Posted
on Sun, Jul. 20, 2003
Manager
Johnson still paying for mistake he made By WRIGHT THOMPSON The Kansas
City Star
Norman Ng/The Kansas City Star
Tim Johnson once made his home in major-league ballparks. He can now be
found at Community America
Ballpark and other Northern League stadiums.
He's been praised, loved, cursed, mocked -- and now Tim Johnson sits in
a visitor's dugout, watching his Lincoln Saltdogs take batting practice
before playing the T-Bones. This is barely professional baseball: the
Northern League, home to castoffs, wannabes and dreamers.
While his former colleagues prepare for the All-Star Game in Chicago, he
works in Kansas City, wondering how he ever fell this far.
"Where are the Royals tonight?" he asks.
When told it's the All-Star break, he looks shocked.
"I forgot," he says quietly. His eyes say even more: I can't
believe I'm so far from real baseball that I didn't even know it was
All-Star Game day.
"(Baseball) gives you a lot of good times and a lot of
heartache," he says, staring out at the field.
Once
upon a time, he was a big-league player and manager. His was a world of
important friends and private planes. Then he was fired by the Toronto
Blue Jays five years ago, his credibility shot because he'd pretended to
be a Vietnam veteran. Many of those friends have abandoned him. He now
rides a bus.
Johnson's
is a story of the rise and fall of a baseball man, the lies of a simple
man. We all have secrets. Many stay just that. But Tim Johnson's most
damning secret got out, and he paid for it. He pays for it still.
"I'm trying to go on," he says, looking down. "It's so
hard. When is enough enough?"
[clipped] |