The Wondrous World of Sports

Miracles, Magic and Sports

As a sports fan growing up in Boston I have been blessed to witness so many championship teams in every professional sport there is.

I watched the Boston Celtics win 11 championships in 13 years and 17 titles overall. I got to witness the New England Patriots establish what will undoubtedly be the greatest sports dynasty ever. They won 6 Superbowls in 9 tries. They won too many AFC Division and conference championships to list.

The Bruins, always contenders, won a few titles over the years. Even the perennial losers, the Red Sux, managed to win a couple of World Series. Even if, in my opinion, it was because their opponents just sort of withered away.

I've been lucky enough to witness sports and the magic it can create to know that sports is the only place where miracles happen. The arenas are the stages that summon the mystical powers that can bring together the elements that help human efforts and endeavors overcome insurmountable odds and somehow rise above the obstacles that confront them and wrench victory from the jaws of defeat.

In every season, in every sport there is a game that appears lost. A time when every spectator, every strategist, every fan knows that the game is lost. And then, while the fans are leaving early, when the stadium is emptying, those fans who refuse, like the team they love, to give up, they get to witness a comeback that defies possibility.

Like the Patriots being down 23 - 3 in the fourth quarter of a Superbowl. Like the Red Sux being down 0 - 3 to the Yankees. When the Celtics finished in 4th place and somehow managed to force a game 7 against the superior LA Lakers team.

Situations where every measure of fortune suggested that the situation was hopeless.. Somehow, due to the magic of sports competition, due to the fact that a group of teammates that refuse to recognize the desperate nature of their predicament, where they insist on fighting to the end... teams somehow seem to battle to a victory that was impossible.

When someone like Larry Bird, who loses the ball out of bounds to the Detroit Pistons with less than 2 seconds on the clock, refuses to hangs his head. That's when a professional player makes a mistake that a 12 year old wouldn't make. Instead of calling the timeout that everyone expected he rushes a pass that allows Bird to steal the ball, the victory and the series. 

It's impossible, it's unbelievable and in every way, it's magic. It what makes sports so special/

Getting Some Good Out of the Outfield.

After watching baseball players stand around in the outfield scratching their ass and doing nothing I had great idea. Seeing as how there is all that open space in the outfield going to waste and everyone was just standing around watching the grass grow waiting for something to happen, I got to thinking.

Baseball players in the outfield should really have something productive to do to earn their money harder than pretending to be lawn statues. They should be required to give something back to the fans for taking their money and not even running around. Since they do next to nothing most of the time and the world is full of hungry people who can't afford to pay for $10 beers and $15 hot dogs... I thought of a way those guys can both play (a serious misnomer for what they do in a baseball game) and be productive at the same time.

So I said to myself... what they need is to plant some gardens in the Outfield!

I mean... since they can't provide anything in the way of action or scoring, you know... those things that make a sport fun, maybe they could produce... produce.

That way, while waiting around for their chance to miss the ball 8 out of 10 times at bat and then sit down, they could put some garden gear. When it was time to run out on the field, instead of just standing around waiting to get back to their seats, they could tend the land and let the crowd watch the garden grow instead of the grass around their feet. They could maybe plant some veggies or wheat and at the end of the season reap a giant bounty of food to feed the hungry!

Maybe they could grow some corn and then there would be the chance that some genuine players from the pre-steroid years could walk out and magically entertain the crowd for awhile and take their minds off the fact that nothing is really happening in the stadium. Unless you consider the fleecing of the fans fun.

I mean there is plenty of time to drop the rake and put on the glove if they actually get a chance to run and catch a ball once in awhile... but in the meantime they could be doing something worthwhile... even if it isn't worth what these dawdlers are getting paid for standing around anyway.

Using this method we could stand a chance of getting something good out of the outfield.

When Two Heads Are Better Than One

I wrote this story many years ago on a different sports blog.  With the injury to Tom Brady, I have reason to revisit the topic I raised back then. I had a serious football epiphany and saw the future of football way before any mortal should have. Tom Brady’s leg injury has given new strength to a concept I proposed long ago. It is confirmation of its truth and brilliance. It proves I'm a football genius. Ok… I know that a sound a little over the top but it’s true.

