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October 26, 2003
Every once in a while,
Every once in a while, the gods of baseball find a way to remind you why the game is so great.
Just when $100 million dollar contracts, $170 million dollar payrolls, bat corkings, steriod scandals, Barry Bonds' surly personality and insistence on showing up pitchers, Bud Selig, Rally Monkeys, and George Steinbrenner have made you sick of the game and convinced you that - like the other major professional sports before it, including college football - baseball has been handed over to the greed of networks, owners, and players who respect SportsCenter more than the game... the gods find a way to say, "don't give up on us just yet - it's still OUR game."
I'm not talking particularly about that fact that the Yankees lost (though the sight of another team celebrating a World Championship in Yankee Stadium and rubbing the oh-so-smug noses of New York's players, management and fans in the turf probably added two years to my life from sheer glee). I'm talking about the way they lost. And the way the team they lost to got there in the first place.
The Florida Marlins pulled off one of the bigger upsets in a generation last night, and they did it by riding the arm of an instantly legendary performance by a 23 year old kid who, by his own admission, has no real sense of the scope of the monument of his achievement. Josh Beckett stepped up yesterday when his team needed him, not just in performance but in demeanor. He ascended into that rarified air that few even among those who have become champions have ever reached. He became one of those rare individuals who, when history came calling, not only wanted the ball, but played beyond himself and took his game beyond his limits. Walter Johnson. Whitey Ford. Don Drysdale. Sandy Koufax. Jack Morris. Mariano Rivera. Curt Schilling. Randy Johnson... and now, Josh Beckett.
But the other great thing about Beckett's performance was that it was so unexpected. When the playoffs began a month ago, did anyone wager that Josh Beckett would be the warrior that would emerge as this year's post-season hero? Beckett was on my Fantasy League team this year, and I have to admit, I didn't see this coming in the least. The pantheon Josh Beckett joined over the last ten days is even greater, in my mind, than the list of pitchers who carried their teams to titles. This pantheon is the Hall of the Unexpected, those unsung and largely average men who found themselves on their sport's biggest stage and rose to the occasion. Beckett - and Alex Gonzalez, for that matter - joined the ranks of Tommy Agee... Gene Tenace... Bernie Carbo... Bob Welch... Bucky blanking Dent... Brian Doyle... Orel Hershiser... Jose Rijo... Criag Counsell... Fransicso Rodriguez... Aaron Bleeping Boone... and myriad others through baseball history. Guys who were unsung before their moment in the sun, and returned either to obscurity or mediocrity afterward - but for that one moment, they found something in themselves that allowed them to produce the unexpected moments that make baseball so great.
There's two reasons why the Bucky Dent home run lives in infamy in Red Sox Nation. One, obviously, is that it beat the Sox and denied a playoff spot to The Best Team Of Its Generation Not To Go To The Playoffs. The other is that it came from such an unlikely source. Had Reggie Jackson slugged one over the Green Monster, it would have been understandable - almost expected. But Bucky Dent? Bucky Bleeping Dent???
The Yankees got the Sox again this year, thanks to Aaron Boone, Mariano Rivera, and some mismanagement for the ages by Grady Little. The ALCS was an instant classic, doubtlessly. But this morning, Yankee fans could now be discussing Alex Bleeping Gonzalez. Josh Beckett may have taken the first step last night into a memorable career, or he may fade back into relative obscurity beginning next season. But for one night, he was The Man, and no one will ever take that away. The Marlins may have been the Team People Least Wanted To See in the World Series this year, but they scrapped and fought and clawed and earned their way in.
Perhaps they were just too young to realize that they weren't supposed to be in the playoffs, nor supposed to come from behind to beat the Giants on a home plate collision scripted in Hollywood.
Not supposed to be five outs away from losing in five games to America's Darlings at Wrigley Field, only to come back to win three straight, including beating the two pitchers who Could Not Be Beaten.
Not supposed to be down 2 games to 1 against the Mighty Yankees and needing to face Roger Clemens in his adrenalinized last career start, and yet come back to win three straight and celebrate their world championship on the sanctified field of Yankee Stadium.
But maybe just young enough to realize that the baseball gods like grit and fundamentals and heart more than they like big payrolls and gluttonous ownership, smarmy management and smug fans.
I'd forgotten that last part too. In my despair over the Red Sox losing yet again to the hated Damn Yankees, I wrote off baseball as just another sport in which the victories go to the spoiled. I cursed at the Yankee fans around me and growled about Steinbrenner buying another title. I forgot that the Florida Marlins didn't remember that they were supposed to lose. And I forgot that the gods of baseball still love the game enough to give us moments like this.
Thanks for the reminder, guys. I won't forget the next time.
October 23, 2003
Random thoughts for this week:
Random thoughts for this week:
1) Kobe Bryant's lawyers are scum; they're absolute al-Qaida level jackassed buffoons. Let me state one thing for the permanent an unequivocal record: let's pretend for just one pathetic second that your "evidence" is accurate - that the girl in question had sex with three different guys in three days before meeting Kobe. It... doesn't... matter.
