I know it's been a while since my last column, so after all the recent excitement of an earthquake and hurricane Irene, I've suddenly found myself a spare moment or two to comment about this year's baseball season. Have you enjoyed it as much as I have, despite my being a loyal Mets fan (hey, I figured a .500 season was good enough for all the Wilpons and their feisty troops have endured since spring training)? More importantly, has anything really surprised you for the better or worse? Well, in some ways this season has been both full of pleasant surprises and drags, but overall, any baseball season is better than none at all in this era of labor strife.
First off, let me tell you that I'm not overly shocked at how these pennant (oops, I'm so arcane... I meant DIVISIONAL) races have gone so far. Last summer, when I was more actively writing columns, I said the key to winning your division was simply based on three factors: beating up on your divisional opponents, having a solid winning percentage at home, and having a decent (i.e., .500) winning percentage on the road.
So... look how 2011 is really not much different than 2010. As we approach Labor Day weekend, the final checkpoint of the season heading into the homestretch and the final 30-35 games, let's see how each divisional race is going:
NL East:
Unless we see a total collapse (i.e., vintage Mets of 2007 or 2008), it looks like the Philadelphia Phillies will outlast the Atlanta Braves and likely own the national league's best record. Going into this waterlogged weekend on the east coast, the Phillies were up by 6 games, the exact number of additional wins within the division compared to the Braves. The Phillies were not only a healthy 46-21 at home, but a league-best 37-24 on the road. While the Braves have had a wonderful season so far, playing nearly .600 baseball, the difference seems to be they simply haven't won enough games within the division to stay closer to the Phillies.
NL Central:
It's funny how slow starts mean so little anymore. If you remember back in early April, the Milwaukee Brewers were stumbling out of the gate and giving up a lot of runs in Cincinnati during a opening week. Well, here we are going into September, and after a season that's seen the Reds, St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates (yes, THOSE Pittsburgh Pirates) all hold first place at different points of the spring and summer, we see the Brewers running away like a freight train, leading the division by 10.5 games over the Cardinals. How have they done it? Hitting, hitting and more hitting... and some good pitching too. After sweeping their weekend series with the Cubs, the Brewers are a league-best 41-21 within the division and a majors-best 50-16 at home, enough to compensate for a 31-38 road record.
NL West:
Really the only division up for grabs in the national league, the Arizona Diamondbacks lead the defending World Series champ San Francisco Giants by 4 games. The Giants have a slightly better record within the division, but the Diamondbacks play better than .500 on the road, so there's really not much difference between how either team has played to this point. These two teams still have 6 games left against each other (3 in San Francisco Labor Day weekend, 3 in Phoenix September 23-25). It may simply boil down to which team is healthier and playing better.
AL East:
Yankees-Red Sox. Red-Sox-Yankees. Like any of us should care or have sympathy for whichever team fails to win the division? All summer long it's been a foregone conclusion that these teams would have the top record and wild card spot, and going into September we see nothing's changed. It's amazing how the horrid April start of 0-6 and 2-10 have faded away for the Red Sox, owners of the league's best record, albeit by 1.5 games over the Yankees. The only significant difference between both teams so far is that Boston's 31-15 within the division while the Yankees are 25-23, and even with that much difference against The Rays, Jays and Orioles, this divisional margin is the major's smallest.
AL Central:
Was it only springtime when the Cleveland Indians were playing .650 baseball and sitting on top of the division by almost a double-digit lead? The summer heat and reality caught up to the Indians, who are now battling to stay at or above .500 while they and the Chicago White Sox fight to stay within 5 games of the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers have clearly overtaken this division and shown they are the best team. They're the only team playing above .500 within the division (32-20), and they're the only team to be above .500 at home and on the road. The one doubt folks may have about the Tigers is that while Cy Young frontrunner Justin Verlander is 20-5, the rest of the Tigers pitching staff is below .500. Can the starting rotation offer enough beyond Verlander to help wrap up the division and get the Tigers deep into the October post-season? Time will tell.
AL West:
At one point it looked like the defending AL champ Texas Rangers were going to run away with the division, but now the Los Angeles Angels have gotten to within 3 games even with their starting rotation taxed during an oppressively hot weekend in Arlington last week. The key difference between these teams seems to be Texas' 27-14 record within the division, while the Angels struggle to stay better than .500 against the Rangers, Oakland A's and Seattle Mariners. In years past, the Rangers used to run out of gas while their pitchers melted during the brutally hot Texas summer. Now it appears to be the Angels who struggle to maintain stamina for the stretch run, resorting to Pedialyte instead of Gatorade during this past weekend series in Arlington.
Other observations of the season:
Have we seen a few no-hitters? Sure have, and we may very well see one or more before September is done. Just like last year, we've seen no-hitters, near no-nos, and plenty of complete-game shutouts. For the second year in a row, it looks like pitchers can hold their own against hitters.
Have we seen our share of explosive offense? Sure, just look at the Yankees hitting three grand slams last week in a 22-9 win over the A's. Toronto's Juan Bautista has shown that last year wasn't a fluke for home run production. Batting averages may be a bit down compared to years past. Jose Reyes has spent two stints on the 15-day Disabled List for the Mets and STILL leads the NL with a .336 batting average.
Have we seen a few quirky things? Sure, look to Atlanta second baseman Dan Uggla, he of a recent 30-game hitting streak that raised his batting average from .173 to .230.
Have we seen milestones? How about Mets reliever Jason Isringhauser reaching 300 career saves? How about Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter reaching 3,000 career hits and improving his average from below .260 to above .290 AFTER getting hit number 3,000 out of the way? How about Twins designated hitter Jim Thome (now recently traded to the Indians) reaching 600 career homers, only the seventh person to do so during the past 100 years?
Have we seen passings and losses to bring sadness to the game? MLB mourns the deaths of former greats like Harmon Killebrew and the recent death of one baseball's nice guys, former Orioles pitcher and general manager Mike Flannigan. Brian Stowe still fights for his life in a San Francisco hospital after being beaten into a coma on opening day at Dodger Stadium, and the Texas Rangers organization is still dealing with the tragic accidental death of a local firefighter, Shannon Stone, who fell over a railing, 20 feet to his death, while trying to catch a wayward baseball for his six-year-old son.
But like every season, baseball also gives us a sense of renewal and hope. For the first time since 1992, the Pirates may actually end up with a .500 or better season, giving fans in the Steel City a reason to return to PNC Ballpark all summer long. All summer long, fans in rust belt cities like Detroit and Cleveland have good reason to come to their ballparks and cheer on their teams. Even in places like Minneapolis, where the Twins are suffering through a disappointing and injury-riddled season, fans routinely come to Target Field to watch a team stuck around 20 games under .500. This past weekend, the Twins hosted the Tigers, trailing Detroit by 17 games. Average attendance for each game? 39,5000 fans. Even in a down year, fans still come to watch their team. For the first time in many years, baseball fans in the mid-west and smaller-market cities feel encouraged to come watch their teams in person, no matter where these teams are in the August standings.
Who knows how the rest of this season will play out, and who will ultimately meet up for the Fall Classic, but if September and October live up to the various thrills and surprises we've seen between April and August, it looks like real baseball fans might go into the long cold winter with a big enough smile to sustain until spring training.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Sunday, July 31, 2011
How much are your favorite NFL players worth to you? -- Sports Thoughts for August 1, 2011
Well, well, well... Here we are, the start of August, the long-awaited start to NFL training camps in preparation to the new season. After nearly five months, the decertification and recertification of the NFL Players Association, multiple lawsuits in federal court, false hopes and bitter war or words through the media, we can all cheer a new collective bargaining agreement, a 10-year CBA with no opt-out clause for either side, and presumed labor peace throughout all the land for 32 teams, 32 team owners, approximately 1,700 players filling up 53-man active roster spots, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith.
Okay, perhaps this year’s league-wide Secret Santa roll call may have more than a bit of awkwardness, especially for guys like Steelers linebacker James “Don’t Rely on my Bladder in case of fire” Harrison. However, today’s column is not about the nasty rhetoric between players and the owners, or players and the league, or players and other players (geez, there sure are lots of nasty players in the NFL, aren’t there?). Today’s column is about harmony, especially fiscal harmony.
Did I say “fiscal harmony”? Yes, I did, and boy do I regret using such terminology! Let’s face it, if there’s fiscal harmony between players as this wild and wooly edition of free agency takes place, then everyone’s singing “Kumbaya” on Capitol Hill in Washington while debating what to really do about our nation’s debt ceiling.
What has me so grouchy and cynical? Hmmm... Perhaps I can boil it down to one position on the football field, defensive cornerback, and two cornerbacks immediately come to mind and put a major burr in my saddle (I’m in New Jersey, so perhaps it’s aggravating my hemorrhoids): Former Oakland Raiders cornerback (now a Philadelphia Eagle) Nnamdi Asomugha, and perhaps former New York Jets cornerback (destination still unknown) Antonio Cromartie. What has me all grumped up? Their free agent salary demands for 2011 and how those demands compare to the paycheck Darrelle Revis collects playing cornerback for the New York Jets. In case you didn’t know, there ain’t much free about free agents.
Let’s go back to last summer and Revis’ holdout, seeking a new and improved contract from the Jets. Oh, we all remember those fun days of summer 2010? Revis, who unquestionably outperformed his rookie contract, wanted more money, for many reasons, and rightfully so. However, one reason ultimately stuck out more than any other, to be the highest-paid cornerback in the game. While that seems a reasonable demand for arguably the best cornerback in the game, Revis took on the ridiculous stance that he wanted to be paid one more dollar than the current highest-paid cornerback in the league, Nnamdi Asomugha. For those who can’t remember, Asomugha was signed to a 3-year contract that paid him $15.1M per season. Naturally, Revis wanted more and felt he deserved more because he was the better cornerback. While that seemed a fair self-assessment (with lots of help from his agents and his uncle, former Washington Redskin and Carolina Panther defensive lineman Sean Gilbert), the fiscal reality was that the Jets were not going to pay Revis $15.1M plus an extra dollar. After Revis’ holdout and lots of haggling, Revis agreed to a new contract that would pay him $11.5M this season.
And what became of Asomugha? Raiders owner Al Davis released him at the end of the 2010 season as part of a fiscal purge with a lockout approaching, and the $15.1M man became a man without a team.
Fast forward to a few days ago. Asomugha the free agent was interested in joining the Jets, the Dallas Cowboys, the Houston Texans, and one team in the shadows, which turned out to be the Eagles. Anyway, at some point of this past week, Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum backed out of negotiations and decided Asomugha’s price tag was simply too rich for the Jets and their overall roster needs and fiscal constraints. Asomugha signed a 5-year contract with the Eagles that would pay him an average salary of $12M — not Al Davis-type money, but certainly a higher paycheck than Revis earns.
How does Cromartie fit into this story? The Jets obtained Cromartie in the final year of his previous contract in a trade with the San Diego Chargers. Cromartie was supposed to be the counterpart to Revis in a Batman-Robin cornerback tandem the NFL had not seen since the early 1980s when Mike Haynes and Lester Hayes tormented opposing receivers while manning the corners of the Raiders defensive backfield. When the Jets set their sights on Asomugha, Cromartie was left in the wings to wait or explore his options. After all, Asomugha is considered by many NFL pundits to be a far superior cornerback to Cromartie, and it seemed just about everyone drooled at the prospect of a Revis-Asomugha tandem, making the Jets virtually impossible to pass on in 2011.
Now that things didn’t work out with Asomugha, Cromartie is back on the Jets radar. However, Cromartie, who strongly desires to play for a team with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations (as did Asomugha), now wants the Jets to pay out in excess of $10M per season, because the father of seven children to six different women in five different states (I hope I have these details all correct) doesn’t give “hometown discounts” to his most-recent employer, the team willing to take a cornerback with financial and legal problems, not to mention a damaged reputation for “playing soft” and “locker room bitching” when with the San Diego Chargers, the team that came within one game of an AFC championship title for the second straight year. In addition to the Jets, Cromartie reportedly has interest from the San Francisco 49ers (6-10 in 2010) and the Raiders (8-8 in 2010, and starting 2011 with a new head coach, new defensive coordinator, and new defensive scheme to learn).
Let me go on the record — and you can check my entire archive of columns as well as all Twitter postings since the NFL lockout started — I had no opinion about the Jets signing Asomugha prior to or during this free agency period. Would I love to see a Revis-Asomugha pairing? Sure, who wouldn’t? It could be intriguing. It could be exciting. But I would’ve been equally happy if the Jets simply re-signed Cromartie and he and Revis had a full training camp and season to work together as Batman and Robin. In other words, I didn’t and still don’t see Asomugha as the be-all and end-all of the Jets defensive success. In fact, when someone asked me last week on Twitter if I thought the Jets could sign Asomugha in addition to other free agents like Santonio Holmes, I responded: It depends on available salary space and how greedy [these players] want to be.
And that’s what this free agency period has boiled down to, available salary cap space, player greed, and the ensuing fiscal insanity, as opposed to harmony. Have these players learned ANYTHING from this 136-day (give or take a day) lockout? Have these players understood ANYTHING about the establishment of a cash-only $120M payroll (let’s round off to the nearest million) to pay the collective salaries of 53 men on each team’s 2011 active roster?
Consider some basic statistics I looked up about the 2010 New York Jets from espn.com. In 2010, the Jets offense, defense and special teams units were on the field for a total of 2,439 plays (including all punting, kickoff, and field goal/extra-point plays). The offense was on the field for 1,067 plays (approximately 44%), the defense was on the field for 979 plays (40%) and the special teams unit was on the field for 393 plays (16%). If you look up the 49-man active team roster for game days, offensive players account for 22 roster slots (approximately 45%), defensive players account for 26 (53%) and the specialists (kicker, punter, long-snapper) account for three slots (6%). So for all intents and purposes, let’s assume an estimated 40-40-20% split between offense, defense and special teams.
Now let’s translate this to a rounded-off $120M payroll for 53 players, 49 who will likely be in uniform on game days. Since the offense and defense each account for 40 percent of the team plays, that means each unit has a theoretical payroll of $48M; the special teams unit has a payroll of $24M. Perhaps there could be some shifting of payroll funds between units depending on needs (no to mention the fact the Jets aren’t spending $24M on a kicker, punter and long-snapper), but for argument’s sake, let’s work with these numbers.
Since cornerbacks seem to be making big fiscal news of late, let’s focus on a hypothetical Jets defensive roster of 25 players — 5 defensive linemen, 9 linebackers, 7 cornerbacks, and 4 safeties. That means GM Mike Tannenbaum needs to build the best, most-dominant defensive unit he can on $48M, a unit that can play up to the standard head coach Rex Ryan sets and a unit with quality players and sufficient depth in case of injuries or situational substitutions.
Right off the top we have Darrelle Revis commanding $11.5M. Now you have $36.5M to take care of 24 other players. Along comes Asomugha and his desire for $12M, which the Eagles were happy to pay. Now you have two players accounting for $23.5M, leaving Tannenbaum $24.5M to pay the other 23 defensive players. You prefer a better bargain? Let’s have Cromartie and his $10M demand instead. Now you’ve left Tannenbaum $26.5M to pay the other 24 guys.
No problem, you say? Each player gets slightly more than $1M? Fine, now try explaining this to linebacker David Harris who’s patiently waited for his long-term contract. Take care of Harris and all is happy, you say? Fine, now what about important veterans like linebackers Bart Scott and Calvin Pace, defensive end Shaun Ellis, safety Jim Leonard, and the list goes on and on? If you keep taking care of all the top players you won’t have anything left but crumbs for half the defensive roster. No problem, you say? The league’s minimum salary is around $400,000? Fine, and how many high-talent players do you think you can get to play for that salary? Suppose you are lucky enough to find 15 guys to fill out the defensive payroll earning the league minimum, how dominant do you think your defense is going to be? There’s a good reason why so many NFL players earn the league minimum: they aren’t as talented as the superstars they back up on a team’s roster. Yes, these players are indeed far more talented than the roster you see for any college football program, but guys making around $400,000 aren’t on the same level as Revis, Harris, Pace, Scott and many other Pro Bowl caliber stars.
And guess what happens when your team puts a K-Mart roster on the field when the regular season opens the weekend of September 11th? Your team won’t play like world beaters and you’ll be the first one to whine to your local sports radio station how your teams stinks and everyone should be cut and the head coach should be fired and the general manager is an idiot. And this is exactly why New York Daily News columnist Bob Raissman refers to such fans as the “Valley of the Stupid.”
If you go back and read my columns during the 2010 summer you’ll see that I was already scolding Darrelle Revis over his contract demands as early as June 15, then really took him to task August 15, when I wrote the following:
Memo to Darrelle Revis: Let me get this straight... No matter what the Jets offer you, you won’t settle for anything less than $16-million per season. Fine... And when next year and the year after come, and other defensive players exceed your salary, are you going to hold out again and hold your team hostage? Just a thought…
If Revis EVER holds out again as a New York Jet, demanding to be paid at least one dollar more than Nnamdi Asomugha, don’t say I didn’t forewarn you long beforehand.
