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Embracing the Momentum
First baseman Dmitri Young, who will represent the Nationals at Tuesday's All-Star Game, has had an up-and-down career.
(By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)
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"I look at life as a cycle of ups and downs," Larry Young said. "That was, definitely, a down."
Gaining Perspective
Alan Trammell cut off the question before it was finished.
"Awesome," Trammell said. "He's always been awesome. He is a quality person, gets along with his teammates extremely well. Always been a favorite."
Fick would pick up the paper last year, see the words "Dmitri Young" printed in bold in an item about his fight with a girlfriend or an update on an impending hearing or his release by the Tigers.
"To read those things about Dmitri Young," Fick said, "was real hard to believe."
Trammell managed Young on those sorry Detroit teams from 2003 to 2005. Fick has known him since high school and was a Tigers teammate. They have both pondered the questions themselves. How can a man filled with such promise -- with, as he said, "no coordination for anything else" but the natural ability to crush a baseball -- end up misusing and abusing his talent, a reputable career in disrepair?
"The divorce," Trammell said. "I could see it back at the end of '05. People expect these guys to be robots. They're not."
Young describes himself as "an open book," but he is reluctant to discuss publicly the details of an April 2006 incident in which he was charged with choking a 21-year-old woman at a hotel in Birmingham, Mich. The record shows that he first pleaded no contest, later pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to community service, placed on a year's probation. What he is not shy about is the trouble it caused him and his family.
"You find yourself doing things you'd rather not be doing," he said.
Young was married for nine years. He and his wife, Rebecca, had three children, Owen, Damon and Layla. When the marriage began to unravel in 2005, Young's life spun away from him. Too much alcohol. Some drugs. The charges. A trip to the disabled list to deal with the problems. A stint at a Malibu, Calif., rehabilitation center. A return to the Tigers that was, ultimately, embarrassing, because he hit .292 but was released anyway, his team less than a month from clinching a playoff berth. For 30 days, he had to stay in Detroit. He couldn't see his kids.
"When you lose your family and something happens to you off the field, what do you do?" Fick said. "It's like all these things were thrown at him -- your team going to the World Series, and you were part of building it to get it to the World Series. I mean, there was a lot of things he had to deal with, and he just had no clue how to do it. And how can you blame him? Who would know?"
Young didn't. As part of his probation, along with daily sobriety tests, he was required to perform labor in the Detroit suburbs. The Tigers beat the Yankees in the playoffs. Young trimmed hedges. They won the pennant on a walk-off homer. Young mowed grass. The Motor City hummed. Young plugged his ears.
