Sports Archives - Page 8 of 15

“How long have you guys been sitting down here,” the drunken heckler asked me and my buddy Stephen, around the seventh inning of a Mobile BayBears game at Hank Aaron Stadium. “All game,” I replied.

“So have I said any curse words?” he asked, knowing that he hadn’t, his point being that if some fans didn’t like his good-natured heckling, they could sit somewhere else–and lighten up. This was minor league baseball, he insisted, and it’s all about having a good time. On that point, I agreed.

This summer, I’ve been going to baseball games anywhere I can, from the boring green bleacher seats of Progressive Field in Cleveland to the second row of Grayson Stadium in Savannah, home of the Single-A Sand Gnats. I’ve ticked off five professional games and a handful of minor league engagements. I still haven’t caught a foul ball, but one came pretty close to my section at the BayBears game. At the velocity it was moving, I’m glad it wasn’t any closer.

During the World Cup, it’s a commonly discussed theory that teams take on the stereotypical personality of their nations. The British side is stoic even in defeat, the Germans are elegantly physical and precise, the Korean team plays as an impossibly unified squad, the Argentines and their hair flop around the field. But the same can’t be said for baseball: Is there anything particularly Baltimorean about the way Nick Markakis strokes home runs into Eutaw Street at Camden Yards? What precisely about the bizarre stance of Kevin Youkilis screams Boston? We don’t call Chicago the Ivy City; it just happens that vines cover the outfield wall of Wrigley Field.

Sitting in the stands is nevertheless an opportunity to rub against the culture of a place. Before a game at Fenway Park, a tour guide ruthlessly teased the Yankees, Boston’s arch rivals in much more than simply baseball. Unlike their neighbors in the Five Boroughs, fans don’t have to choose between two ball teams or two hockey squads. All is for the glory of Boston, whether its a win for the Sox or a parade for the Bruins.

Minor league games offer a more intimate experience with a place. In Savannah, a local cheer camp had a monopoly on entertainment between innings. Cheer Savannah‘s program revealed plenty about Georgia, including that dozens of girls’ families signed them up for cheerleading training “run like football camps,” with a mind to “Christian values.” In Montgomery, game-day eats included chicken and biscuits, a Southern specialty made all the more meaningful because the local Double-A club is called the Biscuits. The name was picked from submissions from the public.

I happened to be wearing a Biscuits hat when the heckler in Mobile introduced himself and his friend at the BayBears game. We took a photo together, after I warned him that I probably shouldn’t be seen with him wearing some other team’s colors. “Still Alabama, though,” he reminded me as he threw a thick arm around my shoulders. Evidence of the one baseball constant, no matter the park: Fans love to cheer for the home team, even when they don’t.

We have all seen the commercial. “I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.” He’s called the most interesting man in the world. But, beyond the LCD panels in your television, and the din of late night TV, the man is just an actor in an especially resonant role, in a very successful advertising series, mythologized with strange deeds and characteristics. His blood smells of cologne, and he despises gyms. After all, running in place will never get you the same results as running from a lion.

It is all hilarious nonsense.

Meanwhile, in the real world, Dhani Jones may just be the most interesting man in the world. Like the Dos Equis demigod, Dhani spends much of his time defying conventions and curating his own personal mythology. He has conducted orchestras, played a decade at middle linebacker in the NFL, scrimmaged with baby elephants, swam with sharks in Australia, flown a Cessna through a thunderstorm, and even carried a suffering man on his shoulder through the Himalayas to safety at a mountain camp.

He has also played a washboard bass on a corner in New York city for tips, and was once arrested for literally dancing too much in the streets of Miami. For Dhani, life is a journey, an extremely interesting one.Dhani Jones also travels, a lot. Bring up the topic and he leans in a little closer, his eyes light up, and he spouts off philosophies culled from the epic lore of a vagabond sportsman. His eccentric convictions peel back the stereotypical jock persona, revealing that ballers can do more than make plays and cash. They also start philanthropic bow tie companies, write books about life, and travel.

Gadling Labs sat down with Dhani at ‘inoteca in New York to discuss his life, his travels, his partnership with Bing Travel, and his new book The Sportsman.

You recently partnered with Bing Travel. What was your reasoning behind this partnership? In what facets of this service do you truly believe?

There are too many decisions in life. Sometimes, someone has to be the decision maker for you. I wear all black because I don’t want to have to go into the closet and make decisions. At restaurants, 9 times out of 10, I will have the server or someone else at the table choose for me. It’s so much easier. At the same time, you are experiencing the perspective of someone else.

