Joba walks the walk
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Jun 05, 2009 
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When an athlete gets in some sort of trouble, such as drunk driving or drug use, that he will inevitably promise to amend his ways and donate time or money to fight the problem. It’s an easy thing to say. But actions, as they say, speak louder than words.
So it is worth noting that Joba Chamberlain was at Nutley (N.J.) High School on Wednesday morning, speaking before a crowded audience of students about the dangers of drunk driving. It was was the sort of thing Chamberlain said he would do last fall when he was charged with DUI in Nebraska.
Chamberlain spoke for 20 minutes and took questions for 15 minutes. “Just something I wanted to do,” he said. “It was a good experience.”
A day later, an e-mail came in from a reader named Jaclyn, who graduated from Nutley a few years ago. She heard Joba was going to be there and made her way into the auditorium.
“He was really cool and seemed to enjoy being in a room with a bunch of 17 and 18 year olds. He got a real kick out of a lot of their questions,” she wrote. “After talking about his DUI experience, he sat in with the baseball and softball teams for about ten minutes, along with some of the members of SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions). I asked him to sign a ball for me. He was totally gracious about it and even signed something for my friend. Just thought I’d pass it along.”
It seemed like something worth passing along to you. I saw Joba speak at a college in January and he had pretty much the same message.
Doing some good deeds hardly absolves Joba of what he did. But unlike many of his peers, he kept his promise to try and teach others not to make the same mistake he did. For that, he deserves credit.
I’ll drink to that …
Students Against Destructive Decisions? When was it changed from Drunk Driving?
What is this world coming too, how pathetic :rolleyes:
He should still be moved to the pen…
Just kidding.
Good for him. Happy to hear about a pro athlete owning their mistakes.
You know, it’s nice and all that Joba is going around to schools talking about the dangers of drunk driving but I think the real problem behind this athlete redemption program is that you are bringing in someone who has basically gotten away with criminal behavior to tell these kids “it’s not worth it”. Why Joba? You did it and you are still pitching in the majors as if nothing ever happened. You know who I’d rather come talk to high school kids about drunk driving? Phil Hughes. There is someone who knows how to drink responsibly and not get caught behind the wheel with a bottle of booze on the passenger seat. I’d think someone like him would have a lot more insight into the importance of knowing when to say when. I can never understand why we enlist the greatest failures in society to teach our children about responsibility.
Move him to the Pen…the Penitentiary
the ghost:
he didn’t get away with anything.
there are rules & punishments in place & sometimes a person like joba can get punished harder because of his status.
plaxico burress wen’t to jail for shooting himself.
i don’t think that would even happen to you or i.
he is a human being who made a mistake.
the important thing is that he learns from it & didn’t hurt anyone.
murphydog-
here’s mine on cashman:
reporter:
so brian, do the yankees bear any responsibility with wang’s problems this year?
cashman:
listen, wang had nothing else to prove at scranton, wake up and smell the coffee.
reporter: but didn’t you tell wang to not do any rehab on his foot and lower body last winter?
cashman:
that’s crap. i remember what marty miller once told me who by the way had nothing more to prove at the retirement spa in palm beach, never do anything ahead of time that you could be blamed for later.
reporter: was there some reason that you didn’t test wang in early spring training to see if he had healed from his lisfranc fracture and he was back to full strength?
cashman:
wake up and smell the coffee. what do you think we are the red sox?
do you realize how much money we save by waiting until something breaks before we fix it.
this whole proactive conditioning thing is overrated. when i used to get coffee for george, he used to constantly say if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. he meant the coffee machine, but what’s the difference? players? coffee machines?
if they break. you buy a new one.
reporter:
did you over react when chamberlain was hit by the line drive and call up wang to soon when he could have made several more starts at scranton?
cashman:
that’s crap. wang had nothing else to prove in scranton.
reporter:
but wasn’t wang losing the starting length he had built up in scranton?
cashman:
as dave eiland says, wang has to take it from the bullpen to the game, wang has to take it from the bullpen to the game, wang has to take it from the bullpen to the game, wang has to take it from the bullpen to the game.
how’s he going to do that if he’s not in the bullpen?
wake up and smell the coffee.
reporter:
you seem to mention coffee a lot. is that because you spent the first 10 years of your career getting coffee for george?
cashman:
that’s crap.
