1393 sats \ 6 replies \ @CJWracing OP 16 Apr \ parent \ on: CJ Wilson / @Str8edgeracer AMA AMA
I have never drank or done drugs or used tobacco in my life. This was a result of seeing a lot of bad stuff in my family and at school, as well as on tv as a kid. Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry getting in trouble and falling off their career path for doing coke was a cautionary tale in the late 80's when I was just a little leaguer.
It was easy to see that even players who had it all could self destruct, and I just wanted to avoid that. I made a commitment to never let anything get in the way of my progress when I was 10 years old (1990) before I ever knew what straightedge was...I didn't even know about the punk rock angle until I was 15-16.
it was never trendy for me- I really wanted to succeed as a baseball player and that was the ultimate goal for me that led me to what I really wanted in life...as an 8 year old I saw success as:
cool house
porsches and ferraris
super hot wife
it was pretty simple that baseball was my best chance!
This one might be a touchy subject and if you don't feel like answering by all means ignore it! Does baseball have a pill problem? I remember clearly the complete travesty of the Tyler Skaggs situation but baseball seemed to make it appear isolated to just the Angles is it much more widespread?
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It is probably still a problem. Skaggs was a tragic example of what happens under a 'don't ask don't tell' scenario.
The angels teams I was on were really wild in terms of permissioned alcoholism. The rangers teams were much more hard working in the weight room, and it seemed like a few of the guys were stoners on the rangers over the years...but the angels teams had more dudes that would slam booze.
the angels culture has been very lazy for over a decade...my first spring training we didn't even have a real weight room to use which was FUCKING CRAZY. this was 2012.
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It seems that Art really does need to sell that team. Skaggs was just a few years older than me and I had just had my third neurosurgery having to deal with the pain pills and was shocked that it could happen to a professional athlete. To me, it really made all athletes much more human than I tended to think.
With the weight rooms, I guess that is one of the many reasons why these crazy teams the Angels have put together over the years with Trout, Ohtani, Pujols, etc. just did not perform.
Do you think Rendon is just misunderstood by the public and baseball beat writers or is he really as arrogant and out of touch as he seems?
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Rendon is introverted and Arte's attitude is to control the press so the stories always look worse than they are...last year they were hiding that he had a broken leg!
Arte does this to try and protect the trade values of the players...which is really stupid IMO.
Same with contract shape...they will pay the player too much at the end of the contract instead of normalizing it on an average.
I remember telling them it was stupid they wanted to pay me more in the 5th year than I made in the first 2 years combined...but they insured my contract and got it all paid back by insurance when I got hurt and missed time so maybe I was dumb...
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they did the same with Albert, same with Trout's deal etc.
But in the mean time, they could have signed Sabathia, Cole etc but didn't pony up.
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