Not So Grand Slam
As if irritated by some red rash, fans of the Sedona Scarlets are itching to look back on Tony Clark's grand slam Saturday as this season's turning point. Daron Sutton has framed the significance of this event for us, no less than half a dozen times. Just as Clark crossed the Pittsburgh plate, however, another defining moment occured, as the on deck hitter, recently reinstated Alberto Callaspo, congratulated our towering team sage.
Callaspo, a versatile fielder who rarely hits outside his apartment, was briefly placed on an unpaid restricted list following his arrest, yet returned to action disturbingly soon after allegations he threw his 17 month old into a headboard and cut his wife's face with a knife.
To date, we've been spared a team press release claiming this accidently happened as the amorous couple carved their initials into the trunk of a palo verde tree, but it's still a curious move by a club eager to talk up family and community values while struggling to capture that very community's support.
Contrast their understated, almost blase approach with prior ownership's response in similar situations. In 1999, Bobby Chouinard was released after an off season domestic dispute involving a gun and later served jail time. In 2001, Mike DiFelice was released a couple weeks after assaulting three people at a Pittsburgh bar. And with Colangelo, it wasnt just the scrubs who were sent packing - he dealt the Suns' popular franchise player - and the NBA's best point guard at the time - after Joumanna Kidd got a bloody lip.
Colangelo exercised manifestly different business priorities, likely the result of values apart from those held by his successors. When Kendrick and Moorad crow about responsibility, it means financial responsibility and protecting their own investments. Other duties in a quasi public enterprise, like reflecting community standards, are relegated to double talking spokesmen like Derrick Hall for massage therapy when they are perceived to be in conflict with the bottom line.
The company spiel is that the D*Backs are "surprised" about Alberto Callaspo's history of violence. Sound familiar? Remember how Kendrick was "surprised" when Wally Backman's personal troubles were magically exposed by the indolent Phoenix press in half an hour? The truth was Kendrick always knew Backman carried more baggage than a Pullman porter but was willing to ride the ups and downs because Backman was such a dynamic manager. Kendrick badly miscalculated public reaction, however, which, given his lack of expertise in professional sports management, is excusable. The inexcusable part was casting aspersions about Backman and former owner Colangelo, rather than publicly acknowledging his own culpability in the controversy.
Without knowing all the details here, Callaspo's enrollment in anger management classes makes it clear that his wife's fearful pleas to police arent the product of a kooky Venezuelan imagination any more than a knife mark or "minor abrasions" on her face. Judging from press reports, our own wild stab is that Alberto has corporate lawyers galore and his 22 year old wife, who only recently learned of the 911 emergency system at her disposal, lacks representation of any kind.
Predictably, the Diamondbacks' designated crisis communicator is entirely silent about the issue of the day - his organization's feelings about Callaspo - yet is all too eager to advertise how "proud" he is of the entire organization handling this sensitive 
situation. Why, the more you think about it, this whole incident is almost cause for celebration, really. Fans of Hall's verbal gymnastics may recall his similar language while eliminating the $1 seats. In Hall's lexicon, "extremely proud" means "Our policies screw people with little or no voice, but true Diamondback fans should feel warm about it inside."
Any lawyer would be "proud" of the way Hall expresses obligatory concern for generic domestic violence while distancing Callaspo from any wrongdoing - all to setup the nauseating bromide about his belief in second chances. Well, it's not Callaspo's second chance. According to the police report, Alberto's been flinging his young, vulnerable family around at least since they arrived in the States. Perhaps Hall overlooked that in the rigorous, fact finding phase of his internal investigation. Aren't young, impressionable, highly paid professional athletes routinely counseled about unacceptable behavior before problems arise, just as a matter of course? So, now, the Diamondbacks and the union have gotten together and decided that the solution here is more counseling.
I wonder if Hall took time from his busy schedule to pitch the upside of second chances to Marianny Paola, who's been kicked - and apparently knifed in the face - by the D*Backs slashing utility man. Or if he had the opportunity to explain the inherent "win-win" here to the toddler whose cranium's been slammed into the headboard at least once by Callaspo?
What does it matter whether this is the second or third or fourteenth chance for the child abuser starting today in left field, when today's talking point is that we're all extremely proud of the organization in times like these?