“Doing some good deeds hardly absolves Joba of what he did.”
I dunno, Pete. Doing some good deeds, making himself a public example, exhibiting remorse . . . how much more should be required for absolution? It may not CHANGE what he did, but he’s certainly forgiven as far as I’m concerned.
“Here’s an idea: If you’re going to boo A-Rod, have the common decency to not cheer him when he helps the team.”
This comes from the RAB blog.
Now, I’m not one for booing, but I understand why a fan may boo a DP to kill an inning or a bad K, regardless if it’s AROD or Gardner.
Isn’t there a difference between booing a player and booing results? I can see criticism if AROD got booed coming to the plate, but not booing after making a bad out.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c.....index.html
good article on the Joba/Bullpen debate. it’s a calm and rational comparison, decent read.
Steve – SADD was an off-shoot from MADD, but “destructive decisions” now includes things like drug use and other unsavory things teens may be exposed to.
Unfortunately, MADD has become PETA-like to the point where they are almost a Prohibition-type group. Their message is lost.
“Isn’t there a difference between booing a player and booing results? I can see criticism if AROD got booed coming to the plate, but not booing after making a bad out.”
I agree. I think it’s dumb to boo players before they even step to the plate but I don’t see anything wrong with booing a rally killing DP.
How else are the fans going to voice their displeasure at the results?
randy l:
You’re on the Mark, Tex!
Matty – it’s a shame that these two groups have lost their focus on drunk driving. Drunk driving is a very serious problem among teenagers, but MADD and SADD are trying to solve too many other problems, which dilutes their effectiveness.
“See, e.g., http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html
Jonathan Swift, to whom all of us papists owe a great debt.”
Ah yes, Jonathan Swift, who along with fellow papist, Alexander Pope, created some of the best Satire of all time. Infact, IMO, the early part of the 18th c. was the golden age of Satire. Pope’s “Dunciad”, Swift’s ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ are clasics of the genre.
And they say papists are humor-less…
reyes might be out for 6 weeks.
ouch…
they are a mess & the phillies might run away with the division.
Tom in NJ:
Papists humorless?
Well, the Inquisition (the original wave of political correctness) did suffer from a dearth of laugh lines.
NO Body Expects The Spanish Inquisition!
Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, and nice red uniforms!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gldlyTjXk9A
Nice satire this morning guys!
Joba didn’t get away with anything. His penalty is in line with what first time offenders get for a similar crime.
I think RAB hits the nail on the head. If you are going to boo Arod, then don’t cheer when he gets hits.
Its ridciculous that the guy gets booed in the first inning of games. Do these folks forget the Yankees record since he got back in the lineup?
Unfortunately, we have a generation of Yankee fans who are just miserable. They are Pre-2004 Red Sox fans. Nothing makes them happy. Even after wins, they are whining about something.
Read the game threads here, or anywhere, for that matter.
Basically, the best way to handle these folks is to laugh and make fun of them. Its really all you can do.
Wanna boo Arod? No problem. Its your “right” to do so.
Just as its our “right” to mock and make fun of you for doing so.
Good Win Yesterday!
Wang was not so good, but I think that was to be expected.
Hopefully, he gets stronger and pitches better in his next starts. He does need to be able to through something other than sinkers for sure.
I’m likeing this team more and more, because they keep winning helps. Nice blend of Vets and Young Guys coming through. If they stay healthy, I could see them winning 100games.
Not that I mind, but was Nick looking for a hefty fine from the next Kangaroo court. Another shirtless interview?
“Do these folks forget the Yankees record since he got back in the lineup?”
Same as there record since they began pitching well?
“Wang was not so good, but I think that was to be expected.”
Looked like his velocity was about right and there was sink on the sinker. Command seemed a little iffy. Bounced a lot pitches in front of the plate. I’ll defer to the Randys and CBs of the blog as to how he looked arm slot-wise.
Booing your own team accomplishes nothing. Players need to be rooted for not dug deeper in a hole. Name me when player who wants to hit into a DP? These are the things that make Yankees fans dumb. There was a time when people who knew the game wouldn’t stand for it, especially at the Stadium. If you want to boo a player for making an out, go over to Citi Field because you are following the wrong team
SJ44
June 5th, 2009 at 9:48 am
I think RAB hits the nail on the head. If you are going to boo Arod, then don’t cheer when he gets hits.
