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Big Mack Attack

"Mr." Newton trains pros, but he finds bliss inspiring plain folks to get fit.

A A A Comments By Eric Dexheimer Thursday, Feb 7 2002

Unlike other fitness instructors, Newton doesn't work out with his students. Instead he walks around the room, addressing each by name, urging them on and lecturing them with motivational messages and stories. "You're getting better and better at something that brings you nothing," he tells one woman whose technique comes up short. "Talk to that muscle! Yeeeeahhhh!" he yells as soul music blares. After a day and a half and four two-hour-plus workouts, Newton is on his way back to Phoenix.

Newton says that Baylor and the Cubs are hammering at him to come back for another season; some published reports offer a different view, saying that after last fall's bickering, Newton is not welcome. Either way, Newton says, it doesn't matter. He has made up his mind: For the moment, he is finished with professional athletes. They are too pampered, too soft, too unwilling to learn. Too much trouble.

John Johnston

Mr. Newton inspires the troops.

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"In Chicago, I was hired to create a winner, to create an attitude, a perspective that winning was easy," he explains. "In the process, there is pain. My job was to tell the players that pain was unavoidable -- but that suffering was not."

Players today, he adds, in addition to being spoiled and in deplorable physical condition for what they are paid to do, are not receptive to the message. "The physical part is easy," he says. "These guys are in good shape. But it's hard to tell someone making $3 million a year that he needs to get better. Baseball is a country-club sport. They decide when they want to quit -- when it hurts. They don't want to work through the pain. That's why most don't live up to their potential. They are lacking character -- emotional and mental development. In the face of all their physical gifts, they are very fearful; they are dominated by fear."

And where, he asks, is the thrill in working with that? "It's not about overpaid babies who always want their way," Newton says. Rather, he continues, real gratification comes in everyday victories. "To take someone who has never played a sport in their life, or who is eighty pounds overweight, or who has arthritis, and who then comes to work out with me and gets better -- I'm inspired by that. That is what inspires me."