Legends of the Precipitous Fall: Hideki Irabu

Hype is a hell of a burden to carry for an athlete. That’s because for every LeBron James there exists a couple of Leon Smiths.  That means there’s a high probability that the hype won’t be lived up to and dealing with the aftermath can by no means be pleasant.

A lot of dudes scratch and claw their way onto the rosters of pro sports teams, stay a few seasons and then fade into obscurity, hardly remembered save only for the most die hard box score followers.  Yes, Paul Householder, I’m talking about you.

But the guys that the hype machine has labeled as can’t miss? They’re not allowed to make such a quiet exit. If they flame out, not only do they lose a job but they also lose the faith of the fans, even if that faith was based on undeserved hype to begin with.  It’s essentially a double whammy that the less hyped athlete never contends with.

Few baseball players in the 1990’s were as hyped as Hideki Irabu. While playing in Japan’s Nippon Baseball League he sported a near triple digit heater that drew comparisons to Nolan Ryan. Sure enough, the Padres purchased Irabu’s contract from the Chiba Lotte Marines in 1997. What was his reaction? Screw that, I’m only playing for the Yankees.

It’s at that point that Irabu started down a path that seemed liked it was lined with gold. He could’ve been perfectly happy dominating the NBL and being an icon in Japan. But a new world awaited to be conquered. Who wouldn’t be tempted to throw off the shackles of security and chase that kind of dream?

Better yet, Irabu knew at the time that he didn’t have to be a test case because Hideo Nomo had already taken care of that. The Dodger pitcher, riding a wave of hype all his own that was fueled by an enraptured Japanese press corp, had already made the leap from the NPL to MLB and done so quite successfully.

However, there was a negative side to Nomo already having proven that a Japanese pitcher could handle MLB hitters. The Yankees, seeing how being seasoned in the NPL had prepped Nomo, believed that Irabu was basically ready to go. So in April of 1997 they traded for him and then signed him the next month to a four-year, $13 million contract. By July 10, 1997 he was on the hill for his big league debut.

That’s pretty much a whirlwind for a guy who doesn’t even speak the language, but Yankee brass was convinced he was ready.  It turned out that being fast tracked to the Majors wasn’t the only thing putting pressure on the guy at the time.

Back in Japan, Irabu’s insistence on being a Yankee had rubbed fans the wrong way. In 1997 American sports fans were used to athletes playing hardball with management. But Japanese fans considered such actions to be horribly rude.

So while Nomomania ran rampant two years before, Irabumania was a considerably more muted phenomenon. I’m of the belief that even though that was all his own doing, it couldn’t have made the Irabu’s transition to the big leagues any easier.

But all seemed well when he made his Yankee debut, as Roger Angell wrote in the New Yorker not long after the game:

“I wouldn’t sell this night for anything,” the newest and strangest Yankee celebrity declared (through an interpreter) after the gamed ended—a financial evaluation not to be taken lightly from a rookie who had signed on for $12.8 million (for four years), and who had enjoyed a full-scale City Hall photo op with Mayor Giuliani before ever throwing (or witnessing) a single pitch to a major-league batter. Before long, he had thrown ninety-eight of them, sixty-one for strikes (good for nine strikeouts in six and two-thirds innings), and was allowed to take his seat, pelted by happy sounds issuing from 51,901—no, 103,802—tonsils, minus surgery, with the Yankees ahead, 10-2 (it was 10-3 in the end), in an interhemispherical laugher. Just possibly, baseball’s new era had begun. (New Yorker)

Alas, there would be very few high points for Irabu after that.  In six MLB seasons (his final one spent closing for the Rangers) he never sported an ERA below 4.06.  As it turned out, hitters on this side of the Pacific picked up on Irabu’s stuff a lot better than the hitters did over in Japan.

To make it worse, Irabu raised the ire of George Steinbrenner in 1999, so much so that the Yankee owner labeled him a “fat pussy toad.”  Ouch.

But you see, that’s yet another aspect of Irabu that probably made his jump to MLB a little ill-conceived.  You know the American stereotype of the Japanese male being so committed to improving himself that he will do WHATEVER it takes?  You remember that one, it was pretty much the basis of the Michael Keaton flick “Gung Ho.”  Well, that stereotype would apply more to Irabu’s countrymen that followed him to the big leagues, guys like Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui.

Irabu, on the other hand, appeared to be a little less committed to being the best he could be.  Granted, he wasn’t exactly Kenny Powers, but Irabu smoked in the clubhouse and drank a little too much beer.  At no point in his career did he look the part of an elite athlete, but then again, maybe I’m being way too harsh.  This is, after all, the same sport that gave jobs to Terry Forster and Rick Reuschel.

