European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 02, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse We r pro sports \ was very Lough in the beginning like Spring training. But then everything starts to respond just like your body does in Spring training says Jim Lonborg. Continued from Page 13 business. I still tended to relied on the fact that football was nol going to be any More to says of his first year alter retiring. I be had All kinds of moments in the spotlight in the business Community but it s just not the instead the moments to Speaks of Are his Day in Green Bay and meeting with Lormer teammates and opponents at the Hall of Fame game when he was inducted in 1981. I was right Back in it he says of his visit to the Hall in Canton Ohio. I was Loving every minute of it the closeness of being Wilh the retirement Lor Davis is encapsulated in a Story to tells of a conversation with a stranger on a High from Detroit. The Man. Recognizing him told Davis How much he admired Davis s Success after football. For Davis the compliment though Well intended was bittersweet while it is a Good feeling being admired he says it does not equal the feeling of being loved. You played because you wanted to see the Joy on a fan s lace to says of his years in Green Bay a Small cily where the packers were worshipped. Ii was the Romance of the fans in Green there Are Guys he adds who i often refer to As those who still hear the cheers you be got to try to Stop that but a lot of Guys can t remove themselves irom it. I Don t think you Ever do that Page says to has. Page retired in 1981. He was already a lawyer and a member of the Minnesota bar. Moreover he was ready to Slop playing football. I was fairly bored Wilh it he says. I needed the stimulation that Law school Page who had a Bachelor s degree irom notre Dame studied Law during the off season a decision to had made Well before he signed Wilh the Vikings. I had dreams of being a lawyer Long Belore i had dreams of being a football player he says. My parents encouraged education i never consciously had expectations of playing professional football until i was a Junior in College. I had Success irom the beginning and i would say that i got Page suffered Little in any. Of Davis Post retirement trauma. I did t look at leaving football As changing careers he says. I looked Al it As my last year of play and not As retiring " still he watched enough teammates retire to understand How seductive the athlete s life can be. And How Little that life prepares an athlete for almost anything else. You never have the Opportunity to grow up he says. You live in that same time period because everybody wants to help you everybody wants to be your Friend. It s like living in a Candy retired athletes Straiten of Pace says often suffer months or even years of depression in the often confusing years Between the end of one career and the Start of another. He needs a period of two to four years he says. He s got to figure out what he wants to those first years after retirement Straiten explains often begin with a period of denial hoping the phone will ring hoping another team is still interested. Then there is a sense of abandonment by friends possible marital and financial strains the emptiness that comes when the attention and at Lection accorded an athlete Are will work two three four different jobs he says. They re used to having shape and form to what they want. In sports everything is the ones that choose business do not necessarily adopt the rigidity and conformity of the corporate world. Instead Stratten says some retired athletes become entrepreneurs applying the ambition and competitiveness that helped them become professional athletes to businesses that Are theirs to run. Even after that decision is made to adds athletes May find themselves forced to find Success in new and sometimes disconcerting ways or to redefine their Standard for Success. Ii22 Points and 11 rebounds meant Success for much of their lives he says they May find it hard adjusting to a Success rate of perhaps one in 50 on sales or deals. Robertson s transition on the other hand is Long Complete. He says he found no distinction Between the pleasure of succeeding in playing and that of succeeding in business. It s a very different feeling he says. I get thai feeling when i sign a Robertson 50, owns his own cleaning and Industrial chemical company in Cincinnati. After his third year As a professional basketball player he began investing in real estate and making friends and contacts in the business world. To pursued interests outside of basketball. He went to Gullet Tafter 11 years Symik Zembry associated press Ime has been the healer Lor Don Gullett. More than 11 years have passed since he pitched in the big leagues making his last Start Belore the 1978 All Star game. He was one of the Best pitchers of the 1970s, Wilh a fastball that approached 100 Miles per hour. But he lasted Only iwo innings in thai fateful 1978 Outing suffering a devastating rotator cull injury. Two years later following surgery and countless consultations with specialists Gullet s career ended with his release by the new York Yankees now he would like to return to baseball. I would t mind getting into some Type of instruction in the major leagues or minor leagues Gullet says outside a barn on his farm in Greenup county in northeastern Kentucky. Scouting would to a Good Field to to in. I d like to get Back in some capacity. It s Dill cult to gel baseball out of your system altogether to adds but he sure tried it bothered me the first three or Lour years i was away he says i looked Al myself and i was Only 31,32 years old. It kind of bothered me mentally. Ii was mentally Tough to watch games. Under Normal circumstances i would have been out of the game Only three or four years now. I Don t think anybody Ever adjusts to it. You always got that be Elm to be involved in baseball on a regular basis. Alter a while you realize it s time to give it up and pursue something Gullett recorded some impressive numbers during his 10-year career Wilh the Cincinnati reds and Yankees. He was 104-50 with a 3.11 earned run average while playing in Lour world series. His career appeared headed into the Hall of Fame. Wants Back in you never know what might have happened he says without a Trace of bitterness. There always a Chance of injury. Ii was just unfortunate in my career. Iii had stayed healthy there is the Chance i could have been very successful. I think i was a belter Pitcher right Belore i hurl my Arm than i was injuries Haven t been strangers to Gullett since his Days in new York. While playing softball to dislocated a shoulder sliding into second base and another time threw his shoulder out while trying to throw out a runner. Nearly four years ago to experienced his biggest physical setback a heart attack. It affected me a couple of years in what i could do he was afraid to got out there and do things i had done before. I was but he gained an appreciation for the things he had in life. You look at what you be got and stay around and enjoy in says Gullett who will be married 20 years in january to his High school sweetheart Cathy. They have an 18-year-old son. Don jr., and two daughters Tracey 15, and Angela 10. Gullett. Who will be 39 in january is 25 pounds Over his playing weight of 190. His physique is More like Mickey Lolich than the Young lir Balling lefty of Cincinnati s big red machine. He still participates in old timers games at the various ballparks and has made a couple of appearances at baseball card shows. The old timers games Are always a Good Leeling says Gullett who wears a Cincinnati uniform at the gatherings. It s Nice to go into the old ballparks. It s like a big reunion. Gullott was also drafted in the now senior league although he has t been contacted by anyone. I think thai might to a fun thing to he says. I think that would be the Case with the other Guys. If they were serious about it i think they would seek employment in the major every summer to usually makes the 120-mile trip from his Home to Cincinnati to see a game. He roots for both the reds and Yankees. There s a lot of tradition in both cities he says. It s kind of easy to do. Wilh them being in different Gullett in t the Standard gentleman Farmer. He sput in the Field cutting Hay with a tractor or lending to the tobacco crop or tinkering with some machinery. He gets dirty. You be got to know a Little about everything to be a Farmer he says with a Grin. You be got to know plumbing mechanics and a lot of other Gullet lives in a two Story Tudor style Home about a mile from where he grew up. If i had t gone into baseball i d probably still to doing what i am now he says. I Hunt and fish As much As i can. I like working outdoors too. It s difficult to sit around occasionally hell gel in touch with former Yankee teammate Catfish Hunter for a Hunting trip in North Carolina. He plans to Soli the farm because its More work and no pay and to spend More time travelling. I m Semi retired now he says with a smile my wife and i still have a Chance to travel like we be always wanted and he still cherishes the times of his life in the big one of the things i remember is the Home run i hit in the 76 playoffs against Pittsburgh he says. But just getting into the game of baseball was a big thrill for me and getting to pitch against Guys like Hank Aaron or Willie Mays. There Are a lot of great Page 14 the stars and stripes monday of
