J.R. Smith now 45th in Cavs history in threes attempted: WFNY Stats & Info
February 17, 2015Twitter fights, Cavaliers and Buckeyes basketball – WFNY Podcast – 2015-02-17
February 18, 2015Happy it’s-how-freaking-cold-outside-again-day, Blawg Pound. If you are fortunate enough to have a car, I hope that you are also fortunate enough to have a garage. I wrote a week ago that this winter hadn’t been that bad. I retract that sentiment, and extend a solemn, respectful middle finger to Mother Nature.
I would like to spend this morning celebrating the human side of sports, as sports are played by humans and watched by humans and talked about by humans. Yes, actual nuanced thought about numbers and stuff has yielded all sorts of new, useful information on how to do sports better, but sports are about people. They’ve always been about people. They always will be about people, at least until people stop being a thing that exists.
One of my favorite ways to learn about people in sports is to read profiles and interviews, and I read two yesterday that I quite enjoyed. One is certain to capture much more attention given its author and subject. I think you will be able to tell which is which.
The first is Chuck Klosterman interviewing Kobe Bryant for GQ. Klosterman only occasionally writes about sports, but he always writes with a perspective that is blissfully dissimilar from his contemporaries. He sees the world through a different lens than most; maybe it’s his North Dakota upbringing. He is thoughtful and inquisitive, his every question uncovering five more. He is the sort of writer who you want interviewing an interesting person.
Kobe Bryant is an interesting person. I don’t know if I’d call myself a fan of Bryant’s, but I would certainly say that I respect the man. “He speaks his mind” is often a way of excusing the behavior of an a-hole, and I suppose that’s true in this case. Kobe has—and has earned, by many accounts—a reputation as an a-hole. I’m okay with that. There are going to be a-holes every now and then.
I respect Kobe because there is at least a sense that he is genuine in his prickliness. He’s a bit arrogant and may not be an ideal teammate, but he’s also self-aware. He knows who he is. He seems comfortable with who he is. That’s the goal, isn’t it? People want to be successful and raise a family and whatever else, yes, but they also want to find some understanding in their own existences. It’s the longest running question in the sitcom of human history.
It’s a good read, above all else. Here’s a snippet to whet your whistle:
“I’ve shot too much from the time I was eight years old,” Bryant says. “But ‘too much’ is a matter of perspective. Some people thought Mozart had too many notes in his compositions. Let me put it this way: I entertain people who say I shoot too much. I find it very interesting. Going back to Mozart, he responded to critics by saying there were neither too many notes or too few. There were as many as necessary.”
The next is a profile on Portland’s Wesley Matthews by Sports Illustrated’s Rob Mahoney. Matthews is not a star on Kobe’s level, or in Kobe’s galaxy, but he is an established starting-caliber NBA shooting guard. He came into the league undrafted out of Marquette, winning a spot on the Utah Jazz on the strength of his summer league performance.
He made it into the league because he was a grinder. He stayed there because he worked to be more.
Mahoney tells the tale of Matthews’ ascendance from a training camp invite to a crucial rotation cog on a Western Conference contender. He explains how Matthews improved one part of his game, and then another, and then another. Matthews used his undrafted status as fuel, first to prove his doubters wrong, and then to prove his believers right. He transformed himself into a threatening shooter, a lionhearted defender, a canny passer, and a bully in the post.
Matthews will never be one of the league’s biggest stars, but he is among its most well-rounded players. In a league that cherishes Swiss Army knife players, Matthews has more tools than most. Mahoney does well to explain how he sharpened them.
This is the new Matthews: Ever defiant, though no longer driven so purely by spite. Matthews has reached a point in his career where those memories of public skepticism are but relics. There can be no doubting Matthews’ basketball worth now – not as he hits as many three-pointers as any player in the league, commits fully to even the smallest of defensive tasks and in doing so expands Portland’s range of possibilities. His play makes a world of difference for a legitimate championship contender.