Who knows what kind of tensions that hype machine created for Irabu, but I found the following tweet from ESPN’s Buster Olney to perhaps be an insight into why he just couldn’t get over that hump:

After his MLB career concluded in 2002, Irabu ended up back in Japan pitching for the Hanshin Tigers.  Later in the decade he had a stint in the independent Golden Baseball League in California and was rumored to be contemplating a return to Japan.  To me, those were the actions of a guy longing to make up for the less than stellar run he had in the Majors.

But the last five years of his life also saw Irabu have a few run ins with the law.  There was a DUI last year in Gardena, California and a highly publicized fight with a bartender in Osaka, Japan the year before.

Then came word yesterday that Irabu had been found dead in his suburban Los Angeles home of an apparent suicide. There were unconfirmed reports that his wife had left him earlier in the week and taken the children with her.

I don’t know how much his failure to live up to the expectations placed on him by others played in Irabu’s decision to take his own life. Perhaps he was at peace with that chapter in his life and was wrestling with a totally unrelated set of demons these days.

The sad thing about hype is that those who bestow it don’t really have to deal with the fallout. Now the guy who didn’t measure up, he’s the one who’s got an aftermath to deal with. I’m of the opinion that the disappointment related to not quite being the next big thing far exceeds the joy of initially being tabbed the next big thing. That’s because it’s not so easy carrying everyone else’s baggage.

Legends of the Precipitous Fall: Nails Dykstra

Legends of the Precipitous Fall: Cecil Collins

Legends of the Precipitous Fall: Chris Washburn

Legends of the Precipitous Fall: Steve Blass

Legends of the Precipitous Fall: Joe Charboneau

Butch Davis just can’t seem to turn that corner

You’d be a silly sort of douchebag to argue that Butch Davis isn’t a good football coach. He first stepped into the national conscience as part of the Jimmy Johnson staff that revived the fortunes of a Cowboys franchise that was on life support in the late 80’s.

He then picked up the pieces of a Miami program that was in disarray and used that as a springboard to jump back into the NFL, this time as head coach of the Browns. He came back to the college game and appeared to have North Carolina on the precipice of something great before a whirlwind of scandal finally did him in earlier today.

His failure to build a championship program in Chapel Hill when it appeared he was on the verge of doing so pretty much sums up his career. He’s a very good coach who just hasn’t been able to take the next step into being great.

Davis’ tenure with the Browns provided a nice tease for that fan base when the team earned a playoff berth in his second year on the job. But he was eventually forced to resign with an overall record of 24-35.

But it was his time in Miami that provides the cruelest example of what I’m talking about. He spent six years building the program’s swagger back up after the NCAA had kicked its teeth in. His final team in Coral Gables ended up finishing 11-1 and ranked #2 in the polls.

After Davis left for Cleveland and handed the keys over to Larry Coker, Miami returned to its championship ways by fielding what was arguably the most talented team of the last 20 years. Davis laid the groundwork but it was Coker who ended up accepting the trophy.

When I look at the totality of the Davis’ career I’m reminded of the lyrics from that crappy 80’s song by Howard Jones, “No One Is To Blame”:

“You’re the fastest runner but you’re not allowed to win.”

However, with this latest chapter now closed, it’s hard for me to paint Butch Davis as a victim of circumstance who’s always been blocked by cosmic forces bent on keeping his hands off crystal footballs. After all, he consciously hired John Blake to be part of his staff at North Carolina.

Think of it this way: if you bring Wile E. Coyote into your organization, stuff’s gonna get blown the eff up, usually by means of explosive devices purchased from Acme. That’s just what the guy does.

In the case of Blake, if you bring him onto a coaching staff, you’re going to get a guy with a deft recruiting touch. You’re also getting a guy with a reputation for being a loose cannon (ask Michael Irvin or Troy Aikman) who worked for two college regimes (those of Barry Switzer and Jackie Sherrill) that were brought down by allegations of cheating. Not playing by the rules? In the aftermath of the scandal at UNC, we can all see that is exactly what John Blake does.

So when I look back over Butch Davis’ latest failed attempt to hoist the hardware that seemingly lesser contemporaries such as Les Miles already have, I’m reminded of a line from the seriously underappreciated flick “The Contender”:

“Who doesn’t want a shortcut to greatness?”

My talk with Ben Stancliff

Tennessee fan Ben Stancliff was basically turned into the school’s Compliance Office for activities that a fellow fan deemed to be potential secondary violations. I talked to him tonight to get his side of the story:

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Here’s a recap of the situation I posted earlier today that includes screen shots of the Facebook posts in question.

Is Tennessee’s latest recruiting “scandal” really a scandal at all?

Let’s say you’re a die hard fan of BlahBlahBlah College’s football team.  You’ve also got a Facebook account.  BlahBlahBlah College happens to be recruiting a blue chipper named Joe Quarterback.  It just so happens that Joe Quarterback has a Facebook account.  See where this can lead?

