.jpg "060630_blot11")
Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Brett Myers became the latest pro athlete to punch his wife in the face in public last week, committing the act right here in Boston.
Myers was arrested at 12:26 am last Friday outside the Sheraton, in Back Bay, where the Philadelphia ace was apparently re-enacting a caveman fantasy, allegedly dragging his wife, Kim, by the hair and slapping her in the face. According to one witness, Kim was crying and screaming, “I’m not going to let you do this anymore!” Nice. Myers, incidentally, was a boxer in his youth.
Philadelphia has been a great city for athlete arrests. But the Phillies in particular have had a tough run in the past few years. In 2003, the team twiddled their thumbs after reliever Terry Adams’s domestic-battery arrest (Sox fans might remember him as the guy who got a ring here a few years ago while pitching in that “Oh-God-I-hope-he-doesn’t-groove-another-fastball-to-Giambi” middle-relief role).
WIFEBEATER CHANTS: Brett Myers was sent back to the mound after allegedly beating his wife outside the Back Bay Sheraton |
The team sweated out another domestic-assault arrest the following year, that time by outfielder Marlon Byrd. Last year, outfielder Jason Michaels hit not his wife, but a police officer. In a policy that mirrors the Phillies’ habit of not firing managers until the season is over, all three players were allowed to play out the year and then were dispatched out of town.Myers has long had a reputation for Josh Beckett-esque rage-filled meltdowns on the mound. He was the key figure in a bases-clearing blowout in AAA ball in 2002 that resulted in a fine and a bloody nose, and he always seems on the verge of losing it when he gives up a couple of hits in a row. Told that teammate Bobby Abreu had described Myers as “mature,” manager Charlie Manuel replied, “I don’t know what I want to say about that.”As was noted by commentators after the Sox-Phils game last Saturday, the Phillies sent a great message to kids by allowing Myers to pitch after his bust. The team’s reasoning, as expressed by GM Pat Gillick: “He’s our best pitcher.”
While Byrd, Adams, and Michaels took the fast track out of Philly, look for Myers to stick around. Wife-beaters abound, but starting pitchers are hard to find.
She just wouldn’t listen
Continuing the wife-assault edition of this column, New Orleans Saints tackle Jammal Brown was arrested on domestic-abuse charges after his wife placed a 911 call to the Tammany Parrish sheriff’s office. Said Parrish spokesman George Bonnett: “I can certainly say it was a physical altercation . . . ”
Brown is the latest in a long line of knucklehead Saints tackles. Onetime Saint Victor Riley was a pioneer in the area of ramming-your-wife-with-a-car assaults, a crime subsequently mimicked by Michael Pittman. And ex-Saint Kyle Turley, while possessing no off-field arrest record, made his name virtually synonymous with the concept of “league-mandated anger management classes” after his famous helmet-ripping incident involving Jets safety Damien Robinson (who was once caught asleep in his car in the parking lot of Giants Stadium with a loaded assault rifle). Turley was also accused of threatening to kill Rams coach Mike Martz.
