Why We Still Love Walter (and Pedro and Perk and Schill and Bruschi)
From 1997 to 2004, Walter McCarty, a gangly power forward out of Kentucky with a penchant for shooting corner threes, averaged 5.7 points and 3.6 rebounds for some of the worst Celtics teams you’ll ever see.
Based in part on that penchant for shooting (and sometimes making) those threes, McCarty became a fan favorite. Celtics color broadcaster Tommy Heinsohn infamously made him his favorite player, yelling, “I Love Walter!’’ seemingly every time McCarty hit a shot. To be fair to Heinsohn, there wasn’t much else to get excited about.
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Now a Celtics assistant coach, McCarty was in Framingham District Court Thursday to defend against a charge of larceny by check. In a statement, McCarty said the matter “stems from ordering some kitchen cabinets for a home that my family and I are building. We hope to resolve the matter soon, but I simply cannot comment further while the case is pending.’’
The Metrowest Daily News, which broke the story, led its website with it for much of the day, despite the seemingly minor nature of the news. Virtually every other website in the region, including this one, picked it up. Our story on McCarty has 36 comments, or more than four-times as many as a story about Rajon Rondo, the team’s best player, possibly being ready for the season-opener.
The McCarty situation isn’t unique. Across all four major Boston sports, certain former players continue to capture our interest. Some of our obsessions make more sense than others. We’re still giddy over Pedro Martinez, a future first-ballot Hall of Famer with an outsize personality who also helped us win a World Series. We hang on Curt Schilling’s every health update for the same reasons. Tedy Bruschi won us three Super Bowls, so we’re happy to let him sell us an MRI, despite that fact that he stopped playing football six years ago.
Curt Schilling, Pedro Martinez, and Derek Lowe.
If sports are a mirror in which we look for glimpes of ourselves, it makes sense that we cling to certain players for reasons other than winning and losing. We root for the grinder, the bruiser, and the plucky underdog. Dustin Pedroia looks like a 7th-grader, and swings like he’s trying to knock a pinata out of a tree. But he makes the most of it, willing that little body to do remarkable things. In Pedroia, we see someone we hope to be.
Sometimes, our obsession with blue collar players is misguided. On Thursday night, Bruins fans gave a standing ovation to Johnny Boychuk, a second-line defenseman who was traded to the Islanders on Oct. 4. Boychuk was a useful player, but for all the talk about his bullet of a slap shot, he’s never scored more than five goals in a season. The standing ovation was a little much. It was also very us.
Our most egregious example of being overly obsessed with a former player is Kendrick Perkins. As Doc Rivers will tell you, the Celtics never lost a playoff series with a starting five of Perkins, Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce (technically, they didn’t lose a playoff series last year with a starting five of Phil Pressey, Avery Bradley, Jeff Green, Kelly Olynyk, and Brandon Bass, either). Perkins was clearly the weakest of the five players, and may not have been much of an asset for the Celtics at all had he stayed, considering what he’s done in Oklahoma City. That Perkins brought his lunch pail — and his scowl — to work every day was enough to keep his name on Boston talk radio years after he left. Meanwhile, somewhere in the midwest, Perk is still gathering himself to attempt a put-back.
Oklahoma City Thunder center Kendrick Perkins.
Making even less sense than which players we choose to cling to is whom we choose to shun. This is a fan base that booed former Patriots kicker Adam Vinatieri because he had the audacity to sign with the Colts for more money. Ray Allen meant far more to the Celtics than Perkins, but he, too was ostracized for going to a rival, in this case the Miami Heat. We loved Johnny Damon until he was a Yankee. The obvious link here is loyalty, but it’s unclear whether or not we should wear that as a badge of honor or count it as a character flaw.
Former players are remembered fondly in other cities, but Boston’s perspective is unique. We care too much when the players are here, so why would that change when they leave? In what town other than Foxborough does former Patriots quarterback Scott Zolak get a standing ovation from the radio booth? New Yorkers will fawn over Derek Jeter forever, but something tells me Scott Brosius isn’t drinking for free at the Spotted Pig. For Jeter’s retirement ceremony at Fenway last month, the Red Sox trotted out ex Boston athletes like Paul Pierce, Troy Brown, and Bobby Orr. On what planet outside of I-495 does that make any sense?
Wes Welker comes to town with the Broncos next week. Think anyone will mention anything about that?
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