Christian Science Monitor Blog | We're Just Fans Archive July, 2004

Curse, shmurse

The Major League Baseball's trading deadline is quickly approaching, which means it is rumor time. There was one rumor that our own NOMAH — that's Boston Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra for all you non-Sox fans — was possibly going to the Chicago Cubs (and veteran pitcher Randy Johnson coming to the Sox... which will not happen). My friend says "Nomar will love it there. Just look at Steve Bartman! Cubs fans already have forgiven him!" I disagree. There is no way Cubs fans will forget or forgive Steve Bartman. The Cubs missed the World Series by just one game last year, some say because of Bartman's dropped foul ball. The team holds the longest World Series appearance (1945) AND crown (1908) drought in all the Major League Baseball. How can you forget that?

But I had a chance to catch up with a born-and-bred Cubs fan, — and former resident of the North side of Chicago — my friend Ed. So I asked him if he has forgiven Bartman.

To my surprise, his reply was: "I think some people have. I know I have."

"I blame the Cubs players for falling apart after that. It was just a foul ball, and anybody would have tried to catch it. After that happened, there were still two strikes on the batter, and the Cubs were still winning 3-0. [Manager] Dusty Baker should have gone out to talk to [pitcher Mark] Prior and settle him down."

I know people in Boston have definitely not forgiven former manager Grady Little for leaving star pitcher Pedro Martinez in Game 7 of last season's ALCS after his arm was obviously getting tired. To this day, some can not stand the mention of the name "Grady Little," which is really too bad. I liked the guy, he led us in two very good seasons - that was just one game. It's not just Little, Red Sox fans still have a grudge with Bill Buckner for his costly error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series with the Mets, and that was 18 years ago(!). What's more, "Red Sox Nation" still hasn't forgotten Darrell Johnson for taking out Jim Willoughby in 1975 Series against the Reds, Joe McCarthy for starting Denny Galehouse in the one-game 1948 pennant playoff against the Indians, or Johnny Pesky for holding the ball in 1946 Series. The list goes on...

"You don't believe in that 'Goat Curse' nonsense, do you?" I asked. Ed knows that I am not a "Curse" believer. "Not really," he replied. "But I believe that there is something going on... Only the Cubs (or Red Sox) would have crumbled after that Bartman play." He talked about there being "bad mojo". When the foul ball dropped near Steve Bartman, some people started thinking "Oh-uh, here's where the curse comes in." The players could perhaps sense that. The downward spiral began. And before you knew it, they gave up 8 runs...

So, after watching both of our home teams not scoring runs (tonight, my Sox lost to Baltimore 4-1 with Curt Schilling on the mound, and his Cubbies lost to the Brewers 6-3 with Kerry Wood on the mound), we concluded that there is no "magic spell" from a baseball player named George Herman Ruth Jr. or from the goat that couldn't get into Wrigley Field (even though it had a ticket). Rather, it is a negative focus on this championship drought and some of its fans' bad attitude. That has become "The Curse."

To which I say, curse, shmurse. This IS the year. I don't care that the Sox are 8 games behind the Yankees in the standings. I don't care if "the Big Unit" [Randy Johnson] changes his uniform to pin stripes. Go Red Sox! (and Cubbies, too)

Posted July 26, 2004

Carlos Delgado and 'God Bless America'

Argue with his stand all you want, but at least give credit to Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Carlos Delgado for having a political point of view and expressing it, however discretely. During the seventh-inning stretch, when many teams play "God Bless America," Delgado stays in the Blue Jays’ dugout in silent protest until the song ends. Why? Because he doesn’t feel good about the US war in Iraq or the Navy’s presence on Vieques, an island of his native Puerto Rico.

For many years, the Navy used Vieques as a weapons testing ground but finally stopped when a group Delgado has supported exerted pressure. Now, he’s displeased that the Navy hasn’t done more to clean up the area and deal with impacts in the aftermath of the bombing. Hardly anybody has noticed his absence during “America the Beautiful,” except now that the media has now drawn attention to it.