Last, I have been gearing up for the coming baseball season more than I have for any in recent memory. I spent three years teaching English in South Korea, and I didn’t follow the Indians closely during that time. Plenty of grass grew in the cracks between myself and baseball, and I have not actively sought out the game for years. Now that I’m back on American soil, I have resolved to change that. The Tribe has been a good squad the past couple seasons, and they’re shaping up to be good this year: Let’s go.
The thing that really reminded me of the allure of baseball, however, was a commercial for a video game, MLB 15: The Show. I don’t intend to purchase the game, but the ad captured the spirit of the game as well as such a thing can. It looks beautiful, the music is spot-on, and it conveys the very spirit of the game, that feeling of looking up at a perfect sky on a perfect day at the ballpark.
Baseball is about summer, and the boys who forever live in it. It’s about summer as you live it when you’re a schoolboy, when grabbing your mitt and going to the field was the closest thing you had to an obligation. It’s about the idea that if you love the game enough, school never has to come back. It’s about the impossible ideal of spending a lifetime on the diamond, the perfume of fresh cut grass and glove oil permeating your universe.
The evolution of sport seems to favor adult, mature, professional athletes who know how to navigate a press conference and a board room. At its best, baseball is a far cry from that. It isn’t about suits and briefcases, but bubble gum and ballcaps. It’s about grown men living the fantasy, playing a boyhood game for life.
Baseball is about watching the big leaguers you aspired to be when you were little, and the moments that they authored. Jim Thome (or Travis Hafner) pumping a game-winning fist as he rounded first base. Kenny Lofton (or Grady Sizemore) stretching a double into a triple, diving headfirst into the bag. Jose Mesa (or Bob Wickman!) coming in to slam the door. Omar and Robbie turning two, artists of their craft on par with Renoir (or—no, there’s no comparison there).
It’s about magic, and there was magic in the Jacobs Field that introduced me to the game. There wasn’t and isn’t and never will be any way to quantify it, but there was real magic in that yard. Jacobs Field is where dreams became reality. The Jake was an incubator—of hope, of belief, of imagination. You didn’t have to read comic books or watch cartoons because the Indians did things more unbelievable, more spectacular, more breathtaking.1
I have been inclined over the past decade or so to think of baseball as stodgy, but that’s forgetting how beautiful the game can be.
I forgot how much I connected with the game, and more than any part of it, with Kenny Lofton. Man, Kenny was it. There is no player I would rather have been. He is one of two people in the history of mankind to play in both a Final Four and a World Series.2 Seeing Kenny scale the centerfield wall and bring back a homer may as well have been Spider-Man saving a bus full of schoolchildren. It was no less heroic, no less fantastic, no less magical.
All this is to say that I’m excited for the season. I’m excited for pitchers and catchers, and for Opening Day, and for all of the moments that come with 162 games. We’ve been lucky to see quite a few. We’ll be lucky to see quite a few more.
26 Comments
Wow! Loved the Indians video. Brings back great memories. One thing that jumps out at me, is how many stars we had. People love to watch stars. The mediocrity that we continue to trot out now, just doesn’t get me excited. Wake me in September when we are a few games out, and trying to sneak in so we can get eliminated right away.
That Kobe interview.
I’ve only gotten to interview Bryant once, and it was in 2012 right around the time when the Lakers were reeling, lost to the Byron Scott Cavs despite him scoring 42 points. A bit funny because he thought *that* was the low-point of his career.
How many days until pitchers and catchers report?
People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do.
I stare out the window and wait for spring.
Rogers Hornsby
See more at: http://www.springtrainingcountdown.com
Sorry, I’m going to yank the wheel and drive toward the ditch for a moment….
http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2015/02/17/browns-to-unveil-new-logo-next-week/#.VOP3JYC5y8k.twitter
Also, glad you are back to baseball Will. The game is a bit more pitcher friendly now (as you know), but just as beautiful. I always enjoyed the absolute craziness that circled Manny Ramirez on those teams, but you cannot go wrong with Kenny. He was absolutely driven to play baseball (and celebrity MTV basketball games).
