You'd think Simmons of all people would have at least mentioned the Bellagio incident.

I agree though, a fun interview, although I'm not sure George knew he his audience couldn't see him ("I was punching him like this!")

I thought it was interesting that Brett didn't get married until he was 39.

Seemed like Simmons wanted to pursue that a little longer, but got side-tracked.

George Brett is a talker - he was hilarious during the home run derby.

I was pissed when i opened the first podcast and had to skip to the last 12 minutes or so to get to the Sean Casey interview. I guess Kevin Millar is alright, but it's easy to understand the Simmons hate when every topic seems to be either a) the Red Sox or b) guys on Simmons' fantasy team. He was completely dismissive of Giancarlo being a "must-watch" player because "you can see the highlights on sportscenter" but thought Jered Weaver is (because, surprise, he's on his team). He just doesn't seem to know many of the NL players or really care about the game, especially compared with how he feels about basketball.

I enjoyed the Millar interview but I'm a Red Sox fan, so talking junk about 2004 will never, ever be tired. I could easily see why other people wouldn't.

Didn't listen to the interview so maybe Brett already addressed this, but I've seen interviews with him before where he talked about why he waited so long to get married.

He was refreshingly honest - he knew that as a famous and wealthy person, there would be an endless supply of women for him anywhere the Royals traveled, and the temptation to stray from marital fidelity would be too great. So he stayed single and played the field in his younger days, while he could still enjoy that aspect of life, and waited until the end of his career to settle down, when he thought his marriage might have a fighting chance.

The Tiger Woods fiasco is a reminder to us that these athletes are not like the rest of us and have all kinds of opportunities to stray. Given Brett's comments I'm led to believe this sort of thing happens a lot.

He was refreshingly honest - he knew that as a famous and wealthy person, there would be an endless supply of women for him anywhere the Royals traveled, and the temptation to stray from marital fidelity would be too great. So he stayed single and played the field in his younger days, while he could still enjoy that aspect of life, and waited until the end of his career to settle down, when he thought his marriage might have a fighting chance.

IIRC, Royals long-time announcer Denny Matthews never married, and was known for being quite a playboy in his younger days, even dating a Playboy model.

The Tiger Woods fiasco is a reminder to us that these athletes are not like the rest of us and have all kinds of opportunities to stray. Given Brett's comments I'm led to believe this sort of thing happens a lot.

Mr. Gift Basket would probably agree (with Brett that it's wise to wait, I mean).

The Tiger Woods fiasco is a reminder to us that these athletes are not like the rest of us and have all kinds of opportunities to stray.

Uh no, we all have opportunities to stray, regardless of our wealth or status. I'm 47, married 21 years and own several IT businesses. I work with many single women aged 30-40 and the opportunities are fairly numerous if one were so inclined. Judging from the level of intellect inherent on this site, I would guess that many of us are over 30, white collar workers in industries with plenty of attractive, single, well educated women. The opportunities are always there.
Brett's choice to wait to get married is obviously of combination of "hey, I don't want to stray" and "hey, look at all these available women, I might have some fun for the next 20 years."

Brett's choice to wait to get married is obviously of combination of "hey, I don't want to stray" and "hey, look at all these available women, I might have some fun for the next 20 years."

Well, since that's been my reasoning, as well, I can't really look down on him. Only lately have I started feeling like maybe -- maybe -- I might be interested/capable of being with one person for a very long time.

Uh no, we all have opportunities to stray, regardless of our wealth or status. I'm 47, married 21 years and own several IT businesses. I work with many single women aged 30-40 and the opportunities are fairly numerous if one were so inclined. Judging from the level of intellect inherent on this site, I would guess that many of us are over 30, white collar workers in industries with plenty of attractive, single, well educated women. The opportunities are always there.

What? This is complete craziness. I would have to take so many crazy risks to cheat on my wife. First of all I'd probably have to be living a lie with whoever I'm cheating with and not let her know I'm married - either that or find someone I could hit on without her being appalled at being hit on by a married man. I'd have to keep it all a secret from the coworkers I see every day and know I'm married and know my wife, of course. I don't spend half my workdays going on road trips like professional athletes do, so the affair would have to take place during work hours or during another series of constant lies to my wife. This is all totally unfeasible.

