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My Interview With Justin Masterson, Part V
By Administrator | February 20, 2009
When you sit and talk to Justin Masterson for any length of time, you understand that he is a young man who has his priorities in order.
He has a deep faith in God. He has an excellent relationship with his family, and considers his wife to be the most important person in his life. In life, he is motivated by a desire to positively impact the lives of other people… in baseball, he is motivated by a love of the game and its fans, and not by money.
You expect at some point he is going to stand up, raise his right hand with the three middle fingers extended, and start reciting the Boy Scout Oath. He is almost too good to be true.
Almost.
He is truly a breath of fresh air… and after two weeks of bad news across the game, the timing of this series turned out to be inspired. Justin Masterson is the anti-ARod.
You won’t see tabloid headlines of him exiting a Toronto nightclub with a stripper… you won’t see Page Six articles detailing his unseemly, extra-marital relationship with a pop diva… you won’t see ugly back page stories reporting an ugly divorce… and you won’t sit in stunned disbelief as ESPN or the MLB Network report on his steroid abuse.
Players like Justin Masterson are going to be the guys who help lift the sport out of its current, tawdry malaise. They are the next generation of baseball heroes… clean-cut, good-looking, ever-smiling ballplayers who love to sign autographs because they appreciate and understand the importance of the fans.
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Justin pitched in five of the seven games of the 2008 ALCS against Tampa Bay… here he is seen pitching in Game Five
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S1F: What do you think of some of the negative stories that have diminished the reputation of the game in recent months?
JM: I believe in God, and I have an understanding that guys sometimes aren’t going to make perfect decisions because we’re not perfect. There’s no one that’s perfect. People have their struggles and some people can control their struggles better than others, but it’s not like they don’t care about what’s going on.
If someone struggles I feel sorry for them, but I don’t necessarily make a judgment about them as a person. You can take that opportunity to build someone up, and sometimes I think that’s lost in life and within the baseball world. I mean, Clay Buchholz had a few bad outings and people are saying things like “Get him out of town!”. Well, I think, “Why don’t we try to build him up?” He has some of the best stuff I’ve ever seen, and maybe there are a few mental things that didn’t work out last year, but people need to take it easy because there may be factors that they don’t know about.
The comments are made with a somewhat limited vision, which is a natural result of being on the outside. But it’s an interesting world we live in… people coming up and wanting my autograph and this or that. And it’s cool because it gives me an opportunity and a platform (to positively impact their lives).
S1F: When you autographed a baseball for me back in ’06, you added a biblical citation after your signature — Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me”. What does that mean to you?
JM: Well, it’s a little harder (for me to add the cite) now… it’s so long and I’m signing so many baseballs that I don’t always get it on there. The thing about that verse that is so interesting is that if you look into that passage, it’s got that macho sense that you’ve got God so you can do anything, like you are the strongest person in the world. But if you look at what Paul’s writing in Philippians, he talks about how he’s just been beaten up and all he has is his mind, you know he’s in jail and all he has is his mind, and he’s talking about mental strength. He’s saying, “you can do anything you want to me, but I can do all things through Christ”.
Paul is saying that he can stay strong through anything because Christ is giving him his strength and Christ is by his side. He’s saying that though he might get beat up, through his strength – because his strength is perfect – he can stand up to it. He’s not necessarily referring to physical strength, although that may be a little bit of it, but it’s more that mental sense that you can stay strong, that you don’t need to get flustered, that you can overcome the challenge before you. God has given you the strength to do it.
S1F: And so that’s where you obtain your mindset to be able to turn the page, even after a bad outing?
JM: Exactly! That’s where it all comes from, the ability to say, “you know what, it happened, but God is good, he’s given me a chance to breathe another day, and I’m going to use it to try and please Him”.
Even though today may not be the greatest day, there’s still an inner joy that’s deep within that can’t be taken away… it will keep me from a funk, keep me from a depression. And that enables me to approach the next day without carrying yesterday with me.
S1F: Who is the most important person in your life?
JM: My wife, Meryl, without a doubt. She’s there for me all of the time. She brings me up when I’m down and brings me down if I’m too up in some respects. I’ve always been such an independent person all of my life that marriage itself has been an interesting thing – to open up more and to allow her to have more of a hold within my life. And, honest and truly, she’s the only one who has a hold within my life and so she is definitely the most important person.
S1F: Where do you guys live when you’re in Boston?
JM: We were in Allston last season, this year I’m not sure. I just found a place last year, my wife and I were there, and right now we’re just kind of looking on-line and checking out craigslist and other sites.
Some of the guys go places that can get really expensive… and yeah, I play pro baseball, but that doesn’t mean I should be stupid with my money. So I’m looking for something reasonable to rent for the season, something that’s nice inside, furnished, with easy parking.
S1F: I went out to the AFL to try to see Clay, but he wasn’t there. I ended up talking to Mike Cather quite a bit. I asked him about you and asked about the comparisons between you and Dennis Eckersely… he said he isn’t sure about comparison w/ Eck because there is no one like Eck. He said there has been no one like him in history of the game because of his extraordinary control…
But then he said: “I think (Justin) is very capable of having that type of command. I think his work ethic and his discipline will lead him to that if he is so inclined”. When prompted, he didn’t elaborate on what he meant… what do you think he meant by ‘if you’re so inclined”?
JM: My guess is that it’s like he knows how hard I’ve always worked, but he’s not sure what I’m doing now, and that when some guys get that taste, when they get to the big leagues, it changes them. So I think he’s saying that if I’m so inclined to continue doing those things that has got me where I’m at, that I can do that. I don’t think he wants to be one of those guys who would say “oh yeah, Justin’s going to do this or that” and then if I become one of those guys with a big head and I do something else, people are going to say, “Oh yeah, good call Mike”.
S1F: You were at the center of several trade rumors this winter. Do you pay attention to the rumors at all? And are you ever tempted to think that, if you were to be traded to a place like Texas, you would be in the rotation and starting every fifth day and that, as a starter, you could make more money?
JM: I really don’t pay much attention to the rumors. Of course, I see them and hear of them because my friends hear them and ask me about them. When I hear them, I have a sense that if people are talking about me that means someone wants me… which means that I must be doing something right. So it doesn’t mean that I’m going to leave, it means I’m doing well… and that if trade rumors start to spread I almost assume my name would have to come up.
In that way it’s a compliment. It’s just what happens.
As far as thinking that if I get traded I might go into a rotation… it’s not that (Texas) won’t win or that they wouldn’t win, but there’s something going on here (in Boston) that’s special and great. I REALLY like being a part of it. If I HAD to go somewhere else in a trade, I’d go and I’d make the most of it and hopefully that team would start winning too, but it’s great to be a part of this. So, if you’re asking me if I’d rather go somewhere and be a starter where they maybe aren’t so good or stay here and maybe relieve or maybe start for the Boston Red Sox – who every year have a chance to get to and maybe win the World Series – I think I like being here.
And we like having you here, Justin.
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Topics: Sox Player Interviews, Sox Players |