This is what this Revis-Asomugha-Cromartie dynamic boils down to, greed — pure, unadulterated, uncompromised, unmitigated greed. Chutzpah to the max. A maddening narcissism focused on getting mine now while the getting’s good and damn the rest of the team. Yeah sure, these guys all want a Super Bowl ring, but not if it takes one extra nickel out of their piggy banks. Look at the list of players willing to renegotiate their contracts in order to help their teams fit the best players possible under the $120M salary cap... Well, aside from Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez, we don’t see too many players coming forward with such generosity. Look to Seattle and now ex-Seahawks linebacker Lofa Tatupu. When he balked at restructuring his contract, Seattle cut him, hence the cold reality in today’s NFL and a hard salary cap. Where’s the leadership? Where’s the commitment to win? Hell, where’s proof these players have taken some math and basic economics courses while in college?!
Again, I don’t begrudge these guys from earning as much as they can while they have an NFL career. However, when players all ratify a new CBA that calls for a $120M salary cap, that should tip players off to know that revenue sharing isn’t merely something between owners. Players also need to know how to share the wealth in order to make sure everyone is well-rewarded on the best team possible in terms of talent. If that sounds like socialism to you, as I’ve said time and time again over the years, color me Karl Marx, Harpo, Groucho, Chico, Gummo and Zeppo too. If you want to put together the best team possible, all teammates need to be willing to work together within the system, be it schematic or financial. If you truly are committed to being a champion, you need to put your money where your mouth is and put team over yourself, your personal agenda for wealth over the collective goal of 53 men playing for a common goal while everyone makes a fair salary. Would it be nice if NFL teams had salary caps of $150M or $200M? Sure, but that’s not the negotiated salary cap and players need to make more realistic demands.
Are the 1,700 players on NFL rosters the best athletes in their sport? Yes, they certainly are. However, both they and we need to appreciate that there's a broad spectrum of talent among these 1,700 players and only a select few are truly superstars worthy of top-5 salaries at their positions. As talented as these players are, there are simply too many, even at the top level of the player pool, who have slightly warped and over-inflated opinions of themselves. These players, and their agents, have overvalued themselves, much like the housing market before the bubble burst in 2008. Not everyone can be best or one of the top 5 at their position. Not everyone can be paid accordingly. In some ways, this need to be the highest-paid or top-5 level paid gets as silly as grade inflation in our nation’s educational system. In a nation as intellectually mediocre as ours, how is it that more than 60 percent of all high school and college students boast an overall grade-point average of at least a B? If the average student in our nation is graded as either good or excellent, shouldn’t we expect to see better production and achievement? Imagine what we might expect of every NFL player demanding at least a top-5 level salary — perhaps an annual performance worthy of Canton enshrinement?
Somewhere among the NFL’s 1,700 players there needs to be the acceptance that you’re among the top 32 people in the entire country who play a given position for an NFL team. Somewhere along the lines there needs to be acceptance that even among the top 32 people in the country to play your position, you’re still paid quite well compared to the majority of your fans — fans who are schoolteachers, firefighters, police officers, manual laborers, office workers, waiters, waitresses, busboys and restaurant cooks, just to name a few occupations. Somewhere along the line there needs to be acceptance that NFL players, even at the lowest levels, earn a decent wage. One need to be piggish about salary demands in a country where so many football fans are struggling just to make ends meet. I don’t just say this stuff off the top of my head. I know of what I talk about. Prior to my academic career I was one of those young men aspiring for an NFL roster spot, when there were only 28 teams, fewer roster spots on each team, and the minimum salary was a lot less than $400,000. Contracts were no more guaranteed then than now. Greed existed back then too, before salary caps and free agency rules were put into place, but the perspective and lifestyles were somewhat different.
When players like Nnamdi Asomugha and Antonio Cromartie start demanding salaries that show they understand the concept of a team salary cap and salary structure, then I’ll believe these guys truly want to be champions. As for football fans who demand their teams sign this player and that player, then agonize over how their teams fail to sign top-level players for top dollar, perhaps it’s time to take a step back from playing fantasy football and realize that NFL general managers are not playing with Monopoly money and there are limits to building the best 53-man roster. Although it’s relatively modest compared to today’s top-level salaries, consider that winning the Super Bowl gets you a big shiny ring and a bonus check in excess of $80,000. If you’re really interested in winning a Super Bowl, perhaps a willingness to sacrifice a little on your salary demands will pay off six months later with the ring and check that goes with being a champion, and being a champion beats being super-rich any day in my book.
Reminder — Don’t forget my new eBook!
Philosophy of “Packer” Pedagogy:
Vince Lombardi, critical thinking and problem-based learning
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/DavePushkin_PackerPedagogy
Okay, perhaps this year’s league-wide Secret Santa roll call may have more than a bit of awkwardness, especially for guys like Steelers linebacker James “Don’t Rely on my Bladder in case of fire” Harrison. However, today’s column is not about the nasty rhetoric between players and the owners, or players and the league, or players and other players (geez, there sure are lots of nasty players in the NFL, aren’t there?). Today’s column is about harmony, especially fiscal harmony.
Did I say “fiscal harmony”? Yes, I did, and boy do I regret using such terminology! Let’s face it, if there’s fiscal harmony between players as this wild and wooly edition of free agency takes place, then everyone’s singing “Kumbaya” on Capitol Hill in Washington while debating what to really do about our nation’s debt ceiling.
What has me so grouchy and cynical? Hmmm... Perhaps I can boil it down to one position on the football field, defensive cornerback, and two cornerbacks immediately come to mind and put a major burr in my saddle (I’m in New Jersey, so perhaps it’s aggravating my hemorrhoids): Former Oakland Raiders cornerback (now a Philadelphia Eagle) Nnamdi Asomugha, and perhaps former New York Jets cornerback (destination still unknown) Antonio Cromartie. What has me all grumped up? Their free agent salary demands for 2011 and how those demands compare to the paycheck Darrelle Revis collects playing cornerback for the New York Jets. In case you didn’t know, there ain’t much free about free agents.
Let’s go back to last summer and Revis’ holdout, seeking a new and improved contract from the Jets. Oh, we all remember those fun days of summer 2010? Revis, who unquestionably outperformed his rookie contract, wanted more money, for many reasons, and rightfully so. However, one reason ultimately stuck out more than any other, to be the highest-paid cornerback in the game. While that seems a reasonable demand for arguably the best cornerback in the game, Revis took on the ridiculous stance that he wanted to be paid one more dollar than the current highest-paid cornerback in the league, Nnamdi Asomugha. For those who can’t remember, Asomugha was signed to a 3-year contract that paid him $15.1M per season. Naturally, Revis wanted more and felt he deserved more because he was the better cornerback. While that seemed a fair self-assessment (with lots of help from his agents and his uncle, former Washington Redskin and Carolina Panther defensive lineman Sean Gilbert), the fiscal reality was that the Jets were not going to pay Revis $15.1M plus an extra dollar. After Revis’ holdout and lots of haggling, Revis agreed to a new contract that would pay him $11.5M this season.
And what became of Asomugha? Raiders owner Al Davis released him at the end of the 2010 season as part of a fiscal purge with a lockout approaching, and the $15.1M man became a man without a team.
Fast forward to a few days ago. Asomugha the free agent was interested in joining the Jets, the Dallas Cowboys, the Houston Texans, and one team in the shadows, which turned out to be the Eagles. Anyway, at some point of this past week, Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum backed out of negotiations and decided Asomugha’s price tag was simply too rich for the Jets and their overall roster needs and fiscal constraints. Asomugha signed a 5-year contract with the Eagles that would pay him an average salary of $12M — not Al Davis-type money, but certainly a higher paycheck than Revis earns.
How does Cromartie fit into this story? The Jets obtained Cromartie in the final year of his previous contract in a trade with the San Diego Chargers. Cromartie was supposed to be the counterpart to Revis in a Batman-Robin cornerback tandem the NFL had not seen since the early 1980s when Mike Haynes and Lester Hayes tormented opposing receivers while manning the corners of the Raiders defensive backfield. When the Jets set their sights on Asomugha, Cromartie was left in the wings to wait or explore his options. After all, Asomugha is considered by many NFL pundits to be a far superior cornerback to Cromartie, and it seemed just about everyone drooled at the prospect of a Revis-Asomugha tandem, making the Jets virtually impossible to pass on in 2011.
Now that things didn’t work out with Asomugha, Cromartie is back on the Jets radar. However, Cromartie, who strongly desires to play for a team with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations (as did Asomugha), now wants the Jets to pay out in excess of $10M per season, because the father of seven children to six different women in five different states (I hope I have these details all correct) doesn’t give “hometown discounts” to his most-recent employer, the team willing to take a cornerback with financial and legal problems, not to mention a damaged reputation for “playing soft” and “locker room bitching” when with the San Diego Chargers, the team that came within one game of an AFC championship title for the second straight year. In addition to the Jets, Cromartie reportedly has interest from the San Francisco 49ers (6-10 in 2010) and the Raiders (8-8 in 2010, and starting 2011 with a new head coach, new defensive coordinator, and new defensive scheme to learn).
Let me go on the record — and you can check my entire archive of columns as well as all Twitter postings since the NFL lockout started — I had no opinion about the Jets signing Asomugha prior to or during this free agency period. Would I love to see a Revis-Asomugha pairing? Sure, who wouldn’t? It could be intriguing. It could be exciting. But I would’ve been equally happy if the Jets simply re-signed Cromartie and he and Revis had a full training camp and season to work together as Batman and Robin. In other words, I didn’t and still don’t see Asomugha as the be-all and end-all of the Jets defensive success. In fact, when someone asked me last week on Twitter if I thought the Jets could sign Asomugha in addition to other free agents like Santonio Holmes, I responded: It depends on available salary space and how greedy [these players] want to be.
And that’s what this free agency period has boiled down to, available salary cap space, player greed, and the ensuing fiscal insanity, as opposed to harmony. Have these players learned ANYTHING from this 136-day (give or take a day) lockout? Have these players understood ANYTHING about the establishment of a cash-only $120M payroll (let’s round off to the nearest million) to pay the collective salaries of 53 men on each team’s 2011 active roster?
Consider some basic statistics I looked up about the 2010 New York Jets from espn.com. In 2010, the Jets offense, defense and special teams units were on the field for a total of 2,439 plays (including all punting, kickoff, and field goal/extra-point plays). The offense was on the field for 1,067 plays (approximately 44%), the defense was on the field for 979 plays (40%) and the special teams unit was on the field for 393 plays (16%). If you look up the 49-man active team roster for game days, offensive players account for 22 roster slots (approximately 45%), defensive players account for 26 (53%) and the specialists (kicker, punter, long-snapper) account for three slots (6%). So for all intents and purposes, let’s assume an estimated 40-40-20% split between offense, defense and special teams.
Now let’s translate this to a rounded-off $120M payroll for 53 players, 49 who will likely be in uniform on game days. Since the offense and defense each account for 40 percent of the team plays, that means each unit has a theoretical payroll of $48M; the special teams unit has a payroll of $24M. Perhaps there could be some shifting of payroll funds between units depending on needs (no to mention the fact the Jets aren’t spending $24M on a kicker, punter and long-snapper), but for argument’s sake, let’s work with these numbers.
Since cornerbacks seem to be making big fiscal news of late, let’s focus on a hypothetical Jets defensive roster of 25 players — 5 defensive linemen, 9 linebackers, 7 cornerbacks, and 4 safeties. That means GM Mike Tannenbaum needs to build the best, most-dominant defensive unit he can on $48M, a unit that can play up to the standard head coach Rex Ryan sets and a unit with quality players and sufficient depth in case of injuries or situational substitutions.
Right off the top we have Darrelle Revis commanding $11.5M. Now you have $36.5M to take care of 24 other players. Along comes Asomugha and his desire for $12M, which the Eagles were happy to pay. Now you have two players accounting for $23.5M, leaving Tannenbaum $24.5M to pay the other 23 defensive players. You prefer a better bargain? Let’s have Cromartie and his $10M demand instead. Now you’ve left Tannenbaum $26.5M to pay the other 24 guys.
No problem, you say? Each player gets slightly more than $1M? Fine, now try explaining this to linebacker David Harris who’s patiently waited for his long-term contract. Take care of Harris and all is happy, you say? Fine, now what about important veterans like linebackers Bart Scott and Calvin Pace, defensive end Shaun Ellis, safety Jim Leonard, and the list goes on and on? If you keep taking care of all the top players you won’t have anything left but crumbs for half the defensive roster. No problem, you say? The league’s minimum salary is around $400,000? Fine, and how many high-talent players do you think you can get to play for that salary? Suppose you are lucky enough to find 15 guys to fill out the defensive payroll earning the league minimum, how dominant do you think your defense is going to be? There’s a good reason why so many NFL players earn the league minimum: they aren’t as talented as the superstars they back up on a team’s roster. Yes, these players are indeed far more talented than the roster you see for any college football program, but guys making around $400,000 aren’t on the same level as Revis, Harris, Pace, Scott and many other Pro Bowl caliber stars.
And guess what happens when your team puts a K-Mart roster on the field when the regular season opens the weekend of September 11th? Your team won’t play like world beaters and you’ll be the first one to whine to your local sports radio station how your teams stinks and everyone should be cut and the head coach should be fired and the general manager is an idiot. And this is exactly why New York Daily News columnist Bob Raissman refers to such fans as the “Valley of the Stupid.”
If you go back and read my columns during the 2010 summer you’ll see that I was already scolding Darrelle Revis over his contract demands as early as June 15, then really took him to task August 15, when I wrote the following:
Memo to Darrelle Revis: Let me get this straight... No matter what the Jets offer you, you won’t settle for anything less than $16-million per season. Fine... And when next year and the year after come, and other defensive players exceed your salary, are you going to hold out again and hold your team hostage? Just a thought…
If Revis EVER holds out again as a New York Jet, demanding to be paid at least one dollar more than Nnamdi Asomugha, don’t say I didn’t forewarn you long beforehand.
This is what this Revis-Asomugha-Cromartie dynamic boils down to, greed — pure, unadulterated, uncompromised, unmitigated greed. Chutzpah to the max. A maddening narcissism focused on getting mine now while the getting’s good and damn the rest of the team. Yeah sure, these guys all want a Super Bowl ring, but not if it takes one extra nickel out of their piggy banks. Look at the list of players willing to renegotiate their contracts in order to help their teams fit the best players possible under the $120M salary cap... Well, aside from Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez, we don’t see too many players coming forward with such generosity. Look to Seattle and now ex-Seahawks linebacker Lofa Tatupu. When he balked at restructuring his contract, Seattle cut him, hence the cold reality in today’s NFL and a hard salary cap. Where’s the leadership? Where’s the commitment to win? Hell, where’s proof these players have taken some math and basic economics courses while in college?!
Again, I don’t begrudge these guys from earning as much as they can while they have an NFL career. However, when players all ratify a new CBA that calls for a $120M salary cap, that should tip players off to know that revenue sharing isn’t merely something between owners. Players also need to know how to share the wealth in order to make sure everyone is well-rewarded on the best team possible in terms of talent. If that sounds like socialism to you, as I’ve said time and time again over the years, color me Karl Marx, Harpo, Groucho, Chico, Gummo and Zeppo too. If you want to put together the best team possible, all teammates need to be willing to work together within the system, be it schematic or financial. If you truly are committed to being a champion, you need to put your money where your mouth is and put team over yourself, your personal agenda for wealth over the collective goal of 53 men playing for a common goal while everyone makes a fair salary. Would it be nice if NFL teams had salary caps of $150M or $200M? Sure, but that’s not the negotiated salary cap and players need to make more realistic demands.
Are the 1,700 players on NFL rosters the best athletes in their sport? Yes, they certainly are. However, both they and we need to appreciate that there's a broad spectrum of talent among these 1,700 players and only a select few are truly superstars worthy of top-5 salaries at their positions. As talented as these players are, there are simply too many, even at the top level of the player pool, who have slightly warped and over-inflated opinions of themselves. These players, and their agents, have overvalued themselves, much like the housing market before the bubble burst in 2008. Not everyone can be best or one of the top 5 at their position. Not everyone can be paid accordingly. In some ways, this need to be the highest-paid or top-5 level paid gets as silly as grade inflation in our nation’s educational system. In a nation as intellectually mediocre as ours, how is it that more than 60 percent of all high school and college students boast an overall grade-point average of at least a B? If the average student in our nation is graded as either good or excellent, shouldn’t we expect to see better production and achievement? Imagine what we might expect of every NFL player demanding at least a top-5 level salary — perhaps an annual performance worthy of Canton enshrinement?
