Come clean John, for tomorrow’s fans…

I fig­ured out why John Smoltz took the low road when he left Atlanta for Boston.

My cre­den­tials as a Braves and Red Sox base­ball fan for almost six decades allows me to ques­tion John’s motive. As a kid I was a BOSTON Braves fan and didn’t for­give them for leav­ing for Mil­wau­kee. By the time they moved to Atlanta in 1966 I was a Red Sox fan. A cor­po­rate move to Atlanta 20 years ago gave me the oppor­tu­nity to adopt the Braves as my National League team with the Red Sox my favorite in the Amer­i­can League.

Who could fail to respect John’s com­pet­i­tive spirit, his numer­ous base­ball achieve­ments and his longevity. His phil­an­thropic works and ded­i­ca­tion to edu­ca­tion are to be admired. What’s trou­bling is what went wrong with his abil­ity to tell right from wrong. Per­haps what hap­pened is part of what’s wrong with pro­fes­sional sports.

Money? Nar­cis­sism? Both?

John pitched his heart out for about twenty years in a Braves uni­form, he even sac­ri­ficed his body. His recov­ery from mul­ti­ple surg­eries is remark­able. Which of these led to his recent [unjust] pub­lic crit­i­cism of Braves man­age­ment? Did the mil­lions he’s been paid over time dis­tort his judg­ment? Make him feel his achieve­ments on the field made him bet­ter than man­age­ment of the club that dis­cov­ered him in the Detroit sys­tem, groomed him, invested heav­ily in him?

The “home­boy” com­ment he made about John Schuer­holtz a few years ago was dis­re­spect­ful. Here we are just a few years later and he repeated the offense by leav­ing — claim­ing he was dis­re­spected by Frank Wren, John Schuer­holz’ suc­ces­sor as Gen­eral Man­ager. Does sport achieve­ment trump respect? Not if you have character.

John’s home is in Atlanta about an hour from Turner Field. Did he feel he couldn’t call or drop in at the club’s office or choose not to in order to build an “alibi” for leav­ing a club he thought wouldn’t com­pete in the 2009 post sea­son? I sus­pect it’s both the guar­an­teed money and the atten­tion that brought him to feel it wasn’t nec­es­sary for him to treat his club [and fans] respect­fully but that the club had to sac­ri­fice their future for him. The low road took him to Boston.

He left for the money. He left for a chance at post sea­son glory. He cre­ated an excuse to cover up his greed and char­ac­ter flaw for more money and glory. He said it was dis­re­spect. It wasn’t.

Base­ball is sport and busi­ness. The money cor­rupted John as did his insa­tiable need for glory. He lost per­spec­tive and put him­self above his club’s fis­cal respon­si­bil­ity. Red Sox Nation, a money machine fed by rabid fans, can take a chance on a big name who may not pitch ever again. The pub­lic­ity will cre­ate more buzz. What made John feel that he is owed a guar­an­tee of mil­lions more than the Braves offer? Why is he above loy­alty to the club that took chances on him at the out­set, when he was injured again and again and yet paid him hand­somely dur­ing his career?

Nar­cis­sism [inor­di­nate fas­ci­na­tion with one­self; exces­sive self-love; van­ity] in com­bi­na­tion with all that money took a man of extra­or­di­nary tal­ent and gen­eros­ity and turned him into a “trai­tor” to his club and fans. Worse, he blamed the Braves club for fail­ing to put him above the best inter­est of the team. Shameful.

Is it wrong to not want John Smoltz to suc­ceed in Boston? Is it wrong to say that John tainted his good work with a lack of hon­esty; can I for­give him once for his dis­re­spect to his club but not do it again? I think not. As a Red Sox fan I want suc­cess but not at any price. To do that I’d be a hyp­ocrite and that would be as offen­sive as John’s action. Being a fan doesn’t mean sac­ri­fic­ing prin­ci­pals — even when the player leaves one of your favorite clubs and goes to another. Sorry John, not me.

That’s what is wrong with pro­fes­sional sports — greed, nar­cis­sism. Too bad — the clubs, the play­ers and today’s fans all lost. The fans of tomor­row deserve bet­ter. Come clean John — I can be into for­give­ness, again.

Dogwood Festival is back…

at Pied­mont Park! Once again, the site of the Atlanta Dog­wood Fes­ti­val will be held at Pied­mont Park April 17, 18, & 19 2009. Artists from all over the coun­try will be bring­ing their works to this nation­ally renowned fes­ti­val. Music, food, and dog­wood blos­soms will fill the air once again as artists bring their paint­ings, pot­tery, sculp­tures, and jew­elry to the 73rd Annual Atlanta Dog­w­wod Fes­ti­val. Remem­ber you heard it here first at Atlanta­Ga­To­day!

Dates: April 17, 18, and 19 2009
Loca­tion: Pied­mont Park Atlanta
Hours: Fri­day 12:00 — 9:00pm, Sat­ur­day 10:00am — 9:00pm, Sun­day 12:00 — 7:00pm
For More Infor­ma­tion: www.dogwood.org

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