Football or Baseball Nation?

Posted on May 5, 2014 by admin

The United States of America was once a baseball nation.
Today it is a football nation.
It is in our national interest to become baseball again.
Here is why?

Football tries to win every game, often regardless of cost.
Baseball knows this is not only an impossibility but also foolish, and therefore accepts losing as a cost of the game.
The baseball metaphor more resembles a healthy & manageable life.

In baseball the best team usually wins around 100 games, which means they’ve also lost around 62.
Even in the best years of living, successful people have losing days when they must deal with falling short of expectations.
These (generally) successful people go home to their families, and don’t forget their true wealth is in their happiness, with those they love.
It is similar in baseball where the emphasis is on: staying positive in the face of daily adversity, consistently putting forth good effort, and learning to accept losing– because some days you just can’t win.
This approach avoids extended losing streaks, and its realization is the difference between winning and losing, over a long season.
Life, like baseball, is a marathon.

In football, the best teams are urged to try for 16-0, plus the Super Bowl.
Only the 1972 Miami Dolphins (17-0) ever achieved a perfect season, making them a statistical outlier.
Few experts even list them as the greatest single-season team ever, as compared to the Steel Curtain Pittsburgh Steelers, the Bill Walsh-era SF 49ers, or the 1985 Chicago Bears.

The fact that no team has matched Miami’s 1972 perfection doesn’t keep teams from trying. Every year, the media hypes fans into expecting another statistical miracle.
The problem is: Undefeated is an unrealistic expectation in sports and a dangerous expectation for reality. This becomes a societal problem when it becomes predominant ruling-class thought, imitated by the most backward layers of the working class.
It is unhealthy to not accept losing.
Only insecure losers believe they can completely prevent losing.

Bill Belichick is a certainly a great football coach, but does that make him happy?
I wonder this, because I never see him laugh or smile.
He’s often put forward as a role model to others.

The NFL & College Football seasons unfold in a weekly series of violent spasms, with six days of recuperation before the next battle.
The NFL season is a meat-grinder by any fair description.
The average NFL career length is 3.3 years, as compared to 5.6 in MLB.

The mentality of too many football fans is often one of intolerance towards others (all opponents), with an uncompromising win-at-all-costs approach.
There are too many murders & rapists in the NFL, simply because they help win Super Bowls.
There is too much PED abuse at all levels of football, which only follows the pioneering example of the NFL.
There is no serious comprehensive concussion prevention (or treatment) program at any level of the sport.
Any attempts to question the NFL on these topics, leads to defensive double-speak & fierce lobbying resistance.

Of course, these problems also exist in baseball, but they are much less fundamental & pervasive than they are in American football.
To the extent they have penetrated baseball can be seen as a general follow-the-leader shift (with football leading) in popular sports thinking. Generally, the term ‘sports thinking’ is an oxymoron.
MLB accepted football’s methods such as steroids in the 1990’s & beyond, because it improved player performance (at least in the short-term) and also because many owners agreed that by making the game more like football, it would be more popular.
It worked in 1998 with Sammy Sosa & Mark McGwire chasing (and obliterating) Roger Maris’ season HR record.
In 2001, when Barry Bonds obliterated it again, baseball fans were no longer excited.
The ugly truth, which had finally become apparent to most, could not be ignored. It seemed impossible for most to cheer.

Unfortunately. much of this ugliness goes directly to the heart of what football is.
It is often too violent, too destructive, and too degraded a spectacle– to be watched by anyone who thinks with compassion for others.
When players are lying on the field–concussed, TV audiences are promptly cut to a commercial.
Announcers often only comment on this phenomenon in passing, as their jobs are threatened by the NFL (through its Network broadcast partners), if they raise serious medical player-safety issues on the air.
Football announcers are too often ex-jocks, simply cheerleading for their game.
Their cliched claim to be bringing fans the “inside experience” rings hollow, as their function (besides their celebrity) is to keep fans away from the game’s dirty secrets.
It is the Player’s code: For the good of the game, it is best to deceive the fans about how players really make themselves ready to perform on Gameday.
It’s all about winning the ratings.