If he only knew (he probably would’ve scored 52)
One of the finest Rock n Jockers there ever was
I guess having the reigning Cy Young winner and a guy who finished 3rd in MVP voting, along with one of the best catchers in the game, is mediocre…
The 90’s Tribe were a once in a lifetime thing. Even the big market teams now aren’t putting together lineups like that. Appreciate the talent the Tribe has now.
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs/297238_o.gif
Wait til Scheiner unveils this…
http://i.imgur.com/w1rCbYN.jpg
Well we knew it wouldn’t be long before they were moving to the MAC.
Just stating the facts. Michael Brantley, Yan Gomes, Corey Kluber, are all very nice players. Not putting butts in the seats though. I think that can change with sustained success, which they have not had and I don’t think they will have. In my opinion Brantley and Kluber will fall back to the mean this year. Career years by mediocre players, or even very good players doesn’t give them the draw of star players.
Thing is, once the initial thrill subsides, spring training basically sucks. 95% of it is hoping that nobody hurts themselves.
Fact that people are uncomfortable admitting: baseball was never more fun than it was during the “steroid era”.
Brantley and Kluber may be as good or even better than some of those 90’s Indian stars, but lets be honest: most people, given the choice, will choose a 50 homerun hitting, defense-schmefense Albert Belle over an all-around guy like Michael Brantley. Both are 7 WAR players. One had a much more exciting game though.
Unless you are there.
Meh. I guess. I wouldn’t care. Guess living in the south makes it a little less exciting.
It was the best time of year when I lived in Arizona. Just a constant slew of events and energy throughout the region. But, if you are looking for real baseball knowledge out of it, then it’s less interesting.
Storm the Bastille!
Another thought: how many “stars” are there in baseball today? I can’t think of many. Even the best players in the game today… Who transcends the sport? Can any team compare favorably to the mid 90’s Indians? Most teams are boring and most teams are shooting to be slightly good rather than completely dominant. That’s what expanded playoffs reward.
But I’m glad to see the negativity is still going strong even before there’s been one spring training pitch.
The chicken or the egg? Are people not coming out because Brantley and Kluber aren’t stars, or are they not stars because no one bothers to come out and notice how darn good they’ve been?
I think with sustained star caliber numbers, meaning 2-3 seasons, they would get star recognition. People don’t need to see them to know they have been good. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of an Indian other than Brantley who has had sustained success.
Yan Gomes is at 1.5 seasons
Carlos Santana is at 4+ seasons
Brantley is only at 1 season
I guess I’m not even sure why they need to chase what are likely the ever-moving goalposts that the Indians always face. What about going out and enjoying watching a top three MVP finisher and Cy Young winner in 2014 has anything to do with what they did in 2013 or what you expect them to do in 2015? If Mike Aviles and Ryan Raburn hit 50 homers each this year, I’m not going to go “well, this probably isn’t going to be sustained success” and stay home.
Okay, how about this? When the Indians are on the road, which player on the Indians does the opposing fan come to see? At this point no one. Not sure why everyone is jumping on me. Bottom line is, as good as some players on the tribe have been, they lack the sex appeal of players who have had sustained success for longer.
I don’t disagree with you. I’m just saying, for a casual fan like me, mediocre to good players don’t get me excited. They have been, and will be a quality team. But they lack sex appeal. I’ll watch some games. Maybe even go to a couple. But for anyone who is not a die hard fan, its hard to get excited about them in April. That would be different if they made a splash in free agency or trade, and they got a big name. That would generate excitement, even though the WAR would not necessarily improve with said move. (I have no idea if WAR can be used like that.)
I obviously can’t tell anyone what they enjoy, but I guess I’m just not going to get the need for “names”. I would say though that Kluber pitching at a level that you don’t think is repeatable would be even more a reason to go out and see him. You get a chance to experience that and it may be around to experience later. Of course, the Indians have shown that they have some “sustained success” at developing Cy Young pitchers, so maybe you will get to experience more Kluber 2014 seasons too.