Somewhere among the NFL’s 1,700 players there needs to be the acceptance that you’re among the top 32 people in the entire country who play a given position for an NFL team. Somewhere along the lines there needs to be acceptance that even among the top 32 people in the country to play your position, you’re still paid quite well compared to the majority of your fans — fans who are schoolteachers, firefighters, police officers, manual laborers, office workers, waiters, waitresses, busboys and restaurant cooks, just to name a few occupations. Somewhere along the line there needs to be acceptance that NFL players, even at the lowest levels, earn a decent wage. One need to be piggish about salary demands in a country where so many football fans are struggling just to make ends meet. I don’t just say this stuff off the top of my head. I know of what I talk about. Prior to my academic career I was one of those young men aspiring for an NFL roster spot, when there were only 28 teams, fewer roster spots on each team, and the minimum salary was a lot less than $400,000. Contracts were no more guaranteed then than now. Greed existed back then too, before salary caps and free agency rules were put into place, but the perspective and lifestyles were somewhat different.
When players like Nnamdi Asomugha and Antonio Cromartie start demanding salaries that show they understand the concept of a team salary cap and salary structure, then I’ll believe these guys truly want to be champions. As for football fans who demand their teams sign this player and that player, then agonize over how their teams fail to sign top-level players for top dollar, perhaps it’s time to take a step back from playing fantasy football and realize that NFL general managers are not playing with Monopoly money and there are limits to building the best 53-man roster. Although it’s relatively modest compared to today’s top-level salaries, consider that winning the Super Bowl gets you a big shiny ring and a bonus check in excess of $80,000. If you’re really interested in winning a Super Bowl, perhaps a willingness to sacrifice a little on your salary demands will pay off six months later with the ring and check that goes with being a champion, and being a champion beats being super-rich any day in my book.
Reminder — Don’t forget my new eBook!
Philosophy of “Packer” Pedagogy:
Vince Lombardi, critical thinking and problem-based learning
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/DavePushkin_PackerPedagogy
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Dickens was a marketing genius -- Sports Thoughts for July 19, 2011
Dear friends, colleagues, loyal readers and those new to this blog site:
I “hate” to be a nuisance, but I notice book sales are slow. So, just like Charles Dickens used to whet his future book readers' interest with advanced excerpts in the London Times, I’ll try and encourage you with the Introduction (for free) from Philosophy of “Packer” Pedagogy! Again... I remind you the book is here and on sale at Lulu.
BUY IT, BUY IT, BUY IT...
Thanks.
Doc
Philosophy of “Packer” Pedagogy:
Vince Lombardi, critical thinking and problem-based learning
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/DavePushkin_PackerPedagogy
Introduction:
Every stakeholder in chemical education, consciously or unconsciously, has an epistemological and ontological view of chemistry. In due time within this book I will share mine. However, as a chemical and physics educator since 1984, what I wish to share now are the influences on my epistemological and ontological views, the people and theories or beliefs that combined with my academic experiences, shape my pedagogical and curricular perspective, and provide the foundation to what “makes me tick” as a scientist and science educator.
How did I come to my perspective after so many years? Well, the list is incredibly long, if you think about it long enough, but for the purpose of this book, I’ve narrowed the list down to five very influential men:
1. John Dewey (1-2)
2. Lev Vygotsky (3-5)
3. Alan Schoenfeld (6)
4. William Perry (5,7)
5. Vince Lombardi (8)
Okay, seems reasonable. Dewey. Check. Vygotsky. Check. Schoenfeld. Check. Perry. Makes sense in the context of higher education. Lombardi. Hey, wait a minute… LOMBARDI?!
Yes, Lombardi. THAT Lombardi! The “Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field” Lombardi. The “Power Sweep” Lombardi. Name on the Super Bowl trophy Lombardi. Exit 16W off the New Jersey Turnpike Service Area Lombardi.
Go ahead and laugh, my fellow science educators, but hear me out first. As a former football player before my teaching career, and an assistant high school coach during part of my teaching career, I have just a little bit of credibility on this topic, and after you read my argument, not only will you realize my helmet was indeed securely fastened during the twelve years I played, but Vince Lombardi is perhaps the most logical influence for the theme of this book and its title.
Allow me to introduce you to Vince Lombardi, beyond the basics…
· Born in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, New York, on June 11, 1913, eldest son of Harry and Matilda Lombardi, first-generation born Italian-Americans.
· Believed in a trinity of faith, family, and sports. Known for telling his great Packer teams that success would be theirs if they focused on just three things: their religion, their family, and the Green Bay Packers.
· A graduate of Fordham University, class of 1937, one member of the famed “Seven Blocks of Granite” on Fordham’s football team.
· Distinguished assistant coaching career at Fordham and West Point. New York Giants offensive coordinator during the late-1950s.
· A hall-of-Fame head-coaching career with the Green Bay Packers and Washington Redskins, 1959-1969.
· Died of cancer on September 3, 1970 in Georgetown University Hospital.
· FORMER HIGH SCHOOL CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS TEACHER.
Believe it or not, that last bullet is not a typographical error. Folks, something many may not know about perhaps the greatest coach in the history of professional football is that Vince Lombardi’s first post-graduate job was as a high school chemistry, physics and Latin teacher at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, New Jersey from 1939 to 1947 (coincidentally, one of his students was presumably actor John Travolta’s father!). Long before leading the great Green Bay Packers of the 1960s, Lombardi was developing the foundation to his coaching greatness through several basic pedagogical beliefs. For the purpose of this book, I will focus on four:
1. In addition to the ability to learn, ALL students need a desire to learn. For decades we’ve heard that all students can learn, and many educational movements have come and go in the name of this premise, including our current No Child Left Behind movement from the presidency of George W. Bush. However, Lombardi didn’t completely subscribe to this view. In other words, to Lombardi, learning is a function of both aptitude AND attitude. Being intelligent and merely “showing up” for class doesn’t guarantee becoming an educated person or a successful student, just as raw talent alone does not guarantee a hall of fame football career. Success depends on both the blessing of talent and the motivation to translate talent into performance skills. For all the educational reforms, creative pedagogies, curricular evolutions and technological advances we witness, LEARNING still needs reciprocal and collaborative effort from its intended target, LEARNERS.
2. Students must master the basics as a prerequisite for moving forward in a course. Remember mastery learning? There used to be a time when teaching chemistry and physics used to be very sequential and building-block-oriented. Educators and their students didn’t move onto new content until all students demonstrated a definitive level of proficiency and comprehension. Now, course syllabi are covered at a pace predetermined by the number of pages in a textbook and the number of scheduled instructional hours. Comprehension and proficiency are quantified by either lowering the bar on exam scores or watering down assessments in order to ensure a statistically acceptable average score or minimum score, which is still a lowering of the bar on academic integrity. Hello?! Chemistry and physics are indeed very sequential and building-block-oriented, and integrated subjects. One cannot build a strong house without a strong foundation. Chemistry and physics are more than just courses dealing with word problems and lab experiments. Problems and experiments are based on concepts; a strong conceptual background lays a solid foundation for good problem solving skills and laboratory practices. All of this needs solid pedagogical and curricular practice. More importantly, there is no cognitive, intellectual, or academic guarantee that a learner will comprehend and be proficient in the basics of “chapters 1, 2, 3” while an educator moves along to “chapters 4, 5, 6” in the name of content efficiency. In fact, “chapters 4, 5, 6” should build upon and consistently reinforce the knowledge taught and learned from “chapters 1, 2, 3.” What good is teaching prerequisite skills if we don’t consistently review them as new knowledge incorporates them? That would be the equivalent of a football team practicing trick plays without making sure players already know the basics of how to line up on the field, snap a ball, throw a ball, catch a ball, run with a ball, or tackle the runner. Oh! Sorry… I witness enough of these oversights every Sunday I watch a professional football game on television. That’s why players commit penalties, throw interceptions, fumble the ball, and miss tackles. And these guys get paid to practice these skills day after day!
What’s the implication of this? We DON’T do enough reviewing and reinforcing prerequisite knowledge as we teach “new stuff”. We’re in such a rush to move along and cover voluminous syllabi of course content, students are left to choke on the dust as we leave pedagogical skid marks. I’m reminded of professional baseball players who are rushed through the minor leagues in order to fill major league roster spots. Some pitchers never learn to develop secondary and tertiary pitches after their fastball and curve and try to survive while batters continue to hammer everything they throw. Some hitters never learn to hit to the opposite field, or lay off pitches out of the strike zone, and end up flailing at pitch after pitch, year after year, never able to improve beyond mediocrity, eventually becoming has-beens.
Coach Lombardi advocated the fundamentals if not preached them ad nauseum. I remember watching an interview of another former great NFL coach, John Madden (yes, the same man associated with the computerized video football games), for ESPN’s SportsCentury documentary on Coach Lombardi (I’ve personally lost track of how many times I’ve watched it over the years). As a young coach in the 1960s, Madden once attended a coaching clinic where Lombardi spent hours lecturing on his famous “Packer Sweep,” also known as the Power Sweep, Student Body Left or Right. Lombardi called it his “bread and butter” play, his “signature” play, the one play his Packers would always be known for in terms of offensive dominance, and he went over and over and over it… and as several of his former hall of fame players would attest to, Lombardi went over it until they were completely sick of it!
The point is that Lombardi repeatedly drilled all the positional and strategic fundamentals to his players, and he didn’t go beyond skills development and running basic plays until he knew all of his players, from veteran stars to backups to rookies, understood how to be fundamentally sound. Even beyond the basics, Lombardi continuously reinforced the importance of fundamentals as his playbook expanded and players became more experienced. The foundation was never glossed over or taken for granted.
3. Simplicity of concepts provides opportunities for creative applications. One of Coach Lombardi’s most famous applications of a basic play was the halfback option. While coaching the New York Giants’ offense, Lombardi made a star of Hall of Famers Frank Gifford. In Green Bay, Lombardi made a star of Hall of Famer Paul Hornung. The halfback option derived from the power sweep, where the halfback could throw the ball downfield while on the run, adding an element of surprise to the defense. The main points were: (1) passing the ball is non-exclusive to the quarterback, and (2) running is non-exclusive to a halfback.
What’s the take-home lesson? Even if practice is “routine”, not everything one practices need be routine. And this is the premise of Problem-Based Learning and critical thinking (also known as situated cognition)! There are many core concepts in chemistry and physics; mastery of these core concepts creates many opportunities for teachers and students to explore a multitude of applications to those concepts (i.e., novel and highly challenging problems as opposed to trivial and repetitive exercises). Lombardi’s playbook was always the epitome of simplicity and brevity. His players mastered a handful of fundamental plays, yet those plays offered an unlimited number of variations, ultimately leading to a decade of championship dominance. One really doesn’t need a thousand-page chemistry or physics textbook with hundreds of end-of-chapter questions and exercises in order to learn the content or the art of problem solving. Having a solid core base of knowledge can build very broad and flexible thinkers as they encounter problem solving and conducting experiments. This can be developed with a completely different approach and curricular structure.
4. Lombardi believed that “winning isn’t a sometimes thing; it’s an all-the-time thing.” While I want students to be successful, I’m not looking at success or “winning” as the bottom line in a chemistry or physics course; it’s the steps one takes towards becoming successful or a “winner.” Paraphrasing Lombardi, thinking and the effort to learn is not a sometimes thing; it’s an all the time thing. I don’t see my “job” as a chemistry and physics educator to “make” students successful; it’s really to create opportunities for them to learn successfully, which requires a little “old-fashioned” ways, in many respects. Successful learning simply doesn’t happen on its own; successful learning is the result of mental engagement, as an active mind is the starting point towards successful learning.
Most importantly, as many of us have learned through the decades, whatever “creative” approaches we employ in the classroom must be done so with regularity. Ever wonder why “gadget” plays aren’t used all the time in football, or why they’re only successful sometimes? It’s because these plays are gimmicks, cute little wrinkles a coach will toss into the game plan in order to change the pace and trick the opponent. But gimmicks are only for cameo appearances; if a coach fed a steady diet of gadget plays into the flow of the game, not only would the opponent constantly be off-guard, so would his own players, never able to develop a rhythm or cohesive coordination.
Unfortunately, too many science educators employ their own gadget plays in their courses and classrooms. While the consensus among science educators is that “chalk and talk” lectures are bad pedagogical form, we often take the erroneous alternative of sprinkling in cooperative learning every now and then, or “Inquiry-based Tuesday”, or… well, you get the idea. We’re sometimes guilty of haphazardly using “anti-lecture” approaches, thinking we’re being progressive, when the reality is we’re trapping ourselves between a series of rocks and hard places, all in the name of breaking up the routine.
But as Lombardi and reputable cognitive researchers have learned and demonstrated through the decades, keeping a routine is the best pedagogical practice, even if one’s modus operandi is less than ideal or even a complete anathema to what we advocate. The goal is to make one’s pedagogical and curricular practices consistent, so learners develop consistent cognition. If one prefers to lecture, design lectures that merge the best of your communication skills with the best of your cognitive expectations for students. If you prefer cooperative learning, or inquiry-based, or seminar format, make that the standard mode of teaching-learning dynamic and stick with it throughout the length of your entire course, keeping in mind that this mode of practice needs to enhance both your teaching and students’ learning. If you want variety, lecture on Monday, do seminar format on Wednesday, and inquiry-based on Friday. But be consistent so you can develop and enhance a teaching-learning dynamic. Don’t just do things once or twice for sake of it. Make a genuine intellectual commitment.
What’s the implication? If we are to be transformative science educators and “produce” transformative thinkers, critical thinkers, and situational thinkers, we need to take a more revolutionary approach to problem solving by returning to the basics, reinforcing the basics, and creatively applying the basics. It’s not merely incorporating technology, or constructivism, Nature of Science, or even the History and Philosophy of Science. It’s incorporating all of the above and then some. It’s turning the curriculum on its ear, upside-down, inside-out, and reconfiguring science courses to be content-centered and problem-based.
What does it mean to be content-centered? When we re-envision a chemistry or physics course, the “star” of the course isn’t the teacher or students; it’s the actual content, the knowledge that shapes our epistemological and ontological perspectives. What does it mean to be problem-based? When we re-envision the role of problems, we need to use them as the metaphorical appetizer, entrée, and dessert of the content feast. No longer can problems be viewed as illustrations of textbook material or as review practice. The problem now becomes the “hub” of the entire learning process.
So now that I’ve introduced you all to the basic biography and fundamental philosophy of Vince Lombardi, the time has come for me to take you on a journey and witness the unfolding of a “new” pedagogical and curricular approach as it builds from each of his fundamental principles. My goal is not to teach you about football, but about an approach to teaching chemistry and physics that happens to evolve from a football perspective. I promise to minimize football jargon and clichés, but after reading this book, I hope you all feel like you’ve scored your own intellectual touchdown.
References:
1 Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. New York: The Free Press.
2 Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Macmillian Publishing Company.
3 Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
4 Moll, L.C. (1990). Vygotsky and Education: Instructional Implications and Applications of Sociohistorical Psychology. New York: Cambridge University Press.
5 Pushkin, D.B. (1997). Where do ideas from students come from? Applying constructivism and textbook problems to the laboratory experience. Journal of College Science Teaching, 26, 238-242.
6 Schoenfeld, A.H. (1978). Can heuristics be taught? In J. Lochhead & J.J. Clement (Eds.), Cognitive process instruction (pp. 315-338). Philadelphia: Franklin Institute Press.
7 Perry, W.G. (1970). Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years, a Scheme. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
8 Maraniss, D. (1999). When pride still mattered – A life of Vince Lombardi. New York: Simon and Schuster.
I “hate” to be a nuisance, but I notice book sales are slow. So, just like Charles Dickens used to whet his future book readers' interest with advanced excerpts in the London Times, I’ll try and encourage you with the Introduction (for free) from Philosophy of “Packer” Pedagogy! Again... I remind you the book is here and on sale at Lulu.
BUY IT, BUY IT, BUY IT...
Thanks.
Doc
Philosophy of “Packer” Pedagogy:
Vince Lombardi, critical thinking and problem-based learning
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/DavePushkin_PackerPedagogy
Introduction:
Every stakeholder in chemical education, consciously or unconsciously, has an epistemological and ontological view of chemistry. In due time within this book I will share mine. However, as a chemical and physics educator since 1984, what I wish to share now are the influences on my epistemological and ontological views, the people and theories or beliefs that combined with my academic experiences, shape my pedagogical and curricular perspective, and provide the foundation to what “makes me tick” as a scientist and science educator.
How did I come to my perspective after so many years? Well, the list is incredibly long, if you think about it long enough, but for the purpose of this book, I’ve narrowed the list down to five very influential men:
1. John Dewey (1-2)
2. Lev Vygotsky (3-5)
3. Alan Schoenfeld (6)
4. William Perry (5,7)
5. Vince Lombardi (8)
Okay, seems reasonable. Dewey. Check. Vygotsky. Check. Schoenfeld. Check. Perry. Makes sense in the context of higher education. Lombardi. Hey, wait a minute… LOMBARDI?!