The best aspect of the NFL’s concussion crisis is that sports fans are now more aware of the true cost of playing football.
Too many NFL players retire into a life of chronic pain, depression, Alzheimer/dementia, and even suicide.
It is too terrible a trend to ignore, especially when it happens to some of its greatest stars.
Playing professional football is one of the most dangerous & unhealthy careers a man can choose, yet most fans think it is an honor to play in the NFL.
There is a huge disconnect from the wanna-be’s who obsessively follow the game, and the actual players who view the NFL as a short-term, high-risk/high-reward job.
Most NFL players don’t talk about the privilege of playing anymore, as that old-school mentality went out with billion dollar TV contracts, $10-millon signing bonuses, and the medical science on post-NFL life.

Baseball has become more difficult for its core fans to watch, because it has been turned into football, in many ways.
PEDs, Wild Cards, expanded play-offs, garrulous announcers, exploding graphics, replay umpiring, etc… all take their toll on the roots of our national pastime.
Baseball is a game that is deceptively simple in its elegance, and lends itself to contemplation during its periods of inaction.
Its natural rhythm & pace, allows time for actual thought.
Football attempts to fill every second of its broadcasts with hype & pizazz.
There are only 11.5 minutes of actual game action in a typical NFL contest.

When baseball tries to imitate football, in an attempt to close the ratings gap, it loses its identity.
When, We the People, let ourselves be herded into group-think by violent & uncritical mindsets that serves ruling interests, we lose our identity.
These are fascist tendencies, which must be recognized & resisted.

Scholarship Athletes Unite!

Posted on March 31, 2014 by admin

Latest update on this story [8-18-15]: The football players voted on unionization in April 2014, and the ballot box was immediately impounded by Northwestern University & the NCAA. The votes still haven’t been counted, so the reformists don’t know what to do. [1]

Ed O’Bannon won his case, in a ruling that states college athletes can now share in the billions of dollars they generate annually. The ruling is being appealed by lawyers for the NCAA.

The NLRB decided not to approve the Northwestern University football players request to form a union, and this issue will likely eventually go to the Supreme Court.

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The regional director of the National Labor Relations Board in Chicago, Peter Sung Ohr, ruled on Wednesday March 26 that Northwestern University football players are university employees.

Employees are legally entitled to be paid and to bargain collectively.

The NCAA is a billion-dollar entertainment industry, which has had the advantage of virtually free labor for its entire existence. In a court of law, this brings up anti-trust and worker’s rights legal challenges, which are coming to a head with this landmark ruling by Judge Ohr. Ohr ruled that the primary function of the Northwestern football players is to make money for Northwestern University. The Northwestern football players proved in court that the Wildcats coaches have strict control over their schedules and lives. Scholarships are contingent on athletic performance. This defines them as employees, and renders the NCAA definition of ‘student-athlete’ irrelevant.

This case is being merged with the Ed O’Bannon case and other high-profile legal action against the NCAA, in order to address the exploitation of scholarship athletes. It is being limited in scope to private universities and (as of this writing) only includes football & men’s basketball. If the Northwestern football players win, it would set a precedent that state universities and all of men’s college basketball would have to follow, due to fundamental to free market principles.

Allowing ALL the best high-school athletes in ALL sports to be free agents, with the right to collectively negotiate employer contracts with universities, would be a revolutionary worker’s victory. What is being crafted is a reformist solution, fronted by Ramogi Huma and backed by the United Steel Workers union leader Leo Gerard. Gerard is intimately tied to the Democratic Party machine and organized crime. Unions need to be understood as nothing more than legalized mafias.

Limiting this case to only football and men’s basketball, the two highest revenue-generating sports, is a conscious ruling-class decision designed to keep the process from spinning out of their control. “Limiting this case gives us the strongest case”, Ramogi explained. What he fails to mention is that lack of strength is not the problem, as most legal experts now agree that Ohr’s decision will be difficult to overturn on argumentative grounds.

The NCAA & Northwestern University have mostly declined comment on any of the legal proceedings, and the few statements from their spokespeople are widely interpreted as red herrings or insubstantial. This case wins on the same argumentative grounds if it includes all scholarship athletes.

