Cabrera’s suspension cause for disappointment
This week’s KNBR Conversation is an edited excerpt from an interview of J.T. Snow, a special assistant to Giants CEO Larry Baer and a former Giants first baseman, by Tom Tolbert on Wednesday.
Tolbert: Go ahead and give me your thoughts on (Melky Cabrera’s suspension). Snow: Disappointment. … And I feel let down. I was saddened by the news. I can’t say that I’m surprised. Not just because of Melky, but all the stuff that’s going on. It’s sad for Melky because the guy was having a great year and now it’s tainted. … And whenever there’s a great player putting up great numbers and something comes out, it’s tainted. I played with Barry Bonds for nine years. There are questions about his records; are they tainted? It’s just sad. There’s a program in place to catch the cheaters and they’re catching them. … I feel like not only did he let the organization down, but he let the teammates down. He’s not going to be a part of the team for the next 50 games, and, um, that’s too bad. It’s not the Giants’ fault; it’s professional ballplayers. Tolbert: Isn’t that the mindset? I don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong. Snow: I know when I played overseas in Spain … I had no intention of playing and living in Spain or Italy. I wanted to play ball and get back over here, and even if I did have a career over there, I planned on coming back to the United States. I try to look at it from their point of view in that, look I’m going over there to play ball. Maybe the winter league World Series is more important to me than the actual World Series. I’m dirt poor, and my family is dirt poor. Iwant to go over there and make as much money as possible so I can come back here and set myself up and set my family up. … They are going to come over here and do what they can, in the short amount of time they can, to make the most money. Because, like I’ve said, I’ve played in Venezuela. I’ve seen how Third World countries live, and it’s not pretty. And you can’t blame them for that, but you have to know when you come over that they are testing for this stuff and that you owe it to this organization.
Tolbert: Of course, you can make the case that if he wasn’t on steroids, then he wouldn’t have been putting up those kind of numbers, wouldn’t be in the All-Star Game. Snow: Right, and now it all goes back to the All-Star Game: He is the MVP of the All-Star Game and the NL has the home-field advantage, and what do you do with that? That’s another sticky point that raises questions. Tolbert: You look at the year he had in Atlanta, where it was just not going his way; it’s the worst year he’s had in his career. … When you get close to being out of the league, you might get a little desperate, roll the dice and see if you can cash in at least one time. Snow: I go back to when I was playing and I signed a four-year deal with the Giants, and the last year of the deal I was making 6 million dollars and you know, had an average year and got re-signed the next year for 2 million or 1.5 million. I could have decided to do something to make more money out of it, but I feel like there needs to be something within the player. Maybe we need to do a better job of educating the players. … If you were born over here, and you play over here, and your credibility is over here, then you may not do it. You have to live here the rest of your life. If you’re not born here, you may try it. And your mind-set might be, I am going to go back to my country, anyways.