Anthony Rendon ruffled A LOT of media feathers when he flat out said as he reported to Angels camp this week that baseball ‘is not a priority’ for him – even if, as JP Finlay said Thursday, ‘we’ve heard this before.’
It’s not a stretch at all to say the Nationals don’t have a banner in 2019 without Rendon, but he left to sign a mega-deal in Anaheim after that…and, man, are a lot of people glad it wasn’t here, but BMitch and Finlay aren’t necessarily too riled up about it.
“I wonder: he has been good, and he said it's not his priority – but if was awful, then I would react to it,” BMitch said. “But what if he said he loved baseball, but he did nothing to make sure he can go play it? Which one is best?”
Landfill played the clip, and, yeah, BMitch says he sees ‘absolutely nothing wrong with it.”
“He said basically my family comes first, and I think almost everybody I've been around that's been successful in sports, they tell you that their family is first and then they have that driving force to let them go out to this job,” Brian said. “It is a job, that a lot of people have out there, but the ultimate thing is how does he play the game?”
“The problem is since he got the big contract in L.A., it just hasn't looked very good. I think that’s the issue,” JP replied. “And, he’s missed a lot of games.”
Still, production (or lack thereof) and injuries aside, why is the comment itself such a problem?
“Him saying it's not a priority, I don't think it's a story,” Brian said. “People go through slumps or hit better when you got better people around you sometimes, so him saying it? I used to love to hear people say I love this game of football, it’s my life, then I watch them and I'm like they’re lying their ass off. I think he puts a lot in it to be good at it, but is it a job, or is it something above a job?”
“Tell a secret we know: there are professional athletes in every sport that don’t love what they do, but they do it because they make a lot of money,” JP replied in a whisper.
BMitch loved playing football, but yeah, he gets it.
“They love the lifestyle and the notoriety and what they get from it, but they don't love the actual game,” Brian said. “I loved playing, and the stuff that came from it was nice too, and I think a lot of that was pushing me sometimes as well – and now, when I walked into a store, I can buy my dream.”
“I think a lot of people resent the money pro athletes make because they also played sports, because they loved it, but some pros are just so damn good at it that they're playing,” JP replied. “Jacoby Brissett loved basketball and then I think he told me that his mom finally made him play football and he was really good at it, and realized this might be a career, so I’m gonna pursue it.”
Brissett’s size may not hav let him succeed to the NBA level, but in the NFL, ‘he found something where he could be good at it – a QB who makes $8 million to chill for the most part.’ But Rendon?
“I've been in the Nats’ clubhouse over the years, and Rendon’s reputation was fairly aloof, that he really wasn't one of the guys,” JP said. “The reporter’s clearly trying to get at him. Not everybody lives and dies with the pro sport they play. Rendon, he's missed at least 100 games in four straight years, and maybe you're not pushing through stuff like you used to, but he signed a seven-year, $245 million contract, fully guaranteed.”
And, as much as JP ‘absolutely loathes this phrase,’ it sums it up perfectly:
“Don't hate the player, hate the game right there.”