That is why I partnered with Bing: they make decisions for you. So many people think that it is difficult to travel because they can’t find a flight within their budget, or can’t find a hotel room in their budget, or they just can’t figure out where to go. Some people are not to the point of being adventurous enough on their own, so they need helpful coercion. Bing makes it easier to travel with advice and discounts as it pertains to travel. It helps you surf the world.

It also takes the thinking out of the situation. Tools like the Price Predictor pulls historical data with statistical modeling to assist in telling you the right time to buy a flight.

Speaking of flights, have you ever had an especially terrifying one?

I don’t get scared during flights. When there is turbulence, I get kind of happy. I like to look around and think, why do these people not have confidence in the pilots? They have family, friends, and they are in control.

I fly planes, and the worst flight I have ever had was one where I was the pilot. I was in Pennsylvania in a 4-seater Cessna 182, and we were flying, and I was checking out property in Pennsylvania. I was taking one of my practice flights, and all of a sudden I see this storm, but we just keep circling properties. The clouds started getting real dark, and my copilot decided it was time to head back. All of a sudden, we pull this turn, and I see him reach over and tighten his belt down. I ‘m like, oh hell no. The storm was on us. We started dropping 50 feet down and back up, sideways. We finally landed and golf ball sized hail started coming down. If that had happened in the sky, that would have been it. That was my worst flight, and I was at the sticks.

You have been all over the world, what were some of the most racially uncool places you have visited?

Australia. I always knew there was some dissension between the Aborigines and the Australians, but when I arrive in a country I wipe the slate clean. There was an incident where people acted like I didn’t know what sand and water were. People say these things to me, and if I respond negatively, it upholds the negative image. But if I respond in a positive way, then I can change people’s minds. Australia and Switzerland were both a little bit difficult. Everywhere else is pretty cool.

I quickly dismiss the sadness and ignorance of it all and leave it to the past.

Some of these experiences are why I travel. There is ignorance on both sides. In Switzerland, I didn’t feel like they liked me. In Cambodia, they thought I was Barack Obama. Different places have their own ways of things and it’s our responsibility as travelers to make our own introductions. I am like a diplomat of travel.

My favorite travel quote is “Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you traveled.” As someone who majored in “self-representation” at Michigan, what do you value more, your academic education, or what you have learned from traveling?

Michigan allowed me to understand the world from a diverse perspective, enhancing and encouraging my appetite for travel. I could never say one more than the other. I go to places like Thailand and China and always meet people from Michigan. Michigan is an international school, and they really encourage you to travel the world. You know what I mean. My parents introduced me to travel, Michigan shaped me, the Travel Channel and Bing allowed me the opportunity to really travel.

Aside from the clothes on your back, what are five things you always travel with?

1. a pen and a pad
2. a camera – Canon g11 or 5D, depending on the length of the trip
3. a bowtie – very versatile (Dhani runs a philanthropic bow tie cause)
4. bathing suit – always have to be ready to swim
5. mobile device/phone – for the apps (like Bing travel app) and pictures of family

In your book you mention an especially uncomfortable scene in a locker room in Switzerland. What are some of your other uncomfortable travel experiences?

With every country you travel to, the first day is always a little uncomfortable. You are adapting to speech, trying to get bearings, trying to figure out who to meet up with, and everything falls into place once you start walking. Walking is the key. And opening up to people.

In Russia, we (the film crew for Dhani Tackles the Globe) got caught in passport control for about 7 hours. We went from Cambodia to China to Russia, and after paying a baggage fee in China, Russia also tried to charge us some exorbitant baggage fee. Just stuck in customs, they didn’t want to let us in. It was like that Tom Hanks movie, The Terminal.

Do you ever miss home, or family?

When I’m gone, I’m gone. When I am overseas I am full on into it. I am the country. When I am in Croatia, I am Croatian. When I’m in South Africa, I am South African. When I’m in Brazil, I am Brazilian. I even change around my accent to talk like the locals, eat the food. I ask people how they talk to different types of people: parents, girls, friends. How do they go out, and how do they meet girls. How do they order food. I try to change everything, and just try to find my way through.

I am not thinking of home. I live here now. My hotel is home.

With an excellent career in the NFL, doing the show was very risky. One mix up and your NFL career could be compromised, costing you millions of dollars. And yet here you were competing in some of the most dangerous sports in the world. Did any of it make you extremely nervous?