Yes, Lombardi. THAT Lombardi! The “Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field” Lombardi. The “Power Sweep” Lombardi. Name on the Super Bowl trophy Lombardi. Exit 16W off the New Jersey Turnpike Service Area Lombardi.
Go ahead and laugh, my fellow science educators, but hear me out first. As a former football player before my teaching career, and an assistant high school coach during part of my teaching career, I have just a little bit of credibility on this topic, and after you read my argument, not only will you realize my helmet was indeed securely fastened during the twelve years I played, but Vince Lombardi is perhaps the most logical influence for the theme of this book and its title.
Allow me to introduce you to Vince Lombardi, beyond the basics…
· Born in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, New York, on June 11, 1913, eldest son of Harry and Matilda Lombardi, first-generation born Italian-Americans.
· Believed in a trinity of faith, family, and sports. Known for telling his great Packer teams that success would be theirs if they focused on just three things: their religion, their family, and the Green Bay Packers.
· A graduate of Fordham University, class of 1937, one member of the famed “Seven Blocks of Granite” on Fordham’s football team.
· Distinguished assistant coaching career at Fordham and West Point. New York Giants offensive coordinator during the late-1950s.
· A hall-of-Fame head-coaching career with the Green Bay Packers and Washington Redskins, 1959-1969.
· Died of cancer on September 3, 1970 in Georgetown University Hospital.
· FORMER HIGH SCHOOL CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS TEACHER.
Believe it or not, that last bullet is not a typographical error. Folks, something many may not know about perhaps the greatest coach in the history of professional football is that Vince Lombardi’s first post-graduate job was as a high school chemistry, physics and Latin teacher at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, New Jersey from 1939 to 1947 (coincidentally, one of his students was presumably actor John Travolta’s father!). Long before leading the great Green Bay Packers of the 1960s, Lombardi was developing the foundation to his coaching greatness through several basic pedagogical beliefs. For the purpose of this book, I will focus on four:
1. In addition to the ability to learn, ALL students need a desire to learn. For decades we’ve heard that all students can learn, and many educational movements have come and go in the name of this premise, including our current No Child Left Behind movement from the presidency of George W. Bush. However, Lombardi didn’t completely subscribe to this view. In other words, to Lombardi, learning is a function of both aptitude AND attitude. Being intelligent and merely “showing up” for class doesn’t guarantee becoming an educated person or a successful student, just as raw talent alone does not guarantee a hall of fame football career. Success depends on both the blessing of talent and the motivation to translate talent into performance skills. For all the educational reforms, creative pedagogies, curricular evolutions and technological advances we witness, LEARNING still needs reciprocal and collaborative effort from its intended target, LEARNERS.
2. Students must master the basics as a prerequisite for moving forward in a course. Remember mastery learning? There used to be a time when teaching chemistry and physics used to be very sequential and building-block-oriented. Educators and their students didn’t move onto new content until all students demonstrated a definitive level of proficiency and comprehension. Now, course syllabi are covered at a pace predetermined by the number of pages in a textbook and the number of scheduled instructional hours. Comprehension and proficiency are quantified by either lowering the bar on exam scores or watering down assessments in order to ensure a statistically acceptable average score or minimum score, which is still a lowering of the bar on academic integrity. Hello?! Chemistry and physics are indeed very sequential and building-block-oriented, and integrated subjects. One cannot build a strong house without a strong foundation. Chemistry and physics are more than just courses dealing with word problems and lab experiments. Problems and experiments are based on concepts; a strong conceptual background lays a solid foundation for good problem solving skills and laboratory practices. All of this needs solid pedagogical and curricular practice. More importantly, there is no cognitive, intellectual, or academic guarantee that a learner will comprehend and be proficient in the basics of “chapters 1, 2, 3” while an educator moves along to “chapters 4, 5, 6” in the name of content efficiency. In fact, “chapters 4, 5, 6” should build upon and consistently reinforce the knowledge taught and learned from “chapters 1, 2, 3.” What good is teaching prerequisite skills if we don’t consistently review them as new knowledge incorporates them? That would be the equivalent of a football team practicing trick plays without making sure players already know the basics of how to line up on the field, snap a ball, throw a ball, catch a ball, run with a ball, or tackle the runner. Oh! Sorry… I witness enough of these oversights every Sunday I watch a professional football game on television. That’s why players commit penalties, throw interceptions, fumble the ball, and miss tackles. And these guys get paid to practice these skills day after day!
What’s the implication of this? We DON’T do enough reviewing and reinforcing prerequisite knowledge as we teach “new stuff”. We’re in such a rush to move along and cover voluminous syllabi of course content, students are left to choke on the dust as we leave pedagogical skid marks. I’m reminded of professional baseball players who are rushed through the minor leagues in order to fill major league roster spots. Some pitchers never learn to develop secondary and tertiary pitches after their fastball and curve and try to survive while batters continue to hammer everything they throw. Some hitters never learn to hit to the opposite field, or lay off pitches out of the strike zone, and end up flailing at pitch after pitch, year after year, never able to improve beyond mediocrity, eventually becoming has-beens.
Coach Lombardi advocated the fundamentals if not preached them ad nauseum. I remember watching an interview of another former great NFL coach, John Madden (yes, the same man associated with the computerized video football games), for ESPN’s SportsCentury documentary on Coach Lombardi (I’ve personally lost track of how many times I’ve watched it over the years). As a young coach in the 1960s, Madden once attended a coaching clinic where Lombardi spent hours lecturing on his famous “Packer Sweep,” also known as the Power Sweep, Student Body Left or Right. Lombardi called it his “bread and butter” play, his “signature” play, the one play his Packers would always be known for in terms of offensive dominance, and he went over and over and over it… and as several of his former hall of fame players would attest to, Lombardi went over it until they were completely sick of it!
The point is that Lombardi repeatedly drilled all the positional and strategic fundamentals to his players, and he didn’t go beyond skills development and running basic plays until he knew all of his players, from veteran stars to backups to rookies, understood how to be fundamentally sound. Even beyond the basics, Lombardi continuously reinforced the importance of fundamentals as his playbook expanded and players became more experienced. The foundation was never glossed over or taken for granted.
3. Simplicity of concepts provides opportunities for creative applications. One of Coach Lombardi’s most famous applications of a basic play was the halfback option. While coaching the New York Giants’ offense, Lombardi made a star of Hall of Famers Frank Gifford. In Green Bay, Lombardi made a star of Hall of Famer Paul Hornung. The halfback option derived from the power sweep, where the halfback could throw the ball downfield while on the run, adding an element of surprise to the defense. The main points were: (1) passing the ball is non-exclusive to the quarterback, and (2) running is non-exclusive to a halfback.
What’s the take-home lesson? Even if practice is “routine”, not everything one practices need be routine. And this is the premise of Problem-Based Learning and critical thinking (also known as situated cognition)! There are many core concepts in chemistry and physics; mastery of these core concepts creates many opportunities for teachers and students to explore a multitude of applications to those concepts (i.e., novel and highly challenging problems as opposed to trivial and repetitive exercises). Lombardi’s playbook was always the epitome of simplicity and brevity. His players mastered a handful of fundamental plays, yet those plays offered an unlimited number of variations, ultimately leading to a decade of championship dominance. One really doesn’t need a thousand-page chemistry or physics textbook with hundreds of end-of-chapter questions and exercises in order to learn the content or the art of problem solving. Having a solid core base of knowledge can build very broad and flexible thinkers as they encounter problem solving and conducting experiments. This can be developed with a completely different approach and curricular structure.
4. Lombardi believed that “winning isn’t a sometimes thing; it’s an all-the-time thing.” While I want students to be successful, I’m not looking at success or “winning” as the bottom line in a chemistry or physics course; it’s the steps one takes towards becoming successful or a “winner.” Paraphrasing Lombardi, thinking and the effort to learn is not a sometimes thing; it’s an all the time thing. I don’t see my “job” as a chemistry and physics educator to “make” students successful; it’s really to create opportunities for them to learn successfully, which requires a little “old-fashioned” ways, in many respects. Successful learning simply doesn’t happen on its own; successful learning is the result of mental engagement, as an active mind is the starting point towards successful learning.
Most importantly, as many of us have learned through the decades, whatever “creative” approaches we employ in the classroom must be done so with regularity. Ever wonder why “gadget” plays aren’t used all the time in football, or why they’re only successful sometimes? It’s because these plays are gimmicks, cute little wrinkles a coach will toss into the game plan in order to change the pace and trick the opponent. But gimmicks are only for cameo appearances; if a coach fed a steady diet of gadget plays into the flow of the game, not only would the opponent constantly be off-guard, so would his own players, never able to develop a rhythm or cohesive coordination.
Unfortunately, too many science educators employ their own gadget plays in their courses and classrooms. While the consensus among science educators is that “chalk and talk” lectures are bad pedagogical form, we often take the erroneous alternative of sprinkling in cooperative learning every now and then, or “Inquiry-based Tuesday”, or… well, you get the idea. We’re sometimes guilty of haphazardly using “anti-lecture” approaches, thinking we’re being progressive, when the reality is we’re trapping ourselves between a series of rocks and hard places, all in the name of breaking up the routine.
But as Lombardi and reputable cognitive researchers have learned and demonstrated through the decades, keeping a routine is the best pedagogical practice, even if one’s modus operandi is less than ideal or even a complete anathema to what we advocate. The goal is to make one’s pedagogical and curricular practices consistent, so learners develop consistent cognition. If one prefers to lecture, design lectures that merge the best of your communication skills with the best of your cognitive expectations for students. If you prefer cooperative learning, or inquiry-based, or seminar format, make that the standard mode of teaching-learning dynamic and stick with it throughout the length of your entire course, keeping in mind that this mode of practice needs to enhance both your teaching and students’ learning. If you want variety, lecture on Monday, do seminar format on Wednesday, and inquiry-based on Friday. But be consistent so you can develop and enhance a teaching-learning dynamic. Don’t just do things once or twice for sake of it. Make a genuine intellectual commitment.
What’s the implication? If we are to be transformative science educators and “produce” transformative thinkers, critical thinkers, and situational thinkers, we need to take a more revolutionary approach to problem solving by returning to the basics, reinforcing the basics, and creatively applying the basics. It’s not merely incorporating technology, or constructivism, Nature of Science, or even the History and Philosophy of Science. It’s incorporating all of the above and then some. It’s turning the curriculum on its ear, upside-down, inside-out, and reconfiguring science courses to be content-centered and problem-based.
What does it mean to be content-centered? When we re-envision a chemistry or physics course, the “star” of the course isn’t the teacher or students; it’s the actual content, the knowledge that shapes our epistemological and ontological perspectives. What does it mean to be problem-based? When we re-envision the role of problems, we need to use them as the metaphorical appetizer, entrée, and dessert of the content feast. No longer can problems be viewed as illustrations of textbook material or as review practice. The problem now becomes the “hub” of the entire learning process.
So now that I’ve introduced you all to the basic biography and fundamental philosophy of Vince Lombardi, the time has come for me to take you on a journey and witness the unfolding of a “new” pedagogical and curricular approach as it builds from each of his fundamental principles. My goal is not to teach you about football, but about an approach to teaching chemistry and physics that happens to evolve from a football perspective. I promise to minimize football jargon and clichés, but after reading this book, I hope you all feel like you’ve scored your own intellectual touchdown.
References:
1 Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. New York: The Free Press.
2 Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Macmillian Publishing Company.
3 Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
4 Moll, L.C. (1990). Vygotsky and Education: Instructional Implications and Applications of Sociohistorical Psychology. New York: Cambridge University Press.
5 Pushkin, D.B. (1997). Where do ideas from students come from? Applying constructivism and textbook problems to the laboratory experience. Journal of College Science Teaching, 26, 238-242.
6 Schoenfeld, A.H. (1978). Can heuristics be taught? In J. Lochhead & J.J. Clement (Eds.), Cognitive process instruction (pp. 315-338). Philadelphia: Franklin Institute Press.
7 Perry, W.G. (1970). Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years, a Scheme. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
8 Maraniss, D. (1999). When pride still mattered – A life of Vince Lombardi. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Philosophy of "Packer" pedagogy: Vince Lombardi, critical thinking and problem-based learning
Hip, hip Hooray! My new Vince Lombardi eBook is finally available! After a long delay, all the technical bugs have been swatted away and my newest pride and joy is finally out and ready for purchase and reading.
Please go to http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/DavePushkin_PackerPedagogy for ordering. Although it's an eBook, it's a specialty book, and I think you'll find the $19.99 price very reasonable and a worthwhile investment.
If you love sports, this is a great book for you. If you're interested in chemistry or physics education, it's a great book for you too. If you're interested in teaching/learning theory, it's an especially great book for you. In other words, this book is great for a variety of reading interests.
Please buy, read, enjoy my book, and most important -- please pass the word to others and encourage at least one more person to buy and read the book too! This book was not only written as a labor of intellectual love, it was written for my health as well. Doctors cost money, as do medications, medical equipment and hospital care. By buying my book you're helping me keep up with my medical expenses as well as sharing my writing.
Thanks for your support.
Please go to http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/DavePushkin_PackerPedagogy for ordering. Although it's an eBook, it's a specialty book, and I think you'll find the $19.99 price very reasonable and a worthwhile investment.
If you love sports, this is a great book for you. If you're interested in chemistry or physics education, it's a great book for you too. If you're interested in teaching/learning theory, it's an especially great book for you. In other words, this book is great for a variety of reading interests.
Please buy, read, enjoy my book, and most important -- please pass the word to others and encourage at least one more person to buy and read the book too! This book was not only written as a labor of intellectual love, it was written for my health as well. Doctors cost money, as do medications, medical equipment and hospital care. By buying my book you're helping me keep up with my medical expenses as well as sharing my writing.
Thanks for your support.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Sports news registering on the Baloney Meter -- Sports Thoughts for June 20, 2011
Now that another month has gone by, I guess it’s time to write a new column and catch up with the sports world again. As you all know, I’ve moved to a new home which is shaping up nicely but it’s consumed so much of the energy I’d normally like to reserve for writing. So, from the comfort of my new digs in Union, let’s chat about recent and not-so-recent events.
First, as a promise to one of my loyal readers in Germany, Sabine G., I begin with the recently completed NBA Finals, or more specifically, the champion Dallas Mavericks and Sabine’s fellow countryperson, Dirk Nowitzki. Yes, like many folks, I rooted for the Mavericks to beat the Miami Heat, but unlike many, I rooted for the Mavericks as an honest-to-goodness pro-Mavericks supporter as opposed to a Heat (or more specifically LeBron James) hater. Don’t get me wrong... I have very little use for the Heat or Mr. James, not to mention Dwayne Wade or GM Pat Riley. On the other hand, I have a sliver of empathy and sympathy for head coach Eric Spoelstra and Chris Bosh because they seem to be genuinely sensitive guys with little phoniness. But my point is that as difficult as it is to like the Heat and their imported collection of stars, it was very easy to like the Mavericks and their merry band of players.
In case some of you don’t know... Actually I think most of you don’t... But we have a real live Dallas sports fan among us, one of my oldest and closest friends, Mark K. Mark happens to be a Texan by way of Liberia, and he’s the proud owner of his PhD from the University of Texas-Arlington prior to becoming a math professor at Montclair State University. Anyway, Mark takes his Cowboys and Mavericks very seriously, so I’ve always kept a soft spot for the Mavericks in the fifteen years Mark and I know each other. As for the Cowboys, well, the spot’s not so soft, but that’s for another story and column (sorry, Mark). Anyway, the point is that I was actually rooting for the Mavericks in these NBA Finals, rather than purely rooting against the Heat and LeBron.
Did I honestly think the Mavs would win? Not really. Like most folks, I somewhat expected the Heat to win this series in six games, just like they did in 2006. However, because I was rooting for the Mavs, I held onto the belief that anything was possible, and I had been telling anyone who engaged me in an NBA discussion that the Heat could be the 2011 version of those very talented and loaded Philadelphia 76ers teams of 1976-1984 (Julius Erving, George McGinnis, Lloyd B. Free, Doug Collins et al.) who lost in the 1977, 1980 and 1982 NBA Finals before winning in 1983, sweeping the Lakers to polish off a 12-1 postseason led by Moses Malone. The Sixers had so much talent and looked so dominant on paper, but they could never meld together enough to get over the hump during the first three NBA Finals. Just because the Heat looked and talked like the 1927 Yankees and rolled over the Celtics and Bulls en route to the NBA Finals didn’t mean they were an automatic lock for the title. When you’ve been alive for as long as some of us have been, you know sometimes the best team on paper doesn’t translate to being the champion. Need we remind ourselves about the 1954 Indians, 1960 Yankees, 1968 Colts, 1969 Orioles, 1988 Athletics, 1990 Bills and 2007 Patriots, teams who weren’t supposed to have any business losing a World Series or Super Bowl but did.
