The Daly Show

One of the worst things that can happen to a team is picking up a young stud who's got "potential", but is also "inconsistent". It's a dreadful paradox that gets coaches fired, pisses off teammates, and drives frustrated GMs to gulp down Maalox daiquiris.

For example, on some days the kid is a Natural; a fastball-devouring monster with a .397 batting average who steals bases, able to play any position, and can single-handedly carry a team to the World Series. Other days, he's a clown who can't catch, can't hit, and can't run. What's worse, you're unable to predict the days when he's either going to be A-Rod or A Bust. Keep him? Trade him? Argh.

Of course this doesn't just apply to baseball. It happens in golf, too.

Meet John Daly.

On one of the worst days of his life a few weeks ago, John Daly woke up with a throbbing headache and found out that not only was he fired by his coach Butch Harmon, but that he was booted from the Arnold Palmer Invitational for sleeping past his pro-am tee time.

"Hasn't been a good day," Daly said. "This is the last thing I needed in my life. I feel like I let Arnold down." Sadly, no one was surprised, not really.

Some jocks at the end of their careers either become legends or pontificating talking heads on ESPN and call it success. The way it's looking now, it won't be John Daly. The troubled golfer is running out of second chances. Does anyone remember the young, charismatic, working-class hero with a golf club who dominated his sport years ago? Me neither. Those "Grip It and Rip It!" days seem long gone.

"The most important thing in his life is getting drunk," an angry Butch Harmon said. "I like the kid, but he's got to get his head on straight. The partying and other shenanigans, if that's the way he wants to be, I don't choose to be a part of it."

Can you blame Harmon? He saw that Daly has joined the list of human crash test dummies who can't miss hitting brick walls. They die tragically young (Len Bias), are goddamned lazy and piss away their talent (Derrick Coleman), turn into boozy losers (Vin Baker), go to jail (Denny McClain), or become manipulative assholes who betray both their fans and their legacy (Pete Rose). Then there are unique screw-ups like "Tank" Johnson who do a little bit of everything. Idiots.

I believe every person is born with a special talent that they can do better than anybody else in the world. Tragically, some people never figure out what it is, and others can't express their gifts because bad luck keeps them ordinary. However, it's not tragic if you throw away your talent by being lazy, mean, stupid, or all three.

Do you think legends like Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods ever wasted their precious time by staying drunk or running a shady dog fighting operation? No, the reason these great athletes dominate their sport and give such lousy interviews is because all they think about and all they do is try to get better. Nothing else matters. But John Daly made the tragic but disastrous choice that being "great" once in a while was good enough.

It's not.