No means no. No means no if the girl is a chaste virgin, and no means no if she's the kind of girl you don't take home to mother. No STILL means no if the girl's just finished taking on a football team or filming a porn movie. No means no if it comes from Britney Spears or Britney Skye. No means no.
So to Kobe, you arrogant athlete who thinks he can get away with everything, and ESPECIALLY to your scumbag, filthy, toejam sucking lawyers, all I have to say is that your client is now irrevocably guilty in my eyes, and I hope he spends the next 10 years as the MVP of the Colorado Penal League while dodging rapists of his own in the Eagle County Jail weight room.
2) I spent the last week back in Washington DC for my brother's wedding. It served to remind me how wonderful DC is and how much I *hate* New York. My stomach actually knotted up when I started thinking about having to come back here, and I threw up in the airport bathroom. I guess that's when you know you really hate a place - when even the thought of going there makes you physically ill.
3) Now even Donald Rumsfeld is admitting that Dumbya's "war on terror" strategy is failing. These people have no shame. They lied to get us in there, and they even send fake letters from troops to try and make us think we're doing the right thing. The only time they tell the truth is in private memos inside the Pentagon when they have to admit to the military that they've messed up. Shameful - just shameful.
4) My countrification continues... I bought Mark Wills' greatest hits CD the other day and it's all I am listening to right now. Add that to the Toby Keith CD Sara got me for my birthday, and my two favorite CDs of the year are country. Who'd've thunk it?
5) George Steinhitler is still the most evil human being in American sports, next to Kobe's lawyers. Am hoping Florida manages to pull off a miracle and defeat that SOB.
October 11, 2003
I went to Atlanta this
I went to Atlanta this week for work; my boss was keynoting a conference for women of color in technology. One of the other speakers was a motivational speaker and busines consultant. I don't want to say too much and reveal her identity... but watching her performance left me just wondering about the entire genre of motivational speakers. Why do these people find the need to bury their message - and this woman's message was EMPOWERING and strong and inspirational, by any estimation - beneath silly gimmicks and hype?
This woman's speech and message were dead on - and not just for this audience. What she said made sense, felt empowering... and I was one of the token white males in the room, sitting in the back working the a/v. Even I was nearly inspired by what she had to say. She is a first generation immigrant to the United States from the 3rd world - still has her accent! - and her whole bit is that immigrants remember the things most Americans have forgotten about the American dream - that anyone really can make it here, that there are fewer boundaries in America than anywhere else in the world, that you really can have everything you ever wanted here, that if you get knocked down, you just get up and try again... immigrants come here looking for a better life and thus have already taken a braver step than most of us ever could... so they remember the power of the Dream and have a stronger sense of faith in their own destinies and abilities than perhaps those of us who've been here for a few generations. Her whole thing is about trying to knock her audiences into remembering that in their own lives. It's a fascinating premise that she delivers very well, and she can be mesmerizing.
But she buries that empowering message in a sea of game-show entrance music, contrived "come on everybody, stand up and clap and dance with me" theatrics, and the hackneyed "I can't hear you, you're supposed to be chanting along with me on cue" gimmick. Most unbelievably, in the middle of her presentation, she actually stopped to sing to her audience, rendering five minutes of a more than slightly off key version of some Celine Dion-sounding song about bravery. The theatrics were already distracting me - but when she launched into her concert, that's when she lost me. She had this amazing speaking style and capability, plus a unique message that is virtually guaranteed to inspire... and yet she lost much of her credibility with me because of unnecessary theatrics.
She's not unique in her industry, by any means - it's not my intention to single her out. Like I said, I genuinely thought her message was empowering. But why do motivational speakers believe that standing up in front of people and speaking powerfully about an inspirational message is not enough? Why do they think they need to be over-the-top carnival hucksters in order to be motivational? Why do we as a society - whether in business presentations or political debates or anywhere else - seem to think that without some sort of flash or pretty wrapping or bright and shiny objects attached, we can't get our message across? Why are so many people afraid to rely on the power of words?
Maybe I am just uniquely biased because I am a writer for a living; I am in love with and in awe of the power of words and language. Fine - guilty as charged. But we always hear the complaint that oratory is a lost art, that there are no more great speakers like the giants of the past. I have to believe that if that's so, it's because no one has the courage anymore to allow the power of their words carry their message. And as a result, audiences no longer have the inclination or the attention span to understand or absorb messaging without some sort of flash attached to it. That truly frightens me.
There's a brilliant spoof out there floating around on the Internet about the Gettysburg PowerPoint Presentation. I don't know who created it, but I wish I knew so I could shake his or her hand. Because that parody says everything I want to say about what we've become... *so* overly reliant on gimmicks, screen tricks, and using visual crutches to prop up our words that very few people are even capable of truly good speaking anymore. If Lincoln lived today, would he have been able to write the Gettysburg Address without using some cheesy and unnecessary prop? Would his audience even be able to absorb his message?