I invented the No Huddle offense when I was 10. It was a natural evolution that football was headed for back when crawling up the field and talking about it all the way was normal. And I foresaw it all.  I invented some terrific trick plays way ahead of their time. I was calling for multiple running backs years ago. And when my next idea finally starts showing up in the playbooks people will finally start to believe.

That idea ----The Use of Multiple or Situational quarterbacks--- on a regular basis.

The idea of having one quarterback who runs the team from start to finish in a pro game is so stupid it's scary. The Brady injury is the perfect example of why in this day and age teams that are still holding on to that aspect of football risk everything or nothing on a serious and increasingly common danger; The loss of your “Star” (read only) QB.

There are options galore on both defense and offense. Guys are coming in and out all the time. But the QB remains the same. There are QB's who can scramble and hit the quick drop. There are ones who can throw for miles but take a while in the pocket. Getting the best production from you entire team almost demands a move like this today.

For me the smart thing to do seems to devise some schemes that make use of a QB's strengths when the situation demands it. Not to mention the extra pressure it would put on the opponent when it came to game preparations. Give the second QB a special package of plays and players to run them. Like special teams they would be used for specific situations or purposes. It would give needed rest to your starter and needed experience to your backup.

It's done all the time during games. Third down specialists, short yardage players, 4 or 5 wide-outs... special plays or players for specific reasons... coaches use them all the time. Some guys play both sides of the ball and do it well. Troy Brown, wide receiver on the Patriots has been used on defense and very effectively.

There are a lot of good quality quarterbacks standing around as backups, burning up time holding clipboards while the star takes all the snaps. Tony Romo comes to mind. Rather than replacing Bledsoe why wasn't he sharing time, learning the game and spelling an aging but effective QB? The proof of the sense the system makes is more obvious when thinking about how much Cassel would have benefitted from such a system. The Patriots wouldn’t seem to be in such dire straits; He could have been picking up valuable playing time and game experience while reducing the number of hits the Brady had to endure.

Even more foolish is the tendency for head coaches to leave the starter in even when the game is won or out of reach and a comeback is unlikely. Even with the game in hand it’s still rare to see the backup come in and get some time. I don't understand the reasoning; probably because I’m a rational person and it's an irrational approach to a team system.

Why does the QB always have to be the same? The answer: he doesn't. It’s just no one seems to realize it or has the foresight or imagination to give it a try. But it will happen. And you can say that you know the guy who invented. If somebody else invented this system before I did I swear I never heard of him… and I’ve never seen it used anywhere.

The impact to today’s football teams when a starter goes down is too great. More often than not it signals the end to the team’s season. Lose the one QB the team counts on and you lose the whole package. Having two working and talented QB's you cut the damage in half when one goes down.

Ok...now start with the “are you nuts?” comments… I can take it.

Field of Dreaming.

I am not a baseball fan. Mostly because, I can think faster than mold grows. I was  an avid sports fan who always felt that baseball didn’t qualify as an actual “sport.” Growing up in Boston where the Red Sox are worshiped made life here pretty tough The fact is that, I think playing baseball is something you do while you wait for something to do. So, while standing around during a baseball game and not having to use my brain much during the game, I always tried to think of ways to improve the game.

During one of those impossibly tedious afternoons I spent standing around with a baseball glove pretending I was actually playing a game where I might get to use it once or twice, I pictured an outfield that more resembled the outfields in the parks we played in growing up as kids. I decided that these changes would bring a lot of fun to the game.

Professional baseball players spend their entire career standing on a huge lawn with no obstacles to navigate as they run and catch a ball. But any kid knows that REAL outfields aren’t anything like that. The outfields that city kids know are littered with all sorts of imperfections that can be seriously dangerous. What the MLB needed to do was come up with a model of an outfiels reflect  what an outfield for urban kids looks like.

Remodeling outfields so that they resembled actual public parks would be a way to give the pro game a little more feel of real life and bring a local park feel. Planting some shrubbery along the foul lines or the walls and make it a lot more like the fields and parks city kids play on. There's nothing like a hedge or small swampy area to give the ball a place to hide when it lands.

When I was a kid, it depended on the field we were playing in as to what a home run was. If you had to run into the tall rough surrounding the field and find the ball quickly it wasn't an automatic home run. In some parts of town it was only a double.