You’ve got to hand it to those NASCAR drivers. They’re a gritty lot, evident most recently in Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s decision to race only a week after being practically char-broiled in the cockpit of his car. Fortunately, much improved fire safety in auto racing, including flameproof suits and helmets, allowed Earnhardt to escape with minimal damage after his car went up in flames during a practice run for a non-Nextel series event in Sonoma, Calif.

Not wanting to lose out in the Nextel points race and a possible season championship, Earnhardt, whose famous father was killed in a crash, headed to New Hampshire this past weekend for the next stop on the NASCAR circuit, even while recovering from burns over 6 percent of his body. Although he didn't win in New Hampshire, and didn't even finish driving his car the whole race (team driver Martin Truex took over after 60 laps) he still earned enough points to remain near the top in the NASCAR standings.

If these race car drivers are so sedentary, why do so many of them look in better shape than athletes who walk or run? Certain golfers and baseball players, for example.

The organizers of the Olympic tennis competition must be gnashing their teeth. Newly crowned Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova will be a no-show, although not exactly by choice. She simply wasn’t good enough, at least not when it counted. The cut-off date to qualify for the Russian team was June 14, a week before Wimbledon began. At the time, Sharapova, who has trained in the US since age 7, was just the sixth-ranked Russian, and that didn’t make the grade.

Give ex-LA Laker and new Miami Heat star Shaquille O’Neal credit for knowing how to have fun mixing with his fans. At a recent public rally held to welcome him to his new team, the Miami Heat, Shaq, who is sometimes called “The Diesel” arrived in a tractor-trailer truck last week. Upon stepping out of the cab, he began spraying the many fans who had gathered with one of those giant toy water cannons as he made his way through the crowd.

I don’t know why, but some American cities overdo it when given the opportunity to host a big event. Take Jacksonville, Fla., which is so excited to have landed next January's NFL Super Bowl (a first for the city), that it is practically repaving all its road.

How long will it be before somebody figures out how do a group ballpark cheer using cellphones? Hopefully, a long time.

Sammy Sosa may be a bit of a showboat, but you gotta love the way he sprints to his position in right field. Enthusiasm sells.

One of the funniest sights of the current baseball season occurred recently during this season’s All-Star Game in Houston. Tom Gray, an Astros season-ticket holder randomly selected from the crowd, was given the opportunity to win $1 million in a pre-game promotion sponsored by Taco Bell. Standing on the pitcher’s mound, he had 30 seconds to place as many tosses as possible through a 25-inch circular target at home plate. One good pitch and he’d win a year’s supply of Taco Bell menu items; three and he’d receive $10,000; and five and he’d pocket $1 million. The surprise came when Gray started to throw and was almost laughably wild and inept. Miraculously, though, he managed to beat the clock and get a fifth ball through the target with one second left to win the grand prize. It was the most exciting moment of the night.

July 26, 2004 in Ross's Ramblings | By Ross Atkin | Permalink

Posted July 21, 2004

Cardinals quietly become baseball's best team

By Tom Regan

While those of us in Boston weep, wail and gnash our teeth daily over the travails of the Red Sox, and while George Steinbrenner's Yankees try and figure out a way they can buy Randy Johnson, another franchise, with a much smaller payroll than these first two giants, has quietly become the best team in baseball.

The St. Louis Cardinals.

It couldn't happen to a nicer baseball town. Aside from ribs, good music and the Mississippi, St. Louis LOVES baseball. Over the years, stars like Dizzy Dean, Bob Gibson, Stan Musial, and Mark MacGwire have helped create a special kind of baseball magic.

Now these great names have been joined by another name to remember – even if you don't know it yet – Albert Pujols. Tuesday night, the young superstar hit three home runs in an 11-8 victory over the Chicago Cubs. At one point, the Cubs had taken an 8-1 lead.

Another player who deserves attention is the Cardinals' Scott Rolen. Rolen, who plays the field almost better than he hits, and he hits pretty well, gained the ultimate compliment recently from baseball guru Peter Gammons. Gammons said that Rolen, along with the Yankee's Derek Jeter, are the two most respected players in baseball because of the way they play the game very day: with "respect, intensity, precision and fierce competitiveness."

