Amid renewed cries for an independent investigation and possible criminal charges, new details emerged yesterday about alleged “extreme training techniques” and other abuses committed on and by the Texas Rangers baseball team during the administration of former co-owner George W. Bush. A previously confidential report by the American Red Cross, published this week in Sports Illustrated contains sometimes shocking testimony from former players and assistant coaches, including allegations of an obscure practice known as “water-boying.”
According to sports historians, “water-boying” began during the 1927 World Series; uncooperative players are subjected to repeated exposure to the water boy. The practice is said to be traumatizing.
“Coach put me in the batter’s box for eight innings,” said one witness, whose name was withheld, but whose address is 165 Maple Lane. “Then they started to water-boy me. I think they said his name was Kenny, I don’t know. He just kept coming at me and coming at me. I started to black out. I thought I was going to die. I wanted to die.”
“There is no indication that anything illegal was done during Mr. Bush’s term of office,” said a Bush spokesman in a prepared statement. “The public demanded nothing less than total victory, and a variety of experts concluded that, however unconventional or allegedly extreme, these were the best and most reliable means to achieve that end.”
It is unclear whether Mr. Bush authorized or was directly aware of any of the alleged abuses. However, critics charge, as managing general partner of the Rangers between 1989 and 1994, Bush bears responsibility and must be held accountable.
“Even if he didn’t know — and I’m not convinced that he didn’t — he should have known,” said local sportswriter Clyde Berry. “You had players locked in something called ‘The Cage’ for three, four, even nine and ten hours at a time. You had men out, cold; some players tell me they didn’t even feel safe at home. Inappropriate use of bats and benches, forcing players to practice without helmets, gloves, or a cup — without access to bodacious cheerleaders, nightclub openings, cocaine or steroids, or lucrative endorsement contracts — this is inhuman. This goes against everything that baseball represents.”
“You have to remember that this was all-out war,” argues one sports-intelligence analyst, Keith Wolf. “The Rangers were consistently mired in the middle of the Western division of the American League. Everybody in Arlington was terrified, nobody wanted to be blamed for another loss. It’s easy to look back and say, ‘Oh, that‘s immoral,’ but when you’re under that kind of pressure, you’re willing to try anything. If you had the opportunity to make the Rangers practice an extra seven hours, or to put itching powder in Darryl Strawberry’s jockstrap, wouldn’t you do it? I don’t know that many of us would act any differently, in those circumstances.”
“We cannot afford to bunt here,” insisted Arlington City Manager James Holgersson during a press conference yesterday. “That’s why I’m calling for a truth and reconciliation commission. The people of this community deserve to know what happened, who knew about it and when they knew it. Only then can we right any wrongs, and move on.”
According to sports historians, “water-boying” began during the 1927 World Series; uncooperative players are subjected to repeated exposure to the water boy. The practice is said to be traumatizing.
“Coach put me in the batter’s box for eight innings,” said one witness, whose name was withheld, but whose address is 165 Maple Lane. “Then they started to water-boy me. I think they said his name was Kenny, I don’t know. He just kept coming at me and coming at me. I started to black out. I thought I was going to die. I wanted to die.”
“There is no indication that anything illegal was done during Mr. Bush’s term of office,” said a Bush spokesman in a prepared statement. “The public demanded nothing less than total victory, and a variety of experts concluded that, however unconventional or allegedly extreme, these were the best and most reliable means to achieve that end.”
It is unclear whether Mr. Bush authorized or was directly aware of any of the alleged abuses. However, critics charge, as managing general partner of the Rangers between 1989 and 1994, Bush bears responsibility and must be held accountable.
“Even if he didn’t know — and I’m not convinced that he didn’t — he should have known,” said local sportswriter Clyde Berry. “You had players locked in something called ‘The Cage’ for three, four, even nine and ten hours at a time. You had men out, cold; some players tell me they didn’t even feel safe at home. Inappropriate use of bats and benches, forcing players to practice without helmets, gloves, or a cup — without access to bodacious cheerleaders, nightclub openings, cocaine or steroids, or lucrative endorsement contracts — this is inhuman. This goes against everything that baseball represents.”
“You have to remember that this was all-out war,” argues one sports-intelligence analyst, Keith Wolf. “The Rangers were consistently mired in the middle of the Western division of the American League. Everybody in Arlington was terrified, nobody wanted to be blamed for another loss. It’s easy to look back and say, ‘Oh, that‘s immoral,’ but when you’re under that kind of pressure, you’re willing to try anything. If you had the opportunity to make the Rangers practice an extra seven hours, or to put itching powder in Darryl Strawberry’s jockstrap, wouldn’t you do it? I don’t know that many of us would act any differently, in those circumstances.”
“We cannot afford to bunt here,” insisted Arlington City Manager James Holgersson during a press conference yesterday. “That’s why I’m calling for a truth and reconciliation commission. The people of this community deserve to know what happened, who knew about it and when they knew it. Only then can we right any wrongs, and move on.”
8 comments:
Nonsense indeed! I'm going to start checking your sources, young man.
I'm surprised the good folks down there didn't report the whole damn bunch to the Waterboard....oh, no.....wait...
You are clever, but isn't it interesting by what a staggering ratio the ad hominem attacks on Bush exceed the informed critiques of his fiscal and other policies . . .
-- Rick
Thanks, Rick, but "interesting" doesn't strike me as the right word at all to describe the disparity between the ad hominem and the informed criticisms. For one thing, it's only natural that even people who aren't fully informed will want to express themselves on subjects they believe important. For another, the Bush administration struggled so hard to keep information secret (or, in the case of torture, lied outright about its policies) that fully informed criticism is impossible for most of us. What's left, then, is personal attacks.
It must be noted that I'm better informed about Bush's torture policies than I am about baseball. I'm confident, however, that I'll be fully up to speed as soon as Mark Danner writes an exposé on the Rangers in The New York Review of Books.
Got it. Bush should have followed Clinton's example and been totally forthright about everything in his life. I'll make sure that my criticisms of recent Democratic administrations adhere to the highest standards of public discourse.
-- Rick
Call me partisan, but torture and adultery don't strike me as equivalent.
Postscript: For a few thoughts on Clinton, I refer the interested reader to this piece from January 2008:
http://billmadison.blogspot.com/2008/01/persons-of-impeachable-character.html
Definitely equivalent! I'm sure there were compelling national security reasons why Clinton had to engage in l'affaire Lewinsky.
-- Rick
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