The brilliance of the Gettysburg Address was in the power of its ideas, and in the efficient beauty that those thoughts were captured. And I have to say that any truly remarkable thoughts still can be conveyed through words alone - if you need a visual crutch or a flashy attention getter, then it just means that you don't have any real confidence in what you're saying. The great ideas that have held our fascination and remembrance throughout history are remembered not for their visuals but for the power of their words. "We hold these truths to be self-evident..." "Give me liberty or give me death..." "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself..." "Ask not what your country can do for you..." "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Do you have a visual for any of those? How about for "I am the light, the truth and the way," or "Let my people go?" Religion has proven itself to be the most resilient of all human ideas - and yet the foundations of Judeo-Christian traditional are 4000 years old - long before the advent of visual cues.
I just wish we'd all learn to trust words again.
October 09, 2003
So it's Thursday, and the
So it's Thursday, and the great farce that was the California recall has faded into shameful history. The latest in a series of Republican-orchestrated coup d'etats in America has now been effected.
It's a disturbing and frankly disgusting pattern of behavior we've seen over and over again from Republicans over the last ten years. When Republicans can't win elections according to the rules of democracy set forth in the Constitution, they stoop to obscure parliamentary procedures and unorthodox, little-used provisions to overturn elections they wanted to win. Think about it - there had only been one impeachment trial in the 210 years of the Constitution of the United States of America... until, that is, the Republicans lost an election in 1996 that they thought they should have won. Unable to accept that the voters REJECTED their agenda, the GOP then spent $52 million of your money and mine launching investigation after investigation at Bill Clinton, wasting taxpayer money prosecuting the White House Travel Office; whipping up unfounded and meritless innuendo about the death of Vince Foster; trying despite all the evidence to find Clintonian wrongdoing in Whitewater, and finally a lurid exploration of the president's sex life. Of course, Clinton was stupid enough to hand them the sex scandal rope to hang him with - but that doesn't mean the Republicans weren't still looking for a lynching.
In 2000, George W. Bush LOST the election. Pure and simple. The Bush team was so sure they were going to win the popular vote but lose the electoral that they began piping off to the New York Daily News about strategies to overcome the 'subversion of the people's will' - they were going to argue that the popular vote and not the electoral should count. (Check the NY Daily News from 11/1/00 if you don't believe me.) When they lost the popular vote and were losing the electoral as well... they resorted to manipulating the results in a state under Bush family control - using their lapdog secretary of state to refuse to allow some votes to be counted, engaging in abject fraud in some places (Palm Beach County), and demonstrating denial in textbook fashion. Then, when despite all of the Bush machinations, it looked like he was STILL going to lose, the Republicans turned to their hand-installed members of the Supreme Court to make sure that W got what the people didn't want to give him.
In California in 2002, Republican prospects should have been good. An unpopular and incompetent Democratic governor facing a budget shortfall and a utility crisis - he should have been easy picking. But the Republicans rejected a centrist member of their own party in the primary, in favor of someone who more closely toed their broderline religious facism line. Quite properly, the voters of California rejected the extremist Republican agenda and re-elected Gray Davis despite his incompetence. But yet again, as they have time and time again, Republicans refused to accept their lawful defeat. A handful of rich Republicans (there are only two types of Republican: the I-got-mine rich ones, and the Christian Moraliy Police) paid enough people off that they were basically able to say, "Do-over." They undid the democratically expressed wishes of the people of California by buying a recall vote and then propping up an empty headed actor with no specific ideas as their figurehead.
The tragic irony is that impeachment and recall were set up and instituted specifically to protect Americans from extreme abuses of power and criminal misuse of political office - there is a reason there has only been one president impeached and one governor ever recalled. Sadly, today these tools are misused as simple means to the end of usurping power - they are the hammer and scythe of extremists looking to abuse power and criminally misuse political office. The Republican Party has subverted democracy three times now in the last 6 years - and let's not even get into the criminal and unconstitutional redistricting stunts that Tom DeLay is orchestrating in Texas. They are responsible for unconsitutional seizures of power, or attempts at it - all because they cannot and will not accept that the American voter does not want to follow their radically reactionary agenda of social & religious totalitarianism combined with economic oligopoly. This party has strayed from its roots as Lincoln's party of freedom - it is now the party that has done everything but seize power at the barrel of a gun... and I wouldn't put it past them to try. They've already shown utter disdain for democracy and traditions of free choice in America, so why wouldn't they toss the last vestige of democracy away?
The Republican Party of 2003 poses no less a threat to the security and long-term well being of the United States of America than the Communist Party of Stalin posed to Russia in the 1930s, or than the Nazi Party posed to Germany in 1933. They are the moral and ethical equivalents of these totalitarian regimes, and George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and the rest are our very own despots. They ought to be tried for treason, if the spirit of democracy were being upheld. At the very least, they must be stopped, for the good of our country.