So why doesn’t it?

It’s because the issues involved go to the heart of capitalist values, while touching a nerve of personal interest for sports fans. Bringing sports into any discussion, especially a political one, generally primes people to begin screaming & cheerleading instead of thinking about what’s going on. That is the nature of sports, and that’s the danger for scholarship athletes; they’ll lose perspective through the hype.

Many U.S. college graduates are passionate alumni. They particularly cheer its athletics, and many donate to its success. It’s a primary reason a significant percentage matriculate to a particular institution. In the end, success in football and men’s basketball is a vicarious pleasure for alumni; a point of pride that drives it. That, and the fact that it makes billions of dollars annually.

College sports is also a job for EVERY scholarship athlete, which they can not quit without losing their benefits. Basketball, field hockey, lacrosse, tennis, etc.. men’s & women’s; they’re all the same.

The ridiculousness of the NCAA’s insistence on defining scholarship athletes as ‘amateurs’ can be drawn out in an analogy with academic scholarships. Academic scholarship students are allowed to attain employment while in school. Many do. Imagine a math major not being able to accept a private tutoring job, because she is defined by the university as an ‘amateur.’ By NCAA rules, if this hypothetical math genius takes the job and is found out, her scholarship is lost. Clearly the rules & institutions for college athletics have become archaic, but what do we replace them with?

The modest proposal from what’s left of liberalism, is mostly an attempt to confuse and disorient these young exploited workers. It’s handling is important to the ruling class because this is happening at institutions of higher learning, where revolutionary ideas & impulses can spread quickly. Scholarship athletes still largely have open minds, and that is understood as a danger to elite opinion.

If the current agenda of Huma Ramogi and his Democratic Party backers win their way through the courts, then little will change for most university scholarship athletes in football & basketball. The black market pay-for-play system will simply be converted into an open market pay-for-play system. The few top recruits that receive large university contracts will make the headlines, but the new revenue sharing deal with the NCAA and the universities will mostly flow to union bureaucrats and machinery. Very little money will flow down to less talented players or to other sports, since they were never part of the discussion.

What needs to be done is the organizing of ALL scholarship athletes, across the U.S. & beyond, into their own union. Athletes need to be their own leaders and represent themselves, otherwise few of their grievances will be addressed. What can Leo Gerard & the Steel Workers Union possibly understand about the lives of college athletes? Can these athletes trust the SWU leader, who has facilitated a list of corporate mergers which have destroyed hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process, to represent their interests? These questions need to be asked & rationally answered, out loud.

University athletic programs will be shuttered whether this case is upheld or overturned, due to the depressed condition of the free market. This modest proposal as-is will only accelerate that process, as open bidding will allow the biggest conferences to monopolize the best talent. Those smaller conferences and institutions that can’t pay the market rate for athletic talent will wither & die.

Every university should have a competitive athletic program that: 1) fairly compensates athletes with full employee rights; 2) does everything possible to protect athletes from injury; 3) treats the athlete for as long as necessary when injury does occur; 4) allows the athlete time to finish his/her education, even after their playing eligibility expires.

This can only happen if ALL college athletes unite democratically under their own leadership.

Sony Open Tennis Diary

Posted on March 30, 2014 by admin

March 2015 Notes: This year it’s the Miami Open, with a new corporate sponsor, a Brazilian bank [1].

Have you ever seen a city with so many banks, and so little manufacturing?

Of course, Miami banks are notorious for laundering South American drug money, so the Miami Open presented by Itaú is a synergistic fit.

Clearly, the Miami Open lacks the prestige of Indian Wells, CA; as Roger Federer skipped Miami this time around.

This Master Series 1000 event should probably change its surface to clay; as it would then have the dual-upside of; 1) being valuable for individual ranking points, as well as: 2) being an early French Open tune-up.

Many top players like like being paid to come to Miami, but also don’t mind exiting early; as it is another punishing hard-court, just when everyone wants to transition to clay.

