Jimmy Scott's High & Tight: The Shea Hillenbrand Interview

Here's a question to ask yourself: Have you ever said something, maybe the wrong words at the worst time, and come to realize that those words and that timing have come to define who you are?  This has happened to former (for now) infielder Shea Hillenbrand.  I'm not going out on a limb by saying Shea is a better guy than you may believe.  In fact, I know for a fact that Shea is a good man. 

How do I know?

Ahh.  That's the multi-million dollar question.  The answer can be found in the Jimmy Scott's High & Tight Shea Hillenbrand Interview.  You're going to be able to judge for yourself. 

Here's what's inside. First, Shea is going to tell us about the farm he and his wife Jessica own, Marley Farms.  The Hillenbrands rescue animals - horses, dogs... You name it.  They even looked into rescuing Michael Vick's dogs last year.  Yes, the same Michael Vick who was the QB for the Atlanta Falcons and is now in jail for running an illegal dog fighting ring.  So Shea & Jessica save the lives of animals.  That's nice.

There's more to it than that.  They also run a foundation called Against All Odds.  Here, the Hillenbrands have set apart a portion of their farm so that sick children, disabled children, underpriviledged children can come and visit with the animals.  And it's here that Shea tells us about how a boy with autism, who hadn't spoken in years, spoke when exposed to some animals on the farm.  So Shea & Jessica are improving the lives of children.  They are to be commended for that.

Quick step back.  There's a special soundtrack to this interview, all by one artist and from one album.  It's "Animals" by Pink Floyd.  Unfamiliar with it?  That's okay.  You're going to hear the four sections of Shea Hillenbrand's interview with Jimmy Scott wrapped around the lyrics to one song off of the album.  Fittingly, the song is called "Dogs." 

Why use "Animals" as the soundtrack?  Because Shea's life isn't that simple.  He's not just a former Major League Baseball player who retired quietly and now runs a nice little farm in Arizona.  In fact, it gets a lot more complex for Shea than that.  You'll come to hear that "Animals" makes all the sense in the world. 

Taken from Wikipedia, your internet source for information (not always factual, but it's always entertaining), here's a description of Pink Floyd's "Animals":

"'Animals' is a concept album based on the flaws of capitalism. Various castes in society are represented as different types of animals (Dogs as the businessmen, sheep as the powerless pawns, and pigs as the ruthless leaders). Although this album mainly attacks capitalism, several components are similar to George Orwell's novel "Animal Farm": In the book various animals (mainly pigs, sheep, dogs, etc.) represent different roles assumed by individuals in a communist society."

If you read the paragraph above, you're going to get a little sense of how Shea did not play baseball in a bubble.  There are no "Field of Dreams" moments in our interview; nothing from "The Natural" where Shea hits a huge post-season home run and the ball strikes the scoreboard, making it explode in the October night.

No.  The story gets twisted.  It gets mean.  It takes away the sweetness and purity of baseball and adds in layers of business, misunderstandings, miscalculations and personalities that just didn't mix well.

Our story plows ahead after Shea tells us about his rescue work and charity work.  We talk about marriage in baseball, which you've heard in other interviews with Kym Byrd and Diana McNab here at Jimmy Scott's High & Tight.  It's interesting to hear the male point of view, however, and Shea again shows us how he understands people.  He speaks glowingly of his wife, how he knows it's hard for the spouse of a big league ballplayer, what with the travels and the concerns about faithfulness.  But you'll get a sense of what a good family man Shea Hillenbrand is.  Because after talking about his marriage, he talks about his and Jessica's kids.  He talks about adopting all three children and how beautiful they are; how wonderful and important it is to be a parent, to put your family first.  He'll repeat that more than once; that he knows his family will always come first, before his career, before baseball, before the wants of others.  Family comes first.

Remember I mentioned the song "Dogs" by Pink Floyd earlier?  There's a reason why that song fits here.  Wikipedia will tell us, once again:

"'Dogs' are used to represent the megalomaniacal businessmen who destroy themselves and those around them by obsessing over their egos and their careers. A number of comparisons are made and metaphors used to show how close these businessmen are with dogs, for example "Got to be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed" the meat representing deals and opportunities for the businessmen. It is a long, increasingly haunting song at over seventeen minutes."

Who are "the megalomaniacal businessman who destroy themselves and those around them" in Shea Hillenbrand's story?  If you're not familiar with Shea at all, click here for a little quick background.  You'll start to see how Shea's career began to unravel in July, 2006.  He had been the MVP of the 2005 Toronto Blue Jays.  And by July, 2006, the team was underachieving.  There was a lot of pressure on manager John Gibbons to turn around what would be termed (somewhat regrettably by Shea) as a "sinking ship." The pressure led to confrontations between Gibbons and Shea on July 20th and between Gibbons and pitcher Ted Lilly on August 21st - one month and one day later.  Within one month, you had a manager challenge one player to a fight (that's Shea) and actually have a fight with another player.

If it happens once, you can understand if the player is publicly blamed.  By appearances, it would appear that the player did something wrong to disobey the authority of his manager and should be disciplined.  In Shea's case, he was traded to the San Francisco Giants days after his episode with Gibbons.

