Dave Krieger's News StorySaturday, November 22, 2002
Actions
tell true colors
On the bright side, I’m guessing Larry Walker will skip his annual spring
speech. You know, the one about how sick of losing he is.
We bet Walker will continue to be himself. Who can blame him for wanting to win?
He proved this by refusing to return Jerry Colangélo’s call when he had a chance to join the Arizona Diamondbacks, one of the best teams in baseball. But somewhere in the back of our minds, we knew it already.
Your own paper said he explained that he had told them to go through his agent, after he had personally rejected their offer. Didn't you read it, Dave? You might also point out that Arizona's status as one of the "best teams in baseball" may be seriously in doubt, given the health and age of their players and their shaky financial condition that may make it difficult for them to pay the deferred money down the road.
In the back of whose minds? Knew what already?
In fact, after eight years in Colorado, it is all too apparent, which is why you heard no hue and cry from teammates at the prospect of trading a star for a bunch of bench players.
Wouldn’t you have expected one? Maybe not both, but at least a hue, a whiter shade of pale? Shouldn’t Todd Helton have marched into Dan O’Dowd’s office and demanded to know if he would be left to turn out the lights?
Not a peep.
Why?
Where exactly was this hue and cry supposed to come from? Many of last year's players are gone, thanks to Dealin' Dan. Were you expecting the rest to get together in the off season and call a press conference?
In case you were unaware, we only hear the player's opinions when you and your cohorts report them. Since you didn't contact any players or report the results, you manufactured the very silence you site as proof.
In these parts, we scratch our heads when he languishes in All-Star voting and national publications leave him off of their lists of the game’s best players. We’re about the only ones who do.
This is rarely trod terrain because Walker is quite a likeable fellow and, even as he turns 36, a marvelously talented player.
To watch him hit when he’s locked in is not quite like watching Barry Bonds, but it’s close. To watch him field a ball in right field is to scoot up in your seat to follow the throw. To watch him run the bases is to see a bull in a china shop that doesn’t break a thing.
You would be wrong.
In fact, of the half-dozen or so teams Walker would consider as destinations, only Arizona made a play. And frankly, the Diamond- backs didn’t offer that much.
To tell you something about the two principals involved in the trade that wasn’t. Matt Williams paid for his own conference call Friday to explain why he exercised his no-trade clause.
Walker. . . um . . . did not.
Maybe it’s because Williams’ reason was his kids and Walker’s reason was his money.
Walker didn't ask for the trade, didn't initiate it, and didn't do a lot of blubbering to the press about it. If anyone should be castigated about doing it for the money, it should be the Rockies' management.
Would David go to another paper if he had to defer half his salary? And would he feel the need to explain to everyone why he wouldn't?
I checked with The Dude, by the way, who is one year older than Williams’ oldest, and presented him with roughly the options Williams presented his kids. Here’s what he said:
“Any given day, there’s, like.’ 15 or 20 people who come up to me and say, ‘What’s up?’ No way I’d want to go somewhere I didn’t know anyone. You want to be part of the social pipeline.”
As a divorced dad, Williams is my new hero, and it’s not because of anything he can still do on a baseball field, which isn’t that much.
Williams is a twice-divorced father of three who presumably is also a multi-millionaire. The fact that he even considered screwing up his kids' lives to hang on for a couple of more years and a few million more dollars, makes him a negative role model in most people's books. In fact, Williams was reported to be willing to accept the deal if Walker did. There's your role model.
Walker, too, had every right to turn down the deal. He had every right not to make further salary deferrals after making several for the Rockies, to no discernible effect.
But the organization’s willingness to say goodbye was telling. Check out this statement from manager Clint Hurdle:
“Regardless of the outcome of these discussions, our team next season will be made up of 25 players who have accountability and responsibilities to each other and the organization.”
Not exactly the normal kissing-up alter a star is almost traded, is it? None of the usual yada-yada about how relieved he is to be keeping Walker.
In fact, this sounds like a shot right across his bow.
There are only two reasons to make moves in baseball: to please the fans, or to build a winning team. By trying to make a move that did neither, the Rockies are telling us they are too stupid to run anything.
Hurdle is a management "yes man". His statements reveal nothing more than that.
We have been in awe of Walker most of these years because he is the best player who ever played here, and we accepted all the excuses for his irregular schedule because, well, what choice did we have?
Now the Rockies are known among players as a low-pressure country club, and Walker is the personification of that reputation. The Rockies play and party, party and play. No one expects them to win.
The rest of this passage is pure fabrication. No one has heard of this "low-pressure country club" atmosphere Mr. Krieger refers to. In fact, there have been several players commenting in the News and Post that the pressure is very high here due to the (former) fan loyalty and lack of performance in response.
Evidently, that’s OK with Walker. Which is fine. When he chooses to perform, he’s still the top at traction at Coors Field.
But he should probably stifle any further screeds on the frustrations of losing. He just showed his true colors.
We wish lazy writers like Krieger would quit fabricating inflammatory stories just to fill up space. Couldn't he find anything better to do?