I want the Red Sox to win the World Series, of course. But that's like waiting for Wile E. Coyote to catch the Road Runner. You just sense it may never happen. That's why I like the Cardinals to take it all come October.

Which is fine by me. Just as long as it's not the Yankees.

July 21, 2004 in Baseball | By Tom Regan | Permalink

Posted July 15, 2004

The best All-Star game and more

By Ross Atkin

From the bat rack of collected sports impressions, a sampler of thoughts, observations, and insights:

Of the various All-Star games, baseball’s is still best. How could it not be given that the essence of baseball is batter vs. pitcher, and the All-Star format does nothing to alter that game within a game.

Still, there was nothing better than the National vs. American league rivalry in the pre-free-agency and pre–interleague-play days when players basically remained in separate universes. Back then, fans longed for their favorite league to prevail, since it meant so much more. Now, one cheers for individual players, or the players of a particular team, but not so much for the league as a whole.

Pardon my ignorance, but I didn’t realize until recently that Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park, the home of baseball’s Reds, was named for an insurance company. It would be a perfect name without the corporate sponsorship, but given how things work these days, I suspect the park’s identity will be changed all too soon to something like Proctor & Gamble Park, even though the naming rights contract runs through 2033.

Already, San Francisco’s five-year-old waterfront jewel, Pac Bell Park, has been rechristened SBC Park. Oh, for the days when ballparks didn't suffer identity crises.

College football magazines are sprouting once again on newsstands. Kansas State is a Top 20 preseason pick, ahead of Nebraska, and Oregon and Oregon State are ranked above UCLA in the Pacific 10. Can this really be happening to former also-rans in my lifetime? Surely, I must have entered Rod Serling's "Twilight Zone."

The best national sports show on the airwaves quite possibly is “Only a Game,” produced by WBUR in Boston and broadcast Saturdays on NPR stations (check your local listings). Besides the variety of topics and fresh approaches, the musical segues are some of the best around and host Bill Littlefield, a superb writer, is the ultimate setup man for colorful commentator Charlie Pierce.

ESPN’s innovative “Pardon the Interruption” (or “PTI” for short), which pits Washington Post sportswriters Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon in lively verbal duels, is clever in its own right. The show has its moments, but the point-counterpoint seems too forced and shrill at times and would benefit from a little toning-down.

In boning up on the Olympics, I checked a list of medal winners from the 2000 Sydney Games and was amused to find these names: Custom Made, Swizzle In, and Eyespy II. Are these athletes? Well sort of, they are the names of the top-finishing horses in the 3-day equestrian event.

Despite the many reservations people have about the Athens Olympics, I wouldn’t be too quick to write these Games off, despite the myriad problems they face. I distinctly remember how observers doubted if Los Angeles, with all its far-flung venues and potentially horrendous traffic congestion, could put on a successful Olympics in 1984, back when the Games generally were perceived as a financial liability.

So what happened? LA organized such a spectacularly successful Olympic fortnight that cities have been eager to host the Games ever since. Peter Ueberroth, the chairman of LA's host committee and Major League Baseball's former commissioner, recently was named to head up the beleaguered US Olympic Committee. Anybody who was in Los Angeles in 1984 has to view this selection as a very good move.

Whichever country hosts the Olympics usually sees its athletic fortunes rise. That’s because there’s greater motivation and support in performing before the home crowds, and sometimes some pretty nice financial incentives too. So don’t be surprised to find Greek athletes improving on the 13 medals they won in 2000, including four golds (two in weightlifting, one in taekwondo, and the other in track and field, for the men’s 200-meters). Already, the Greeks have shown emphatically that it's "their time" by winning the European soccer championship in a stunning run that shocked the sport's cognoscenti.

Who ever heard of a batter receiving a standing ovation for drawing a walk – with nobody on base? Barry Bonds did earlier this month (July) when he surpassed Rickey Henderson as baseball’s all-time career walks leader with 2,191.

