Joba Chamberlain had issued a statement - through his agent - after being arrested for drunk driving last month, issuing an apology and saying his plan was for it to be a one-time mistake.
But Chamberlain had yet to speak publicly about the arrest. Yesterday he did, reiterating much of what was in the statement - but saying it himself. Chamberlain insisted he wouldn't make the same mistake twice, apologized to kids and fans, and admitted he knows there is more to life than baseball.
"You've always got to take a negative and turn it into a positive and teach kids and understand that it's not right," Chamberlain told The Post following an autograph signing at Last Licks in Rye. "And coming from somebody that's experienced it, there's a little more legitimacy behind it. But you never want to -– once is enough. That's not going to happen again.
"And I apologize not only to the kids, but to the fans that spend their money to come out and to do the things that they do for us and for myself. And as somebody that's in the spotlight, you've got to understand that there's more important things to life than baseball and you realize that."
"The support and everything that's gone along with it has been great," he said. "And we're a family and everybody understands that. You have to learn from it and never let it happen again."As usually Joba is saying all the right things, but with stuff like this it takes actions, not words, to make sure you don't get yourself in the same situation again.
Hopefully one stupid mistake doesn't lead to another one and another and another. Many athletes have gone down that road before.
Luckily for Joba and the Yankees, Joba seems like a mature kid and someone who can learn from his mistakes.
2 Comments:
message to Joba-take a care service next time. You dont want to wind up like Leyritz
Joba keeps saying all the right things and making all the apologies and stuff, but he doesn't really seem to get at the root of the issue. It's like he knows what he did was wrong, but he doesn't really understand at the heart of it WHY it was wrong.
I don't recall him once saying how stupid of a thing it was to do, or how he put his own life as well as the lives of others at risk. That's what he should be apologizing for.
"And as somebody that's in the spotlight, you've got to understand that there's more important things to life than baseball and you realize that."
It sounds like he's remorseful because he's a role model rather than being remorseful because it was a stupid and dangerous thing to do. I'd like him to be remorseful for BOTH of those things. Perhaps he is and he just hasn't said it straight out.
Either way, I pray he understands that doing stupid things like this are an extremely bad idea.
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