A pair of season-ending injuries in a 7-day period could have brought
out the worst in professional athletes, but thanks to Craig Biggio and Ivan
"Pudge" Rodriguez we finally have some evidence that class still
exists. As you may know, Rodriguez (the perennial All-Star catcher for the
Rangers) saw his season come to a screeching halt one week ago when his
thumb was broken on the bat of Anaheim slugger Mo Vaughn's bat. Vaughn,
who was obviously out of the batter's box and showed no attempt to avoid
the collision, apologized for the action, but Rodriguez was the one that
showed his professionalism. Pudge reported that there were no hard feelings
and that the incident was something that just happens every once in a while
in baseball. Of course Rodriguez was having an even better season than the
one that won him MVP honors last year which could have spelled disaster
in the media. It would have been so easy for Rodriguez to criticize Vaughn
(which we did because we can), but his tremendous professionalism came out
and ended any possible confrontations in the future.
Biggio's injury was a similar one in the fact that it came in the middle of a play that is routine most of the time. Biggio tore two ligaments in his left knee when Preston Wilson slid hard into second base trying to break up a double play. Unfortunately, Biggio was unable to clear himself from the base and Wilson's leg crashed into Biggio's knee tearing the ligaments. Again, Biggio could have easily criticized Wilson for dirty baserunning even though replays showed it was a perfectly legal slide. However, when you suffer a serious injury in the middle of your worst year as a professional, the chance for ill feelings and frustration to come out is very high. Biggio actually spoke well of Wilson saying "it was a tough play and he was just playing the way that I play the game." These two cases show that class has not completely disappeared from the professional ranks. There are plenty of players that can take a long look at these two and learn some things. There has been about enough of players charging the mound just because they are mad and others showing up fellow players and even official scorers (Juan Gonzalez). It's a shame that it takes a serious injury to bring out the class that many of these athletes possess.