(images courtesy of larryscards.com and Norman Rockwell)
I stumbled upon your blog tonight. As a Venezuelan, I'm extremely ashamed of Alberto Callaspo and the accusations surrounding him.
I'm also disgusted by the lack of coverage Venezuelan media is giving to the story. It only confirms me what I've always suspected: they are acommodating to ballplayers and they don't want to show any negatives. I'm not even asking them to judge him without having enough evidence, I just want them to report the story! Is that too much to ask?
I think I perceived your intention by referring to a "kooky Venezuelan imagination"; although, I think the point would also be made by writing about a "kooky imagination". Contrary to what people like Ozzie Guillen and Hugo Chavez might make you believe, not all Venezuelans have something wrong in our noggins. Well, at least that's what I believe... hmmm...
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Hi Rafael,
It's funny you mentioned the "kooky Venezeulans". I did a wiki lookup of Venezuelan players while drafting this post, looking for any 'hot blooded' trends. After Urbina and Ozzie, what struck me was how large and uncontroversial the list was.
The context of "my" stereotype was to illustrate how people, in this case a domestic abuse victim, can be casually disparaged due to their ethnicity, not because I personally espouse that belief.
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to share your indigenous insights.
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Derrick Hall just wanted to show the public that there is indeed someone within the "D*Backs" organization who actually bleeds "Sedona Red."
Bleeding Kansa.. I mean, Bleeding Arizona.
A New Brand of Baseball.
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great article-it would be nice if the Dbacks had released a statement along the lines of "whilst not wishing to prejudge any issues, the seriousness of the allegations requires that the player will not represent the club until investigations are concluded.The Diamondbacks will be also be making a contribution to a related charity to emphasise how seriously we regard the issue of domestic abuse". But I guess a good utility player is a good utiliy player.
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Hey, that’s exactly what Hall did. He got on the radio the day the story broke and said all the right things and even pointed out how important the issue of domestic violence was to the organization. Even pointed out they donate money for the cause. Of course, he was probably just lying because he’s not half the upstanding righteous dude Colangelo was and presumably still is.
Let’s revisit those Colangelo moments Matt brought up out of the basement for us.
Let’s see: Chouinard was arrested Christmas Eve for putting a gun to his wife’s head among other things. Was Chouinard released outright the next day? The next week? The next month? Well almost the next month. He ASKED for and got his release on February 2nd.
Colangelo is on record repeatedly citing the need for the case to go through the legal channels before anything could be done. He also mentioned the collective bargaining agreement needed to be considered. Sound familiar? Obviously, no baseball was being played at the time so that particular sticky widget was a non issue.
Moving on to Mike DiFelice. In addition to being suspended two games for an on field incident – Mike decided to hit on, burn, then punch a woman in the face (as well as some other people) at a nightclub (ahem, Strip Club) in Pittsburgh. An off duty officer happened to be there at the time. He was arrested on August 21, 2001. Not the officer. Mike.
At that time the Diamondbacks issued a statement saying they were aware of the arrest, but would not comment until the investigation was complete. Three days later he was optioned to Tucson. Then he was released September 4th, 2001. Of the three incidents Matt brought up this seems to be the only one that actually resulted in clear decisive action – obviously because of Colangelo’s upstanding moral values.
Oh, yeah - Mike settled the matter out of court with the accusers and the case was dropped late October of that year.
The big one: Jason Kidd.
He was arrested for (and admitted to) striking his wife in the face on January 18, 2001. He sat out the next game and Colangelo and Kidd addressed the media. Check out that transcript. Not much righteous indignation about a star player’s abuse of women emanating from the front office. Oh well. Anger management and counseling was part of the court plea agreement. Of course, since everybody with that kind of talent is deserving of a second chance, Kidd played the remainder of the season with the Suns. Obviously they were able to schedule the counseling around the NBA schedule.
Kidd was then traded. Seems Colangelo could only take so much moral turpitude for so long. That or the fan’s growing backlash portended a possible fall off in interest (ahem, revenue) in supporting the Suns. You decide.
Hall immediately effectively suspended his player without pay based solely on unproven allegations. A move that ultimately was shown to be counter to the collective bargaining agreement that even Colangelo had to follow.