In case you’re a little foggy on the matter, let me get you up to speed: the NCAA considers it a violation for fans to utilize social networking sites or email in hopes of swaying a recruit to play for their school.  You see, the rapid advance of technology has created potential recruiting violations that the NCAA couldn’t have dreamed up as recently as the early 90’s. THE MACHINES WILL OWN US ALL SOME DAY SOON.

But here’s the slippery slope in all of this:  if you’re a fan who’s accused of drifting into this gray area, what recourse do you have when the slings and arrows start flying from your own fan base?  That’s the position a Tennessee fan named Ben Stancliff finds himself in today.

The letter below was posted on the website of the Alex Anderson Show earlier today and was allegedly written by Stancliff. It was supposedly sent to current Southern Cal quarterback Jesse Scroggins a few years back. Here goes:

I know you are struggling with your decision. I just want you to know I wish you well wherever you play, but my heart will break for you if you announce Trojan. We love you in Tennessee. You would be our hero.

Some quarterbacks have two year careers and make it, but the odds are against it. Look at Tee Martin, he played for two years won a National Championship at Tennessee and then couldn’t make it in the NFL. He had all the tools. What was the deal? He wasn’t developed enough to play at that extremely high level. He’s in coaching now and good for him. DJ Shockley decided to follow a very talented QB in David Greene to UGA. David Greene started all four years and set SEC passing records. Shockley had a senior year to show what he could do and was everything that the league was looking for at the time. A Michael Vick type guy who could throw. Shockley, despite having a very good senior year, had to wait until the 7th round before his name was called. He will be battling with a pretty good QB in John Parker Wilson for the 3rd string job. All I am saying is think.

But I watch you and I think you do what it is you do as good as it’s ever been done. But you need first team reps for all four years to really develop into an elite QB prospect and be ready for the NFL. Chaney put Drew Brees into the NFL and look at him now. Your skill set reminds me a lot of Brees.

I just don’t want you to make a decision based on distance when it could effect your entire career– your life even. Yes USC has developed great QBs, but the man who had a large part in those guys and their heismans is in Knoxville leading the Orange. We will be winning National Championships sooner or later. If you decide to be a Vol, it will be sooner. Great Recruits will follow you to Knoxville. It’s a family here. And that family doesn’t end with the team. We are part of one big family — The Big Orange Nation. And we love our athletes, we love our coaches, but most importantly we love our Quarterbacks. Hell, I hear all the time about random vol fans on a message board that have sat down with Monte Kiffin over a beer and talked football. He loves to talk football. He’ll talk you ear off, but as fans, we eat it all up!!! We love Lane Kiffin and the brass he has brought to this battle.

We are realistic though, none of us exppects to go out and dominate under Kiffin’s first year, but 7 wins and a decent bowl would be a great first step to greatness. Then in year two, we’d have you under center and you will never experience anything else in life as great as walking to the huddle on your first play and the screams for you are so loud you can’t even call the play. You are a warrior so I know you’ll be stone faced, but you’ll be smiling inside. Running through the T is something that we hold sacred here in Tennessee (I’m in Nashville and yes the fans here are just as rabid and loving as the ones up in and around Knoxville.

We are really in it with two receivers that are ranked in the Rivals 250 that have all but said they want to be Vols if you are going to be their quarterback. You know who they are you talk to them all the time. Jac told me he was gonna kick your butt if you put on anything but an orange hat. (J/K On that one) We’lll cry for a while, then try to understand why, and then it’s WTF do we do now? mode. Because without you. It’s going to be hard on this great family. We will still watch your career in earnestness and wish you the very best — see you’re already part of our family. (some will hope that you ride the bench behind Barkley and then Ride the bench behind that 5 Star guy they signed one year behind you.) But most of us will love you and want well for you. That’s just the kind of people that live here in Tennessee. I’m sure your mom’s family knows something about that.

The SEC is the undisputed greatest conference in the land. We just signed a $2.25 billion deal with ESPN to ensure that every single SEC conference game is broadcast on TV. You will be on TV. Scouts will see you lead us to greatness. What a story. Most guys in the business of covering college football are in bed by the time the West Coast games come on, if they are even broadcast. That’s huge.

