Athletes Have Fun In Different, Violent Ways

It's hardly news to report that professional athletes have a different definition of "fun" than you or we do. And we don't just mean the groupies at every stop on the road ... though that's certainly a factor too. We mean that they get to do things for amusement that the rest of humanity might find unusual. Like destroying a coach's car for the pure sport of it.

Chicago Cubs strength coach Tim Buss had been driving around a beaten up old 1995 Nissan, and one day he went to the parking lot and saw it had been bashed in with baseball bats. The culprits: Ryan Dempster, Jon Lieber, Kerry Wood, Scott Eyre and some other Cubs pitchers. Now that's how you take out some aggression. But don't worry: They got him a new one.

Buss hopes to come up with a plan that helps pass along the good fortune several Cubs pitchers sent his way when they bashed up his old beater - and then presented him with a shiny new SUV. Buss said players already have volunteered to autograph what's left of the car, which still rolls, might still run, has no windows, and has a rolled-up trunk lid, a hole in the roof, a bumper in the back seat and doors tied shut, including one with the seat belt. It's ``parked'' in the players' lot at HoHoKam Park.

Man, we'd really love to destroy a car someday. We wouldn't need a sledgehammer either; An umbrella would be fine.

(UPDATE: Here's a picture of the car. Yipes.)