For those who don’t know, tennis on clay is much easier on the body; and both the men’s (ATP) & women’s (WTP) professional tours are a tough grinds. After Miami, there are no professional hard-court tournaments, until after Wimbledon in July.

For those on a budget, the escalating cost of attending professional tournaments makes the Tennis Channel a fan’s best value. A viewer can watch & learn from the top players, year-round–men & women, singles & doubles; with (mostly) helpful and expert commentary.

As always with television, using the ‘mute’ button appropriately helps.

When you’re ready for any tennis gossip, Mary Carillo (still cute as a button) has it all with a smile.

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Night Session Costs Extra

Second Round Play Friday 3-21-14

All matches are best-of-three

This tournament used to be called the Sony Ericsson Open, but is now the Sony Open because big fish eats little fish.

Forecast: Beautiful weather, sunny with a light breeze. Low-mid 80’s. Bring a good hat & sunscreen.

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The stadium is full for the first afternoon match, featuring Roger Federer (SUI); probably the most beloved athlete in the world.

No one cheers Ivo Karlovic (CRO) after any of the 20-or-so times [stats not available] he aces Federer. It’s a crowd rule: you can’t cheer the opponent doing anything good against Roger Federer, unless that player is a superstar. I wonder how Roger Federer feels about that?

There is one break of serve in the entire match, the first game when Karlovic wasn’t quite warmed up. It cost him any chance at the match.

Ivo Karlovic is 6’11” and has a serve that sits at 132 MPH– reaching 138 MPH. Federer stands helplessly as ace after ace go whizzing past him. Luckily for his opponents, Karlovic has a poor backhand, with even worse lateral movement. It is an interesting match, even though there are only a few rallies. Federer makes only 3 unforced errors [!] and wins 49 of 52 points on his serve, prevailing 6-4, 7-6 (4).

Final thoughts on Roger Federer: I don’t think he can win any more majors, but he’s still beautiful to behold– slipping ever so gracefully. It was a privilege to see him play.

This is followed by Novak Djokovic (CRO)/ Jeremy Chardy (FRA), with the stadium 1/4 full at the start of the match. It never even approaches half-full. I don’t understand why so few people care to see the best tennis player in the world?

The first thing you notice about Djokovic is his conditioning. He is clearly in the best physical shape of anyone out there. In fairness, I didn’t get to see Nadal.

Jeremy Chardy played well until he badly sprained his right ankle at break point to go down 5-3 in the second set. He couldn’t possibly play anymore, but insisted on finishing the match. I thought to myself, “If I was him, I wouldn’t go back out there. He can’t push off his right foot and it doesn’t prove anything to stand out there and get aced/service-winnered four times, then walk off. He needs immediate ice, compression, elevation and ibuprofen; then an evaluation for a possible MRI.”

It is in the nature of these serious athletes to refuse to quit, even when they are injuring themselves more. It seems worth considering why this is? Djokovic moves on 6-4, 6-3.

This is followed by a complete emptying of the stadium for the next match: Romina Oprandi (SUI)/ Agnieszka Radwanska (POL)– the #3 seed and tournament women’s champion in 2012. The first set went 6-0 for Radwanska in about 20 minutes. Time to find another match.

The men’s field is much deeper, with many exciting & competitive second-round matches on the outer courts.

Alejandro Gonzalez (COL)/ Richard Gasquet (FRA) was hard fought mid-day contest of youth vs. experience. Gasquet withstood the young Latin 7-6(7), 6-4 in a match that had high tension, numerous memorable rallies and great shot-making. Match of the day for me.

Marinko Matosevic (AUS) /Kei Nishikori (JPN) in the evening was another interesting battle. Neither player has an overpowering serve and both are scrappers, attacking everything with heavy topspin. The difference is consistency & control, with Nishikori completely breaking down the hot-tempered Matosevic in the second set– winning 6-4, 6-1. Skill & physique-wise, these players are fairly evenly matched. The difference is mostly in what’s between the ears.

Matosevic sent a tennis ball deep into the evening out of frustration during the second set, and then spit on the court after losing match point. He’s one of those guys you want to like, but keeps acting badly; lots of potential, but needs to find a serious coach and listen to him.