We can talk ad nauseum about the Heat blew fourth quarter leads, let Dallas stay in the series and then panicked when the make-or-break point was reached in game 5. We can talk about how LeBron gave up and came up short time after time after game 3. We can talk about how Eric Spoelstra got outcoached by Rick Carlisle, and how Spoelstra failed to stick with the game plan that got his team to the Finals. We can talk about how the Heat might’ve simply been fortunate to make it to the NBA Finals in the first season of a radically-changed roster that robbed them of legitimate bench depth. We can talk about how the Heat simply melted in the bright lights of the Finals.
But we should talk about how the Mavs with their eclectically put-together roster of Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and a bunch of other guys most casual fans would be hard-pressed to name stuck together, didn’t have massive ego issues to constantly massage, got better as games went into the final stretch, and bailed each other out when someone struggled (see Nowitzki’s sluggish first half game 6 performance). We should talk about how the Mavs simply enjoyed one helluva magic carpet ride that began with sweeping the Lakers during the Western Conference semi-finals. Most importantly, we should talk about how the Mavs were a team of characters with character, as opposed to the Heat being a team of characters who talked the talk but couldn’t walk the walk when it counted most.
Sure, Mavs owner Mark Cuban’s a habitual smart-aleck with a tad too much to say to and about NBA Commissioner David Stern, but there’s a boyish and roguish charm to him we could never really attach to George Steinbrenner during his reign of the Yankees and those seven World Series titles. Sure, Jason Kidd was considered too old, perhaps way past his window for winning it all after coming so close with the Nets a decade ago, perhaps dogged by his reputation of being a coach-killer.
And Nowitzki was seen as “too soft” to win a title in the trenches for big men, under the boards, in the paint, inside the three-point line. We’ve heard the knocks before in all sports when a player is associated with “finesse”, code word for lacking toughness, code word for lacking the heart of a champion. I think Nowitzki put those doubts to rest as he played complete games every night, not just standing at the arc ready to launch rainbows. Nowitzki played injured. Nowitzki played sick. Nowitzki played at less-than-full strength. Nowitzki played his heart out, played like a champion and more than deserved his MVP award.
It wasn’t pretty, but Dirk the Mavs did it. That’s the great thing about baseball, football, hockey and basketball: the scoreboard counts the real points, not style points. Lots of teams look pretty on their way towards failing to win it all, falling on their pedigrees as well as their faces when style and glamour aren’t enough to get the job done. Sports history has more than its share of ugly winners and mutt champions, and in some respects the Mavs were that scruffy mixed-breed that shocked all and won Best in Show.
And just like that scruffy lovable mutt, the Mavs celebrated by proverbially peeing on the expensive rug you forgot to Scotch guard. On one hand, Cuban offers to pay for a team parade in downtown Dallas, but then the multi-billionaire who spared no expense bringing a champion to Dallas tried to con his players into thinking championship rings were out of vogue. On one hand, Nowitzki just spent two months destroying all preconceived myths about his heart, toughness and “Euroness”, then someone allowed him to imitate Freddie Mercury and sing We are the Champions. For all the years folks joked about Nowitzki sounding like Ivan Drago from Rocky IV when he talked, Nowitzki’s singing has now made that image permanent folklore. But who cares? Nowitzki was having fun he more than earned. When you’re a mutt with a waggly tail, that piercing howl seems cute even if it was painful to listen to.
And this is what Dirk and the Mavs reminded us all in these NBA Finals: when you’re a true team, a team with character, you just go out there, do the best you can and have fun trying to win. Sure, Dirk and the Mavs were playing with house money in these NBA Finals. Sure, the pressure was all on the Heat. But the Heat put that pressure on themselves from their very first South Beach pep rally. The Heat already won a title in 2006. Miami fans were hardly long-suffering. LeBron didn’t promise to bring Miami fans out of darkness or give them anything overdue or eternally denied. LeBron came to South Beach to win himself multiple NBA titles and Miami fans would have the privilege of adoring him and his buddies as they collected their hardware of entitlement.
Does anyone recall any disingenuous pep rallies or declaration of promises by Dirk and the Mavs? No... Dirk’s been laying it on the line in Dallas for thirteen seasons, trying to win an NBA title for Mavs fans and the Dallas community. Dirk and the Mavs are part of the Dallas community. No matter how many self-promotions, photo-ops or pep rallies they have, LeBron, the Big Three and the entire Heat organization fail to be part of the Miami community.
The other night ESPN Radio’s Bob Valvano asked if folks’ hatred for LeBron James and the Heat through social media venues was a consequence of fans wanting to live vicariously through their sports heroes. While Valvano raises an interesting point I think we need to look to a different factor when it comes to real sports fans, not fans of celebrity. Yes, fans of celebrity likely do wish to live vicariously through their heroes, be they sports stars, actors or musical artists. But this adulation is also likely a reflection of celebrities who consider themselves singular entities. For example, look at all the Hanes underwear commercials with Michael Jordan. Seriously, is Jordan part of any community? Is he a part of Chicago anymore? Is he part of any town or city in North Carolina? Where exactly does Michael Jordan reside anymore, and why should we frankly care? Well, just like kids twenty years ago wanted to be like Mike as he endorsed McDonalds, Nike and Gatorade, now mid-life guys want to “be twins” with him according to how well their boxer briefs and tee shirts fit. Could you honestly imagine sitting next to His Airness on an airplane and wanting to discuss underwear?! No... I want to know how he feels about Scottie Pippen telling ESPN that LeBron could end up being a greater basketball player than the man he rode shotgun to en route to six NBA titles.
Regardless, Michael Jordan doesn’t appear to be a member of any community since he left the Bulls, not to mention his marriage, years ago. Guys like Michael Jordan reside on “Planet Me”, that far-off, groovy metropolis with lots of land and a hermitized mansion on top of a hill overlooking the Land of the Little People, or as LeBron might refer to it as the Land of People who will wake up tomorrow to the same personal problems they had today. The odds of us running into Michael Jordan or LeBron James in our local K-Mart or Target are as likely as us chatting it up about underwear in the first class section of an airplane. LeBron is no more a part of the Cleveland (or more specifically, Akron) or Miami communities as Jordan is of the Chicago or Charlotte communities. Cities like Chicago, Charlotte, Cleveland and Miami are simply places where teams are located, cities for celebrities like Jordan or LeBron to commute to from Planet Me and bestow honor to the regular masses who genuflect to them.
On the other hand, I can see walking through a store in Dallas and seeing Dirk Nowitzki shopping in there. If a seven-foot-tall NBA superstar is willing to look foolish singing very off-key in front of thousands at a victory parade, can’t you imagine running into this man in your local supermarket while he’s buying frozen pizza and a bag of salad? You sense Dirk lives among the fans and folks of Dallas and doesn’t commute down from Planet Me only when there’s a home game. Maybe this is why the affection between Dirk and Dallas has remained mutual for thirteen years in quest of a title, the very first title in Mavs history.
This is where I think the hatred continues to come from, as Valvano wonders, with regards to LeBron and his Heat mates. Jilted fans in Cleveland will always believe LeBron simply didn’t want to commute anymore from Planet Me to the Gund (now the Quicken Loans) Arena, and NBA fans around the country recognize the same thing since LeBron’s Decision eleven months ago. In due time, hard core NBA fans in Miami will start to wonder the same as LeBron commutes from Planet Me to American Airlines Arena and his favorite hot spots among the glitzy in South Beach. But how many city blocks along Collins Boulevard will that genuinely include? Will folks see LeBron buying ice cream at the local Publix? How many PTA events will he show up for at his sons’ local school? Will he ever be anyone’s neighbor during the remaining time of his contract? Just like Michael Jordan, LeBron is becoming a man without a true home. He may be from Akron but he’s no longer welcome by Cleveland. He may have taken his talents to South Beach but he’s hardly a Dade County local. Home will forever be Planet Me, because that’s how celebrities live life shaped by narcissism and phoniness.
On the other hand, despite his prior reputation for being a finesse player and his current reputation for being an awful singer, Dirk Nowitzki will likely remain an adopted son of Dallas and among its tallest locals for years to come, and that’s something real sports fans and real fans of teams can appreciate. Nowitzki wasn’t a mercenary looking to serve his personal agenda above the community and fan base; Nowitzki is one of those sports lifers we only read about in history books, guys who spend an entire career with one team and in one community, who wear their team logo on their sleeve wherever they go in public, because they’re part of the public community and their championship title is their community’s as well. Think about guys like Paul Pierce of the Celtics, or Cal Ripken Jr. of the Orioles, Tony Gwynn of the Padres, or John Elway of the Broncos. Can you even imagine the possibility of Derek Jeter finishing his hall of fame career for a team other than the Yankees? But listen to the chatter on New York sports radio. Because sports is just one big business, the unthinkable could happen and the Captain could be wearing something other than Yankee pinstripes. Some folks may consider this sacrilege but for as much as fans identify Jeter with the Yankees and five World Series rings, is Jeter really part of the New York City community beyond his Manhattan condo, commercial endorsements and the nightclub scene? Have you ever ran into Jeter in a local movie theatre, or at Whole Foods, or at a corner hot dog stand? Derek Jeter’s a celebrity who ventures within a limited radius outside of Planet Me. He’s as limited a part of the local New York community as Donald Trump. New York is their corporate headquarters.
Dirk Nowitzki reminds us of a time when sports heroes were part of the local community and our neighbors. Yes, I’m talking about a time decades ago when professional athletes were paid very modest salaries compared to the megabucks of today. Yes, I’m talking about a time when being a professional athlete was not the year-round occupation it is today. Maybe for many of today’s youth who can’t recall or imagine life before i-Phones, flash drives, flat-screen televisions or email it’s unfathomable for athletes not to be cultural celebrities to adore from afar, but for many of us who grew up before personal computers, cell phones and color television we do remember experiences or stories of our sports heroes living down the street, shopping in the same stores as our parents and their kids attending the same schools as we did. In today’s political world there are so many people eager to turn the clock back to an era when the American Dream was exclusionary, it’s heartwarming to see a professional sports team and athlete who reinforces the inclusiveness of the American Community through good deeds and hard work. Thank you, Dallas Mavericks and Dirk Nowitzki, for reminding sports fans of often-forgotten values about team work and consistent hustle. Thank you, Germany, for providing an athlete who appreciates being a positive bridge between American sports and American society.
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Speaking of European imports being positive bridges for American sports, kudos to 22-year-old U.S. Open champion, Irishman Rory McIlroy, for showing us that class and humility are possible for a young professional golfer while he’s running roughshod over the competition.
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Speaking of youth being served, how many of you are scratching your heads about the Florida Marlins hiring 80-year-old Jack McKeon to be their interim manager to replace Edwin Rodriguez, who suddenly resigned Sunday morning? Let’s not forget that McKeon was interim manager in 2003 and took the Marlins to the World Series title, and he was 72 then! Let’s also not forget that last year when the Marlins fired Freddy Gonzalez as manager, replacing him with Rodriguez, I warned that the Marlins could be a force if they dusted off McKeon and brought him back at 79.
But this year’s Marlins are in much worse shape than last year, and inflicting them on “Trader Jack” who got his first managerial job in 1973, years before any Marlins player was born, is in my mind a cruel form of elder abuse. The Marlins have lost 18 of their last 19 games, falling all the way into the NL East cellar, and Rodriguez simply jumped ship before it completely sunk or owner Jeffrey Loria fired him. But make no mistake: this “June Swoon” by the Marlins is all the players’ doing and they sabotaged Rodriguez just like they did to Gonzalez last year. Sure, the Marlins lost ace Josh Johnson for more than a month to arm woes, Chris Volstad and Javy Vazquez are statistically among the worst starters in the NL this season, and shortstop Hanley Ramirez is underachieving horribly at the plate, but everyday position players like Ramirez have been all mouth for too long without being able to back things up with performance or leadership. Let’s not forget it was Ramirez last year who lead a player revolt against Gonzalez, questioning his credibility as not having prior major league playing experience, and let’s not overlook that Gonzalez is doing a solid job guiding the second-place Atlanta Braves as the hand-picked successor to the retired Bobby Cox.
No, the problem is not, and never was at the managerial level. For all the talent the Marlins have, despite being in the bottom half of MLB payroll rankings, this is roster of too many talkers, incredible immaturity and essentially zero accountability. Maybe McKeon’s legacy and no-nonsense approach will provide the kick in the pants this team needs to straighten out with almost 90 games left in the season, but if Rodriguez, the players’ choice for manager last year, ran out the door after three weeks of stupefying losses, how long will it be before McKeon needs to be wheeled out of the dugout? The Yankees fired a 70-year-old Casey Stengel after the 1960 season because the Ol’ Perfesser used to sleep in the dugout during games, and the Yankees won the AL Pennant that season! Given the level of play and attitude on this Marlins roster, unless McKeon will be kicking asses or trading players, this summer could be his personal suicide pact.
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Speaking of youth not being served, how is it that 19-year-old Kyrie Irving warrants being the top pick by the Cavaliers in the upcoming NBA Draft after playing a grand total of ELEVEN games as a freshman last year for Duke University? Can we stop fooling ourselves and call the draft and the NBA-NCAA “One and Done” rule the mutual farces they are? If Cleveland fans eventually came to loathe LeBron James after seven years in a Cavs uniform, can you imagine the love fest we’ll see in 2018, assuming Mr. Irving manages to stay healthy enough to play that long for the Cavs?
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Speaking of the NCAA, could we stop all this hand wringing and apologizing on behalf of mercenary teenagers masquerading as student-athletes? As we’ve learned from things hitting the fan at Ohio State, there will always be:
1. college football players who have an outlandish sense of entitlement and opinion of self-worth,
2. idiot parents, educators, coaches and boosters who fill these kids’ heads with the idea that they can never do wrong and deserve every reward known to humanity just for the ability to play football, and
3. fools who seem to think paying these kids a salary (in addition to a full four-year scholarship many of these kids waste by not pursuing their education) will suddenly rectify the issue of kids and adults not knowing the difference between right and wrong.
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Speaking of the NBA Draft, was it really 25 years ago Sunday that Len Bias died from a cocaine overdose after being the top draft pick by the Celtics?
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I know we’re slowly coming up to July 4 weekend and the traditional mid-way point of the MLB season, but I still have no real feel for how these divisional races are shaping up. With the exception of the NL East, every division has a fairly tight race among the top three spots. Therefore, whether you attribute things to parity or mediocrity, it looks like we could be in for some exciting and volatile divisional races all summer. Yes, we see the usual suspects at or near the top of their divisions, such as the Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies, as well as the Rangers and Giants, but look at the number of small-to-middle level market teams still in the hunt: Tampa Bay, Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland, Seattle, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Arizona. Even weakened teams with high payrolls like the Mets are hanging tough.
Even horrible starts can be overcome. The Red Sox started 0-6 and 2-10. Now they’re 43-28. The Mets started 5-13. Now they’re 35-37. The Twins were 17-36 coming into the month of June; now they’re 31-39. Already we’re seeing that this season could be a roller coaster like no other. As bad as the Red Sox, Mets and Twins started out, the Rangers and Indians were red hot through April. But injuries and the rhythms of a long season have brought both down to Earth and precariously in first place.
Now we’re going to see how the Cardinals can handle another dose of adversity. After losing pitching ace Adam Wainwright in spring training to elbow surgery the Cardinals managed to stay near the top of the NL Central. The newest member of the extended disabled list is first baseman and pending free agent Albert Pujols. Pujols suffered a fracture to his left forearm after a freak collision at first base Sunday during a 5-4 win over the Royals. Pujols will be lost for approximately six weeks. Manager Tony LaRussa has been a master of holding the Cards together through adversity and has so far done a solid job of managing this season. But losing Pujols for six weeks could hurt plenty in a division with
the Cards, Brewers, Reds and Pirates all within four games of each other. In the past, LaRussa’s Cards have been fortunate enough to survive a very weak division. Now the competition is slowly improving and maturing. Perhaps this year won’t be as lucky for the Cardinals.
Regardless, it’s wonderful to see so many teams in the hunt going into summer, giving local fans reason to keep attending games. In cities long-suppressed by economic woes, such as Cleveland, Detroit and Pittsburgh, it’s good to see baseball looking good in all three traditionally great baseball cities.
And, in case you haven’t noticed, there are some very good managing jobs being done so far by Clint Hurdle in Pittsburgh, Terry Collins with the Mets, Manny Acta in Cleveland and Jim Riggleman with the Nationals. Maybe none of these teams will ultimately have a winning season, much less make the post-season, but for now it’s good to see good baseball men getting the most out of teams we normally don’t mention in the same breath as the Yankees, Red Sox or Phillies.