In some fields, trees and bushes were pretty close. Without some qualifying rule, guys would be hitting home runs all day. Scores of 76 - 54 were exciting but falsely inflated by Mother Nature. It let a lot of kids feel like power hitters when actually the ball only went about 100 feet.

Having some natural obstacles sprinkled around the field, a few large rocks, a huge patch of dry dirt or some sunken spots would lend a lot more challenge to making a simple catch of a routine popup. We could put some thorny bushes in spots and add the sense of daring and danger into the game. Or maybe mow paths throughout the outfield and require players to stay on them when they chased fly balls.

Depending on the location we could sprinkle some cow pies or dog droppings and disqualify players that step in them some points… somehow. All I know is, we need something to distract us from all the time wasted watching a guy missing hitting the ball 7 out of 10 times at bat.

In my opinion watching guys stand around out on a big wide open lawn for half an inning and then sit down to wait his turn to stand around on a big lawn for the other half… is a big yawn.

When Good Sports Aren't

I wrote this article back in 2007 when the news about Andy Reid's sons being arrested on drug charges made headlines. It was a tragic time for his family. A few years later his son died from an overdose. For me, the most tragic thing about his family's troubles was the way "Sports Fans" reacted to the problems he faced as a human being. It was as though it was fodder for the sports pages.

Even though it happened a long time ago, the issues it raised are still relevant so I am reintroducing the article now as a reminder that, even though times change, people don't

          When Good Sports Aren't

Like all the folks on FanNation I'm a big fan of sports. I also consider myself a good sport.  I enjoy the give and take between fans of different teams. I can dish it out when my team is winning and have wounded many a rival with my quick wit and sharp tongue. In turn, I can take the licks that come my way when they don't. As a diehard Celtics fan I have suffered the slings and arrows fired by others who have enjoyed watching the once proud and mighty franchise wallow in mediocrity for past 20 years.

But that's what sports fans do. They beat their chests in support of their team in victory and defend them against charges of incompetence and ineptitude when they are stinking up the joint. It's the price paid for the love of the game. It's supposed to be, and for the most part is good natured ribbing. It is the heart of a good rivalry. I take it as such most of the time. It's the nature of the banter that flows back and forth between fans who support the teams they love and defend their honor when it's challenged.

I have no problem when the fans express their displeasure at a home team player when it relates to his performance on the field or on the court. It's our right to vent, taunt, boo and hiss when a player doesn't live up to our expectations. We all like to play Monday-morning QB when it comes to praising or condemning a coach's decisions or strategy. It's our right as fans and supporters to take them to task when we aren't happy with their performance. After all, we who are the ones that ultimately pay their salaries.

Sadly, there are times when we cross the line and the talk turns ugly. Instead of criticizing the player on the professional level, we start to attack the individual on a personal one. And any fan that comes to that person’s defense becomes a target as well.

A recent T&R (Truth & Rumors)  post concerning Coach Andy Reid hit home for me and made me realize how easy we can go from being critical and insightful as fans to cruel and hurtful as people. The post encouraged us to publicly voice our opinion on a matter that, by all measures, is one that is very personal. Indeed, if it was our problem, we wouldn't want the public to even know at all, let alone be discussing it.

It dealt with the problems of Coach Reids sons and their recent drug arrests. The story has appeared in the media before and some have expressed the opinion that, because of the problems he is experiencing in his personal life, a serious, painful and private family matter, he should, for reasons I still can't connect, quit his job as head coach.

The first comment posted by a user in response, while not necessarily derogatory, basically called Reid to task for being at least in the users eyes, a lousy parent. The implication was that perhaps Reid wasn't doing all he could for his son and that he should do more than he has already. Despite the fact that Reid has been working to get help and has seen his sons go in and out of rehab programs with little success over a period of four years.

The user felt Reid owed his sons more than he has already given. He should quit his job. The user accused Reid of caring more for his "children on the field" than for his own kids; kids that, at age twenty four, are actually men. He should stop putting his team ahead of his family.

It was as though the user felt that he knew enough about Coach Reid from seeing him coach and reading the sports pages that he was qualified to pass judgment on Reid as a father as well as a coach; He never stopped to consider how painful and thoughtless his remarks may be to Reid as a man... as a father.

