Last month Marlins pitcher Logan Kensing ran into some trouble when he let reporters join him for a helicopter hunting trip on his Texas ranch. Video of the trip portrayed Kensing as a trigger happy, Lt. Col. Kilgore-type who loved nothing more than the smell of wild hogs in the morning. Animal activists got upset and demanded satisfaction. Usually such trifling concerns die on the vine but Palm Beach Environmental Coalition head Barry Silver actually got a meeting with team President David Samson. It didn't really go his way, though.
The group asked Marlins officials to talk Kensing out of continuing the practice, which Silver called "unacceptable," but Samson declined to take it up with the player. "I was left with the impression that Mr. Samson isn't a fan of it, but he said there's nothing he could do," Silver says. He'll recommend that the group try to take another approach. Pickets are possible.What's he supposed to do? Threaten to trade him? If Kensing continues to show the kind of stuff he did after returning from Tommy John surgery last September, he'll get too expensive and the Marlins will trade him anyway. Suspend him? Might as well suspend Hanley Ramirez for eating a BLT. It's just as cruel to animals and just as legal.
If Silver wants to so something, he should picket in honor of the sturdy Marlin. Such a proud fish deserves a team more willing to spend the money necessary to contend more than once a decade.
