COMMENTARY : No One Handled Sanders’ Situation Correctly

The only two-sport athlete in the majors, Deion Sanders is still showing that he has a gift for stirring up trouble.

Everyone who had a hand in his recent controversies--Bobby Cox, Tim McCarver, Bill White and Sanders himself--was very much in the wrong.

There’s a case to be made against all of them.

The case against Sanders:

He had no business throwing buckets of ice water on McCarver, a television announcer who had criticized the all-around Atlanta athlete.

It was not pennant-clinching playfulness, as Sanders said, and it was even more than an act of cowardice by Sanders, as McCarver charged. It was a deliberate act of violence, a protest against free speech.

The civil way for Sanders to have dissented from McCarver’s views--in a country founded on free-speech principles--would have been to attack those views. The uncivil, un-American way was to attack the man, as Sanders did.

The case against White:

As president of the National League, White should have fined Sanders heavily, $5,000 or more, and he should have done it immediately as a warning from baseball that uncivil behavior is off limits.

A $5 fine might be appropriate if Sanders were making $50 a day. As a million-dollar-a-year man, he should have been nicked enough to understand that the shock of a sudden, unexpected drenching could have serious consequences.

That is the message that White should have delivered, instantly.

The case against McCarver:

The notion that it was “flat wrong,” as McCarver said, for Sanders to leave town to play football for the Falcons--at a time when the Braves were not playing baseball--is flat wrong.

In a free country, if you think you can handle two sports in one day, why not try it?

Consider:

--The hard thing is to play both football and baseball with major league skills.

--The easy thing, for a well-conditioned 25-year-old athlete who can play them both, is to play both on the same day. Even in cities about 1,000 miles apart. Even without much sleep.

More than one World Series home run has been hit by a ballplayer who could look back happily on a night of little or no sleep.

McCarver was likewise wrong when he suggested that Sanders breached his baseball contract.

That contract expired months ago. The Braves are paying him by the day.

The case against Cox:

In a month of mistakes by Sanders and others, Cox, who manages the Braves, made the worst and most unfortunate mistake.

It was also the most mean-spirited.

After Sanders had flown over six or seven states to rejoin the Braves in time for a critical playoff game at Pittsburgh, Cox kept him on the bench through all nine innings as Atlanta lost, 7-1.

Sanders, though, is not entirely blameless in this. When he decided earlier this year to play both sports, the Braves apparently got the idea that when it came to postseason play, he would be exclusively theirs. If that wasn’t Sanders’ intent, he should have said so.

In any event, had he played baseball against Pittsburgh, Sanders would have been the first to perform in two clutch big league games in two sports in two states during the same day.

One of Atlanta’s few .300 hitters, Sanders is also among baseball’s fastest and most inspirational players. As recently as Sunday night, playing left field, he lit a fire under the Braves, launching their go-ahead rally during the fifth inning.

And yet in Pittsburgh last week, Cox couldn’t find a place for such an athlete--couldn’t use him during a game that started getting away from Atlanta, by five runs, as early as the third inning.

In a one-run struggle, Cox’s action might have been understandable. In a 7-1 game, it was indefensible.