LEFTOVERS: Not even president lures Lynch
The lengths to which Marshawn Lynch will snub talking to the media have become legendary. You may recall at Super Bowl media day this year the Seattle Seahawks star running back hid behind a curtain rather than face a sea of microphones.
On Wednesday, Lynch snubbed the president of the United States by deciding not to join his teammates at the White House, where the team was honored for its world championship.
According to the Seattle Times, Lynch’s mother, Delisa, said, “He just didn’t want to go. No particular reason was given to me.”
President Barack Obama noticed Lynch was missing, and said: “I am sorry that Marshawn’s not here because I just want to say how much I admire his approach to the press. I wanted to get some tips from him. It’s about the action.”
Lynch’s mom passed on Obama’s comments to her son, who responded with a “Laughing out loud” text.
“It was really considerate considering he didn’t go,” Delisa Lynch said of Obama’s acknowledgement of her son.
Yeah, too bad Lynch didn’t go. He probably would have had some fun sharing the moment with his teammates and coaches.
■ BASEBALL LOVE — Pedro Martinez was a great pitcher, and one of the reasons he may have been great was his “relationship” with the baseball.
In an interview with Fangraphs about the art of pitching, Martinez said having a feel for the ball was critical to having success on the mound. Then he got sort of erotic in his explanation.
“Your hand and the ball is a marriage that should never end,” he said. “The pitcher and the ball should be married forever. Hands, fingers, the ball — they should be married forever. It’s like caressing your wife. It’s touching and getting that feel to know her, alone. It’s the same thing with a baseball.”
Plausible? Perhaps. So are we to assume that when Martinez gave up a home run, it probably meant he and the ball were incompatible and it was the ball’s way of banishing Pedro to the couch?
■ J.R. BAILS OUT — Jeremy Roenick has a bit of an off-beat sense of humor, if you will, and it was on display Thursday night on the set of NBC Sports Network’s “NHL Overtime” postgame show.
The Montreal Canadiens had just beaten the New York Rangers 3-2 in overtime to get back in the Eastern Conference finals, and a clip of Canadiens coach Michel Therrien’s postgame news conference was shown in which Therrien was speaking in French.
Apparently Roenick, an American, doesn’t speak French. Co-analyst Keith Jones does, however, and Jones translated what Therrien was saying, basically praising goaltender Dustin Tokarski’s play.
J.R.’s response? He said to Jones, “The fact that you know French, that scares me, I’m outta here” and walked off the set while the segment was still live on the air, kinda like something Kenny Smith or Charles Barkley might do on an NBA on TNT telecast.
Jones and studio host Liam McHugh seemed a bit startled at first. But they handled it fine. Jones said “au revoir” to Roenick, while McHugh made a crack about the white pants J.R. was wearing.
As to why Roenick really left the stage, one clever person Tweeted: “He probably had to go oui oui.”
COMPILED BY STEVE CARP LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
