Marlins Catcher Matt Treanor Watches Wife’s Profile Spike

It’s a good thing Matt Treanor isn’t the jealous type.

If he were, that would only put more strain on a celebrity sports marriage that already keeps him apart from his wildly popular wife for painfully long stretches. Instead, as the Florida Marlins catcher guts out the final days of a disappointing season and awaits early October surgery on his hip and groin, he takes solace in this incredible run Misty May-Treanor has been enjoying.

“Misty,” Treanor says, “is about as national as you can get right now.”

Last month she was in Beijing, winning a second gold medal in beach volleyball, giving Bush 43 a quick lesson on the sand and swapping one-liners on TV with Bob Costas.

Next up for her is Dancing With the Stars, which premieres Monday on ABC. Those two recent losses on the AVP Tour may be directly related to the intense rehearsals she has been undertaking with her new dance partner.

His name is Maksim Chmerkovskiy, and although he hails from the Ukraine, he bears no resemblance to any of Borat’s cousins. In fact, the 28-year-old is so male-model perfect, you can find him on Web sites such as HunkDuJour.com. (Blame Google.)

Supposedly ranked seventh in the world in Latin ballroom dance — I’m guessing strength of schedule weighs heavily — Maksim’s previous partners on DWTS have included Tia Carrere, Willa Ford, Laila Ali and Melanie (Scary Spice) Brown.

With a roll call like that, the beach volleyball star was a natural to continue the progression. Sorry, Cloris Leachman.

“Misty watches the show, so she knew who Maksim was when she got assigned to him,” Treanor says. “He’s intense, from what I understand. He takes dancing very seriously.”

What should not be taken seriously are the inevitable Internet rumors that will crop up in the coming weeks and months as millions of viewers speculate on budding romance between various dance partners. Treanor, at least, has learned not to sweat such things after the scare he got while his wife was in China.

Misty May-Treanor renewed her friendship with NBA star Jason Kidd, who has long been her favorite basketball player. When Kidd showed up at the beach volleyball final, the whispers started.

They only got louder when Misty was spotted during a post-match interview giving the universal “Call me” symbol to someone in the stands.

Could have been an old college roommate. Could have been a family member. For some reason, the bloggers all assumed it had to be Kidd.

“I learned my lesson with the nasty blogs right after the Olympics,” Treanor says. “I kind of bit into some of that and didn’t know exactly how to take some of the media that was going around.”

The couple later discussed those ugly rumors and put them to rest, but Treanor admits he spent too much time “wondering what was going on” between his wife and Kidd.

That experience should only make them stronger as Misty and Maksim become the latest fodder for America’s tireless celebrity rumor machine.

“As long as you’re in the public eye … there’s going to be some things out there that aren’t going to be good to read,” Treanor says. “Allowing my wife to have an open mind and concentrate on what she’s doing I think kind of shows how much I really do love her and the strength of our relationship.”

Still, the disappointment in his voice is obvious. Instead of getting to spend some post-surgery down time with his wife, he’ll hobble to his seat in the audience and watch Misty go for the gold in an entirely new realm.

“It’s not easy,” Treanor says. “Misty is her own woman. Even if I wanted to [intervene], I don’t think I would. I know how much it means to Misty to do something like that. I understand the window of opportunity.”

Those Arthur Murray dance lessons they were planning to take together will have to wait.

- Mike Berardino, Sun Sentinel