Second thoughts

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Torii says everybody’s got to eat

Detroit Tigers right fielder and Pine Bluff native Torii Hunter has no problem with his three college-age sons, Darius, Money and Torii Jr., helping their friends eat.

“I look at my bank statements, and I see that my sons have actually helped a lot of people eat,” Hunter told the Detroit Free Press.. “They take their friends out to Chick-fil-A or Applebee’s, and they have a good dinner all the time. It’s always about four or five of them.

It’s like, ‘These guys don’t have anything, Dad. I just want to help them out.’ I’m like, ‘OK, man, that’s fine. That’s what it’s all about.’ All three of them play football and all three of them do the same thing.

For my sons to have that kind of heart is great.”

Torii Jr. (Notre Dame) and Money (Arkansas State) will be sophomores this fall. Darius was at Southeastern Louisiana last season, but is no longer at the school.

Last week, the NCAA’s governing body’s legislative council voted to eliminate all previous restrictions on food for athletes. Hunter is in favor of the potential change in the college landscape of paying players.

Hunter, 38, a graduate of Pine Bluff High School, did not play college baseball. He was drafted in the first round in the 1993 major league baseball draft by the Minnesota Twins.

“I don’t have a problem with those guys getting paid,” Hunter said. “Not a lot, but just enough where they won’t go hungry. I had friends in college that went hungry all the time and had to sacrifice. Of course, they had to work, but they were working, playing football and getting their education.

“You might have a guy out there doing great things. Johnny [Manziel] out there at Texas A&M, this guy was doing great things.

Does he get paid as much as a guy who sits on the bench and never plays? If you come up with a system, it’s different. I think they can come up with a system for guys and their level of play, or all starters get this much, nonstarters get this much. I think that works out pretty well.”

Hunter added that if a starter were to get hurt, then he drops down to non-starter in his pay system.

“Simple as that,” he said. “It is cutthroat. It is cutthroat now, and you don’t get paid anything. So why wouldn’t that be better than the system they have now? I don’t know. I’m pretty sure they can come up with something.”

Hunter is batting .245 with 3 home runs, 10 RBI and 1 stolen base in 13 games this season.

Fight?!?

One day after the Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates brawled at PNC Park, tempers were still hot.

Pirates catcher Russell Martin said after Sunday’s game that it would be fair to hold down Brewers backup catcher Martin Maldonado so he could be punched in the face. Maldonado had punched Pirates outfielder Travis Snider in the head.

Martin then went one step further Monday: He wants to fight Maldonado - in the offseason as a charity event.

“Maybe … we can raise some money for charity and battle it out,” Martin told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “Me and [Maldonado]. I’m throwing it out there.

“I know in his mind he’s protecting his teammate. But he wasn’t. He got a free shot in.

“I’m getting heated up just talking about it.”

Meanwhile, Maldonado apologized for his role in Sunday’s fight on Twitter.

“To all baseball fans, my sincere apologies for today’s incident,” he tweeted. “I hope you all understand that I have to back up my team.”

However, Maldonado declined to respond to Martin’s charity fight challenge.

“I don’t know what to say about it.”

The Brewers next play the Pirates on May 13-15 at Miller Park in Milwaukee.

Quote of the day

“When I came to that spot, where I had gotten stopped last year, the emotions were unbelievable. I felt like I was going to explode.” Marathoner Jamie Merriman of Hot Springs on running the 118th Boston Marathon after not being allowed to finish last year because of the bombings

Sports, Pages 17 on 04/22/2014