Wouldn’t it be great if we got all the way to September and still didn’t know how these divisional races will shape up?!
Keep an eye on how Tigers starter Justin Verlander does the rest of this season. I predict we could see the first pitcher since Nolan Ryan in 1973 to throw two no-hitters during the same regular season. I love no-hitters, and love perfect games even more. Verlander could give us a few more special moments this season. He’s already tossed one no-no and came within five outs of a second, and we’re not even at the All-Star break yet.
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Last thought: Will somebody PLEASE instruct all former New York Giants football players to shut up, or at least stop using inappropriate historical references or hyperbole during interviews? First Tiki Barber keeps inserting foot in mouth with regards to his premature retirement in 2007, his personal problems since retirement, and now his pending return to football. Add in stupid comments from Amani Toomer and George Martin with regards to the current NFL lockout and CBA negotiations. Next we have Plaxico Burress, fresh from a two-year prison stay for accidently firing an illegal handgun in a New York nightclub, blaming everyone for his legal problems except himself. Now David Tyree, the man who made the most memorable catch in Super Bowl history when the Giants beat the Patriots three years ago, telling the New York Daily News that if New York State passes gay marriage legislation, “there will be anarchy.” Anarchy?! Really? REALLY?!
Obviously, Tyree feels religious doctrine, intolerance, fear and bigotry need to shape the civil rights of Americans. What’s Tyree afraid of if gay marriage becomes the law? Is he afraid there will be an exponential explosion in wedding registries for fondue pots, silly cake serving pieces no one really uses and applications for wedding licenses and divorces? Obviously he can’t be afraid of two human beings, regardless of gender or sexuality being able to love, live together and take care of each other the same way his kind of people do, can he? Tyree must be the voice of reason in a world gone mad, right? So clearly Tyree fears the madhouse Bloomingdales might become. That’s clearly what he means by “anarchy”, right? After all, if there’s one thing former New York Giants are known for, it’s using words in their correct context.
First, as a promise to one of my loyal readers in Germany, Sabine G., I begin with the recently completed NBA Finals, or more specifically, the champion Dallas Mavericks and Sabine’s fellow countryperson, Dirk Nowitzki. Yes, like many folks, I rooted for the Mavericks to beat the Miami Heat, but unlike many, I rooted for the Mavericks as an honest-to-goodness pro-Mavericks supporter as opposed to a Heat (or more specifically LeBron James) hater. Don’t get me wrong... I have very little use for the Heat or Mr. James, not to mention Dwayne Wade or GM Pat Riley. On the other hand, I have a sliver of empathy and sympathy for head coach Eric Spoelstra and Chris Bosh because they seem to be genuinely sensitive guys with little phoniness. But my point is that as difficult as it is to like the Heat and their imported collection of stars, it was very easy to like the Mavericks and their merry band of players.
In case some of you don’t know... Actually I think most of you don’t... But we have a real live Dallas sports fan among us, one of my oldest and closest friends, Mark K. Mark happens to be a Texan by way of Liberia, and he’s the proud owner of his PhD from the University of Texas-Arlington prior to becoming a math professor at Montclair State University. Anyway, Mark takes his Cowboys and Mavericks very seriously, so I’ve always kept a soft spot for the Mavericks in the fifteen years Mark and I know each other. As for the Cowboys, well, the spot’s not so soft, but that’s for another story and column (sorry, Mark). Anyway, the point is that I was actually rooting for the Mavericks in these NBA Finals, rather than purely rooting against the Heat and LeBron.
Did I honestly think the Mavs would win? Not really. Like most folks, I somewhat expected the Heat to win this series in six games, just like they did in 2006. However, because I was rooting for the Mavs, I held onto the belief that anything was possible, and I had been telling anyone who engaged me in an NBA discussion that the Heat could be the 2011 version of those very talented and loaded Philadelphia 76ers teams of 1976-1984 (Julius Erving, George McGinnis, Lloyd B. Free, Doug Collins et al.) who lost in the 1977, 1980 and 1982 NBA Finals before winning in 1983, sweeping the Lakers to polish off a 12-1 postseason led by Moses Malone. The Sixers had so much talent and looked so dominant on paper, but they could never meld together enough to get over the hump during the first three NBA Finals. Just because the Heat looked and talked like the 1927 Yankees and rolled over the Celtics and Bulls en route to the NBA Finals didn’t mean they were an automatic lock for the title. When you’ve been alive for as long as some of us have been, you know sometimes the best team on paper doesn’t translate to being the champion. Need we remind ourselves about the 1954 Indians, 1960 Yankees, 1968 Colts, 1969 Orioles, 1988 Athletics, 1990 Bills and 2007 Patriots, teams who weren’t supposed to have any business losing a World Series or Super Bowl but did.
We can talk ad nauseum about the Heat blew fourth quarter leads, let Dallas stay in the series and then panicked when the make-or-break point was reached in game 5. We can talk about how LeBron gave up and came up short time after time after game 3. We can talk about how Eric Spoelstra got outcoached by Rick Carlisle, and how Spoelstra failed to stick with the game plan that got his team to the Finals. We can talk about how the Heat might’ve simply been fortunate to make it to the NBA Finals in the first season of a radically-changed roster that robbed them of legitimate bench depth. We can talk about how the Heat simply melted in the bright lights of the Finals.
But we should talk about how the Mavs with their eclectically put-together roster of Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and a bunch of other guys most casual fans would be hard-pressed to name stuck together, didn’t have massive ego issues to constantly massage, got better as games went into the final stretch, and bailed each other out when someone struggled (see Nowitzki’s sluggish first half game 6 performance). We should talk about how the Mavs simply enjoyed one helluva magic carpet ride that began with sweeping the Lakers during the Western Conference semi-finals. Most importantly, we should talk about how the Mavs were a team of characters with character, as opposed to the Heat being a team of characters who talked the talk but couldn’t walk the walk when it counted most.
Sure, Mavs owner Mark Cuban’s a habitual smart-aleck with a tad too much to say to and about NBA Commissioner David Stern, but there’s a boyish and roguish charm to him we could never really attach to George Steinbrenner during his reign of the Yankees and those seven World Series titles. Sure, Jason Kidd was considered too old, perhaps way past his window for winning it all after coming so close with the Nets a decade ago, perhaps dogged by his reputation of being a coach-killer.
And Nowitzki was seen as “too soft” to win a title in the trenches for big men, under the boards, in the paint, inside the three-point line. We’ve heard the knocks before in all sports when a player is associated with “finesse”, code word for lacking toughness, code word for lacking the heart of a champion. I think Nowitzki put those doubts to rest as he played complete games every night, not just standing at the arc ready to launch rainbows. Nowitzki played injured. Nowitzki played sick. Nowitzki played at less-than-full strength. Nowitzki played his heart out, played like a champion and more than deserved his MVP award.
It wasn’t pretty, but Dirk the Mavs did it. That’s the great thing about baseball, football, hockey and basketball: the scoreboard counts the real points, not style points. Lots of teams look pretty on their way towards failing to win it all, falling on their pedigrees as well as their faces when style and glamour aren’t enough to get the job done. Sports history has more than its share of ugly winners and mutt champions, and in some respects the Mavs were that scruffy mixed-breed that shocked all and won Best in Show.
And just like that scruffy lovable mutt, the Mavs celebrated by proverbially peeing on the expensive rug you forgot to Scotch guard. On one hand, Cuban offers to pay for a team parade in downtown Dallas, but then the multi-billionaire who spared no expense bringing a champion to Dallas tried to con his players into thinking championship rings were out of vogue. On one hand, Nowitzki just spent two months destroying all preconceived myths about his heart, toughness and “Euroness”, then someone allowed him to imitate Freddie Mercury and sing We are the Champions. For all the years folks joked about Nowitzki sounding like Ivan Drago from Rocky IV when he talked, Nowitzki’s singing has now made that image permanent folklore. But who cares? Nowitzki was having fun he more than earned. When you’re a mutt with a waggly tail, that piercing howl seems cute even if it was painful to listen to.
And this is what Dirk and the Mavs reminded us all in these NBA Finals: when you’re a true team, a team with character, you just go out there, do the best you can and have fun trying to win. Sure, Dirk and the Mavs were playing with house money in these NBA Finals. Sure, the pressure was all on the Heat. But the Heat put that pressure on themselves from their very first South Beach pep rally. The Heat already won a title in 2006. Miami fans were hardly long-suffering. LeBron didn’t promise to bring Miami fans out of darkness or give them anything overdue or eternally denied. LeBron came to South Beach to win himself multiple NBA titles and Miami fans would have the privilege of adoring him and his buddies as they collected their hardware of entitlement.
Does anyone recall any disingenuous pep rallies or declaration of promises by Dirk and the Mavs? No... Dirk’s been laying it on the line in Dallas for thirteen seasons, trying to win an NBA title for Mavs fans and the Dallas community. Dirk and the Mavs are part of the Dallas community. No matter how many self-promotions, photo-ops or pep rallies they have, LeBron, the Big Three and the entire Heat organization fail to be part of the Miami community.
The other night ESPN Radio’s Bob Valvano asked if folks’ hatred for LeBron James and the Heat through social media venues was a consequence of fans wanting to live vicariously through their sports heroes. While Valvano raises an interesting point I think we need to look to a different factor when it comes to real sports fans, not fans of celebrity. Yes, fans of celebrity likely do wish to live vicariously through their heroes, be they sports stars, actors or musical artists. But this adulation is also likely a reflection of celebrities who consider themselves singular entities. For example, look at all the Hanes underwear commercials with Michael Jordan. Seriously, is Jordan part of any community? Is he a part of Chicago anymore? Is he part of any town or city in North Carolina? Where exactly does Michael Jordan reside anymore, and why should we frankly care? Well, just like kids twenty years ago wanted to be like Mike as he endorsed McDonalds, Nike and Gatorade, now mid-life guys want to “be twins” with him according to how well their boxer briefs and tee shirts fit. Could you honestly imagine sitting next to His Airness on an airplane and wanting to discuss underwear?! No... I want to know how he feels about Scottie Pippen telling ESPN that LeBron could end up being a greater basketball player than the man he rode shotgun to en route to six NBA titles.
Regardless, Michael Jordan doesn’t appear to be a member of any community since he left the Bulls, not to mention his marriage, years ago. Guys like Michael Jordan reside on “Planet Me”, that far-off, groovy metropolis with lots of land and a hermitized mansion on top of a hill overlooking the Land of the Little People, or as LeBron might refer to it as the Land of People who will wake up tomorrow to the same personal problems they had today. The odds of us running into Michael Jordan or LeBron James in our local K-Mart or Target are as likely as us chatting it up about underwear in the first class section of an airplane. LeBron is no more a part of the Cleveland (or more specifically, Akron) or Miami communities as Jordan is of the Chicago or Charlotte communities. Cities like Chicago, Charlotte, Cleveland and Miami are simply places where teams are located, cities for celebrities like Jordan or LeBron to commute to from Planet Me and bestow honor to the regular masses who genuflect to them.
On the other hand, I can see walking through a store in Dallas and seeing Dirk Nowitzki shopping in there. If a seven-foot-tall NBA superstar is willing to look foolish singing very off-key in front of thousands at a victory parade, can’t you imagine running into this man in your local supermarket while he’s buying frozen pizza and a bag of salad? You sense Dirk lives among the fans and folks of Dallas and doesn’t commute down from Planet Me only when there’s a home game. Maybe this is why the affection between Dirk and Dallas has remained mutual for thirteen years in quest of a title, the very first title in Mavs history.
This is where I think the hatred continues to come from, as Valvano wonders, with regards to LeBron and his Heat mates. Jilted fans in Cleveland will always believe LeBron simply didn’t want to commute anymore from Planet Me to the Gund (now the Quicken Loans) Arena, and NBA fans around the country recognize the same thing since LeBron’s Decision eleven months ago. In due time, hard core NBA fans in Miami will start to wonder the same as LeBron commutes from Planet Me to American Airlines Arena and his favorite hot spots among the glitzy in South Beach. But how many city blocks along Collins Boulevard will that genuinely include? Will folks see LeBron buying ice cream at the local Publix? How many PTA events will he show up for at his sons’ local school? Will he ever be anyone’s neighbor during the remaining time of his contract? Just like Michael Jordan, LeBron is becoming a man without a true home. He may be from Akron but he’s no longer welcome by Cleveland. He may have taken his talents to South Beach but he’s hardly a Dade County local. Home will forever be Planet Me, because that’s how celebrities live life shaped by narcissism and phoniness.
On the other hand, despite his prior reputation for being a finesse player and his current reputation for being an awful singer, Dirk Nowitzki will likely remain an adopted son of Dallas and among its tallest locals for years to come, and that’s something real sports fans and real fans of teams can appreciate. Nowitzki wasn’t a mercenary looking to serve his personal agenda above the community and fan base; Nowitzki is one of those sports lifers we only read about in history books, guys who spend an entire career with one team and in one community, who wear their team logo on their sleeve wherever they go in public, because they’re part of the public community and their championship title is their community’s as well. Think about guys like Paul Pierce of the Celtics, or Cal Ripken Jr. of the Orioles, Tony Gwynn of the Padres, or John Elway of the Broncos. Can you even imagine the possibility of Derek Jeter finishing his hall of fame career for a team other than the Yankees? But listen to the chatter on New York sports radio. Because sports is just one big business, the unthinkable could happen and the Captain could be wearing something other than Yankee pinstripes. Some folks may consider this sacrilege but for as much as fans identify Jeter with the Yankees and five World Series rings, is Jeter really part of the New York City community beyond his Manhattan condo, commercial endorsements and the nightclub scene? Have you ever ran into Jeter in a local movie theatre, or at Whole Foods, or at a corner hot dog stand? Derek Jeter’s a celebrity who ventures within a limited radius outside of Planet Me. He’s as limited a part of the local New York community as Donald Trump. New York is their corporate headquarters.
Dirk Nowitzki reminds us of a time when sports heroes were part of the local community and our neighbors. Yes, I’m talking about a time decades ago when professional athletes were paid very modest salaries compared to the megabucks of today. Yes, I’m talking about a time when being a professional athlete was not the year-round occupation it is today. Maybe for many of today’s youth who can’t recall or imagine life before i-Phones, flash drives, flat-screen televisions or email it’s unfathomable for athletes not to be cultural celebrities to adore from afar, but for many of us who grew up before personal computers, cell phones and color television we do remember experiences or stories of our sports heroes living down the street, shopping in the same stores as our parents and their kids attending the same schools as we did. In today’s political world there are so many people eager to turn the clock back to an era when the American Dream was exclusionary, it’s heartwarming to see a professional sports team and athlete who reinforces the inclusiveness of the American Community through good deeds and hard work. Thank you, Dallas Mavericks and Dirk Nowitzki, for reminding sports fans of often-forgotten values about team work and consistent hustle. Thank you, Germany, for providing an athlete who appreciates being a positive bridge between American sports and American society.
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Speaking of European imports being positive bridges for American sports, kudos to 22-year-old U.S. Open champion, Irishman Rory McIlroy, for showing us that class and humility are possible for a young professional golfer while he’s running roughshod over the competition.
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Speaking of youth being served, how many of you are scratching your heads about the Florida Marlins hiring 80-year-old Jack McKeon to be their interim manager to replace Edwin Rodriguez, who suddenly resigned Sunday morning? Let’s not forget that McKeon was interim manager in 2003 and took the Marlins to the World Series title, and he was 72 then! Let’s also not forget that last year when the Marlins fired Freddy Gonzalez as manager, replacing him with Rodriguez, I warned that the Marlins could be a force if they dusted off McKeon and brought him back at 79.
But this year’s Marlins are in much worse shape than last year, and inflicting them on “Trader Jack” who got his first managerial job in 1973, years before any Marlins player was born, is in my mind a cruel form of elder abuse. The Marlins have lost 18 of their last 19 games, falling all the way into the NL East cellar, and Rodriguez simply jumped ship before it completely sunk or owner Jeffrey Loria fired him. But make no mistake: this “June Swoon” by the Marlins is all the players’ doing and they sabotaged Rodriguez just like they did to Gonzalez last year. Sure, the Marlins lost ace Josh Johnson for more than a month to arm woes, Chris Volstad and Javy Vazquez are statistically among the worst starters in the NL this season, and shortstop Hanley Ramirez is underachieving horribly at the plate, but everyday position players like Ramirez have been all mouth for too long without being able to back things up with performance or leadership. Let’s not forget it was Ramirez last year who lead a player revolt against Gonzalez, questioning his credibility as not having prior major league playing experience, and let’s not overlook that Gonzalez is doing a solid job guiding the second-place Atlanta Braves as the hand-picked successor to the retired Bobby Cox.
