Recapping Big Ten Football Media Day with Urban Meyer
July 31, 2015Gilbert Arenas on LeBron James: “He’s not a No. 1 option”
July 31, 2015No more baseball, coach? A simple, poignant question amid the flurry of medals, adulation, and reflection upon the conclusion of a Teeball Little League season. A four-year-old player on my team had realized that the celebration came at a harrowing cost; no more baseball. His eyes enlarged, reddened, and finally allowed streams of teardrops to traverse his cheeks as his head drooped.
His parents would do their best to philosophically explain the cyclical nature of sporting seasons in that every ending would lead to a new beginning. I would empathatically reminisce with him about how he learned baseball through teaching tools such as water balloons, oranges, and bean bags1 .
Eventually, the tears would subside, a small smile would crack upon his face as he once again took notice of the medal that gleamed around his neck, and the hopeful thoughts of a future baseball season would overtake the dispirited thoughts of the one that had expired. As a coach or as a parent or as a fan, witnessing the love of baseball to the point where it physically and emotionally consumes a player should not be disheartening. Such a love is one of the most encouraging moments one can observe.
The world of professional sports often attempt to draw the curtains over such displays of emotion lest the athletes lose their sense of machismo. Tom Hanks2 famously admonished a player by yelling “Are you crying? There’s no crying! There’s no crying in baseball!”
Such a love is one of the most encouraging moments one can observe.
There are definitive merits to such records and to players being able to mask pain or achieve the highest levels of focus even as the emotional stress heightens around them. Therefore, machismo is not itself evil nor should it be rebuked within the sporting world. It seems, however, the merits of it are utilized as a weapon against the merits of an emotional outpouring. Such outpouring has become commonplace around one of the stranger annual MLB events: The MLB trade deadline, which has differing point of views across the spectrum of those concerned with the sport4 .
You see… While the front offices are flipping retiring assets for ones that might pay future dividends, while general managers of contending teams are attempting to stack their present deck without losing a chance to compete in the future, while the media are focused on the need for immediacy of gleaming information and passing them onwards through social media5, while fans are downtrodden from a white flag being raised on their team or hopeful in that the next big name player is rumored to possibly be potentially be traded to their team, the assets, information, and rumors are all actual real-life people who are having their life’s mission be set out in front of the world and altered usually without their consent6.
On Wednesday, the potential future assets of Wilmer Flores (young middle infielder) and Zach Wheeler (injured starter) were tentatively agreed to be traded to the Milwaukee Brewers from the New York Mets for the immediate return Carlos Gomez (veteran center fielder). The rumor quickly became news on social media and made its way to Citi Field fans. During a late inning at bat, the fans rose to give him a standing ovation to show their appreciation. Flores had signed with the Mets as a 16-year-old and had remained with them for his entire seven year career. He had struggled some this season, but made no complaints about being used wherever he was needed. By all accounts, he loved the Mets.
Therefore, there should be no surprise in that when Flores learnt about the speculative trade7, he wept openly on the field. And, the trade not being completed, Terry Collins, the Mets manager, did not remove him from the game8. Social media was abuzz about how the Mets organization was classless, how Collins should be ashamed, and how horrible the situation was as the e-pitchforks were raised and the e-torches were lit.
Everyone decrying the situation missed the point entirely. It was beautiful. It was a man who had spent nearly a third of his life with the Mets organization genuinely saddened upon the realization that such times might come to a close. Being inconsolable on the field, while refusing to bench himself, was one of the more endearing acts that a player has achieved this year. If Wilmer Flores wanted to be on that field in the Mets uniform one last time, then who are any of us to deny him that opportunity?
You know, Tom Hanks had another line as Jimmy Dugan that got it right. “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard… is what makes it great.”
Cleveland Indian fans likely remember another player whose teary departure at the trade deadline was well-documented. In 2009, Victor Martinez was traded away from a disappointing Indians team to a contending team in the Boston Red Sox9. Vik-the-Stik did not cry openly on the field as Flores had. However, he was distraught in the locker room as reporters questioned him about the trade. He pledged that he had wanted to be an Indian for the entirety of his career. In an era that Indians fans had already seen Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome and other high-profile players leave the team for more money elsewhere, it was especially heart-breaking.
However, the most simple, poignant question amid the flurry of reporters and teammates rushing hurriedly around Victor Martinez came from his youthful son who was just coming to the realization that all of the attention came at a harrowing cost: “Are we still an Indian?”
- Pixar nailed the concept of joyful memories becoming sad reflections of the past in this summer’s Inside Out. [↩]
- as Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own [↩]
- And, for all of the jokes he has taken about his weight, the only ballplayer this decade to hit 500 consecutive games is Prince Fielder. [↩]
- I apologize for the mass grouping here as I do know there are many different layers like a parfait to each, but I doubt one wants to read a 5000 word dissertation on just this section either. [↩]
- They call it a “Hug Watch” during games where if a player is removed and hugged by teammates before leaving, they will report on it as a possible trade that just happened. [↩]
- Some players do have limited or full no-trade clauses. [↩]
- Flores questioned why he would receive a random standing ovation and was told of the trade news. [↩]
- Nor did he even know about the potential trade that was eventually scuttled. [↩]
- Bryan Price, Nick Hagadone, and Justin Masterson who was later traded for James Ramsey were acquired. [↩]
3 Comments
Sorry Wilmer. Crying in professional sports because of a TRADE has only ever been acceptable once. ONCE…
http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2011/0122/nhl_gretzky05_800.jpg
The Mets are the real “American Horror Story” what a debacle but I enjoyed watching the wreck on MLB Network. That being said the need for people to break stories and be first “reporting” on social media has gotten completely out of hand. It was those people who poured gasoline on the already smoldering Mets that night.
Whoa, Bode en fuego – fine story idea, fine execution.
Fans do and should expect their players to play like they care about them and their FOs to make decisions like they care about them, and when these two things collide things can go sideways in public. Belichik’s mid-season firing of Bernie is the paradigm of the FO guy who never played and was so personally undeveloped that he couldn’t even see another perspective, tone deaf to such a degree that he temporarily stalled his own genius and career. And for all the justifiable criticism of their performance, the Tribe’s FO under Shapiro/Antonetti has been unfailingly good at its relationship with players, current, former and prospective. They seem decent enough to talk to their players, and I wonder whether some of their good trades are a result of being decent people to execs on other teams. [yeah, sliding off topic but whatevs, it’s Friday].