“I’m not really at all surprised. The word that we used, he understands the meaning of the word duty,” Houston general manager Tim Purpura said. “His mother taught him about duty. He feels like he has a duty to pitch for the Astros tonight, and that’s what he’s doing.”

Bess Clemens died today in Georgetown, Texas. She was 75.

“I don’t care how he pitches. He’s out there and his mom just passed away,” teammate Lance Berkman said before the game. “If he pitches great or not, it’s not going to matter one bit to anybody in here.”

We see this all the time in sports. The parent of a superstar athlete dies and the kid invariably plays the same night, or, for football players, the next Sunday. And the reason’s always the same: mom/dad would have wanted me to play.
Clemens is 43. He’s having a mind-numbing season. Going went into his start 11-7 with 171 strikeouts and a major league-leading 1.78 ERA. He has 300+ wins and 7 Cy Young Awards to his name.

Now I can understand that getting out onto the field is probably the most therapeutic thing an athlete can do after the death of a family member. You focus on the game and take a little break from mourning. But why can’t they just say that?

No, mom or dad, the people who raised you and fed you and gave you a place to live, would not want you handing the ball off to Lamont Jordan fifteen minutes after the doc pulled the plug. If the surgery goes bad mom doesn’t want you doing a reverse lay-up or boxing out Sam Perkins.

If you want to play then go ahead and play.

But what about the rest of the world? The guys who aren’t athletes. What if you’re a big-time poker player? Would mom have wanted you to sit in on that home game? What if you’re a Domino’s deliveryman? I guess dad would really have wanted you to get it there in 30 minutes or less.

These guys just live in their own world. Don’t try to understand them. Mom and dad wanted you making $12 million/year. They also wanted you to answer the phone when they called, and not hide out in the shed when they pulled in the driveway. What about that?