PORT ST. LUCY. On Tuesday, Robinson Cano spent 11 minutes apologizing, without saying what. As the first attempts at explaining bad behavior, it was better than Mark McGuire and Pete Rose and worse than, you know, the full truth.
I’ve known Kano for almost 20 years and I like him, and it was embarrassing to watch him have to answer one difficult question after another, including from me. Partly because it’s insane that a second baseman who speaks his second language finds himself with most elected officials never staying in place due to issues far more important to the common good than using illegal performance enhancers to Baseball improvements.
However, in this small corner of the world, Kano committed a serious violation – he tested positive for doping. This was his second crime. For this, he was suspended without pay for the entire 2021 season.
Because of the two suspensions, Kano lost a lot: his reputation, about $36 million, and probably any chance of getting into the Hall of Fame.
Conversely, he returns as a player with a good reputation in the league. Assuming he won’t break drug policy again – how can you assume that when Kano was arrogant enough to get caught a second time? He will receive $48 million over the next two years to complete his 10-year, $240 million contract, of which the Mets paid $40 million.
Robinson Cano missed all of 2020 due to a second PED suspension. Corey Sipkin.
But by far Kano’s most exciting asset is that the Mets have him wrapped in their blue-orange embrace. Buck Showalter is already talking about Kano as a leader. His teammates don’t treat him coldly, instead sticking to the second chance (or third) and forgiveness scenario, and everyone makes mistakes.
“What should we do?” Showalter said. “We are not going to beat him every day. I mean, what’s the payoff? He wears our colors.”
Exactly. It’s a polarizing world we live in – politically and in sports. What colors do you wear? My boyfriend is right, your boyfriend is wrong – even before I know the subject. And even after that, the only prism that matters is not morality, right or wrong. What colors do you wear?
We saw it during the worst of the steroid era. Fans hated the performance booster contagion, as well as the artificial bloat and destruction of favorite stats. Nevertheless, Barry Bonds was welcomed and protected in San Francisco. Same in St. Louis for McGwire. If a fan from Boston asked the question, “What about Jumby?”, the fan from New York objected, but what about “Manny?” It’s like your own moral code can disappear because the other guy can cheat too.
I had fans who asked me – asked me – what they should tell their kids about cheaters. Then I saw the same fans and their kids wearing A-Rod and Clemens T-shirts. Maybe ask the guy in the mirror. There was no tolerance – unless the guy was wearing your colors. Then you could forgive and forget that the steroid user was cheating on the game and his playmates. Many of the current Mets have competed with Cano. He did not think of deceiving them. Consciously.
“He called me in person and said he wanted to apologize for going missing last year and what it did to the team,” said Brandon Nimmo, a union representative for the Mets player who has a “joint” drug deal. with MLB. “For me, it showed the character of my teammate. He wanted to call us individually and apologize. He knows he screwed up. I told him I’m a big guy in forgiveness and he called me and told me he told me everything I needed to know and he has my forgiveness. And now what was in the past is in the past and from here we move forward and all I care about is the teammate and the player that you are from now on.”
Mets teammates listened to an apology from Robinson Cano, right, on Wednesday. Corey Sipkin
New Mets pitcher Adam Ottavino, who as a Yankee faced Cano in a 2020 at-bat, said: “As a teammate, you generally try to hold off judgment for as long as possible, even if you may feel in a certain way when you try to bring it back. a little for the common good. Yes, without a doubt. It’s complicated. I don’t know if there is a good answer for [handling this]”.
But, as Showalter noted, you agree because the Mets have other options: defy the main agreement and not pay Kano, or destroy the team from the inside by making him an outcast.
As such, Cano spoke to select teammates on the phone during the off-season, then asked for and was given the opportunity to speak to the entire club on Monday, and on Wednesday he spoke to reporters for the first time since being suspended. He stuck to the topic of apologizing and no excuses, as well as a promise to try to make amends with everyone – fans, teammates, etc. It was general, some specifics, and now we will all continue.
I’m sure those who attend games at Citi Field hate the idea of using steroids in sports. But what do you do the first time you have Cano Homers? I have an orange and blue idea.