Dave “Ride Around” Sheinin was at Elijah Dukes' press conference down at Nats Spring Training and shares a few things about the troubled fourth outfielder’s arrival that are worth block-quoting:
“Along a wall in the interview room, Nationals GM Jim Bowden, Manager Manny Acta, President Stan Kasten and two public relations officials looked on anxiously as Dukes spoke.”
Never has so much trepidation surrounded such an unheralded acquisition (.190 career batting average, with Tampa Bay of all teams). Of course, there’s reason for that. Just look at the 23-year-old’s rap sheet:
Since 1997, he has been arrested at least three times for battery and once for assault, records show. He fathered at least five children with four women between 2003 and 2006, court records show—two of which were born within eight days of each other—and last summer admitted frequent marijuana use.
I can overlook four different baby’s mamas in four years, but smokin’ that weed? Blasphemer!
Anyway, the Nats now have a babysitter/ex-cop under their employ to eat, sleep, and breathe with Dukes. Considering this incident from last summer, that’s probably a good thing:
“He threatened his estranged ex-wife and her children in a voice mail in which he said, “Hey, dawg. It’s on, dawg. You dead, dawg...Your kids, too.”
Despite his threat to kill a woman and children, I love what the Nats are doing here.
They wouldn’t take Dukes on if he didn’t have potential, but the side effect of that may be saving a young man’s life (and the lives of those around him). It could end up being a PR nightmare, but it could also lead a kid back to the path of righteousness.
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