But there's a problem here: It didn't just happen once with Gibbons.  It happened twice.  Yet, the second time, there was no backlash against Ted Lilly.  He wasn't traded.  And Gibbons wasn't fired.  They made up and played happy family until the end of the season, when Lilly was a free agent and chose to go play for the Chicago Cubs, turning down an identical offer from Toronto.  Lilly got his revenge by leaving on his own terms.  John Gibbons was fired by the Blue Jays in June of last year, not too long after another problem he allegedly had with former DH Frank Thomas.

What happened to Shea?  Why did the argument with his manager take place?  Why did his relationship with his team, the Blue Jays, disintegrate so badly after his stellar 2005 season and strong play in 2006 at the time of their parting?

Shea explains everything.  He doesn't try to wiggle out of answering questions and he doesn't change the subject to items of sunnier disposition.  Shea fully immerses us into the setting of that 2006 incident.  It's at that point you'll get a sense of who the "megalomaniacal businessmen" are in his story.

From there, everything got worse for Shea, from a baseball standpoint.  He tells us about how his agent at the time, Don Lozano, didn't represent him properly in free agency after 2006.  He tells us why he switched over to Gregg Clifton.  He wonders with us where the offers were after the 2007 season and makes a case for why he can still play in 2009.

The questions that have to be asked after you listen to Shea's interview is this:  Does one poor season mean he's done; that he can't hit a baseball anymore?  Or is it something more?  Has Shea Hillenbrand been blackballed?  Has he been so outrageous, so mean-spirited, such a terrible person, that the cartel of MLB GMs thinks Shea is trouble?  Or, realistically, has there been a quiet campaign throughout baseball to shun him?  Does he have no chance at coming back because of 2006?  Because he complained about his lack of playing time in 2007? 

My bet is his current agent, Gregg Clifton, would say no to any allegations that Shea has been blackballed from the game.  Why would a veteran guy like Gregg waste his time representing Shea if there was no shot at getting him something?

Still, there's got to be a little something to why Shea didn't get signed for 2008.  I mean, he wasn't even offered a minor league deal.  Two knocks on Shea's play have been his low on base percentage and his defense.  But he could always hit.  Except for one season, Shea could hit.  There's a reason why he was a two-time All-Star.  He hit 21 home runs and batted .270 in 2006 (he was hitting .301 with Toronto at the time of his altercation with John Gibbons).  His 2007 season was pretty bad, from the back of his baseball card, but still, my question is this: Is it one bad year that has stolen the game from Shea Hillenbrand?  Or is it something else?  Hey, if Jason Tyner, he with his lifetime on base percentage of .314 and 1 career home run could get a gig in the Cleveland organization in 2008, why couldn't Shea and his 108 home runs and .325 lifetime on base percentage get a gig?

We may never know.  But if it matters, Shea did make an effort in 2008.  It's not like he sat and cried that life was terrible because he wasn't on a 40-man roster.  He played independent league ball with the York Revolution, where he hit .340, had an on-base percentage of .374 and drove in 25 runs in 36 games.  If you're not a numbers person, all you need to know iabout those stats is that they're really good.

It was stated earlier that, after listening to the Jimmy Scott's High & Tight interview with Shea Hillenbrand, you'll be able to judge for yourself.  Unfortunately, you aren't the judges of if Shea ever plays baseball again.  But, if you were, what would you do?  Would you extend an invitation to Shea and give him a shot to make your team for the 2009 season?

Shea spends his days working with animals now, rescuing them from lives that were close to extinction.  After listening to Shea, don't you think he deserves to be rescued once too?

Click below to listen to it all:

THE MUSIC

Pink Floyd - Animals

"Dogs"

Performed by Pink Floyd

Composed by Roger Waters & David Gilmour

You gotta be crazy, you gotta have a real need
You gotta sleep on your toes, and when you're on the street
You gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed
And then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight
You gotta strike when the moment is right without thinking.

And after a while, you can work on points for style
Like the club tie, and the firm handshake
A certain look in the eye, and an easy smile
You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to
So that when they turn their backs on you
You'll get the chance to put the knife in.

You gotta keep one eye looking over your shoulder
You know it's going to get harder, and harder, and harder as you get older
And in the end you'll pack up, fly down south
Hide your head in the sand
Just another sad old man
All alone and dying of cancer.

And when you loose control, you'll reap the harvest that you've sown
And as the fear grows, the bad blood slows and turns to stone
And it's too late to loose the weight you used to need to throw around
So have a good drown, as you go down, alone
Dragged down by the stone.

I gotta admit that I'm a little bit confused
Sometimes it seems to me as if I'm just being used
Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake off this creeping malaise
If I don't stand my own ground, how can I find my way out of this maze?

Deaf, dumb, and blind, you just keep on pretending
That everyone's expendable and no-one has a real friend
And it seems to you the thing to do would be to isolate the winner
And everythings done under the sun
And you believe at heart, everyone's a killer.

Who was born in a house full of pain
Who was trained not to spit in the fan
Who was told what to do by the man
Who was broken by trained personnel
Who was fitted with collar and chain
Who was given a pat on the back
Who was breaking away from the pack
Who was only a stranger at home
Who was ground down in the end
Who was found dead on the phone
Who was dragged down by the stone.