[Late Entry 3-29-13] Kei Nishikori would continue to play well in Miami; beating Grigor Dimitrov, David Ferrer and Roger Federer. A re-injured groin in the Federer match would force Nishikori to withdraw from his semi-final match-up against Novak Djokovic. Ironically, this time the fans protested not being able to see Novak Djokovic.

21-year old up & comer Sloan Stephens (USA)/ Zarina Diyas (KAZ) was another cool-of-the-evening match. Stephens displayed good strokes, but needs to improve her focus. Perhaps more importantly, she needs a much stronger first serve if she’s going to step up to the next level. Only one ace in the match, but it was enough to get by Zarina Diyas 7-5, 6-3.

As a side-note Diyas had (by far) the worst outfit of any women’s player I saw. To be fair, she was a qualifier, but her outfit was ghastly. Yellow top, black/grey skirt with red & green shoes. Congratulations Zarina: nothing matches.

Day Session passes last until 8:00 PM, after that you can’t access the Stadium Court without a Night Session ticket. This leaves most of the crowd watching the big screen outside as Venus Williams (USA)/ Anna Schmedlova (SVK) play in front of empty seats.

The early rounds of a major tennis tournament are like spring training in baseball. Things aren’t too serious yet, so fans can get really close to the action. This is a great opportunity for enthusiasts to see the game’s stars, while developing a deeper appreciation of tennis and learning proper etiquette.

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Final 2013 MLB Thoughts

Posted on October 11, 2013 by admin

Quick analysis of the remaining MLB post-season match-ups, using payroll (total amounts & value received) as the best determining metrics:

NLCS:

Dodgers $220,395,196 (now listed as #1 in MLB. NYY now #2, adjusted down to $203,445,586[!])
Better starting pitching is the real difference here, with Clayton Kershaw ($11.75M–best pitcher in baseball), Zack Greinke ($21M, a #2 starter), and Hyun-Jin Ryu ($3.3M–bargain!).
The enigmatic Ricky Nolasco ($11.5M) is their #4 starter.
The LAD lineup would be significantly better than STL, if they had CF Matt Kemp ($20M).
Even without Kemp they are clearly better; with Hanley Ramirez ($15.5M), Adrian Gonzalez ($22M), and rookie sensation Yasiel Puig (N/A, but surely a HUGE bargain!).
Andre Ethier ($13.5M) supplies always valuable OBP, even if he lacks SLG.
Carl Crawford ($21M) is a complete overpay with his lack of both OBP (.329) & SLG (.407).
The only position the LAD were at or below replacement level in 2013 was catcher.
Josh Beckett ($17M) and Chad Billingsley ($11M), both starting pitchers, are on the 60-day DL. Added in with Matt Kemp, the LAD have $48M on the DL for the post-season.
They also have another $10M or so in the minors between Edinson Volquez, Jerry Hairston Jr and Carlos Marmol.

Cardinals $102,790,110 (now listed as #14)
As you can see, STL has less than half the payroll of the LAD.
Their best chance of competing with the LAD is to get better value.
Unfortunately there is too much wasted payroll here also.
Adam Wainwright/Chris Carpenter should be thought of as one pitcher, because they are never both healthy at the same time. That’s 25M/year for a NL ace, who this year is Adam Wainwright.
The rest of the STL rotation is a huge drop-off with Lance Lynn, Shelby Miller and Michael Wacha; each of whom earned around $500,000 in 2013.
Also on the DL are SS Rafael Furcal ($7.5M), SP Jaime Garcia ($5.9M) and RP Jason Motte ($4.5).
SP Jake Westbrook ($8.75M) is in the minors.
Matt Holiday ($16.2M) is STL’s HoFer, still holding on to his prime.
Yadier Molina ($14.2M) is the best catcher in baseball.
2B Matt Carpenter ($500,000–bargain!) is a championship player, along with RF Carlos Beltran ($13M).
Jon Jay for $524,000, works in CF.
The problem offensively is that the Cardinals are faking it at 3B, SS & 1B.

LAD should win this series easily. We’ll see.