Its ridciculous that the guy gets booed in the first inning of games. Do these folks forget the Yankees record since he got back in the lineup?
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Good Points.
People do seem to be vary hot and cold at the stadium. Everyone seems to get boo’d lately when they don’t come through.
I’m not against booing a player from time to time but you’ve got to be pretty bad for a long streach to get boo’d in your home stadium.
Now A-Rod is a big disappointment with the PEDs thing but let’s move on already.
Tom in N.J.:
“Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, and nice red uniforms!”
Don’t forget the comfy chair.
Steve B (Wouldn’t it be cool if AJ’s ERA was 3.14)
“Do these folks forget the Yankees record since he got back in the lineup?”
Same as there record since they began pitching well?
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Pitching is 70+% of the game but A-Rod is alot better than anyone else that played 3b both in the field and at the plate. He’s not there yet but he’s been darn good.
“Looked like his velocity was about right and there was sink on the sinker. Command seemed a little iffy. Bounced a lot pitches in front of the plate. I’ll defer to the Randys and CBs of the blog as to how he looked arm slot-wise.”
I can’t run with CB and randy, but IMO missing low is clearly better for Wang than missing high. It’s 180 degrees from his problem before he went to AAA so he’s turned it around in that sense. How he did that I leave to the aforementioned CB and randy.
“Pitching is 70+% of the game but A-Rod is alot better than anyone else that played 3b both in the field and at the plate. He’s not there yet but he’s been darn good.”
Save a 5 for 5 game, he’s been a .200 hitter with pop and less than good range at 3B. He’s obvisously served to benefit Teixeira and he will get better as time goes by, but this 19-7 run has been all about starting pitching and defense. The team offensive production has been virtually the same with Arod as it was while he was injured.
Hey looks like jose reyes is out 6 weeks and alex cora will replace him…hopefully cora will give the mets those 2-3 extra wins that he would have given the yankees if he had replaced Arod when he was out…
bru, I’m not really faulting Joba, he’s doing everything he can to make it right, but this is more about teaching Joba a lesson than the school kids. If they really wanted to help these kids they would trot out real role models who have figured out how to resist these moments of weakness.
The Star Ledger also had a story that Putz may have to have surgery – bone spurs on the elbow.
Which by the way he’ s been pitching with for a while, so all the talk about “not enough adrenaline in the 8th” was probably a smokescreen so he didn’t have to talk about not feeling right.
They are all the same. And the contracts they sign don’t help. Because they feel they can’t miss time after signing for so much money.
The offensive production is different now. More timely and Tex is red hot. Its not just raw numbers. Its when they produce the numbers and Arod has had as much to do with that as anybody.
Guys get pitched differently when he is in the lineup. Guys also pitch differently (aren’t so fine) because they have confidence they will score runs.
Arod has had as much to do with this teams resurgence as anybody. Even the guys on the team agree with that statement.
Minimizing what he has meant to the team is similar to booing him. Its just finding something to complain about with him.
He’s only at about 75% right now. Wait another month when the hip is fully healthy. He will make even more of an impact on the lineup.
steve b and murphydog-
his release point on gameday f/x was as low as 6’1” on quite a few sinkers. that’s close to where he was when he was right. he still has a few more inches t drop down though.
cb theorized early on that as his strength came back his release would drop and it has as he gets stronger.
you can watch the release point pitch by pitch on gameday.
the reason the release point is so important with wang is that neil allen saw wang had the perfect release point to throw a sinker and that’s why wang picked up the sinker almost instantly.
teh arm slot he used to have was a 3/4 delivery. when he came back from the injury in spring training he was coming over the top at 6’7 ” and higher. eiland said his arm was getting behind his body and that made him come over the top to try to catch up.
the simple thing to remember with wang is that he has to have his natural 3/4 arm slot to get the ball to sink. it will not sink from another arm slot.
the other thing he needs to be strong for is that allen also instructed him to shorten his stride to get the ball to sink. if he can’t throw 96 with his long natural stride, he can’t shorten the stride and hit 94 with his sinker.
so getting his strength back helps get the arm slot down and it allows him to shorten his stride and still have his normal 93-94 velocity on the sinker.
i think he laid a good base down yesterday and has something to build on.
randy:
Thanks. It all makes sense.