The difference is that the 5 ft. 10 in. Henderson was a leadoff hitter with very crouched batting stance who was looking to get on base. Bonds, on the other hand, is a 6 ft. 2 in cleanup hitter who crowds the plate in hopes of getting anything decent to hit. Of course, Bonds has probably been walked intentionally or nearly intentionally more than any hitter in history, including fellow slugger Babe Ruth, who’s #3 on the all-time list. By midseason, about half of Bonds’s 121 walks were intentional.

The metamorphosis of ex-Celtics great Bill Russell has been interesting to watch. There was a time, after he retired, when he kept fans and the city of Boston at arm’s length – an extra-long arm’s length in his case. When his number was raised to the rafters of the old Boston Garden in 1972 he was a no-show and for many years he refused, on principle, to give autographs.

Today, however, there’s a whole-new Russell, far more outgoing and relaxed with the general public and more comfortable as a Boston celebrity. Besides serving as a consultant to the team, assisting with basketball operations, marketing, and community relations, he’s a member of a star-studded city image-polishing team for the Democratic National Convention. Recently he co-authored an opinion-page piece for The Boston Globe with businessman Bill Swanson about building a vibrant, diverse city. As for autographs, well, you can buy Russell-autographed basketballs and golf caps online for $350 and $100 apiece.

Should Cuban baseball players risk it all to suit up in the American major leagues? US Rep. Jose Serrano (D) of the Bronx doesn’t think so and has introduced legislation to change the situation.

In arguing for passage of his Baseball Diplomacy Act on the New York Daily News Website, Serrano makes some compelling points. For example, he points out that Cuban players like Yankee pitcher Jose Contreras don’t bolt their homeland to spout political propaganda, but simply to join the planet’s best baseball league. And they are forced to leave families behind, a hardship that players from no other country are forced to accept. (Contreras’s wife and daughters only recently rejoined him after risking this lives to do so).

Given that basketball’s Yao Ming of Communist China, a star of the NBA’s Houston Rockets, can come and go as he pleases, it really does seem the US exercises a double standard for Cuban baseball players. Serrano says a more sensible policy is possible without ending the US embargo of Cuba, but if anything, the White House seems more inclined than everto get tough dealing with the Castro-led island.

Word has it that 14-year-old golfer Michelle Wie may be positioning herself to play in more men’s tournaments, perhaps next summer. There’s no doubt she would be an incredible draw, and might hold her own, but I can’t imagine it sitting too well with the women of the LPGA if she bypasses their tour (which could use her drawing power) to play men’s events. Maybe it would be better to establish herself as an LPGA winner first.

Red Sox outfielder Johnny Damon has taken long hair to new lengths with the hairiest head in the majors - mustache, beard, and locks to his shoulders. Fans seem to love what's been called the Twelve Apostles look, which is sort of a cross between Woodstock-era hippie and werewolf wannabe.

It's too bad that track and field star Marion Jones is under such a cloud of suspicion regarding drugs. because she is one of sports' most striking stars since Wilma Rudolph, the graceful and heroic gazelle of the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Every time I see "Superbowl" misspelled that way, I tend to blame it on AstroTurf, which, in my mind, started the trend, in sports at least, of fusing words and inserting caps in mid word.

When the Democratic National Convention is held in Boston, beginning July 26, conventioneers and millions of TV viewers will get a closer look at the Fleet Center, home of the Celtics, Bruins, and the DNC. They'll discover there’s nothing special about the place. Perhaps to give it some character, the parquet floor from the old Boston Garden could be installed on the main stage

Have you noticed how often presidential candidate John Kerry has been shown playing sports and recreating? He's been photographed cycling, skiing, playing ice hockey, and tossing a football with running mate John Edwards, among other pursuits. Some of these shots are vaguely reminiscent of JFK and the Kennedy clan playing tag football long ago.

July 15, 2004 in Ross's Ramblings | By Ross Atkin | Permalink

Curse, shmurse

By Daigo Fujiwara

Carlos Delgado and 'God Bless America'

By Ross Atkin

Cardinals quietly become baseball's best team

By Tom Regan

The best All-Star game and more

By Ross Atkin

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