J.D. Drew Can Feel Mike Napoli's Pain - 美國職棒

J.D. Drew Can Feel Mike Napoli's Pain

http://0rz.tw/XHYAR

It's all coming back to J.D. Drew.

J.D. Drew再次成為焦點。

There's Monday's news that his brother, Stephen Drew, is coming to Boston,
agreeing to a one-year deal to play shortstop for the Red Sox. (A notion J.D.
didn't feel comfortable talking about when reached by phone Sunday night.)

J.D. Drew的弟弟和紅襪簽下一年約。(禮拜天電訪J.D. Drew，他那時不大想談)

And then there are the memories that Mike Napoli's situation has resurfaced.

然後他的記憶又浮現了─現在的Napoli跟他的處境很像。

Since the Red Sox first agreed to a three-year, $39 million deal with Napoli,
the team has now come to terms with four more free agents -- Shane Victorino,
Koji Uehara, Ryan Dempster and now Stephen Drew. Yet, still, there has been
no word when it comes to the first baseman's deal becoming official, with the
prevailing belief that medical concerns have resulted in the delay.

紅襪在市場上的第一槍是Napoli，公道價3y $39M。接下來簽了夏威夷人、上原、蛋皮和
豬小弟。但是到現在為止Napoli的約還沒正式發佈─大多人相信延遲的原因是醫療層面問
題。

That's 14 days of silence. For J.D. Drew, that's nothing. His wait lasted 52.

14天沒動作了。不過對J.D. Drew來說，14天沒啥大不了。他等了52天。

"Fifty-two days … The worst part of those were the first few days," Drew
said. "With Theo [Epstein], our relationship, and Scott, it was understood we
were going to get this deal done. I don't know what they're telling Napoli.
I'm sure it's similar to that."

J.D. Drew：「52天...最糟的是前幾天。因為Theo、我和他的關係與經紀人Scott Boras
，一般認為這個約的確會簽下去。不曉得他們怎麼跟Napoli說，不過我覺得這次跟我的經
驗應該很相近。」

Drew might be the standard bearer when it comes to an example of a contract
being reworked due to medical issues. His detour started in a hotel room on
Dec. 13, 2006, when it was relayed that he would not be sharing a press
conference with Julio Lugo as planned, and stretched all the way until late
January 2007.

J.D. Drew應該已經成為因為醫療問題得重新討論合約的代表性人物之一。他的艱困旅程
始於2006/12/13，Drew原本計畫要和Lugo一起開記者會，但是Drew突然接到消息，他不能
和Lugo一起開記者會。他等到2007年一月底才出來開記者會。

"It would have been nice to work it out in 20 days instead of 52 days. It was
a unique situation to say the least," Drew said. "I can say this: It got me
out of a big, stinking press conference."

「只花20天的話該有多好呢。那是一個詭異的情況，至少能這麼說。不過我可以說：『
我逃過又大又臭的記者會。」

Drew can relate somewhat to whatever Napoli might be feeling, although while
such situations are similar, they are, as the former outfielder points out,
rarely exactly the same.

Drew覺得他能感同身受。不過Drew表示雖然狀況類似，但其實不盡相同。

The Red Sox have executed a few of these such deals, ones that protect the
team against medical concerns using clauses that will kick in if there is a
problem with the specific ailment. For Drew, it was a right shoulder that had
been operated on the offseason before signing with the Sox. Another example
is John Lackey, who had a vesting option that became a team option at the
major league minimum when he had to undergo Tommy John surgery on his right
elbow.

紅襪處理過一些類似的合約。當球隊遇上特定的傷病問題時，保護球隊的條款將會生效。
Drew呢，他在和紅襪簽約前的休賽期間動了右肩的手術。另一個例子是Lackey，如果
他因為右肘傷勢動了TJ，他的自動執行選擇權會變成球隊選擇權，最低薪$500K。

It's a team policy that started when principal owner John Henry decided he
would rather gain peace of mind through such clauses instead of insurance
after being burned by an Alex Fernandez policy with the Marlins.

John Henry決定採用這些心平氣和的條款，而不是採用馬林魚對Alex Fernandez採用的
保險條款。

( Marlins Have Insurance On Fernandez：http://0rz.tw/NeDlC )

But, again, it was J.D. Drew who represented one of the first, and perhaps
most intriguing, cases.

不過J.D. Drew是首例，也是最有趣的一個。

"The one thing that was tough was I was there thinking that I was doing this
press conference with Julio Lugo, and I thought it was odd nobody was telling
me what we were going to do," he recalled. "I remember talking to Scott
[Boras], 'What's the deal' Do I need to speak?' He just said they were in a
holdup after the physical. That's probably what I remember the most, not the
52 days but just the first explanation that they weren't happy with what they
found. I think as a player it was tough to understand because you're still
capable of playing.

「最難受的地方是我在那裡想著我會跟Lugo一起開記者會。還有，奇怪的地方是沒人告訴
我我們接下來要幹嘛。我問Boras怎麼了，我是不是該出面，他只說體檢之後有些耽誤。
我最記得的不是52天，而是球隊第一時間對於體檢報告不滿之處的解釋。對於球員來說
很難理解，因為你還能上場打球。」

"I knew I signed a big deal and people are going to want to make an
announcement. So I'm at the hotel and I'm waiting around and Lugo has his
press conference. I'm like, 'Scott, what's going on.' He just said, 'They're
having some issues with your physical. Go home and we'll get this resolved.'
He was pretty perturbed. For the next 52 days I had to spend my own time and
money to refute some of the things that were going on and get the process to
the point where we had to ultimately put a clause in the contract."

