Professional athletes do all kinds of questionable things with their bodies to play a respective sport.
Some defer surgery for months because it would take them away from their team, pursuit of wins and a world championship.
Others have surgery when it could wait and then come back too soon for the same reasons.
Pro athletes make many physical and mental sacrifices to be on that field, court or sheet of ice to be available every game possible.
It’s about team. It’s about being a good teammate.
I will never understand why a Major League Baseball player would refuse vaccination knowing that it could cost them games played in Toronto. Canada made it clear before the season began. You’re not crossing the border if you are unvaccinated.
The Kansas City Royals had 10 players ineligible for that road trip two weeks ago.
Vahe Gregorian, a Kansas City Star sports columnist who once wrote for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, said this; “It’s sad and disillusioning. The Royals and their fans deserve better — and so especially do the teammates the 10 have left in an unnecessary bind.”
The St. Louis Cardinals did not have third baseman Nolan Arenado and first baseman – and National League MVP candidate – Paul Goldschmidt for a two-game series at Toronto because they refuse to be vaccinated.
“It’s just a personal choice, and I’m not trying to do a political stand here or be a spokesperson for this or that,” Arenado told MLB.com. “But it’s unfortunate that I’ve got to miss two games.”
Unfortunate? No, it was your choice. You chose to let your teammates down.
“It was not an easy decision,” Goldschmidt said. “It stinks that I [couldn’t] play in Toronto and [couldn’t] play these next couple of games—I hate that part of it, but that’s unfortunately the consequence.”
Again, unfortunate? It is your personal choice, and you chose to not play.
The Cardinals headed to Toronto with a 51-46 record, two-and-a-half games behind the NL Central leading Milwaukee Brewers. If the regular season had ended on Sunday night, the Cardinals would have qualified for the wild-card round of the playoffs – barely. St. Louis was a game ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Two key members of a team battling for a postseason berth abandoned their teammates. It does not matter the reason. They went AWOL, and Cardinals fans should never forget it.
The most galling part of their respective selfishness and abandonment of team concept is the fact that they hint they would get vaccinated if there is a chance the Cardinals could play the Blue Jays in the World Series. Toronto was 53-43 when the week began, and solidly in a wild card position.
Why take the chance?
The Reid Roundup
St. Louis will be among the eight cities that field XFL teams in February 2023. For now, the franchise is not named “BattleHawks,” and my guess is it has something to do with copyright. League owners Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his ex-wife and business partner, Dany Garcia, announced on July 24 that St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Orlando, Seattle, and Washington D.C., will field teams…Clothing designer Kacey Lynch crafted the black t-shirt that L.A. Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts wore during batting practice before the July 19 All-Star Game. The air-brushed shirt read “ “We Need more Black People at the Stadium.” The creation has gone viral with purchase request coming from all over the world. Lynch owns Bricks & Wood, a streetwear brand created in his native South-Central Los Angeles…I usually find NBA analyst Charles Barkley entertaining. This week I find him disgusting. After immediate blowback for considering a commentary role with the LIV Golf Tour, which is funded by the Saudi Arabian government, Barkley called it “selective outrage” in a New York Post article. “If you are in pro sports, you are taking some type of money from not a great cause.” Speak for yourself, Chuck. Most pro athletes have never done that…The talk in Chicago is, “How does manager Tony La Russa still have a job?” The White Sox were 48-48 entering the week, three games back from a wild card berth. I guess it helps to be close friends with owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