I was pained by the comments on a personal level because the user could have been talking about me.

I've been watching my own son battle the same problems for 10 years. I like to think I have parented him to the best of my ability. He has fought every attempt to help get him straightened out. He has fought every attempt and goes right back to his habits at the first possible chance.

I have lost jobs, my home and suffered years of pain and sorrow watching him destroy his self and blame the world. He has threatened my life and that of his sister and mother when we tried to intervene.

I would give everything I have if I could help my son get his life straight. But I can't give my life, I have a daughter who needs me too. At this point it has become more important for me to protect our lives more than his. Sadly,for Coach Reid, the situation is the same

Sacrificing his life and livelihood would be the worst thing that Reid could do for himself and the rest of his family. At twenty four his sons aren't children, they are men who must take responsibility for their own lives.

To suggest that his sons problems are Reid’s fault for not parenting to the best of his ability is a cruel and thoughtless accusation. Particularly when it's directed at a guy you don't even know. To attack him in the middle of the crises, at a time when his own sense of self-esteem and worth are the most vulnerable, is in no way helpful and certainly hurtful.

While the most recent example, it isn't the first time I've seen the line crossed by fans who feel compelled to condemn a player as a person based on what they read in the media. Heaping insult on invective and vilifying the very moral fiber of the mans soul based on a story in the paper or a piece on the local sports news.

The truth is virtually none of those posting their opinions know anything about them as people. They've never met them, but that doesn't stop them from feeling slighted on some personal level by a guy they only know from watching TV.

The shooting death of Sean Taylor revealed the depths that some "fans" will go to deride a guy who they know nothing about. Some exhibited a malicious, almost vengeful glee at the news of his death. Equating the act of spitting at another individual during a game as a reason to justify his death and make his murder seem like his just desserts.

Never thinking about the family and friends who have to endure the cruel ranting while being unable to defend the person they loved from the hate, they speculated on every possible negative aspect of his life style. They berated his character as though he had done something to them on a deeply personal level. Forgetting how much their insults added to the injury suffered by those who loved him, not to mention his new daughter; a daughter who will only learn about her father through the legacy of these comments.

There comes a time when a player opens up his personal life to public scrutiny and that is when the public can rightfully voice their opinion of them as a person.

Michael Vick had a sorry and twisted definition of entertainment. He engaged in illegal activities and lied to everybody. All these acts are good evidence on which to form an opinion of him as a person on a lot of levels. But he doesn't sink to the level of a Ted Bundy or your average serial rapist. The calls for his execution were out of line with his crimes... for some.

Tom Brady fathered a child out of wedlock; a serious moral breach for a lot of people. It's fair game for someone to see him as less than a moral person. But to call his child a bastard or the "spawn of Satan" is taking things too far.

A guy has a bad day on the field, makes a play that costs his team the victory, yeah, he's going to hear about it. But how does that equate to vilifying a person on a personal level? The Dolphins are a team that is losing... but that doesn't make the players and the staff "losers.” Every time I hear people declare that a player is somehow not playing as well as he should or trying as hard as he can I have to shake my head in amusement.

Every player on every team is a guy who has committed his life to playing and exceeding at the sport he plays. We don't like it when they lose. Believe me... they like it even less. It is his pride, passion and profession. We invest the price of a ticket to watch them play. Players invest their entire lives to get the chance to play for us at the professional level. They may not always win, but none of them are losers. It bothers a player when he reads about his lousy performance on the field. But he expects that... it comes with the job.

Regardless of his performance, when he goes home to his family, he has the right to expect the privacy of his personal and family life to be respected. How he plays football or baseball is a matter for public discourse. How he raises his children, who his friends are, who he dates or what his religion is is none of our business. When you start thinking it is, you cross the line between fan and fanatic. You are not a watcher... you are an intruder.

When we seize on the superficial "facts" written in a story by some sports reporter, when we take them to be gospel, that’s when we start losing the perspective of observer and take on the role of accuser. When, based on a headline, we feel it's OK to label a guy a thug or insult a man’s role as a parent or a friend… that is when we start to confuse knowledge with knowing.