ALCS:

Red Sox $140,657,500 (now 5th)
BOS was the best team in baseball in 2013. That happened because management took advantage of good fortune by unloading 3 really bad contracts (plus Nick Punto), in a once-in-a-lifetime deal with the LAD at the 2012 trade deadline. It also helped to fire Bobby Valentine.
With that money saved, BOS went out and paid top dollar to fill holes with SS Stephen Drew (N/A, but likely somewhere around $10M), RF Shane Victorino ($13M), and 1B Mike Napoli ($5M, huge bargain).
DH David Ortiz ($14.5M), 2B Dustin Pedroia ($10.25M), and CF Jacoby Ellsbury ($9M) drive this lineup that has good hitters at every position except 3B.
BOS lacks a true ace, as homegrown SP’s Clay Buchholz ($5.75M) and Jon Lester ($11.6M) profile as #2 starters, up to this point.
John Lackey ($16M), Jake Peavy ($16M) and Ryan Dempster ($13.25) add rotation depth, but are all overpays.
BOS has about $20M combined on the DL and in the minors for the post-season.

Tigers $148,414,500 (now 4th)
DET’s advantage over BOS would be their pitching. How much of it is real is questionable, as DET played in the weakest AL division, which artificially elevates their numbers in comparison to BOS, who won the toughest division in all of North American sports.
Justin Verlander ($20M) is a true ace.
Max Scherzer ($6.7M) is a nice 2013 Cy Young bargain.
Anibal Sanchez ($8.8M) has the stuff to handle the BOS line-up.
DET’s line-up starts with HoFer Miguel Cabrera ($21M) and 1B Prince Fielder ($23M), who is slipping fast and soon will be very overpaid for many years to come.
Other useful parts include DH Victor Martinez ($13M), SS Jhonny Peralta ($6M-underrated), and Omar Infante ($4M)–also underrated.
DET’s outfield is well-below average, with low OBP and SLG. CF Austin Jackson ($3.5M) is a minor bargain, but RF Torii Hunter ($12M) is an overpay. The Tigers are faking it in LF.
DET has around $6.5M wasted on the DL & the minors, which is by far the lowest total of any remaining playoff team.

BOS is the favorite, but DET’s payroll gives them a fair chance.

This is not about predicting a winner, it’s about understanding what’s going on.

2013 Season Awards:

AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera/Mike Trout
AL CY: Max Sherzer
NL MVP: Andrew McCutchen
NL CY: Clayton Kershaw

The best manager in MLB is Joe Maddon.

HoF Ballot: Everyone I said last year, plus newcomers: Greg Maddux, Frank Thomas, Tom Glavine, Mike Mussina, and Jeff Kent.

Remember, you can enjoy baseball without knowing the numbers, but you can’t truly understand it.

2013 Post-Season Baseball

Posted on October 9, 2013 by admin

September 29
The TB Rays won a game today, to stay alive in Toronto. They must win tomorrow night in Texas to advance to the Wild Card play-in game, in Cleveland. If they win again, it’s off to Boston for the series opener.

This is why Wil Myers needed to be on TB’s opening day roster.
If you trade away James Shields for the 2012 MiLB Player of the Year, then he must be in the Rays lineup (which always desperately needs him), on opening day.

Owner/management played the arbitration game, and it has likely cost a great 2013 TB Rays team a decent shot at winning the WS. Fans do have a right to be disgusted with that.

TB Rays 2013 player payroll was $58 million. Only the Marlins & Astros spent less. Rays owner Stuart Sternberg, formerly of Goldman Sachs, is worth a reported $800 million.

RF Wil Myers was called up on June 17. The reason owner/management waited so long, was to prevent Myers from becoming a Super Two ($$) arbitration eligible player, after next season. Myers hit .293 with 13 HR & 53 RBI, while batting 3rd or 4th in the lineup, nearly everyday. If Myers is in RF on opening day, the Rays are closer to competing with the Red Sox for the division, than for the WC.

October 2 [after TB wins in Texas & Cleveland]
I’m feeling the TB Rays, while still standing by what I said in my last post.