No, the problem is not, and never was at the managerial level. For all the talent the Marlins have, despite being in the bottom half of MLB payroll rankings, this is roster of too many talkers, incredible immaturity and essentially zero accountability. Maybe McKeon’s legacy and no-nonsense approach will provide the kick in the pants this team needs to straighten out with almost 90 games left in the season, but if Rodriguez, the players’ choice for manager last year, ran out the door after three weeks of stupefying losses, how long will it be before McKeon needs to be wheeled out of the dugout? The Yankees fired a 70-year-old Casey Stengel after the 1960 season because the Ol’ Perfesser used to sleep in the dugout during games, and the Yankees won the AL Pennant that season! Given the level of play and attitude on this Marlins roster, unless McKeon will be kicking asses or trading players, this summer could be his personal suicide pact.
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Speaking of youth not being served, how is it that 19-year-old Kyrie Irving warrants being the top pick by the Cavaliers in the upcoming NBA Draft after playing a grand total of ELEVEN games as a freshman last year for Duke University? Can we stop fooling ourselves and call the draft and the NBA-NCAA “One and Done” rule the mutual farces they are? If Cleveland fans eventually came to loathe LeBron James after seven years in a Cavs uniform, can you imagine the love fest we’ll see in 2018, assuming Mr. Irving manages to stay healthy enough to play that long for the Cavs?
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Speaking of the NCAA, could we stop all this hand wringing and apologizing on behalf of mercenary teenagers masquerading as student-athletes? As we’ve learned from things hitting the fan at Ohio State, there will always be:
1. college football players who have an outlandish sense of entitlement and opinion of self-worth,
2. idiot parents, educators, coaches and boosters who fill these kids’ heads with the idea that they can never do wrong and deserve every reward known to humanity just for the ability to play football, and
3. fools who seem to think paying these kids a salary (in addition to a full four-year scholarship many of these kids waste by not pursuing their education) will suddenly rectify the issue of kids and adults not knowing the difference between right and wrong.
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Speaking of the NBA Draft, was it really 25 years ago Sunday that Len Bias died from a cocaine overdose after being the top draft pick by the Celtics?
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I know we’re slowly coming up to July 4 weekend and the traditional mid-way point of the MLB season, but I still have no real feel for how these divisional races are shaping up. With the exception of the NL East, every division has a fairly tight race among the top three spots. Therefore, whether you attribute things to parity or mediocrity, it looks like we could be in for some exciting and volatile divisional races all summer. Yes, we see the usual suspects at or near the top of their divisions, such as the Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies, as well as the Rangers and Giants, but look at the number of small-to-middle level market teams still in the hunt: Tampa Bay, Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland, Seattle, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Arizona. Even weakened teams with high payrolls like the Mets are hanging tough.
Even horrible starts can be overcome. The Red Sox started 0-6 and 2-10. Now they’re 43-28. The Mets started 5-13. Now they’re 35-37. The Twins were 17-36 coming into the month of June; now they’re 31-39. Already we’re seeing that this season could be a roller coaster like no other. As bad as the Red Sox, Mets and Twins started out, the Rangers and Indians were red hot through April. But injuries and the rhythms of a long season have brought both down to Earth and precariously in first place.
Now we’re going to see how the Cardinals can handle another dose of adversity. After losing pitching ace Adam Wainwright in spring training to elbow surgery the Cardinals managed to stay near the top of the NL Central. The newest member of the extended disabled list is first baseman and pending free agent Albert Pujols. Pujols suffered a fracture to his left forearm after a freak collision at first base Sunday during a 5-4 win over the Royals. Pujols will be lost for approximately six weeks. Manager Tony LaRussa has been a master of holding the Cards together through adversity and has so far done a solid job of managing this season. But losing Pujols for six weeks could hurt plenty in a division with
the Cards, Brewers, Reds and Pirates all within four games of each other. In the past, LaRussa’s Cards have been fortunate enough to survive a very weak division. Now the competition is slowly improving and maturing. Perhaps this year won’t be as lucky for the Cardinals.
Regardless, it’s wonderful to see so many teams in the hunt going into summer, giving local fans reason to keep attending games. In cities long-suppressed by economic woes, such as Cleveland, Detroit and Pittsburgh, it’s good to see baseball looking good in all three traditionally great baseball cities.
And, in case you haven’t noticed, there are some very good managing jobs being done so far by Clint Hurdle in Pittsburgh, Terry Collins with the Mets, Manny Acta in Cleveland and Jim Riggleman with the Nationals. Maybe none of these teams will ultimately have a winning season, much less make the post-season, but for now it’s good to see good baseball men getting the most out of teams we normally don’t mention in the same breath as the Yankees, Red Sox or Phillies.
Wouldn’t it be great if we got all the way to September and still didn’t know how these divisional races will shape up?!
Keep an eye on how Tigers starter Justin Verlander does the rest of this season. I predict we could see the first pitcher since Nolan Ryan in 1973 to throw two no-hitters during the same regular season. I love no-hitters, and love perfect games even more. Verlander could give us a few more special moments this season. He’s already tossed one no-no and came within five outs of a second, and we’re not even at the All-Star break yet.
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Last thought: Will somebody PLEASE instruct all former New York Giants football players to shut up, or at least stop using inappropriate historical references or hyperbole during interviews? First Tiki Barber keeps inserting foot in mouth with regards to his premature retirement in 2007, his personal problems since retirement, and now his pending return to football. Add in stupid comments from Amani Toomer and George Martin with regards to the current NFL lockout and CBA negotiations. Next we have Plaxico Burress, fresh from a two-year prison stay for accidently firing an illegal handgun in a New York nightclub, blaming everyone for his legal problems except himself. Now David Tyree, the man who made the most memorable catch in Super Bowl history when the Giants beat the Patriots three years ago, telling the New York Daily News that if New York State passes gay marriage legislation, “there will be anarchy.” Anarchy?! Really? REALLY?!
Obviously, Tyree feels religious doctrine, intolerance, fear and bigotry need to shape the civil rights of Americans. What’s Tyree afraid of if gay marriage becomes the law? Is he afraid there will be an exponential explosion in wedding registries for fondue pots, silly cake serving pieces no one really uses and applications for wedding licenses and divorces? Obviously he can’t be afraid of two human beings, regardless of gender or sexuality being able to love, live together and take care of each other the same way his kind of people do, can he? Tyree must be the voice of reason in a world gone mad, right? So clearly Tyree fears the madhouse Bloomingdales might become. That’s clearly what he means by “anarchy”, right? After all, if there’s one thing former New York Giants are known for, it’s using words in their correct context.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Fighting to Live or Fighting for Legacy? -- Sports Thoughts for May 24, 2011
The recent news that Lance Armstrong has been “sold out” by some of his fellow Tour de France racing buddies returns us to the nasty topic of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), integrity of competition, and whether the United States government has a continued obligation to hold athletes who dope accountable. Like many of you, I watched Sunday night’s “60 Minutes” interview with Tyler Hamilton. I don’t know how any of you felt, but I had some issues with Hamilton’s appearance and credibility while interviewed by Scott Pelley. Then again, I have some issues with the credibility of all of these cyclists when it comes to PEDs, testing and legitimacy of the sport. In my mind, they all used PEDs, whether it’s steroids or Erythropoietin (EPO). In my mind, they all doped and cheated for an unfair competitive edge. In my mind, they deliberately compromised their long-term health for short-term rewards in fame and riches. In my mind, no matter how many times former and current associates make or deny allegations, Lance Armstrong is among the guilty. No matter how many public protestations and “clean” urine or blood tests he claims, Lance Armstrong is no cleaner than any of the rest of these guys.
Isn’t it funny how Armstrong continuously boasts about how many tests he’s come up “clean” -- or never been caught? First, as someone who’s been involved in several litigations over the past few years, I can tell you that there’s a very subtle yet distinct difference between “innocent” and “not guilty.” We obviously learned about this difference back to the O.J. Simpson murder and wrongful death trials, so it shouldn’t shock any of you to hear me say that “not guilty” simply means someone’s lucky enough to have an attorney slick enough to find enough loopholes and technicalities within our judicial system to help a client get away with something. If you’re “innocent” that means you’re clean and didn’t do anything you’ve been charged with. But defendants don’t plead “innocent” in a court of law; they plead “not guilty.” It’s sort of like those old James Cagney films where his gangster (NOT gangsta) characters would declare, you ain’t got nothing on me!
The more we listen to Lance Armstrong defend himself against these pinheads willing to help serve him to the feds, the more I hear Jimmy Cagney’s voice and defiance towards anyone and everyone who thought they were going to get him in the movie. Like Al Capone, no one seems to be able to find enough evidence to make guilt stick on Armstrong, but just like that little tax evasion thing, you sense Armstrong’s gonna get it in the end. Somehow we expect one little thing to finally trip him up and expose him for using EPO and other PEDs, not to mention shedding light on how no single urine or blood test by anti-doping professionals exists with the proof needed to verify his cheating mindset.
This being all said, I now wish to come to the debate from a completely different reference point, that of a former football player, an academically trained scientist with biomedical research experience, and a two-time cancer survivor. Yesterday evening I joined into a Twitter debate and said, “Cheating wrong, period. Cheating worse for cancer patient. Cheapens the recovery. Misguided priorities.” Naturally, my tweet raised eyebrows and disagreement, which I was perfectly fine with. However, when you share thoughts 140 characters at a time, you need to expand and contextualize your words. My main point is that any use of PEDs is wrong, no matter the sport, athlete or circumstances, especially since no one physician has come forward in all these years to say Lance Armstrong was legally prescribed EPO as part of his cancer care all those years ago.
Therefore, despite the incredible battle Armstrong had to wage against an aggressive form of testicular cancer, his worldwide advocacy efforts to raise funds for cancer research, and his well-chronicled story of survival and return to championship-caliber form, his use of EPO (assuming he did use it) indeed cheapens his recovery from cancer. Why? Because I’m not convinced beating cancer was his primary goal, as obscene a suggestion as that might be.
Assuming you’re still reading, let’s think about it for a moment or two... Lance Armstrong, a world-class competitive cyclist, was battling a metastatic cancer most predicted could kill him, and at the same time, was training to be the same world-class competitive cyclist he was beforehand. Despite the toxic chemotherapy he endured in order to destroy the cancer throughout his body, Armstrong got stronger, returned to form relatively quickly, and has allegedly been cancer-free ever since. And... Despite all the different chemicals injected into his body and bloodstream, not once has he allegedly ever tested positive for even trace amounts of anything considered illegal or controlled by the strictest of FDA (Food and Drug Administration) or DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) regulations. Not only did Armstrong live strong, he lived clean.
Okay, allow me to challenge this wonderful and amazing story one point at a time:
1. When I was treated for cancer-like growths between 1991 and 1995, this included three years of taking Methotrexate, a pretty nasty and toxic anticancer drug that supposedly stays in your system for 3-5 times as long as you’re taking the drug. Why do such drugs work this way? Consider it analogous to fumigating homes for bedbugs. Not only do you want to kill off every single bedbug, you want to kill off every laid egg, as well as the eggs inside every living and potentially living bedbug. In other words, the goal is to kill off several generations (present and future) of bedbugs so you’ll never have this problem again. In the logic of killing cancer with chemotherapy, the goal is to kill all the current and potential future forms or variations of a cancer, so it doesn’t present a recurring illness. So, while I took Methotrexate for three years, the drug stayed in my system for approximately a decade after treatments ended, and thank goodness, I’ve been cancer, tumor, growth-free since 1996.
2. When drugs stay in your system for long periods of time, the human body naturally experiences some minor or major side-effects, and perhaps those side-effects prevent your body from functioning at peak level compared to your pre-illness days. Case in point, I recently underwent a urine drug screen as part of my pain management protocol, and my urine tested positive for trace levels of a narcotic pain drug I hadn’t taken for twenty months. There could be any number of explanations; the most likely is that my liver may not have been effectively detoxifying my body like it used to. If you’re on chronic pain management drugs for a few years, there’s a good chance it could impair your liver. I happen to now take a medication that flushes out my liver and helps improve the detoxification process, so perhaps in the near future my liver will be in better shape than recently. Even if a good chunk of my spine wasn’t held together by titanium hardware, and I wasn’t an orthopedist’s or neurologist’s nightmare, a medication-impaired liver more than stands in the way of me ever regaining the athletic form of my youth. It’s part of aging. I shouldn’t expect to ever regain the body I had thirty years ago and feel inspired to return to the football field.
3. If EPO is some kind of miracle drug that turns the clock back and restores one to a young and pre-cancer body and energy level, why haven’t we heard about it from the American Cancer Society and other cancer expert organizations? How do we know what secondary harm EPO might be doing to Armstrong’s body all these years? Remember Lyle Alzado and how youthful and buff he looked before a failed comeback with the Raiders in 1991-1992? Alzado said it was a new diet, exercise regimen, and perspective on life. Less than a year later he had inoperable brain cancer and blamed it on steroid abuse. It wasn’t much longer before Alzado was dead at 43. What if EPO helps restore your body and counteracts all the physical toll chemotherapy takes? If that was the case, why doesn’t the American Cancer Society, or any other major cancer advocacy organization, cancer researcher, cancer care facility, or medical association endorse the use of EPO in conjunction with chemotherapy or other cancer treatment protocols?
4. For approximately a decade, we’ve heard about cancer, recovery, revival and resurrection all through the mouth of Lance Armstrong and his inner circle of physicians, agents, trainers and friends, what we can essentially call “Team Lance.” We see tumors all over his body, then we don’t see them at all. We see an emaciated man struggling to survive, then we see a world-class athlete ready to reclaim his throne as Tour de France champion. We hear rumors of extra help, but no one can ever catch him doping. Through all of this, Team Lance regulates the story, the data and the message we’re all expected to hear and believe. As far as Team lance is concerned, we’re all supposed to believe Armstrong’s alive and well, forever cancer-free, clean as a whistle and a multi-time champion well beyond reproach. Sure, that’s what we’re being told, but what are we not being told at the same time? What ticking time bomb is eating away at Armstrong, potentially leading him to an early demise as Alzado’s? We’ll never know because Team Lance makes sure they’ll never tell. Those who dare to talk outside the circle all find themselves considerably outside the circle.
5. What was Armstrong’s top priority and motivation when he began he journey from tumor-riddled man potentially facing his maker? Was his top priority to beat cancer and live the healthiest life possible until a ripe old age, or was it to ensure “Tour de France champion” was at the very beginning of his obituary, whenever the day came to write it? Think about it... If G-d came down from the heavens to you and told you the trade-off for beating an insidious disease was life to a ripe old age but with only five attributes you could include on your tombstone, what would they be? Would you want to be recalled as a good spouse, parent, friend, lover, community pillar, or someone of dignity and integrity, or would you want to be recalled for some superficial fame that really doesn’t define you as a person? Benjamin Franklin once said, “I’d rather people say ‘he lived a useful life’ rather than ‘he died rich.’” Maybe being remembered as the greatest cyclist ever matter more to Armstrong than what he stood for as a man. After all, Ted Williams wanted people to say, “there’s the greatest hitter of all time” whenever he walked down the street. Maybe if Teddy Ballgame saw life just a little bit beyond his exploits at Fenway Park his family wouldn’t have sold his dead body for deep freezing like a stripped-down Buick.
I can’t speak for Armstrong, just as I can’t be the moralist in this debate. I don’t know what it’s like to be a “champion” or the “best” in any arena of life. I’m just like the vast majority of folks on Earth, a run-of-the-mill, 44-regular, off-the-rack person. When I played football I played for horrendous teams and enjoyed just being part of the action and the lifetime of jokes I can share later on about the experience. I had no delusions about glory and trophies or busts bearing my face. I played to earn my scholarship, played for the love of contact, played for the love of being on the field, even when my time was when games were hopelessly out of reach (usually with us on the losing end), and didn’t really put up a fight when John McKay chased me off to graduate school. Football was a fun chapter of my young life, and I was already looking forward to the next chapter of life in academia and chemistry labs. By the time I became a cancer patient, my football career was already seven years in the past. My objective was to beat the cancer, and keep living a life I still saw evolving in front of me as a person of faith, integrity, knowledge and relationships. Even if it was remotely possible, there’s no way I would’ve gone to my doctors in 1991 and said, give me back the athletically powerful body I had in 1981. Chances are none of you would consider saying that either, but maybe that’s because none of us see our lives the way Armstrong saw and continues to see his.
Perhaps Armstrong made his deal with the Devil, and perhaps the bill for that deal will come due later on in a much crueler way than his first bout with cancer did. What will be our reaction then, regardless of what the feds and anti-doping experts find out? Will we be as conflicted as we are now, or will our response be more in-line with how we respond to the growing list of cheats who fall from grace?
