So much happened yesterday that it’s hard to figure out where to begin, but it seems like the most logical place is with Rocco Baldelli – since that’s actually a much more important and vital story than a Yankee scrub with 40 games of big league experience trying to act like a tough guy.
As I’m sure everyone’s heard by now, Rocco is shutting it down – perhaps forever – because of an unidentified muscle disorder. They can’t fix him since they don’t know what’s wrong, and it is making it nearly impossible for him to perform basic workouts like jogging and batting practice without feeling severely fatigued. (St. Pete Times)
Baldelli will be sidelined indefinitely, but said Wednesday he is not retiring. He said there hasn’t been an exact diagnosis but that doctors have told him he has “some type of metabolic and/or mitochondrial abnormalities.”
“Basically somewhere along the line … either my body isn’t making or storing ATP the right way, therefore not allowing my muscles to work as they should, and especially recover like they’re supposed to on a day-to-day basis.”
Rocco, to his credit, has vowed to keep trying to work and fight and make it back to the big leagues, but is – of course – at the mercy of the doctors who are working on him. The Times’ Gary Shelton put it very well in a column in today’s paper:
After all of this time, perhaps you have run out of tears for Rocco Baldelli. After all of these injuries, perhaps you are no longer able to feel his pain.
It is a cold world, and his is an old story, and by now, perhaps you are eager to see the Rays move along without him. Baldelli has been injured for so long now, and he has said goodbye so many times, that perhaps you have become numbed to the continued ache of a lost career.
Even for a good guy, even for a talented player, sympathy has a shelf life. And so it is understandable that so many fans seem to have become weary of Baldelli’s continuing struggles.
After hearing the news about Rocco yesterday, I felt exceptionally guilty for all of the negative things I had posted in the past. None of the things I said were meant with malice, of course, but had I know that he suffered from a life-altering disease I never would’ve made light of his constant injury problems. Mr. Shelton is exactly right when he says that “sympathy has a shelf life” and that there were plenty of people that had grown tired of the “Will he, or won’t he?” routine surrounding Baldelli and his big league prospects.
At the end of the day, though, we’re talking about a human being who now knows that his livelihood may be over long before it really hit its prime. Sure, he’s made a decent amount of money so far – and will make even more from his contract buyout – but as an idealist, I like to think that the money isn’t ALWAYS what its about. I like to think that these guys take pride in putting on the uniform and busting their asses every day to try and help the team win and to entertain the fans. I get the feeling that Rocco honestly tried as hard as he could to get back into uniform and get back onto the field, and the only reward he really got out of it was more fatigued muscles and a littany of questions about his heart and his makeup.
On a personal level, I’ve always loved Rocco. When he’s on the field, he’s my favorite player out there. To think that he may have played his final big league game is, in a way, robbing baseball of one of its finest talents and someone who should have been at the center of the Rays’ breakthrough here at the end of the decade. Instead, he will just go down as a footnote to Rays history, likely forgotten or lumped in with the Joe Joe Charbonneaus of the world. And that, I think, is nearly as much a tragedy as his current medical condition, because he truly was one of the most talented players to ever put on the Rays uniform.
Tags: Rocco Baldelli
March 13th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Well spoken Scott, I also feel extremely guilty for some of the “heart and guts” cheap shots I took at Baldelli. I really hope it’s only a fatigue thing. I would hate to see a new disease named after him… I will pray for him to live a normal healthy life, and hope for a cure so that he can play with his children someday…