Hey, Jim Rome--Why You Always Gotta Hate?

His latest object of scorn? Ken Griffey Jr.

Over the past week, Griffey has received much criticism (suprise!) from the local Cincinnati press, who have attacked his diminishing defensive skills and have suggested that Griffey should move from centerfield to left. Griffey, like most other people with pride and a pulse, felt inclined to defend his own perspective on the matter, more or less telling the public, "Back off, and let me do my job."

Today, Jim Rome, among others, lashed back at Griffey's response, insisting that Griffey should stop "caring so much what the press says" and just "go out and play the game" and "let your performance to the talking" and "stop whining" or else "get into a different line of work"...Etcetera etcetera etcetera.

Granted, I understand the wisdom in this sentiment (in theory). But in Griffey's case, how many times does the guy have to bite his tongue? How many times does he have to "let his play do the talking"? Hasn't he done exactly that since, oh, 1989ish? The fact is that Griffey can work as hard as all hell, make spectacular plays up the wahzoo, talk nice with the press, and even learn to sing pretty falsetto, but it would never satisfy a way-too-large number of people on the baseball beat and in the baseball-watching public.

For more than a decade, the man provided them and everyone else with some of the finest individual baseball perfomances we have ever seen--both offensively and defensively--without ever hyping himself, ripping teammates, sparring with fans, or chewing out Hannah Storm. And what does he get in return? He gets labeled aloof and unfriendly, he receives death threats from fans (both from places where he declined trades in 2000 and from hometown fans in Seattle and Cincinnati), and gets tied to the whipping post at every lapse in perfection throughout the latter half of a Hall of Fame career. Hell, even when he gets hurt, the language from the fans and press is usually more condemnation for some phantom fault of Griffey's than it is sympathy over his string of awful luck.

People like Jim Rome are ridiculous hypocrites to say that a high-profile athlete should "stop caring what the press says." Is not the very nature of editorial journalism to defend one's own perspective in the face of disagreement or criticism? Yes, Griffey, or any other athlete, can defend his position with his on-field performance. But what about when he has done so, yet members of the press have already formed their perception of a player and refuse to change it regardless of his performance?

And yes, an athlete should care what is written and said about him. Why? Because the public reads and hears what is said about the athlete, and the athlete in turn interacts with said public. And I don't care who you are; no one wants to be the object of disdain and resentment.

"But when you're making that kind of scratch--"

Bullshit. Again, this objection rarely flies. Whether someone makes $14 million a year playing baseball or counts beans in a financial firm or works in a bus depot for $18,000 a year, people who excel at their work take pride in their work and do not want their value to go unrecognized. This is a human trait that I don't believe has anything to do with the size of the paycheck.

Also, while sports journalists will outwardly say that athletes should take the criticism "like a man" and not defend themselves in the press, they fool no one. Athletes who keep the company line don't make for juicy stories and soundbites. Without the tension caused by athletes who respond to public criticism, the sports press would be even more abusive, incendiary, and hollow than it already is. And come on; as if every sports journalist doesn't get off on provoking a reaction from a pro athlete based on something he or she wrote in the papers.

Lastly, the assertion made by Rome et al that Griffey should get out of the proverbial kitchen (professional baseball) if he can't handle the so-called heat (press scrutiny) is unconscionably juvenile. It implies that Griffey's inability or unwillingness to bear unwarranted public criticism is merely a fault of Griffey's that requires he either grow accepting of something he believes false and personally damaging or quit performing a skill that he does better than almost anyone in the world because that skill necessarily entails external mental abuse.

Absurd.