Barry Zito got tagged with some sort of hippie/playboy/zen master stereotype when he came up with the A’s. Since then most of that has been obscured by talk of his contract, his pitching struggles and then his nice little comeback the past season or so.
But his interview in the May “GQ” reveals a much different Barry Zito than that which exists in casual, popular perception. Turns out that he found God in 2011 and he and his wife have immersed themselves in “the Christian faith” to use Zito’s term. Also: while he still surfs and does yoga, he has a new passion:You’ve been written about a great deal, as you pointed out. But is there anything you’re interested in that we don’t know about?
Let’s see. I’ve kind of picked up a new hobby of shooting firearms. So that’s something that I’ve really gotten excited about lately. I think when you have a family and you understand that you have so much to lose if some lunatic is gonna come off the street and try to do something in your home, it makes you feel a little better to know that I’ll be able to defend my family. It’s a utilitarian thing. That’s basically what it’s about.
I’m struggling to think of whose violent impulses are so messed up and random that Barry Zito of all people becomes the target of them, but I suppose that sort of thing, by definition, defies rational analysis.
The bigger takeaway, I think, is that while it’s often tempting and easy to pigeonhole hippie/playboy/zen/surfer types on the one hand, and it’s tempting and easy to pigeonhole Christian gun owner types on the other, there are a lot of people -- probably most people -- who fit neither of those easy caricatures. Zito is his own dude, comes off as a pretty thoughtful dude, and there’s something cool about that.
In other news, that Zito interview is part of a baseball package which includes Buster Posey, Zito, Brandon Phillips, Chase Headley, Jake Peavy, and Andre Ethier modeling clothes that are vaguely baseball-inspired. Posey in what look like sweat-capris is a particular highlight.
Next month, if there is a God in Heaven who loves us and wants us to be happy, we’ll have the Matt Adams/Billy Butler swimsuit pictorial.