Bustos Is a Rugged Slugger with a Gold Heart
Bustos, the United States softball team’s designated hitter, does not do subtle. She hits big and talks straight, all without pretense or apology.
“I get drug-tested more than others,” she said. “Three times last month. Because I’m big.”
A telephone call later, Bustos was told that the tea would be fine. She sipped it but did not care for it much. Not her style.
Bustos — and that is what her teammates call her, or Boo, but rarely Crystl — is 30, a two-time gold medalist who plans to retire from international competition after the Beijing Games. For years, she has been painted in one dimension, as a bruising basher, the Babe Ruth of softball, a top-heavy woman wielding a wicked stick. She is an attention grabber, mostly because of her towering home runs and partly because she stands out among teammates that generally look as if they could have belonged to the same sorority.
But give her tea, and let Bustos do the painting. Or let her teammates fill in the corners. A colorful picture emerges, a more complete one, even if the edges are a bit rough.
“She is probably the nicest person on our team, by far,” said the poster-girl pitcher Jennie Finch, who has often shared a room with Bustos on the road. “She has the hugest heart. She’s covered in tattoos, and her forearms are the size of my thigh, but she is just a great person.”
“I’m going to frame them and put them up in his room,” Finch said, smiling. “I don’t know if it came from tagging or graffiti or whatever, but, gosh, she’s good.”
That is the side that Bustos rarely displays in public. Not the one who colors velvet posters. (“I bring them to life. It’s what I do. I like it.”) Not the one who stops and makes sure her teammates watch their step when it is slippery. Not the one who may be the most popular player because of who she is, not what she is.
She is the rugged bomber with the long, braided ponytail in back and a scowl in front, generally scaring those who do not know her — opposing pitchers, mostly. That is the outsider’s portrayal, and Bustos does not seem to mind hiding behind it. Never mind that it is Bustos who is scared of the dark, of flying, of the ocean.
Her teammates appreciate her, partly because she is so different than most of them. Bustos grew up in Canyon Country, Calif., north of Los Angeles — up the 5 to Magic Mountain, then into the hills. She saw no future beyond that.
She nearly flunked out of high school as a freshman. She did not walk with her senior class at graduation because she still needed to attend summer school. She was suspended for fighting more than once, usually as an enforcer for someone far smaller, even one of her own brothers. She got in trouble for stealing, too.
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