The Ghost
June 5th, 2009 at 10:17 am
bru, I’m not really faulting Joba, he’s doing everything he can to make it right, but this is more about teaching Joba a lesson than the school kids. ***If they really wanted to help these kids they would trot out real role models who have figured out how to resist these moments of weakness*** .
————————————————————
I couldn’t disagree more. How’s a better choice of explaining what alcohol or drugs can do to you or your family? Some counselor who shows you a few pictures and starts thumping the bible/pamphlets that he has, or, somebody that’s gone through the problem themselves? That’s about the same as some idiot screaming about how bad a ball player is or the questioning the managers strategy or lineup choices while having never gotten his fat azs off of the couch.
***Who’s*** a better choice
GreenBeret7, It’s been my experience that of all the friends I’ve had who ended up with drinking problems – more often than not they have had “examples” at home of just how alcohol can destroy a family yet they didn’t learn from that bad example. I understand the power of celebrity but I think someone who hasn’t had a problem with the drink has a lot more to offer to kids on when to say when. Joba is most certainly looking for the answers, so what does he have to offer? If he keeps his record clean for the next 10 years then I think he would be a good role model, but six months later is too soon to prove he’s recovered.
I’m a big advocate of lowering the drinking age to 15. There is nothing more dangerous in my mind than to give kids a license at the exact same time they begin experimenting with alcohol. If the drinking age was lowered then parents would feel more comfortable introducing kids to responsible social drinking early so by the time they are driving they can handle it. It’s dysfunctional they way kids in our society are introduced to the drink as something they need to do in secret and in great volume because it’s forbidden.
With a guy like Joba who’s actually been busted, in addition to the underlying lesson of “don’t drink and drive,” you get two additional lessons:
1) It can happen to you so listen up.
(He is someone either the kids look up to or someone who seems famous, a celebrity and maybe in a kid’s mind better/richer/more advantaged than they are. If it can happen in his life, they have to know it can happen in their lives).
2) When you do something wrong you have to take responsibility for it and for anybody but a hardcore perp, it’s embarrassing and painful to have to admit a legitimate arrest. That’s even in a case where there is no jail or fines imposed. And luckily for Joba nobody got hurt.
That said, a lot of the drug and alcohol counselors I have dealt with are recovering addicts or drunks and who are walking the walk while talking the talk. They can have a real impact on kids talking from experience about how they lost jobs and wives or husbands and kids over their addictions, or that they killed or seriously injured someone while DUI.
Morning all, I’m actually the one that sent the story to Pete. Our local newspaper was there for the event and I’m hoping to scan some pictures and articles soon to get to you guys.
I dont think doing things like this absolves anyone from their misdeeds, but it was a pretty cool event in such a small, sleepy town. Every year, SADD puts on a drunk driving exercise of sorts where they stage a drunk driving accident. They have students with injuries (fake, clearly) They then have all of the police, fire dept, ambulance, etc. come and treat it as a real accident complete with sobriety tests and screaming bystanders. When I first heard Joba would be attending, I thought, “must be mandated for his DUI.” Obviously, that wasnt going to stop me from stalking out the high school. After hearing him talk, however, and seeing how down to earth he was, I was pretty impressed. He was very chill and really funny. He’s also a lot skinner in person than I’d imagine. He’s got that great baby face, but his body was much slimmer than I expected.
He wasn’t supposed to give out any autographs but he signed a ball for me and my friend anyway, even with our police chief giving me a hard stare for asking him in the first place. He then went over to our local middle school to speak to some of the students there. Just wanted to thank Pete for posting the story.
Joba to the pen would be a bigger good deed for us.
He is making restitution as based on his sentencing and going above and beyond that as well. He’s doing what he can do. People need to learn what forgiveness is about. It’s about accepting something went wrong and moving past it. He did something wrong. He paid the legal price (as anyone else would have as well) and is doing what he can to make it right.
Thanks for the heads up on the story, Pete…I’m nostalgic now for my hometown…hopefully, Joba will become the kind of role model kids need and deserve.
Also, be aware that Nebraska has very lax DUI rules. If Joba got tagged in New Jersey, he’d be paying tons of fines and an automatic license suspension between 3-6 months.