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Sometimes it’s best to walk away than to push your ‘Luck’

By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com

One of the most remarkable professional athletes I’ve ever interfaced with is LaTroy Hawkins.

Many Twins and Cubs fans, as well as fans from the other nine Major League Baseball teams that Hawkins pitched for during his 21-year career may concur that Hawkins will likely never be enshrined at Cooperstown. That is unless the National Baseball Hall of Fame Veterans Committee lowers the bar even further.

Hawkins may not have the win-loss percentage or earned run average to earn him a bronze plaque, but he did have the arm to accumulate more than 1,000 MLB appearances on the mound, which puts him in a select group of pitchers who have reached that milestone — just 16.

When considered among this group is knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm, what makes Hawkins’s inclusion even more impressive is that he often relied on his hard slider.

A good slider can get most any hitter out, but it also can get the pitcher who throws it out … as in out of the major leagues due to the torque it puts on the arm. But Hawkins somehow avoided shut-down injuries and left the game on his own terms after having one of his better seasons at 42 years old.

It takes a special type of athlete to play at the top-tier professional level. But an even rarer type of athlete is one who can play at that level for a sustained period of time while avoiding injury. It’s part of sports’ “natural selection” process that weeds out the exceptional from the highly exceptional.

I believe too often we label star-crossed athletes such as Jim McMahon, Mark Prior and Derrick Rose as injury prone. But they may be just typical mortals who are gifted athletically but are in a profession that generates the type of physical day-in and day-out wear and tear that would break down an upward of 90 percent of the people on earth within a span of five years or less.

Obviously, athletes like Hawkins, all-time NFL rushing leader Emmitt Smith and soon-to-be NBA-seasons-played-record-setter Vince Carter were and are blessed with impeccable and uncommon body structures and genetics enhanced by ardent training and conditioning … and maybe a little bit of “luck”.

After the Indianapolis Colts lost to the Chicago Bears in their preseason game last weekend, Colts quarterback Andrew Luck announced his retirement. Unlike similar announcements by Brett Favre, this one seems more legit. Luck is likely not coming back.

Still a young family man who is wealthy and well-educated, Luck has little reason to. Basically, he was sick and tired of being sick and tired … going through injury, pain, rehab, pain, comeback, repeat.

With the fickle nature of football fans who will love you until they don’t, Luck’s announcement was greeted with some jeers. Granted, the timing could have been better — those with a vested interest in the Colts would have much rather heard this announcement at the end of a season instead of the beginning.

But leaving now Luck may be avoiding a life plagued by pain killers and possible addiction.

Some who embrace the hackneyed adage “Pain is Temporary; Pride is Forever” may not understand the precaution taken by Luck. The idea that pain can be chronic — in other words “forever” — is lost on them … or they haven’t reached that point in their lives.

A friend of mine has a late-teen son who is into hardcore skateboarding. What I mean by “hardcore” is that this son and his troupe add parkour elements to their stunts, sometimes skating off multi-story buildings. They scoff at skate parks, even though the most benign are ambulance calls waiting to happen.

Most of them have sustained emergency-room injuries, and wear the scars like badges of honor. For young people like them, broken bones, soft tissue damage and other forms of trauma often heal quicker than they do for older people who are not as resilient. While viewing videos of these harrowing stunts on the father’s phone, the father and I reminisced about the crazy stuff we did when we were young, and how bouncing back from the consequences gave us a sense of invincibility like we were Wolverine of the X-Men.

Incidentally, the son’s name is “Logan”.

But even those who move beyond the age of invincibility can push themselves too far.

I recently saw an aired interview of renowned mountaineer, filmmaker and author David Breashears, who was talking about the mounting death toll on Mount Everest. He referenced ill-fated climbers, well past their allotted time in the upper troposphere, refusing to turn back with the summit just 300 feet away.

After putting in all the planning, time and effort into reaching the top only to pull back a football field short … that surely would sow seeds of regret while likely never garnering kudos from those who pay heed to slogans like “Pain is Temporary … Quitters Never Win … Just Do It.”

Pride can lead you to the top of the mountain as well as to a Super Bowl title. Pride will help you fight through the discomfort to get there. But even pride can be temporary for those who are no longer around and/or are unable to enjoy it.

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