For Hall Of Fame second baseman Ryne Sandberg, recently hired as manager of the Cubs’ Midwest League affiliate in Peoria, it’s a slippery slope from wearing a cap backwards to not winning a World Series in 98 years. From the Daily Herald’s Barry Pozner (link taken from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory)
They came one after another Saturday, a seemingly endless parade of repulsive sports stories.
There were pictures of pit bulls, guns and little kids, stories of a dead bodyguard, film of an NBA brawl, and one football player spitting in the face of another.
œYou just look at it all and it™s kind of scary,™™ Sandberg said Tuesday from his home in Arizona. œIt just seems to me that players don™t think there will be any discipline or consequences.
œThey don™t stop and think, ˜What will parents out there think? What will kids think? What will my teammates and my ownership think?™ It used to matter.
œI think there™s a problem in society and it carries over into sports, and that problem is a lack of discipline, and with that comes the breaking of rules,™™ Sandberg said. œThe lack of accountability in the sports world is obvious and it seems the athletes have the mentality that they™re above everybody else and above the law.
œWhat I hear from people on the street is them commenting on my speech at the Hall of Fame, saying how it was about time somebody talked about respect and talked about discipline and having character and all those things,™™ Sandberg said. œThat tells me that there are people who think something is missing.™™
œAccountability, discipline and team play,™™ Sandberg said. œWearing your hat backwards, having your shirt unbuttoned, and untucking your jersey on the field may seem like small things, but that lack of respect for the uniform is part of a general lack of respect for the game and how you play it.
œIt™s not a big jump from that to deciding you don™t have to move a runner up because it™s just 1 little run at stake, and what™s the big deal, right?