Most of us have heard the oft-repeated expression, which goes something along the lines of: “Be good to the people you pass on the way up, because you’ll be seeing them again on your way back down….”
Whether one agrees with the rationale for electing to ‘be good’ in this instance (choosing ‘goodness’ because it will help your own situation, as opposed to choosing to do good simply because it is the right thing to do), it is clear that this is a philosophy shared by some, but not all, in the field of sports.
This brings to mind a revealing newspaper article penned more than ten years ago by then Globe & Mail sports columnist Marty York. York wrote a piece about the at the time just-retired Expo catcher (and now Hall-of-Famer) Gary Carter, who broke into the big leagues with the Expos, won a World Series with the Mets before ultimately ending his career with his original club.
The gist of the article was this, as I recall:
Back in the mid-later 70’s, a young cub reporter, barely out of high school, was doing some freelance reporting from spring training. Being so young, this young man had no ‘reputation’ to speak of, so he was not known to the players. He had no hands-on cash to entice players as he begged for interviews from the players on hand -- any players.
As the story goes, he was routinely and repeatedly turned down by everyone he sought out for any kind of brief interview. He was evidently rebuffed by stars and non-stars alike.
The one player who took the time to do an interview with this young, fledgling reporter was then Expos star catcher Gary Carter.
Now, part of the perspective required to fully appreciate this story was that, in his own way, Carter was much like former hockey superstar Bobby Hull. At the height of his popularity and long before players were paid handsomely to attend collector shows and sign autographs for big cash, Hull would sign for virtually every person who asked, after practices and long after games, often while his teammates were waiting impatiently for the team bus to depart.
There was some resentment of Hull, it has often been written, because he seemed to like his celebrity a little too much, was all smiles for the cameras, the media and the public.
But the reality was that Hull, in those days, was genuine in wanting to ensure that he never turned down a polite person seeking his signature or attention, especially children. (He had a personal experience in his youth when the legendary Gordie Howe granted him an autograph, and he was determined to do the same for others.)
As a personal aside, my own one-time experience with Bobby Hull, by the way, was in keeping with his reputation at the time.
It was the mid 1960’s, and the night before the Black Hawks were to play the Red Wings at the old Detroit Olympia, Hull had been brought in (and probably paid a few hundred dollars, attractive money for an athlete back then) by Canadian Tire in Windsor, Ontario to shake hands with visitors to the store the evening before the Hawks played the Wings.
I recall sitting with my Dad and an elementary school chum for at least two to three hours in our car, waiting, as Dad put it, “for the line to get shorter”.
We finally left the car as the line was down to a couple of dozen people and waited to meet The Golden Jet. My friend, wiser than I, had brought a puck to be signed, which Hull gladly signed, though this was not a night for autographs, only shaking hands.
I shook Hull’s hand. Mad dad talked farming with Hull for a couple of minutes, and we all left more than pleased.
(As recently as the fall of 2003, I attended a collectibles show with my youngest son. Hull was asked by a collector to sign a particular piece of memorabilia, but the company sponsoring Hull’s appearance said no, because the time was up and the collectible was not one provided by the sponsoring company. Hull quietly suggested that the person wait until Hull was finished his responsibilities, and then he would sign for the man, free of charge. At about that time, my son went up to shake Hull’s hand, and Hull could not have been more gracious, though he earned not a cent for the handshake. He could easily have said, “Sorry folks, my time is up…”)
Hull made a lot of money for his impatient teammates over the years, especially when he took his skills and people skills to the new World Hockey Association in 1972 and helped drive hockey salaries upwards.
To this day he remains a hockey icon in Canada, despite some events that have tarnished his public persona somewhat. He remains popular largely because he was such a positive person in dealing with the media, and so patient and responsive in dealing with the public.
Sometimes the equity you build – and Hull built plenty over the years with the media and the public – helps you a great deal when things get difficult, as they sometimes have for Hull over the years for various reasons.
Back to Carter: The story goes that, not only did Carter give an interview to the young reporter, he brought him into the team’s dugout and chatted for about half an hour.
The young man filed his story, and from there built a successful career that later resulted in his being a key decision-maker with the network that was to air the Florida Marlins games when that team joined Major League Baseball as an expansion club in the early-mid 1990’s.
The now executive received hundreds of resumes from ex-jocks, all former players looking to land the coveted job of “color analyst” on the Marlin broadcasts in their inaugural season.
No doubt many of the resumes came from haughty players who, when they were ‘somebody’, had flipped off the young reporter back in the 1970’s.
In any event, who was among those looking to land that plum assignment, even though he had no broadcast experience other than doing interviews himself?
Gary Carter.
Who got the job?
Gary Carter.
Carter, like Hull before him, was said to be envied and disliked by many of his teammates over the years. He was, they whispered, too in love with a camera, too anxious to be quoted, too much of a self-promoter.
Yet, the above story reveals that his old teammates apparently wouldn’t give the time of day to a young guy who was just trying to catch a break, and get his career going in a small way.
But Carter did. And years later, the young man remembered, and returned the favor.
Whatever Carter’s motivation way back when, the story reminds us all – and certainly is a reminder for young athletes who are on their way to earning a more than substantial living as a professional athlete – that if being good to others because it is the right thing to do is not motivation enough, then doing good because you might benefit down the road is an acceptable “back up” motivation, perhaps.
Isn’t it better to make time for others, be accommodating, be patient, especially when you’ve been blessed with the opportunity to earn your living – a very successful living – doing something you really love to do?
