A silent infielder teaches the noisy media about loyalty

Ed Montini
The Arizona Republic
September 21, 2006

We don't need words to answer a question, but we need them to fill a newspaper column, a TV newscast and a radio show.

That's why I and just about every other reporter who attended a news conference by Diamondbacks outfielder Luis Gonzalez managed to report what he had to say, but missed the story.

Gonzalez patiently sat before a roomful of reporters last week discussing the loss of his job and, on a deeper level, what it means to be steadfast and loyal.

Like everyone else in the cavelike interview room beneath Chase Field, I took notes. I listened. I asked a question. And, like everyone else, I didn't realize until the press conference was over that sitting right next to me was a person whose presence told me all I needed to know about Gonzalez and loyalty and friendship. And he hadn't said a word. He didn't have to. His name is Craig Counsell.

Counsell, who also will likely leave the team after the season, arrived with Gonzalez for the interview, nodding to his friend and taking the seat next to mine. Gonzalez also brought along his agents, as well as manager Bob Melvin. After things got started, coach and former player Jay Bell quietly entered the room and stood in the back.

The press conference revolved around the conflict in sports between business and loyalty. I asked Gonzalez how fans are supposed to remain loyal to their team if athletes are no longer loyal to franchises and management is no longer loyal to players.

Gonzalez is a friendly, talkative guy. Rather than take the direct route from question to answer, he explores the territory in between with the curiosity and enthusiasm of a boy strolling the midway at a fair. There are plenty of stops and starts.

"For me the thrill was playing here for eight years and looking at that kid who was 4 years old, and he's 12, and has followed me all the way up, just like I did when I was a kid," Gonzalez said.

He spoke about how it pleased him to be on the last Diamondbacks team to wear purple, and how fans should enjoy the younger players who next season will wear red. He said that it would be difficult and emotional to say goodbye to other employees at the ballpark, the locker room attendants and security guards and so on.

He added, "Counsell, myself and (Miguel) Batista are the last ones left from that championship team and what's hard for the fans is the bond that we have with those people. Because we connected not only as players, but the whole city came together after that series. We weren't just a team, we were a family. The whole state of Arizona was family and I think that's the hard part . . .

"But like I said. All the sympathy and things like that, I appreciate it, but I'm going to be OK and I hope the fans are too . . . "

In the end, Gonzalez provided reporters with all the quotes we needed. Then he walked out of the room with his friends.

Like everyone else, I took Gonzalez's statement about being "OK" to mean that he had plenty of money and would find a new team. But it's more than that.

Sports star or not, if we make it through life with some sense of happiness it isn't just because of money or job security. It's because we have friends who will be there on our worst days, people who will walk with us into a room filled with reporters and walk out with us when we're done.

I thought afterwards that I should have gotten a quote from Counsell. But I didn't need it. The fact that he was there, not saying anything, says everything.