Carl Everett Time

Thanks to Mike for this link! Carl played in Boston for a few years, and is hands down the most mentally disturbed athelete I’ve ever heckled. One drunken Fenway evening, box seats behind Boston’s on-deck circle…”TAKE YOUR PILLS EVERETT!!!” Later on I did the same to Trot Nixon and he hit a three run homer to win the game. With the abuse I aimed at Jose Offerman, I was 2-3 that night. This article is a great read for anyone familiar with Carl. His White Sox face off with Boston this week in the wild card.

The mouth of the South Side

October 2, 2005

BY LACY J. BANKS Staff Reporter Advertisement

White Sox designated hitter Carl Everett probably wouldn’t be very successful as a politician because of his candor, but that’s exactly the quality that makes him such a compelling interview.

Everett often chooses not to talk with reporters, but he recently gave an interview to the Sun-Times that touched on several subjects, including rapper Kanye West saying that President Bush doesn’t care about black people.

”Based on what I saw and heard, Kanye was absolutely correct,” Everett said. ”But people can’t take the truth. And not everybody is brave enough to speak the truth. They want to deny the truth and make up excuses for a lot of the evil, sinful things in society.

”God is trying to speak to man through the hurricanes and other disasters throughout the world. They show we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

Everett also said comedian Chris Rock would make a better baseball commissioner than Bud Selig.

”[Rock is] gonna tell it like it is,” Everett said.

In a world where image-sensitive, endorsement-seeking pro athletes are coerced into saying what is politically correct even though they might be flat-out lying, Everett stands flat-footed, speaks his mind and takes the heat.

”If you ask me what I believe, I will tell you,” he said. ”I haven’t always believed what I now believe. It was only after I started reading the Bible and made a commitment to try to live holy according to the Bible that I developed various beliefs that most people don’t agree with. But that’s what happens when you try to live holy and say what you think. People will call you crazy and other things.

”I’ve always grown up in a Christian home, thanks to my mother, Allie. I grew up Baptist before I learned it’s not about denominations. It’s about living holy according to how the Bible tells us to live. I found Christ and got baptized as a little boy. But I actually got stronger and grew closer to God once I met my wife, Linda. She is the strong suit in our family when you go to the house of God. But we as men have got to take over that realm.”

Everett’s opposition to homosexuality is well-known.

”I’m not bashing gays as people,” he said. ”I’m against their lifestyle. I’m against the act of homosexuality because it is a sin. It is against God’s will.

”God put man and woman on earth to multiply. A woman can’t make a baby having sex with another woman, and a man can’t make a baby having sex with another man. History tends to repeat itself a lot of times. People don’t realize that the same God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexuality can also destroy our world today.”

And dinosaurs?

”Just because I’ve seen them in movies doesn’t mean that they existed,” he said. ”They can make dinosaur bones just like they make dinosaurs for movies. God made man and gave him dominion over the earth and all its animals. If that’s true, then we can’t say that dinosaurs ruled the earth and that man came from monkeys. The Bible says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. On the sixth day, God made man and woman. That’s what I believe.”

Everett said the United States’ moral breakdown starts with the home, schools, government and other institutions distancing themselves from God.

”I’ve said it before, and people have laughed at me,” he said. ”Separation of church and state was the worst thing ever. You have one or two families who caused that because they were atheists. In this country, the majority opinions [as it relates to God] really don’t fly. I read somewhere that 96 percent of the people believe in some type of god, 3 percent say they’re not sure and 1 percent are atheists.

”But this country is run by that minority. So if you say anything religious that they don’t agree with, they’re going to jump on you. Also, a lot of kids are going astray because the government is trying to tell people how to raise their kids. But if I’m a Christian trying to live the way God wants me to live, I’ve got to try to do what’s right and be against all sin.”

This includes Everett’s sins, too. Everett, a husband and father of five, is not as holy as he would like to be. He is still a moral work in progress.

”I’ve never been a ladies’ man, but there’s been fornication [in his life],” he said. ”I had sex before I was married. But once I got married, it was on. Come November, we will have been married for 12 years.”

Has he always been faithful?

”Not in all cases,” he said. ”She knows. I did it away from her. But I’m quite sure she still prays for me. [God] keeps me. But those demons are still going to come. That’s why I say it’s tough to live holy and resist temptation because those demons get prettier and prettier. Their bodies get better and better. It’s one of the toughest fights I’ve had in my life.

“The worst is over, but those demons want you back bad, and they’re going to keep at you. Living holy is harder than hitting a baseball or dodging a transport truck coming at you at 100 miles an hour. But when you go through those kinds of hell, God is still there for you.”

Not everybody ridicules Everett for his unpopular stands. He is respected by his peers, starting with Sox general manager Ken Williams.

”Well, considering the fact that I traded for the man twice, I think that speaks volumes about how I feel about him,” Williams said. ”He gives us a certain intensity and a certain edge that I think you have to have when you-know-what hits the fan. And through the course of a baseball season, it’s going to hit the fan.

”How many character people do you have around to help lift up the rest of the group and keep you driving forward? That might determine the difference between failure or success. But he’s the guy I know I can depend on.”

Sox manager Ozzie Guillen recently dropped a slumping Everett out of the No. 3 slot in the lineup, and Everett responded this past week in Detroit. He hit two-run triples in victories against the Tigers on Wednesday and Thursday to help the Sox clinch the American League Central.

”As a player, he’s a gamer,” Guillen said. ”He shows up every day to play. He’s also vocal. But I never criticize anybody who expresses himself and believes what he wants to believe. Carl never says, ‘You have to believe what I believe.’ People got him wrong. But here, you’ve got to be careful what you say because when you say something that one guy doesn’t like, you’re going to hear from him. You may sound dumb. But if that’s what you believe, you cannot take that right away from anybody.

”I think he’s misunderstood by some people and [abused] by others who don’t want to understand him for what he believes. He speaks his mind and says, ‘I believe in this because my mom taught me this way or because this is what my religion teaches.’ I might say something like, ‘I’m upset that my dad is an alcoholic.’ Then somebody says, ‘Why are you criticizing alcoholics?’ But I’m not criticizing alcoholics. I’m just giving a personal opinion about one person.”

While some think Everett might become a preacher after baseball, he said he has other ideas.

”I want to become an architect,” he said. ”I want to design things.

”I’ve been taught to never miss your calling. But I’m willing to do whatever God wants me to do.”

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