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Baseball needs more people like Adam Jones
Wednesday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at what Adam Jones has to say, Tim Tebow’s drawing power, and a weird play in Los Angeles of Anaheim.
Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images
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Adam Jones is a rarity in MLB. He’s a player who speaks his mind rather than just going in for the easy, uncontroversial “one day at a time” postgame quote. What Jones does talk about shouldn’t be controversial, of course.
But in a world where sports fans and sports teams act like the NFL’s Colin Kaepernick is a more significant distraction and problematic teammate than men who abuse their wives and girlfriends, well... let’s just say how things should work and how they do work aren’t always the same thing.
That’s why, when Jones does speak, we should all be listening. And he had an extended interview with Yahoo!‘s Jeff Passan on Tuesday, covering race, America, Curt Schilling, and racial slurs at the ballpark. It’s a fascinating read, especially if your familiarity with Jones is mostly dopes on Twitter saying he’s just an athlete and should shut up and collect his checks. (Why do you follow people like that, anyway? Curate that timeline.)
Jones discussed why he speaks up (silence helps no one), his reaction to Schilling saying Jones made up the allegations of racial slurs being used against him (“he’s never been black, and he’s never played the outfield in Boston”), and even how he didn’t mean to single out Boston when he spoke up about that incident in the first place. (“You go around the whole nation, and you hear fans get nasty”.)
It’s a thoughtful read, even more thoughtful than you’d expect even if you were already pro-Jones. If you only have time for one article today, that’s the one.
Baseball needs more players like Jones — players who understand history, who understand society, and who are willing to discuss both. The willingness and ability to speak up just doesn’t seem to be there across the league, however. But if anything, that’s all the more reason to appreciate what Jones does and who he is.
- The kids are helping plenty with the New York Yankees’ early success, but it’s also the veterans they already had around who are making them as good as they are in 2017.
- Scene: An infield grounder got past multiple infielders — including one who slipped -- to reach the outfield, resulting in a play at the plate that was then reviewed and put the game into extras. It was a weird one between the Angels and White Sox.
- Eric Sogard’s adorable daughter cried her heart out after the Brewers lost. Don’t worry. The Brewers still have Eric Thames. Everything will be fine!
- Francisco Lindor and Jason Kipnis had an amusing interaction after Lindor caught a pop-up that probably should have been Kipnis’.
- LaTroy Hawkins is retired and now telling a story about how he dislikes Tommy Kahnle, and the two even got into a fight while on the Rockies.
- The contact issue warning signs from 2016 are resulting in 2017 issues for Aledmys Diaz.
- Let’s assume the ball isn’t juiced and something else is causing homers to spike. Russell Carleton can take it from here.
- The Red Sox have a third base problem in 2017, but that’s not when said problem started.
- Here’s Bucs Dugout on asset management, something Pirates fans are going to hear a lot about in 2017.
- Tim Tebow is apparently a box office draw for the South Atlantic League.
- The USPS is releasing round, textured stamps that feel like actual sports balls. Will baseball’s smell like a baseball, though? That’s what really matters.
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