「我知道我簽了大約，大家會想要我出面來宣布這件事情。我在飯店等著，Lugo卻自己
開了記者會。我就問：『Scott, 怎麼了？』，Boras忐忑不安的說著：『他們對你的體檢
報告有些疑慮，回家吧，我們會解決的。』接下來的52天我得花錢花時間反駁一些事情，
然後使用最終手段─加註條款來達成協議。」

What baffled Drew was that his right shoulder had been of little concern. He
had experienced micro-fracture surgery leading into the '06 season (a
procedure that drills holes in the bone to regrow cartilage), but as the
season with the Dodgers progressed the body part had become less and less of
a concern. A shot of Synvisc (helping lubricate the shoulder joint) in spring
training had helped the recovery process, leading to a fully-functioning
throwing arm come September.

讓Drew百思不得其解的地方是他的右肩的問題不嚴重。他在06球季之前動了微創手術(在
骨頭上鑽洞，重生軟骨)，接下來的球季在道奇的治療之下越來越不成問題。在春訓時他
注射了欣維可(幫助潤滑肩關節)，幫助復健。在九月時，這支丟球的手臂已經完全復原
了。

Six years later, Drew reports that he's still had no problems with the
shoulder.

六年後的今天，Drew表示他的肩膀一點問題都沒有。

"I was a year removed from surgery, but I was throwing out runners at the end
of the year," he said. "I'll be completely honest, my right shoulder to this
day feels great. But my left shoulder still hurts (due to bone spurs suffered
in '11)."

「我因為手術缺陣一年，但是我在年底可以用雷射肩幹掉跑者。老實說，時至今日我的
右肩依然健康，但是我的左肩還會痛(2011年受骨刺所苦)。」

Following the examination by the Red Sox medical team, and subsequent
disagreement between parties, Drew set off to find some clarity regarding the
situation. He visited a series of shoulder specialists, including Dr. James
Andrews.

在紅襪的隊醫系統檢查之後兩方的協議出現問題。Drew想辦法讓情況明朗化。他跑去找很
多肩膀專家─包括Dr. James Andrews。

"It was frustrating because you had one doctor say, 'Look, I've seen 100
times worse shoulders. Is J.D. going to be able to play for you? Absolutely.
Is he going to be in a position where he can't perform five years down the
road? No way.' We had to be careful to word the contract that if I got
injured playing for the Boston Red Sox it was viewed as different than me
being injured before," Drew said.

「當你聽到醫生說這些話時特別沮喪：『嘿，我看過糟糕100倍的肩膀。J.D.能上場打球
嗎？當然可以。他在接下來的五年之間無法正常表現？不可能。』我們得小心簽約用字
─在紅襪打球受傷和之前就受傷會被視為不同的事情。」

"I never felt like Theo didn't want me. It was well known the Red Sox wanted
me to play in Boston. It wasn't like, 'We trust our doctor and there is no
way we're bringing this guy in here.' They were basically saying, 'Just give
us some assurances if something happens with this injury you had we're going
to be able to address that for the sanity of ourselves, our team and our fan
base.'"

「我不曾覺得Theo不要我。大家都知道紅襪想要我加入，感覺不像是『我們相信隊醫，
所以我們不可能簽那個傢伙。』他們比較像是『如果發生甚麼事情的話，給我們保險。
這對球隊和球迷才能有個合理的交代。』」

Yet, despite the wait and the drama, Drew never grew concerned that his
five-year, $70 million deal was in jeopardy. And at the end of the day all
that changed was a clause that stated that the Red Sox could have voided the
fourth or fifth years of his deal if time was lost due to the preexisting
injury in the third or fourth season.

雖然歹戲拖棚了好一陣子，Drew從不擔心他的5y$70M的合約會被吹走。最終他和紅襪的合
約加註了「如果在第三季或第四季因為已經存在的傷勢而缺席過多的比賽的話，紅襪可以
不用為他的第四年或第五年的合約負責。」

"I don't ever remember being overly anxious," he said. "I remember being
like, 'This is weird,' and then thinking that maybe I wasn't healthy. Scott
was like, 'You need to see Andrews. We're getting second opinions.' I told
him, 'I feel great, Scott. I'm not hurt at all.' I guess there were a couple
of times I missed a little time and they documented it as, 'sore right
shoulder,' instead of tired shoulder. I was still recovering from surgery. It
was just a unique situation."

「我不記得我有陷入完全的恐慌。我記得我只覺得奇怪，然後想著自己可能沒有很健康。
Boras覺得『你該去見見Dr. Andrews，我們需要尋求第二意見。』我告訴Boras我覺得
我感覺很舒服，沒有受傷。」

「可能因為我缺席了幾次，他們就在文件上寫『肩膀痛』而不是『肩膀疲勞』。我還在復
原中，所以那個時間點的狀況很詭異。」

And now, it's Napoli's turn.

現在輪到Napoli來面對這個問題了。

"I just know I was getting closer and closer to spring training and I was
like, 'Who am I playing for?'," Drew said. "As a player you're conditioned to
be a free agent, and it doesn't happen very often where you're coveted by a
team to sign a nice deal. I'm sure [Napoli's] at home trying to get it all
ironed out."

「我只知道時間越接近春訓的時候，我開始懷疑『我要幫誰打球』」

「身為一個球員，你得把狀況調整成自由球員的狀態。這對於被球隊垂涎已久、簽下好合
約的球員來說並不常見。」

「我很確定Napoli現在在家裡，試著解決這個問題。」

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"HARD WORK BEATS TALENT
WHEN TALENT FAILS TO WORK HARD."

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