When we got green-lit for the show, and they told me the first sport I would play was going to be rugby, I thought to myself, shit. I didn’t have a contract. I was in the middle of re-negotiations. I have the opportunity to travel, but I have to play rugby. And I was going to play rugby against professionals. What do I do?

There is no way I am going to back down. I am going to play rugby and I’m going to be all right. Something has to go well. Right?

Then, I get on this horse (in England, during the rugby episode).

I love horseback riding, and when I had to jump, I thought to myself, I don’t know what’s going to happen now. If anything, it’s going to be a telltale sign of why I should be doing what I’m doing.

Falling down off of the horse, I am thinking, I hope I survive this because I really want to keep doing this show.

And I land. I get stepped on by the horse. I look up. Take a moment. I’m okay. From that moment on, I knew that I was supposed to do the show.

Also, in Spain, getting hit in the face with a surfboard – not a fiber glass surfboard, but a Styrofoam one. If I got hit with a real surfboard, my whole jaw would have been broken.

Those situations gave me an indication that I was supposed to do the show. Also the last three years in football, I have played in every game and made every practice. Rather than hurting me, it has allowed me to keep my body fresh. When football started each season, I was not in a lulled state, I was in an excited state. A lot of people are always doing the same thing all the time. As you travel and play different sports and meet different people, your life becomes more fulfilling and fresh, because you never know what’s around the next corner. When you know what’s around the next corner, and you know what you are coming to do each day, there is a complacency factor. I hate to become complacent.

The equation is, do what your passionate about, find a way to incorporate what your passionate about into what you do every day, and you will be alright.

I wrote the Sportsman to allow others a little more insight into why I travel with so much on the line. I don’t have millions of dollars on the line; that is not my thought process. What I do have on the line is, if I am not out there doing it, who is?

Which sport was the most challenging on a technical level during your experiences filming Dhani Tackles the Globe? Also, what sports could you play professionally other than football?

Jai alai is the most difficult. The ball is this big (3/4 baseball size), it goes 200mph, and you have to catch it in a curved basket. If you blink, the ball has passed. If you blink twice, the ball has passed and hit you in the back. If that ball hits you in the back of the head, you are dead.

Other than football, the top three sports I would play professionally are sailing, cricket, and rugby, in that order.

Martin Johnson is the coach of the English rugby team. He would definitely give me a tryout. I would like to play cricket. Sailing is great because you make money, travel, and see the world with someone helping you out.

But, my life is from the middle linebacker position. Playing middle linebacker is equated to seeing the world. From my perspective of travel, you have to have a wide vision. Strong side or weak side has one responsibility. At the mike (middle), you are looking everywhere, seeing the entire field. Looking at multiple different places, interacting with multiple groups of people, it is just like travel. You can’t have a narrow mind and just focus on one thing or one responsibility. My life is from the middle linebacker position.

Now that Dhani Tackles the Globe is cancelled, do you have any television aspirations other than playing on Sunday?

I would love to do another travel show. If I could travel for the rest of my life and tell everybody how amazing it is, I would do that for the rest of my life.

Go on some crazy adventures like travel around the world in a sailboat. Sail the Amazon, or the Nile, or go horseback riding from Montana to Mexico, or drive down to Tierra del Fuego.

Another thing is a talk show. I would love to have a talk show where we give athletes a platform to discuss what they care about and what they are doing. Social media has afforded us the opportunity, and people want to know more about these guys than just the sport side. I think there is a definite spot.

I have dedicated my life to travel so that other people can have the opportunity to understand what it is to travel, where to go, and how to get there. And to just learn, that ultimately is the best type of education to ever be afforded.

After football, you mentioned maybe being a pediatric neurosurgeon in your book. What do you have planned?

I will be the first black James Bond. I am well on my way. I scuba dive. I have a Morgan Aero super sport. Next? I have a 63 mini cooper. I have all British cars. I can fight. I shoot guns and am a sharpshooter. Next? I wear a tuxedo rather well, and I rock the bow tie even better. What’s next?

So basically, a lot of the things you have done have built your resume up to be the next James Bond.

I am dead serious about being the first black James Bond. Once Daniel Craig is done, I want next. I know I can’t be 230 lbs, but I can get down to 215. I’m ready to go. I think the world is ready.

So, is Dhani Jones the most interesting man in the world? Maybe or maybe not. But at age 33, he is well on his way. Check out his blog over at Bing Travel. His book, The Sportsman, was released last month.

photography by Justin Delaney