Not a Jock – Jeremy Guthrie

Nice guy, nice bike.

I’ll use the Plaxico Stupid story as a launching point for the new feature “Not a Jock,” which profiles a professional athlete who does non-jock type things. Like, for example, not abuse wives /girlfriends / potentially gay teammates, maybe not carry loaded firearms out in public without a permit, not disparage ethnic differences by making “Chinese eyes”, and generally exhibit non-jocklike qualities while maintaining high levels of athletic ability.

Today it’s Jeremy Guthrie, the Orioles pitcher who’s emerging as a fan favorite and solid starter. Yeah, he did the Mormon mission and probably wears the magic underwear, but the guy practices what he (literally) preaches. Guthrie bikes to work. This is remarkable. And his reason for biking to work is actually environmental, as evidenced by the bumper sticker on his Camden Yards locker which says “One less car,” and his eminently quotable,

 I hate cars, I hate driving, I hate doing something I don’t have to do. For me to drive downtown is a waste of gas; it’s a waste of my time. I can ride faster than I can drive.

This is unlike, say, teammate Luke Scott, who bikes as well, but says,

I have an Infiniti QX 56 — it’s a large SUV… I get about 14 to 18 miles per gallon, but I’ve saved hundreds of dollars just from biking.. … The gas prices are so absurd that for some people, they make enough money just to drive to work.

So Scott does it to save, uh, money. Not, say, the planet. And he still has a preposterous vehicle which he drove all the time when he played for the Astros. Nonethewho, it’s still refreshing to see that Guthrie’s had a positive impact on some of his teammates, when the sight of Cadillac Escalades streaming towards stadium parking spaces is the norm. Christ almighty, Escalades. I wish I could pull the banana in the tail pipe stunt whenever I see these in the city. If you own a car that gets under 13 miles per gallon, you should have to pay environmental taxes. And if you own a non-hybrid light truck in the city and conduct no business outside of said city, you should have to, like, give massages to the homeless twice a week. Or eat a boiled foot.

Guthrie participated in and spoke at National Bike to Work Day back in May with the mayor of Baltimore.
Ooooh, sidebar (and The Wire spoiler): The mayor of Baltimore, Sheila Dixon, was city council president and succeeded Martin O’Malley; O’Malley jumped from the council to the mayor’s office, and used Baltimore as a stepping stone for Annapolis’s gubernatorial seat. Council president Naresse Campbell on The Wire was also intent on the mayor’s office, and succeeded Tommy Carcetti after he became governor. Yes, both Campbell and Carcetti were (presciently) based on their real-life counterparts. Nobody’s based on Jeremy Guthrie in The Wire. Well, maybe Wee-bey. No, not Wee-bey.

Guthrie’s story is also kinda interesting; he was a (bad) pitcher during his freshman year at BYU, went on a two-year Mormon mission in Spain, transferred to Stanford, and became a first-round pick for the Indians. But regardless of tithing to golden plates, here’s a big hurrah for Jeremy Guthrie.