ANTHONY RENDON

Tony, Tony, Tony … what are you doing?

Didn’t you ever see the “Bull Durham” movie where Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) counseled a player to use only bland cliches when speaking to the news media?

Anthony Rendon, the Angels missing-in-action “player,” made headlines and headaches for team management this week when he remarked about baseball: “It’s never been a top priority for me. This is a job. I do this to make a living.”

Soooo …. playing big league baseball in front of many thousands of people (millions if the game is televised), pulling down $115 million a year is just another job, like parking cars or sweeping out the office.
He even refused to say that he wanted to play for the Angels.

Rendon is a baseball player who is notorious for … not playing. Over the last 546 games in which he was on the Halo roster, he’s only played in 200. In his “best” year, he answered the bell in 58 games out of a 162-game season.

Now, certainly, Rendon has been injured … a lot. Whether that’s from a lack of conditioning, too much effort or not enough good luck, it’s hard to say.

But his smart-aleck answers don’t do much to dispel the suspicion that Rendon’s best years are behind him and that he’s just playing out the string, collecting his high salary and laughing privately at all those dumb fans who think that playing the National Pastime is any kind of a big honor.

New Angels manager Ron Washington has promised to demand the highest level of effort this season. So, at some point, No-Nonsense Ron is going to have a chat with Don’t-Care Tony. I can’t wait.