Here’s another truth, no one in baseball admits: If you don’t win the WC play-in game, then you really didn’t make the playoffs.

October 5
The best team in baseball pounded a tired-looking Rays team last night.
2013 team payrolls according to ESPN:
Boston $140,657,500
TB $57,505,272

When it’s brains vs. $$; money usually wins.

October 5
Team payrolls are a fluid thing in MLB, as owners manipulate & hide where revenue and payroll goes, in order to escape paying income tax.
Today, espn.com has the Red Sox total payroll at $157,594,786, with the Rays at $59,070,272.

The difference between the Red Sox & Rays in 2013 total team payroll is around $100,000,000.

That difference is more than total payroll 16 MLB teams; and as a Rays fan, I must say that it’s pretty ridiculous to have to compete against that.

The Rays were eliminated last night, leaving the A’s ($65,447,000) & the Pirates ($66,289,524) as the only Moneyball teams remaining. Both are playing a decisive Game 5 against big-spending teams (the Tigers at $150,471,844, and the Cardinals more modestly at $115,722,085).
The Dodgers have also advanced, with their total payroll of $214,830,909.
I am rooting for the underdogs, but honestly this isn’t very interesting; watching payroll giants slowly crush the life out of short-stacked teams. RS

Postscript [10-10-13]: Both the Pirates & the A’s were completely dominated by big-money starting pitching in their Game 5’s.

Mariano Rivera #42: Elegance in Performance

Posted on September 27, 2013 by admin

Every season in every sport, great stars leave their game due to age and limitations in their ability to perform. This is often a painful reality for once-great athletes, who can no longer live up to their earlier levels of excellence. The ending is mostly a sentimental journey for these players, with fans usually honoring them as old heroes, about to be put out to pasture. It is often difficult to watch at this point, without cringing slightly.

Mariano Rivera is different, and here is why?

Mariano Rivera, at age 43, (with 3 games left in his final season) is still just as good as he’s ever been. His career ERA is 2.21. His 2013 ERA is 2.11. He injured his knee during the 2012 season, in a freak accident, shagging fly balls in batting practice. No one wanted to see it end that way for him, even though it looked like it was the end.

Rivera promised to come back to finish on his terms; and what would be impossible for most, appeared as inevitable & effortless as any other time he took the mound in the 9th inning, during his career.

Mariano Rivera pitched on the biggest stage, in the biggest media market in the world, for 18 seasons; and NEVER once in all that time was there any type of scandal connected to his name. This quiet, unassuming gentleman was satisfied enough with simply being the greatest closer ever, helping his team win 5 World Series championships. No PEDs. No tabloid scandals. No negotiating his contracts through the media. No badmouthing, anyone. Just elegance & class.

Mariano Rivera is everything we want our athletes to be. That is the only explanation for the ovations he received in every stadium he pitched, in 2013. Rivera made rooting for the Yankees acceptable for non-Yankee fans, through how he conducted himself; in victory as well as defeat. It is impossible to hate Mariano Rivera; if you do, then you are a hater. It would be comparable to not liking the Beatles.

Sandy Koufax was always revered for retiring when he was on top. Koufax, the best pitcher of his era, was forced to retire at age 30, due to an elbow injury that threatened to cripple him if he continued to pitch. His sense of dignity would not allow him to become ineffective and maimed. Under difficult circumstances, he correctly made the most important career decision any successful athlete ever has to make.

Rivera retires like Koufax, only with his career fully completed. Rivera had the advantage of modern sports science, training, nutrition, surgery, etc.; that allowed him to finish the way he & his fans wanted it to finish.

The symmetry of Rivera being the last MLB player to wear #42 is recognized by baseball fans everywhere. No better player from this era could represent that connection to Jackie Robinson first wearing #42 in Brooklyn on April 15, 1947. MLB’s #42 ends with the most extraordinary player of our modern era– the way it should be. Very rarely is there such universal love & admiration for any player. Rivera’s performance, along with his personal conduct, throughout his amazing career are what make him so special, and so loved by fans everywhere.

Ric Size

Songwriter, Musician, Artist

Category Archives: Sports