The Great Bronson Arroyo

Bronson Arroyo could have been called any number of things when he started
his career with the Pirates, but  great  wouldn't have been one of them.

Arroyo, like so many others during the Cam Bonifay-Dave Littlefield eras,
struggled during their time as a young player in Pittsburgh yet went onto
flourish somewhere else.

Arroyo was a third-round pick by the Pirates in the 1995 draft and made
his way up the minor-league ladder before debuting in Pittsburgh in 2000.

After three nondescript seasons in which he was shuttled between the
starting rotation and bullpen, Arroyo was put on waivers and claimed by
the Boston Red Sox. He pitched three seasons in Boston and won a world
championship in 2004. He was traded to Cincinnati just before the 2006
season and made it on the All-Star team that season, where he played in the
game in Pittsburgh.

Now Arroyo is a veteran in Cincinnati's starting rotation. He is also not
afraid to speak his mind, which is where the "great" part comes in. Arroyo
always gives honest, from-the-heart answers, not canned cliche responses
like so many other athletes.

He said he likes coming back to Pittsburgh and wishes things could have
been different for he and others like Aramis Ramirez and Jason Schmidt and
others like them who were teammates with Arroyo in Pittsburgh but
flourished into All-Stars elsewhere.

"It was just a weird vibe here, man," Arroyo said. "There was just a lot
of young guys that really weren't comfortable at the (major-league)level.
And losing just breeds a bad environment.

"It was tough to perform for a lot of us. A lot of guys went onto perform
other places and blossomed a lot."

Even his "good" quotes, which the above are, are better than most athletes' great quotes these days.
The stuff he says off the record is even better.
And that is what makes him great.