m a girl after all and not cut out for the man’s world of baseball or worthy of credentials. Nope, I won’t fall prey to that. I have to find my own way of swallowing my apprehension and continuing. I take threats to kill someone very seriously. When it happened in my life, the person did follow through so I know it is possible as unimaginable as that may be.
The next upcoming community event for the Nationals is Wednesday with a holiday lighting ceremony on the parking garage next to the ballpark. I’ll be there with cameras in hand. Ryan Zimmerman is said to be coming to spread holiday cheer and thanks to the construction workers. Will Dukes? This could be the first opportunity to bring him out in public. Maybe a few counseling sessions should be under his belt first. As a fan, I’m disheartened and disappointed with the signing because I like to cheer for the team and the players. I sure hope to heck the Nationals know what they’re doing and their plan is solid and foolproof as far as the Dukes mentoring and counseling program. Sure, he has the talent, and maybe getting him out of Tampa (told ya Florida may not be such a grand place after all) and providing a change of scenery in addition to the program will work. The deal is done, so now all we can do is hope for the best and that the talent and athleticism win out above the rest of the fray. The complementary clubhouse chemistry of last season has been shaken and stirred and put over a Bunsen burner at this point. Will it explode or bubble into a soothing potion?
Welcome to DC, land of opportunity and redemption. Heck, if politicians can spin their histories and get re-elected, why not the local 9 on the field? Maybe the next founding partner should be the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs.
Posted in Washington Nationals
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December 4th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Women must think alike…I thought of Debbi’s new challenges and personal safety right away.
December 4th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
I can understand being concerned about being near someone with a violent/threatening history like he has. You mention no history with journalists, so my question would be, is it mostly personal relationships that he has had these problems with, or are there concerns over violence towards random people he comes in contact with?
December 4th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
No, it’s been personal relationships he’s mostly had problems with. And umpires.
December 4th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
This sounds like a little bit of overreaction to me. Do you really think anything would ever happen between the two of you, in any circumstance? Even if you walked right up to him and said, “You dead, dawg. I ain’t playin”, he wouldn’t do anything.
People need to stop acting like he’s a lunatic who killed 200 people. The man made stupid stupid stupid mistakes, and now he gets another chance. This is probably his last one, and I imagine he knows it.
December 4th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
I think it’s common sense to want to steer clear of someone who has had restraining orders for domestic violence, regardless of the “odds” that anything would happen. And I didn’t mean he’d threaten *me* (puhleeze), just that I wouldn’t feel comfortable around him for awhile, which, like I said, is just common sense. So no, I don’t think this post is in any way an overreaction. An overreaction would have been, “oh my goodness, I’m dropping my blog and photography, my season tickets, and going no where near the stadium until that boy proves he’s clean or is traded/retired”. I thought I was clear in my wording, but I guess not.
Fine, he gets another chance. Doesn’t mean I have to like it or embrace it right now, does it? He has to earn the respect of people from this point forward and hopefully he does know that and is capable of following through. I don’t know many people who go around idly threatening to kill people. Do you? Maybe it was a “stupid stupid mistake”, but I also stated fact when I said I take those threats seriously (regardless of who they’re aimed at). Doesn’t mean I thought he would eventually threaten me.
December 4th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
It just seemed to me that you were implying, as a member of the press, you were nervous for your safety.
I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t feel threatened near him, but maybe that’s just me. And maybe because he doesn’t know my cell phone number, or where I work.
As far as knowing people who threaten to kill people, none personally. Not really my crowd. But I’m sure if you were to poll athletes, and ask them that question, I think you might know a few more.
December 4th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
And what about Dmitri’s assault case that he got probation on? Those that matter to you now being that the season is over and he hit .300? Did you like the majority of people seem to forget about Young before he became a National?
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=kurkjian_tim&id=2916835
Dukes told his wife that she needed to die, Young engaged in an attack on a woman — I see no difference betwee the two, it’s deplorable.
The Nats’ are taking chances on guys who’ll help them possibly win — plain and simple.
Let’s Dukes changes. I’ll reserve my judgment until then.
December 4th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Hmm… so with this post, I was trying out my new “go out there and say what you think rather than thinking and saying nothing”. It does seem to have stirred up some conversation, which is new around here. That’s a good thing, right?
If you’ve read this site, you’ll know I had issues with Dmitri Young when he was signed last season too. However, his case seems to be one incident *possibly* caused by diabetes-induced dementia. I’m not excusing it and yes, what he did was absolutely awful too. He did have a track record of being a decent human and teammate before then, and obviously went back to that. I think that’s different from Dukes who pretty much has a consistently solid track record of being in trouble. Only now are we hearing for the first time (from Tim Tolman, who has a stake in this) that he fit in well with the team in the Dominican — a team he didn’t even stay the whole season with.
I challenge Dukes to prove everyone wrong during his time here. That would be delightful.
December 4th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Miss Chatter, thanks for your honesty and viewpoint on the issue. I’m a man, but if I were a woman I’m sure I’d feel a lot differently consider the problem with domestic abuse in America.
My point of the post was not to give one guy the benefit of the doubt for his trangressions because he hit over .300, and the other because he’s now on the hot seat as lot of people seem to be doing.
December 4th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
You are absolutely right (on both counts!). Since Kristen was the only one who “got” what I was saying right off the bat, I figured women and men were probably looking at this differently. And yes, a .300+ batting average does not make an upstanding citizen. Earning Come Back Player of the Year (in my mind this includes off-field comebacks) does soften the history a bit, though, I suppose. Maybe in a year one of the columnists can do a retrospective on both Young and Dukes and how their first years as Nationals projects worked out. One became a mentor with the life experience and mistakes to relate, and the other…? Time will tell.
December 4th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Time does indeed tell, but it makes me wonder…
When the faithful season ticket holders from the early days looked into the future toward 2008, did this scenario ever cross anyone’s mind? Lingering bad feelings about not being treated quite right during the ticket transfer process – concerns about player integrity bordering on issues of personal safety – looking forward to the possibilities that the fat new revenue stream from the stadium could bring in the 2008 free agent market, but instead getting a torrent of reclamation projects?
Oh well, it could be worse. At least you’re not Marlins fans….
Sunny and 75 degrees in Viera today. Pitchers and catchers in about 70 days. Happy Holidays!
December 5th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Hi RocketMike! Any good launches scheduled during the spring training time frame? It’s looking like I won’t be able to make it down until some weekend in March (I may be out of the country the whole month of February – will find out for sure today, hopefully). Ah yes, the weather in Florida is certainly a plus (shivers and looks at dusting of snow on the ground…)
No, never envisioned this scenario and I’m starting to wonder about winning at what cost? Team integrity? Fans? And I have to apologize to Fair And Balanced – I went through my archives and couldn’t find anywhere I mentioned Dmitri Young’s signing/past unless it was in comments. I must have discussed my thoughts elsewhere and had one of those “thinking but not posting” moments.