SHANE VICTORINO scored this big goal in the Hawaii Cup soccer tournament when he was 14. Yo, every goal is a big goal in soccer, but this was against a team from the mainland and Shane celebrated by sprinting to the opposing sideline, flipping the bird to the startled parents and coaches gathered there.
The grumble of anger was closely followed by the wail of police sirens. It took a while for the pushing and shoving and threats of retaliation to simmer down.
"I look back at it," Victorino says now, "and it wasn't funny, but I can laugh at it. I just never looked at the consequences. As a kid, you just kind of react, you don't think. I'm not gonna blame it on the ADD."
The ADD? Attention deficit disorder. Victorino had it then; he has it now. Medication doesn't cure it, it just muffles the symptoms. Stop taking the medication and - pow - the symptoms return.
It's all there, in a revealing new book by Alan Maimon called "Shane Victorino: The Flyin' Hawaiian." The behavior problems in the classroom, the bickering with coaches, the transfer to a different school, the diagnosis and treatment.
"If he was going to write a book about my life," Victorino said the other day, "I wanted it all in there, what happened to me as a kid. The message is that parents shouldn't be ashamed, shouldn't be afraid, if their kid has this disorder.
"There were countless phone calls from the school, things I did in the classroom, things I did in practice. My parents were very supportive. My mom, she really struggled with it, studied it, got me the help I needed."
Kids with ADD often seem distracted, disorganized, forgetful. They may have trouble focusing on schoolwork in general, but point them to a hobby or a sport they enjoy and their focus becomes razor sharp.
"My parents encouraged me to play sports," Victorino recalled. "They wanted me to put my energy into sports."
Baseball was the most challenging, with all the standing around. Three minutes of action crammed into 3 hours, one cynic once described it. The boredom is one challenge, the frustration of failing seven times out of 10 as a hitter is another.
"For me," Victorino countered, "baseball is the best. Sure, you can go 0-for-4 and strike out twice. But the next day you can go 4-for-4 and drive in the winning run and be a hero. Throw an interception in football and you fret for a whole week, waiting for the chance to redeem yourself."
