Indignities come in all forms.
John Odom, however, may have found a classification all his own. Odom is a minor-league pitcher, and not an especially good one.
He was traded this year from the Calgary Vipers to the Laredo Broncos of the Golden Baseball League. He wasn’t traded for cash or even for those old reliable “future considerations” and “player to be named.” Odom was traded for 10 bats.
No doubt, it could have been worse. A year or so ago, a European soccer player was said to have been traded for a slab of beef. But for Odom, the going price was 10 black, 34-inch maple bats. According to the manufacturer, they sell at discount for $65.50 each.
Odom was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 2003 but released. He still thinks he has a shot at the big leagues.
“I’m still in shock from this phenomenon,” said Odom, nicknamed “Bat Man.” “I don’t know how to describe it. It’s mind-boggling.”
Humiliation is an equal opportunity employer, and in 2008 there was plenty to go around.
Consider the women’s hockey team of Bulgaria, which lost an Olympic qualifier to Slovakia 82-0. There was not even the faintest silver lining for the Bulgarians. They were outshot 139-0.
Soccer referee Sergei Shmolik didn’t fare much better. In a game in Belarus, he wobbled off the field, seemingly from back pain. Later, the source of his discomfort became clear: He was drunk.
It was more a case of courage than contrition for photographer Ryan McGeeney of the Standard-Examiner in Provo, Utah. He was covering a high school track meet when he was speared in the leg by a javelin. McGeeney was not one to pass up a good shot. While others tended to him, he snapped a photo of his wound.
“If I didn’t,” he said, “it would probably be my editor’s first question when I got back.”
Seemingly no sport was immune from its quirky moments: Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summit dislocated her shoulder fending off a raccoon on the deck of her home; German champion billiards player Axel Buescher was suspended for doping; soccer fans in Argentina — twice in one week! — hijacked buses to get to games on time, making it in neither instance; Volvo Ocean Race sailors girded themselves not only for icebergs but pirates; and pirates of a different sort, the last-place Pittsburgh Pirates, looked to India for hope. They signed two pitchers who until this year had not thrown a baseball.
The Spanish Soccer League was awarded a cemetery in lieu of unpaid debts in a lawsuit involving a club owner. Fans of the German soccer club Hamburger SV now have their own cemetery, with the option of a grave covered in grass from the team’s field. And the Jamaican hotel room where Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer died under mysterious circumstances now pulls in tourists.
Sportsmanship, so often on the run, made a rare sighting in 2008. Sara Tucholsky, a Western Oregon softball player, slugged her first college home run against Central Washington. But her knee buckled at first base and she couldn’t go farther. She was told teammates couldn’t assist and a pinch runner would limit her to a single. Then, two Central Washington players carried Tucholsky around the diamond, allowing her to touch each base with her good leg until she made it to the plate. The homer helped eliminate Central Washington from the playoffs.
“In the end, it is not about winning and losing so much,” said Mallory Holtman, who helped lift Tucholsky around the bases. “She hit it over the fence and was in pain, and she deserved a home run.”
Nothing was sporting about Marian Hinnant. She was a juror in the corruption trial of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. She told the judge her father died and she had to go to California. The judge halted the proceedings. It turned out she was lying and her father hadn’t died. Hinnant had flown to California to see the Breeders’ Cup.
Court documents do not show on which horses Hinnant bet, but she might well have been eyeing the second race that day. For running in The Turf Sprint was a 4-year-old colt by the name of Idiot Proof.
Contributing to this report were AP sportswriters Ben Walker and Bernie Wilson and AP writers Chris Talbott, Christopher Sherman, Joseph Frazier and Jesse J. Holland.
