Jayson Werth is a bit of an odd duck. He’s not a cliche guy. Indeed, he’s something of a curious speaker for a ballplayer. Hard to explain it exactly, but when you hear interviews with him you can sort of tell that he’s on a different mental track than a lot of baseball players. He’s often frank, but even when he’s not being frank he’s got a curious way of expressing himself. And there’s an emotional aspect to it too. Just different, ya know?
One of the other things about him is that he has, several times in the past, acknowledged fans and their behavior in ways most players don’t. Like, he’ll get into it and you can tell he pays way more attention to fan behavior than the vast majority of players who tune it out for the most part.
All of which just makes this story from last night’s Phillies-Nats game exceedingly Jayson Werthy. Late in the game, Werth was on the on deck circle when a ball came his way. He fake-tossed it to some kids in the crowd but then threw it into the dugout. Boos, predictably, rained down. But Werth says it wasn’t like that. From John Finger at CSNPhilly:
Well, whatever, but “these unruly, middle-aged men who to me appeared to be snarling,” is the sort of phrase you’d expect to hear from some society man with a thin mustache as he tried to throw suspicion off of him while he’s being interviewed by detectives for an unexplained murder.
Turns out later, though, that the guy did kill the victim, outside of the opera house, while trying to make it look like random street crime. An inheritance was involved, I figure. Not sure yet. Haven’t worked out all of the details yet. He obligingly tells the whole story to the cops with drama and exposition before the credits roll.