Andy Reid's kids do drugs and get in trouble? Well it's because Reid doesn't care or is a lousy father. Sean Taylor had friends from the "hood?" He deserves what he got. We think we know them as people and we have a right to express our opinion about them, good or bad, right or wrong.

We might believe the things we say are true but really, the truth is; we don't know them at all.

It's OK to take your sports seriously, but I think it's wrong to take sports personally. It's a game. On the field, for the length of the game, they are heroes and villains. They are winners or losers. When it’s over the players go home to their families and friends and become what they are off the field. They are fathers and husbands, brothers and sons. People just like you and me.

Reading the comments directed at Reid made me realize that there is a point where we should keep our opinions to ourselves. I'm sure if you called Reid every name in the book when it comes to his abilities as a coach he would smile and not lose a minutes sleep over it. Conversely, accuse him of being a poor parent or a man who doesn't care for his family and his response would be far different. And no matter how he reacts... with anger or outrage... there would be a sliver of pain added to the pain he is already dealing with beneath it all.

            I'm going to make more of an effort to avoid passing judgment on players as people in my posts. It would be nice if more people would do the same. It's what I think but that's just my opinion. I'm not foolish enough to think that my opinions here are going to change anything. It won't make people change the way they think or what they say. However, I hope it will at least make them think a little more about what they say.

I enjoy watching sports. I enjoy watching professional sports players

I know them as players... I have no idea of what they are like as people.

I enjoy watching people play sports professionally

I don't enjoy making sport of their personal lives.

Good sports don't enjoy it either... and if you do, a good sport you aren't.

25 Reasons Why Suicide is Better Than a Day at Fenway Park

Often, when I was attending a baseball game my thought would wander and I contemplated the idea that killing myself was a good way to end the excruciating drudgery of having to sit through the entire game. No matter how much beer I drank or how good the company was I always regretted going to a game.

So I decided to list the best reasons why killing myself would improve the experience. This is the list of the best reasons I came up with.

 

#1. Suicide is much cheaper than game tickets

#2. Suicide prevents you from slipping into a coma as you try to stay awake until someone actually moves on the field

#3. At least you can die quickly instead of being bored to death over hours.

#4. You can kill yourself without having to die a slow death watching a hundred commercials before the end.

 #5. Suicide is painless... baseball is excruciatingly dull.

#6. If you kill yourself at a Red Sux game... no one will even notice you among the rest of the victims who just simply expire waiting for something to happen,

#7. At least you don't feel the need to ask for your money back after you're done

#8. Killing yourself is easier than reliving the Bill Buckner moment over and over and over and over.

#9. You will never have to wait until next year again.

#10. You won't have to live in fear anymore of being hit by a falling Red Sux fan when you drive over the Tobin bridge.

#11. Killing yourself means you don't have to suffer the synthetic liquid they call beer at Fenway anymore.

#12. The thought of spending a summers day at Fenway Park can help conquer your fear of dying young.

#13 Suicide victims only die once. Red Sux fans die a thousand deaths a season

#14. After you kill yourself you never have to explain why you hate the Red Sux ever again

#15, At least when you kill yourself you get to determine the manner of death. In Fenway the Red Sux  can kill you in any number of ways. None of them pleasant.

#16 Killing yourself makes you die a loser in life... Rooting for the Red Sux makes you  a

loser FOR life

#17. If a Red Sux fan kills their self they'll never have to sink as low as a Cubs fan.

#18. You can eat anything you like before you commit suicide. At Fenway... anything you eat might kill you whether you like it or not.

#19. You can commit suicide, be reincarnated and live your whole life again before most baseball games are finished

#20. If you kill yourself fast enough you may not have to suffer through the second game of the double header.

#21. If you kill yourself and give up your seat it just might go to a Yankees fan. That would in turn cause at least a dozen Sux fans to follow your example.

#22 Suicide means never having to endure one more insipid wave by bored-out-of-their-mind Red Sux  fans.

#23. Because dying once is better than having your heart ripped out 162 times a year.

#24. Suicide means you never have to hurt yourself again laughing until you shyte your pants whenever someone starts to explain how serious baseball is and that it's actually a sport. Statements like that can lead to serious brain damage anyway so dying may be a better option.

#25 Suicide is preferable to growing old and dying in your car while waiting to get out of the parking lot after a game.