Joba Chamberlain is his own worst enemy. Not only did he never really apologize Tuesday for his recklessness in jumping on a trampoline when recovering from Tommy John surgery, when he explained how he messed up his ankle, he refused to even admit that he really had an open dislocation in the first place. (Brian Cashman had to do damage control later, explaining the exact nature of the injury.)
Talk about denial not being just a river in Egypt. Joba denied he felt much pain. He denied that he would miss much time from this injury; insisting he would be back in 2012. He even denied that this was much of a setback from his recovery from Tommy John surgery, saying:
“It’s going to give me more time to rehab,” he said. “It’s going to allow me to continue my shoulder strengthening and everything that goes along with that. It will put me past that year mark of June. It will be stronger for that and I think that’s a positive.”
There must be a pony in there somewhere, Joba!
Let’s review. A 250+ pound professional ballplayer, who is paid for what his body can do, and who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, thought it was a good idea to jump on a trampoline. Then, he still won’t even acknowledge that it was a bad decision, trying to put a positive spin on it. Good grief.
And call me hardhearted, but I’m not buying him pulling the dad card here, when he explained the “biggest thing” he took away from this:
“This game is very important to me. It allows me to do a lot of things, but my son is my pride and joy. The biggest thing is to don’t be so hard on yourself and realize what you were doing; you were trying to be a great dad.”
Yeah, because that’s the biggest problem with Joba Chamberlain; that he’s just too hard on himself. Now I’m worried he’s going to get another injury — hurting his arm again from patting himself on the back so hard!
And sorry, but I guess I missed how recklessly risking your career and your future earning powers makes you “a great dad.” As my friend Sully Baseball put it, “Do you know what a REALLY good father would do? Not put at risk a career that could not only take care of his kids financially but their grandkids as well.”
Joba also said, “I’m never going to look at anything I do with my son as reckless.” Not even when he had to sign a waiver warning him of paralysis, death, and all sorts of injuries that could ensue when going to this trampoline facility. Using Joba’s logic, that skateboarder who fell with his kid at a skateboarding park is a candidate for Father of the Year!
He also called the incident “another thing in the book of Joba.” Is that book written in crayon?
When asked what he learned from this debacle, Joba said this:
“Never question being a father,” Chamberlain said. “”I felt like I let my team down, to be perfectly honest with you, and that’s the most frustrating part. But when I looked back and realized what was going on, I will never question being a father.”
Oh, great. Thanks in no small part to the Bob Klapisches of the world, who have been pushing this “he was just being a good dad” nonsense, Joba really believes this stuff.
But maybe it’s time for Mr. Chamberlain to start questioning things — starting with his terrible decision-making, and continuing with his lack of conditioning and commitment to the game.
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And it’s time for Joba to grow up already. Is he really trying to tell us there was nothing that he could have done with his son in Tampa, Florida, one of the great vacation spots in this country, that didn’t involve risking his career and health. Really?
“It’s still frustrating because I feel that I let [the team] down,’’ he said, “but that’s the biggest thing that I got. It’s just another hill that I’ve had to climb, and we’ll get over it and we’ll get going and be better for it.’’
Except he’s the one who put the hill there. Not anybody else. He really is his own worst enemy.
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