The truth is, we never really know what’s going on with someone else.
That applies, of course, to the players we watch on the baseball field and the people we interact with in our daily lives. That lesson was drilled home again on Thursday, reading Bobby Jenks’ harrowing come-clean tale on The Players’ Tribune.
I’ll admit, I’ve always kind of wondered what really happened to Bobby Jenks. He was this big, burly mountain of a man throwing gas as the White Sox closer. As a rookie in 2005, he burst onto the scene and helped the Sox to the World Series title, with a 2.25 ERA in eight October innings, and then he had 167 saves for the club from 2006 to 2010.
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He signed with the Red Sox as a free agent after the 2010 season, but all we really knew about his time with Boston was what we learned from box scores — he struggled in a few appearances (6.32 ERA, 0-for-2 in save opportunities in 2011) — or learned from injury reports — he landed on the DL in June and again in July — or learned from a police report — he got a DUI during spring training 2012. And he never pitched again.
That’s what we knew, because that’s what Bobby Jenks wanted.
And, yeah, it’s easy to make assumptions or guesses as to how Jenks self-imploded, maybe under the pressure of pitching for Boston or for whatever reason. That’s certainly happened to some players, but assumptions are a dangerous thing.
As Jenks told the world on Thursday, his situation was so much more complicated than most of us ever could have imagined. He was dealt a cavalcade of bad hands, stemming from one infamous back surgery that, done properly, should have been a blip on Jenks’ career. Instead, it ended it.
From The Players’ Tribune (a piece you should read as soon as possible) ...
The more my attorneys and I dug into that initial surgery on my spine, the more things seemed out of whack. When we eventually put all the pieces together, what we discovered was jaw-dropping.
In short, there’s this thing now going on at some hospitals that’s referred to as concurrent surgeries, and it’s straight up evil. It’s basically one doctor overseeing two surgeries … at the same time.
Yes … you read that right. One doctor. Doing two surgeries. Simultaneously.
There’s a difference between making up excuses for mistakes and explaining reasons for things that happened, and Jenks’ honest tale was certainly the latter. He owns up to the mistakes made.
When the officers pulled me over, I was honest with them. They wanted me to do a sobriety test, and I came right out and told them I was messed up on pills.
“I’m going to fail it,” I said. “I’m intoxicated.”
On the way to the police station, they showed me a dash-cam video of how I’d been driving. It was terrifying. I was swerving in and out of lanes the entire time. I could’ve easily killed someone. I was just completely out of it. As soon as those pills hit, I was just totally gone.
Anyway, go read the story.
And, please, take just a moment to realize that you never really know what people are dealing with in their lives, so maybe cut them just a little bit of slack, or maybe just refrain from jumping to assumptions.
