COMMENTARY : Gene Michael Broke the Law Too

The story was lost underneath all the other baseball news, because stories about drunk drivers in sports usually are, right up until somebody dies.

All the real baseball action was in a New York courtroom, and no one paid too much attention after the general manager of the New York Yankees, Gene Michael, was arrested in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., for driving under the influence of alcohol, driving under the influence with property damage, leaving the scene of an accident with property damage, and failure to use what the police call “due care.”

According to the Broward County Sheriff’s Department, Michael did very poorly on a roadside sobriety test. Things like this happen all the time in sports, the way they happen all the time to everybody else. But stories such as Michael’s never get sports fans as hysterical as a rich ballplayer testing positive for drugs, or a rich ballplayer talking back to his coach, or somebody like Darryl Strawberry or Pete Rose cheating on his taxes.

And last week in Ft. Lauderdale, Gene Michael was more of a threat to all of us than Dwight Gooden or Derrick Coleman or Darryl Strawberry or anybody. He hit a light pole and the light pole could just as easily have been another car, or a person getting ready to cross a street. Or Gene Michael could have been the one who got himself broken in half or killed.

Sports fans never seem to get as angry about someone like Michael being drunk behind the wheel of a car as they do about Gooden testing positive again. It is always exciting when it is a millionaire star. Drinking is never as interesting as drugs. The ones who always want to give someone like Gooden the death penalty always say this: But drugs are illegal. Well, so was Gene Michael last week.

So was Lenny Dykstra the night he nearly killed himself and Darren Daulton a few years ago after a bachelor party for John Kruk. Pelle Lindbergh of the Flyers was drunk out of his mind one time, and would have been in big trouble with the law if he hadn’t been dead when they finally managed to pull him out of his sports car.

People look the other way because drinking is an essential part of the culture of sports, from all the beer company sponsors to the idea, as strong as ever, that you are supposed to play hard and then party hard afterward.

Gene Michael is one of the good guys. From the time he was a player, all the way through tours as both the Yankees’ manager and general manager, he has managed to handle himself with grace while in the impossible circumstance of working for George Steinbrenner.

Last week, Michael had one too many. The cops say he hit that light pole, drove off and got stopped because of smoke coming from a flat tire. He refused to take a Breathalyzer exam, and the only reason to refuse is because if you have been drinking, you know that as soon as you take it, you are gone. He was then released on bond.

Michael is said to be embarrassed. Good. Maybe he has learned his lesson. Maybe he will never again have a few belts and then think he is in great shape to drive home, or back to the hotel.

We always hear how dumb Gooden was for blowing everything. We always hear that about Strawberry. Great indignation. Something about the way they fell thrills us all. Gene Michael could have done the same last week, when he was more dangerous in that car than anyone in sports.