Do I think Callaspo should be taking cuts with the team right now? No. No I don’t. Not one little iota of me thinks that way. In the same way I thought it ridiculous Kidd played out the remainder of the year with the Suns. Ship Callaspo down to Tucson. Get him counseling. Hope things work out. If not, trade him or release him. Maybe regardless of things ‘work out’.
In any case, until we know Callaspo’s ultimate fate - let’s abstain from pontificating about Hall’s lack of morals, ethics, whatever…and cease with the deification of one Jerry (His Holiness) Colangelo.
Or would that be all too reasonable?
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Oops, realized I used HALL in place of Kendrick et al in there a couple of times. No edit button? Oh, the humanity...
Ah, what does it matter? Everybody in this front office is so similarly bereft of moral values that the very names are inconsequental/interchangeable anyway.
Carry on.
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"But I guess a good utility player is a good utiliy player."
russell, a key point. It's even a stretch to call him a "good" utility player, yet Callaspo, to date, is being treated by the club like a "must play" franchise player, a telling reflection of business priorities.
cav,
only someone with an axe to grind against St Jerrald would accuse me of deifying Him here. Merely pointing out that He sheepishly got rid of His troublesome scrubs, while the wolves "proudly" play theirs :-)
As far as coming down too hard on Hall, his "proud" remark is what really opened the door. We can quibble about the content or sincerity of Kidd's apology, but at least he got on TV and said it - and certainly nobody turned the Kidd press conference into a vehicle to express organizational pride -it was a monumentally sad day for the firm and everyone knew it.
I'm not trying to paint these instances as black and white morality plays, and understand the need to protect franchise interests.
But different leaders do that in different ways, and from a public relations standpoint, there are times to pat yourself on the back and times for organizational contrition. His Holiness understood that. Hallzebub, not so much ;-)
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I’m sure somebody adept with LexisNexis can find an instance of some front office **** (if not His Holiness himself) using PROUD or some synonym thereof to describe the way the Suns felt about how they handled the Kidd mess. Remember, that press conference you and I alluded to was literally hours after the incident. There was nothing for the organization to be proud of as they had yet to DO anything. Oh, and if we believe his Holiness (which we should given his extreme righteousness), trading Kidd had absolutely nothing to do with his ‘troubles’. Oh, and you can’t count Kidd out of maybe one day being in the Ring of Honor. Guess I can see how his Holiness wouldn’t be so proud of those statements.
Back to Callaspo: ****, they *immediately* put him on the restricted list. That backfired due to a player's union nobody seems to be all upset at. They got him counseling and are (if rumors are true) trying to move him.
All this and I don't believe Callaspo has even been officially charged with anything. At least he wasn’t when they took action against him. Unlike the three examples you trotted out from the past. It doesn’t matter what the Diamondbacks did – there would be detractors from all sides. Hopefully they’d frame their arguments a little more specific to the situation instead of manipulating it into another opportunity to make a comparison to his Holiness. You know - because of his irrelevance in this matter, of course.
But of course, the semantic and situational gymnastics you perform centered on the word 'proud' allowed you the opportunity to once again put Colangelo on a pedestal while beating down the current front office. And apparently mostly for being fairly inept at public relations speak. You know, that disingenuous verbiage all succesfull corporate and political types are so adept at. Yeah, let's worry about that.
I have no axe to grind whatsoever with Colangelo. He did many, many great things for Phoenix and for the Diamondbacks. My axe to grind is with people that seem to have an obsessive compulsion to make everything about Colangelo (usually looking back through rose colored glasses with a very selective memory) versus the current front office. Yep, if anything, that's the axe I have to grind. This front office doesn't get a fair shake from a small, but vocal, minority because they aren't being compared to the actual Colangelo - but the idol he's become in their mind. Hyperbole? Not really.
I’ll admit to admiring the (apparent – who knows how long you toil away on each masterpiece) ease in which you manipulate circumstance and language for each of these screeds.
Good stuff.
I’ll leave it at that. Off to make my W.W.J.(Jerry) D. bracelet. Toodles.
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Don't you know, violence against women is a property crime? That's why men do it, and why women let them.
Best cure for domestic violence is a 12 gauge.
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