Maybe if I "owned several IT businesses" women would be flocking to me like I was Matt Kemp, but that's not a very common scenario. These athletes just live in a world divorced from reality. Every day of his life Chipper Jones meets women who have never met him before, know he's married and want to go on a date with him anyway.

Maybe if I "owned several IT businesses" women would be flocking to me like I was Matt Kemp, but that's not a very common scenario.

You're with me, silicon.

Actually, I totally agree with Crispix. Professional athletes are in a position where they make huge amounts of money and spend half their life traveling, and a sizable portion of the women they meet are willing to sleep with them immediately. That's not a scenario that many of us live in.

Not do mention that, you know, you're not George freaking Brett. Being a successful business owner is a plus for getting women interested in you, but it's not even in the same galaxy as being a multimillionaire professional athlete. Everywhere a multimillionaire professional athlete goes women are competing for his attention.

Edit: Or, you know, what Tom said.

Not to mention that estimates are that something like 60-80% of all athletes marriages end in divorce within a few years of being retired.
Thus, just as an athlete loses the vast majority of their lifetime earning power, they also lose a huge chunk of their (hopefully) stashed loot that they had planned to live off.
This has a whole lot to do with why so many athletes end up bankrupt a within a few years of retirement.
Basically, AFAICT, getting married while still active might just be the single worst financial decision an athlete can make.
Heck, the main difference between Jeter and Tiger (both of whom played the field and have quite hefty sexual reps)is that Tiger got married and Jetes didn't...and ooooh, how being married cost El Tigre.

You have to remember -- Hugh is Australian so he's talking about sheep.

Actually, I totally agree with Crispix. Professional athletes are in a position where they make huge amounts of money and spend half their life traveling, and a sizable portion of the women they meet are willing to sleep with them immediately. That's not a scenario that many of us live in.

That makes it easier for them to cheat, but not it's not night and day. This may suprise you, but a lot of women enjoy sex, if you're even halfway good at it. Especially in the context where no one's gonna judge them for it - the advantage of married men is that we wouldn't tell anyone. It's true that there's a lot of risk our respective wives would find out, but I'm pretty sure professional athletes' wives either know, or are deliberately ignorant. I'm a 30 year old white collar guy with no money, and I'm pretty sure I could cheat on my wife if I were so inclined; but I'm not. Not as much as Brett could've cheated on his wife, but you know, some.

That makes it easier for them to cheat, but not it's not night and day.

Yes it is. Of course you could cheat if you wanted to. So could I.

But I don't have to make the conscious choice to turn down an opportunity to cheat EVERY SINGLE DAY.

I am sitting by myself in a hotel bar. No young lady has come up to me and asked me to go to her hotel room. I doubt one will. I could go talk to someone and maybe arrange something, but it would require a little effort. But if I were Matt Kemp?

I am succesful in my work, but ladies don't arrange to pass their number to my assistant. It is a different world of temptations professional athletes face.

http://blog.exclusiveresorts.com/Portals/57911/images/George Brett.jpg

Mrs. Brett is also better looking than most of the folks on this board could get.

Judging from the level of intellect inherent on this site, I would guess that many of us are over 30, white collar workers in industries with plenty of attractive, single, well educated women. The opportunities are always there.

I think its a large assumption that many of us stat nerds would have the opportunity to sleep with attractive women.

Besides, don't most us work in mom's basement?

Judging from the level of intellect inherent on this site, I would guess that many of us are over 30, white collar workers in industries with plenty of attractive, single, well educated women. The opportunities are always there.

Well, the opportunity is there to imagine the opportunity is there. There is actually someone else involved in said opportunities.

Oh, yeah, what RoyalsRetro said.

I mean, if you want to have sex with people, you just have to put in the work. You can totally do it. If you want to cheat on your spouse and hide it, the level of work increases since you have to construct all the necessary lies. But you can totally do it. (Don't, though - it's wrong.)

The issue is that if you're George Brett in 1980, you don't have to do any work. You just go to the hotel bar. And you don't really have to do any work to hide it, because you're having no-strings sex with strangers in a strange city. I don't think that really compares even to running multiple IT companies.

I'm 47, married 21 years and own several IT businesses. I work with many single women aged 30-40 and the opportunities are fairly numerous if one were so inclined.

Aleksey, is that you?

"How do some people like yourself become very proficient in their field much faster than most?”

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/impossible-is-nothing