The UT campus is nice. Knoxville is one of the greatest places on Earth to go to school. WE are all a family. I hope I see you on campus sometime so I can shake the hand of a man that is getting set to play big time NFL ball. You got it in you, bro, you just have to take advantage of all your opportunities. Work your hardest whatever it is you are doing. At Tennessee You will get first team reps your freshman year and there is a real possibility of winning that starting QB job. The longer you do it at a high level, the better your chances are for the millions that come with playing at the next level. We love you. (DoubleAShow.com)

You’ll notice that there’s nothing posted on the site that directly ties Stancliff to the letter. It was apparently brought to the Double A Show’s attention by former Rivals.com writer Kevin Scott. However, there are screen shots of Stancliff’s Facebook wall that do appear to show him interacting directly with a recruit.  The player in question is Dunwoody, GA linebacker Justin King, who recently committed to Tennessee:

At this point let me share the fact that I know Ben Stancliff. Well, I don’t know him personally in the “He’s been my wingman during frequent trips to the club” kind of way. Actually, I know the guy in a “We have semi-frequent interactions on Twitter” kind of way. So while what I’ve posted above looks pretty damning, everyone knows that, much like Pappy O’Daniel, I’m a forgive and forget Christian.

That’s why I give the benefit of the doubt to my Twitter followers, because dammit, that’s just the loyal kind of son of a bitch that I am. You see, unlike Jim Jones, I won’t force my followers to drink poison Kool-Aid. Instead, I will provide them a forum with which to tell the world their side of the story. That’s exactly what I’ll be doing with Ben Stancliff later on this evening, so stay tuned.

The saddest thing I could ever imagine

Last night I was checking Twitter and was made aware that another fan had fallen out of the stands at a Rangers game in Arlington. If you’ll recall, one year ago a fan fell from the second-deck club level and into the lower bowl at the Ballpark in Arlington, a fall of 30 feet. He and the folks he landed on were treated but thankfully no one was killed.

When I checked my Twitter feed later on in the evening, I discovered that the fan who had fallen from the left-field stands hadn’t been as lucky, he had died a short time after the fall. My timeline then revealed that the tragedy was more unspeakable than I could grasp: this guy was trying to catch a foul ball that was thrown by Josh Hamilton and went tumbling over RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS SON.  Here are the details.

Today, the identity of the man was revealed, he was a Brownwood, TX firefighter, Lt. Shannon Stone. Yahoo! blogger David Brown provided this heartbreaking reaction from Athletics reliever Brad Ziegler:

“They had him on a stretcher. He said, ‘Please check on my son. My son was up there by himself.’ The people who carried him out reassured him. ‘Sir, we’ll get your son, we’ll make sure he’s OK,”‘ Ziegler said. “He had his arms swinging. He talked and was conscious. We assumed he was okay. But when you find out he’s not, it’s just tough.” (Yahoo!)

There are videos and pictures of the fall available elsewhere if you need to see it, I’ll even provide a link. But seeing the tragedy actually unfold isn’t really necessary. It’s the aftermath that I’m concerned about.

I can’t wrap my brain around what’s going through that little boy’s mind. I’m reminded of another horrific ballpark incident involving a child back in 1982, when a foul ball off the bat of Boston’s Dave Stapleton hit 4-year old Jonathan Keane in the head, fracturing his skull. The image of Jim Rice cradling Jonathan and rushing him into the Boston dugout to be treated stuck with me for a long time:

Jonathan Keane’s scars have long since healed, he lives a perfectly normal life these days in North Carolina. Thankfully for him, Children’s Hospital was only about a mile from Fenway Park. I recall in an interview he gave a few years back that he really doesn’t even remember the incident.

Unfortunately, Shannon Stone’s son will have no such luxury. He won’t be able to un-remember the image of his father tumbling over that railing and suffering fatal injuries.

I’m sure the blame game will start in earnest now, about how ballparks are incredibly unsafe places and even more safety measures should be put in place for fans.  But I think about how many times I’ve been to MLB games and seen ballplayers toss balls into the outfield stands without incident.  Seriously, how many THOUSANDS of times has that happened and it not led to anything as tragic as what occurred in Arlington last night?

Some might lay the blame at the feet of Josh Hamilton for even tossing the baseball up there in the first place.  You know what I say?  Anyone who goes there is an a-hole of the highest order.  In trying to give some fan a souvenir, I am sure Hamilton never once thought it could lead to something so horrible.

Maybe others will imply that Shannon Stone was too overzealous and maybe even a little silly for pursuing a baseball that way.  To those folks I ask this question: you ever seen a son handed a foul ball from his father?  I have, and the smile it generates on the kid is friggin’ priceless.  I’m sure that was Lt. Stone’s goal in trying to grab that baseball, to put that kind of smile on his son’s face.

So now begins the process of trying to find a solution to a problem that before now really never was a problem.  Blame also needs to be affixed to someone, because in this litigious society, somebody has to be to blame, even in the most tragically random accidents you can think of.

Folks will devote energy to those things and most likely ignore the most pressing problem: helping to heal a child who watched his father die.  A safety net under a railing or a lawsuit or three won’t really help achieve that.  If only it could be as simple as Jim Rice scooping up this little boy and whisking him away to a place where it could be made all better.