We react as viscerally as we do, pro or con, because nothing is crystal clear with Armstrong. On one hand, he’s a cancer survivor, raised tons of money for cancer research, inspired an entire nation with Live Strong wrist bands, had a very public romance with Cheryl Crow, and above all, a multi-time Tour de France champion. On the other hand, he bailed out on Crow as soon as she was diagnosed with cancer, too many rumors continue to circle him like vultures in the desert, too many former associates are willing to talk, too many responses seem inadequate, claiming “you’ve never caught me” as opposed to “I’ve never put my body at risk,” too many questions simply won’t go away, too many sponsors seem skittish, and worst of all, too many folks are no longer buying what he’s selling. We wanted to believe the best about him, and many still do, but heroes can be tainted, and Armstrong may end up being just as human and flawed as the rest of us.
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Are you a professional basketball player or major league baseball coach? Are you feeling cranky and tired of fans who say what’s on their minds at the arena or ballpark? Need to alleviate all that built-up stress from being in front of thousands with nowhere to hide? I got it! Why not shoot off a few sexuality slurs and take a load off your back?! Yep, this apparently is the new trend in MLB and the NBA. First Atlanta Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell spewed invectives and threats toward a few fans in San Francisco, then the Lakers Kobe Bryant gave a referee a piece of his mind during a game, now Chicago Bulls forward Joakim Noah is $50,000 lighter in the pockets after calling a Miami Heat fan the “new F word.” I guess because Noah apologized during his post-game media session NBA Commissioner David Stern decided not to fine him the same $100,000 Bryant was fined. No matter how you look at it, it seems like the people we collectively pay millions to to entertain us over six-month seasons continue to fail as members of our community-at-large, members of what’s supposed to be a melting pot society, and role models for our nation’s youth.
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Am I the only one who wonders why Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis can’t think before he speaks? Here’s a man who faced capital murder charges after two people were killed in a melee following Super Bowl XXXIV, January 2000, in Atlanta, only to escape with obstruction of justice charges, telling ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio during an interview that the crime rate will increase if there’s no NFL season this fall. Lewis’ qualifier? People will be bored with nothing to do! Crime rate for who?! Is the NFL’s version of Inspector Clouseau referring to himself and fellow NFL players? Is he referring to the millions of fans who watch NFL games? Maybe an extended lockout might help reduce the testosterone levels of players and fans, reduce the instances of drunk driving, domestic violence, and trips to the emergency room? Maybe we’d see a decline in stupid behavior? Maybe we’ll see historic lows in the amount of body and face paint purchased from hardware stores? Could you imagine how this might affect sales for alcohol, hot dogs, barbeque grills and other supplies, such as big-screen televisions?
Maybe we might see a dramatic increase in book sales or visits to libraries? Maybe we might see an increase in guys going to the movies with their wives, girlfriends and/or families? Who knows? Museums on Sunday could become popular again. Leaves might be raked more regularly. The trash might be taken out more regularly. Maybe even the recycling will be sorted! Women might be able to talk more with their men, no longer doomed to play second-fiddle to the remote control. And you know what THAT can lead to... GARAGE SALES!
PLEASE! For the love of G-d... Settle this collective bargaining deal already! This nation’s balance of nature and order depends on it!
All kidding aside, perhaps Mr. Lewis might wish to consult Denver Broncos safety David Bruton on what to do when there’s down time from the NFL. Bruton’s been working as a $90/day substitute teacher in Ohio since the lockout started. Bruton, who graduated from Notre Dame with a degree in Political Science, has taught second graders, middle and high-school level social studies, and today he’s teaching a tenth-grade geometry class, telling ESPN’s First Take crew, “I had to re-learn all that math I haven’t taken since my freshman year at Notre Dame.”
While the NFL has canceled this year’s annual rookie symposium, not only did the league once again drop the ball on a vital and potentially profound career-shaping experience for young men entering a world of sudden riches, hyped-up expectations and the harsh realities of how fleeting fame and fortune can be, it denied itself the incredible opportunity to take the negative of the lockout and present a positive in the off-season activities of David Bruton. If you know me and regularly read my columns, you know the special regard I have for pursuing higher education and teaching as a vocation and intellectual journey. David Bruton breaks the mold of the standard moron football player with nothing better to do when not on the gridiron or weight room, and just like other wonderful young men like Myron Rolle and Andrew Luck, the NFL continues to screw up royally and invest its hype in the semi-literate, the semi-articulate, and the trouble-making and trouble-finding Neanderthals who get the most exposure for highlight show catches and hits, the kind of on-field play that fuels the off-field idiocy Ray Lewis cutely hints of to Sal Paolantonio. What a shame. What hypocrisy.
Kudos to Bruton for not only doing something productive and positive with his free time, but for demonstrating that professional football players can do something with a genuine college education. Most impressive to this former chemistry and physics professor is that Bruton shows that someone with an academic background outside of math and science CAN successfully utilize faded knowledge. In other words, for all you folks who like to say math wasn’t your thing, well, that’s no longer a valid excuse, courtesy of David Bruton!
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Let me get this straight... Mets owner Fred Wilpon tells the New Yorker that there’s no way he’s paying out “Carl Crawford money” to pending free agent shortstop Jose Reyes, right fielder Carlos Beltran (another pending free agent) is about “65-70% of what he used to be” when he was a younger centerfielder, and third baseman David Wright isn’t a “superstar,” and everyone’s in a tizzy?! Yeah, this is hardly the kind of thing we’d ever expect from Freddy from Lafayette High, but the man’s under enormous stress from the Bernie Madoff mess, he’s disillusioned at how this year’s team will never remind anyone of the 1986 Mets, 25 years after winning an incredible and memorable World Series, and he likely feels like he’s over a financial barrel looking at how fragile the core of a very good team only five years ago seeks new contract security and riches, an investment any reasonable owner would have second, third and tenth thoughts about.
Does it hurt to hear such words from Wilpon? Sure, but is it because the truth may hurt, or is it because we never thought Wilpon would ever take a page out of the Yankees playbook for how to publicly assess stars in the process of passing their prime? Fred Wilpon deserves a lot better than how the federal court system and its appointed trustee, Irving Picard, have treated him. Say what you want about the Mets and the way things have soured since Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS, but this is not the way the team CEO of over thirty years should have to function while his world is repeatedly turned upside-down by things very outside of his control.
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Even if the baseball season doesn’t seem to be going the way some folks want, you have to smile at how the Mets continue to hang tough after a 5-13 start, how the AL East may be a five-team race all summer long, how the Texas Rangers survived 36 games without last year’s MVP Josh Hamilton, how the San Francisco Giants are showing last year’s World Series title might not have been a fluke, and how the Cleveland Indians continue to have MLB’s best record. Yes, you heard me... the Cleveland Indians continue to have MLB’s best record!
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Speaking of David Wright, could all the pontificators of gloom and doom hold off saying anything until Wright comes back from Los Angeles and his scheduled consult with noted back specialist Dr. Robert Watkins? Watkins has a very solid reputation working with professional athletes who endure considerable spinal trauma during competition. If Wright, at only 27-years old, indeed has a spondylolysis after landing on grass during a baseball game, he’s more than entitled to a second opinion from one of the best. Spondylolyses are not to be taken lightly. Ignore one in a 27-year old athlete’s back for several years, and Wright could be staring at a spondylolisthesis, or instability between vertebrae, when he’s in his forties, requiring the kind of extensive fusion surgery I needed a few years ago.
But think about it... Wright lands on grass and the result is a stress fracture between lumbar vertebrae, and we all accept it as cause and effect.
So how is it that GEICO, my former auto insurance company, a company I’m suing in federal court, spends three years insisting that the impact of a Ford pick-up truck, driven approximately 15 miles per hour into the back of my Toyota Corolla (stopped at a Yield sign), crushing the back of my Corolla, could not possibly cause a spondylolysis between vertebrae adjacent to my previously surgically-fused ones? Better yet, how is it that the driver’s auto insurance company, AAA Mid-Atlantic, a company I’m suing in state court, spends three years insisting the same thing, despite the driver’s sworn testimony that he plowed his truck right into the back of my car, declaring his full liability, and AAA Mid-Atlantic declaring my car completely totaled?
That’s two auto insurance companies claiming to know more about orthopedics and Newtonian physics, and willing to fight tooth and nail in court in order to avoid paying out for medical damages. Maybe we should all question whether Wright really hurt himself on that awkward play at third base against the Astros five weeks ago? Maybe Wright slipped in a shower, or hurt it during locker room horseplay, or late-night hijinx in a Manhattan club? No... We’d never consider raising such doubts, because Wright’s one of the legit stars and the face of the Mets. We never question his integrity, especially when we try to understand how a perennial All-Star is hitting so dreadfully at this point of the season. Yes, I believe the injury’s legit and the explanation both logical and probable. So why would two auto insurance companies challenge the veracity or cause of my injuries? Because they believe they and their staff lawyers can get away with it, and who ever stands up on behalf of regular folks like us? If David Wright can’t walk or play baseball again, that’s a major loss to to an organization that invested millions into him. If I can’t walk or enjoy my livelihood again, whose real loss is that? It’s not like any of us are worth that many millions to our employers or financial backers, right?
I don’t begrudge Wright or any athlete their worth or due, but who wrote the rules that makes their well-being more important than anyone else’s? Let’s face it... David Wright could be one major injury or surgery away from becoming a regular folk, just like you and me... Then what would we say about his obtaining a second opinion in Los Angeles?
Just a thought.
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Last thought: Please try to keep former Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter in yours while he seeks treatment at Duke University for four recently-diagnosed small brain tumors.
Isn’t it funny how Armstrong continuously boasts about how many tests he’s come up “clean” -- or never been caught? First, as someone who’s been involved in several litigations over the past few years, I can tell you that there’s a very subtle yet distinct difference between “innocent” and “not guilty.” We obviously learned about this difference back to the O.J. Simpson murder and wrongful death trials, so it shouldn’t shock any of you to hear me say that “not guilty” simply means someone’s lucky enough to have an attorney slick enough to find enough loopholes and technicalities within our judicial system to help a client get away with something. If you’re “innocent” that means you’re clean and didn’t do anything you’ve been charged with. But defendants don’t plead “innocent” in a court of law; they plead “not guilty.” It’s sort of like those old James Cagney films where his gangster (NOT gangsta) characters would declare, you ain’t got nothing on me!
The more we listen to Lance Armstrong defend himself against these pinheads willing to help serve him to the feds, the more I hear Jimmy Cagney’s voice and defiance towards anyone and everyone who thought they were going to get him in the movie. Like Al Capone, no one seems to be able to find enough evidence to make guilt stick on Armstrong, but just like that little tax evasion thing, you sense Armstrong’s gonna get it in the end. Somehow we expect one little thing to finally trip him up and expose him for using EPO and other PEDs, not to mention shedding light on how no single urine or blood test by anti-doping professionals exists with the proof needed to verify his cheating mindset.
This being all said, I now wish to come to the debate from a completely different reference point, that of a former football player, an academically trained scientist with biomedical research experience, and a two-time cancer survivor. Yesterday evening I joined into a Twitter debate and said, “Cheating wrong, period. Cheating worse for cancer patient. Cheapens the recovery. Misguided priorities.” Naturally, my tweet raised eyebrows and disagreement, which I was perfectly fine with. However, when you share thoughts 140 characters at a time, you need to expand and contextualize your words. My main point is that any use of PEDs is wrong, no matter the sport, athlete or circumstances, especially since no one physician has come forward in all these years to say Lance Armstrong was legally prescribed EPO as part of his cancer care all those years ago.
Therefore, despite the incredible battle Armstrong had to wage against an aggressive form of testicular cancer, his worldwide advocacy efforts to raise funds for cancer research, and his well-chronicled story of survival and return to championship-caliber form, his use of EPO (assuming he did use it) indeed cheapens his recovery from cancer. Why? Because I’m not convinced beating cancer was his primary goal, as obscene a suggestion as that might be.
Assuming you’re still reading, let’s think about it for a moment or two... Lance Armstrong, a world-class competitive cyclist, was battling a metastatic cancer most predicted could kill him, and at the same time, was training to be the same world-class competitive cyclist he was beforehand. Despite the toxic chemotherapy he endured in order to destroy the cancer throughout his body, Armstrong got stronger, returned to form relatively quickly, and has allegedly been cancer-free ever since. And... Despite all the different chemicals injected into his body and bloodstream, not once has he allegedly ever tested positive for even trace amounts of anything considered illegal or controlled by the strictest of FDA (Food and Drug Administration) or DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) regulations. Not only did Armstrong live strong, he lived clean.
Okay, allow me to challenge this wonderful and amazing story one point at a time:
1. When I was treated for cancer-like growths between 1991 and 1995, this included three years of taking Methotrexate, a pretty nasty and toxic anticancer drug that supposedly stays in your system for 3-5 times as long as you’re taking the drug. Why do such drugs work this way? Consider it analogous to fumigating homes for bedbugs. Not only do you want to kill off every single bedbug, you want to kill off every laid egg, as well as the eggs inside every living and potentially living bedbug. In other words, the goal is to kill off several generations (present and future) of bedbugs so you’ll never have this problem again. In the logic of killing cancer with chemotherapy, the goal is to kill all the current and potential future forms or variations of a cancer, so it doesn’t present a recurring illness. So, while I took Methotrexate for three years, the drug stayed in my system for approximately a decade after treatments ended, and thank goodness, I’ve been cancer, tumor, growth-free since 1996.
2. When drugs stay in your system for long periods of time, the human body naturally experiences some minor or major side-effects, and perhaps those side-effects prevent your body from functioning at peak level compared to your pre-illness days. Case in point, I recently underwent a urine drug screen as part of my pain management protocol, and my urine tested positive for trace levels of a narcotic pain drug I hadn’t taken for twenty months. There could be any number of explanations; the most likely is that my liver may not have been effectively detoxifying my body like it used to. If you’re on chronic pain management drugs for a few years, there’s a good chance it could impair your liver. I happen to now take a medication that flushes out my liver and helps improve the detoxification process, so perhaps in the near future my liver will be in better shape than recently. Even if a good chunk of my spine wasn’t held together by titanium hardware, and I wasn’t an orthopedist’s or neurologist’s nightmare, a medication-impaired liver more than stands in the way of me ever regaining the athletic form of my youth. It’s part of aging. I shouldn’t expect to ever regain the body I had thirty years ago and feel inspired to return to the football field.
3. If EPO is some kind of miracle drug that turns the clock back and restores one to a young and pre-cancer body and energy level, why haven’t we heard about it from the American Cancer Society and other cancer expert organizations? How do we know what secondary harm EPO might be doing to Armstrong’s body all these years? Remember Lyle Alzado and how youthful and buff he looked before a failed comeback with the Raiders in 1991-1992? Alzado said it was a new diet, exercise regimen, and perspective on life. Less than a year later he had inoperable brain cancer and blamed it on steroid abuse. It wasn’t much longer before Alzado was dead at 43. What if EPO helps restore your body and counteracts all the physical toll chemotherapy takes? If that was the case, why doesn’t the American Cancer Society, or any other major cancer advocacy organization, cancer researcher, cancer care facility, or medical association endorse the use of EPO in conjunction with chemotherapy or other cancer treatment protocols?
4. For approximately a decade, we’ve heard about cancer, recovery, revival and resurrection all through the mouth of Lance Armstrong and his inner circle of physicians, agents, trainers and friends, what we can essentially call “Team Lance.” We see tumors all over his body, then we don’t see them at all. We see an emaciated man struggling to survive, then we see a world-class athlete ready to reclaim his throne as Tour de France champion. We hear rumors of extra help, but no one can ever catch him doping. Through all of this, Team Lance regulates the story, the data and the message we’re all expected to hear and believe. As far as Team lance is concerned, we’re all supposed to believe Armstrong’s alive and well, forever cancer-free, clean as a whistle and a multi-time champion well beyond reproach. Sure, that’s what we’re being told, but what are we not being told at the same time? What ticking time bomb is eating away at Armstrong, potentially leading him to an early demise as Alzado’s? We’ll never know because Team Lance makes sure they’ll never tell. Those who dare to talk outside the circle all find themselves considerably outside the circle.
5. What was Armstrong’s top priority and motivation when he began he journey from tumor-riddled man potentially facing his maker? Was his top priority to beat cancer and live the healthiest life possible until a ripe old age, or was it to ensure “Tour de France champion” was at the very beginning of his obituary, whenever the day came to write it? Think about it... If G-d came down from the heavens to you and told you the trade-off for beating an insidious disease was life to a ripe old age but with only five attributes you could include on your tombstone, what would they be? Would you want to be recalled as a good spouse, parent, friend, lover, community pillar, or someone of dignity and integrity, or would you want to be recalled for some superficial fame that really doesn’t define you as a person? Benjamin Franklin once said, “I’d rather people say ‘he lived a useful life’ rather than ‘he died rich.’” Maybe being remembered as the greatest cyclist ever matter more to Armstrong than what he stood for as a man. After all, Ted Williams wanted people to say, “there’s the greatest hitter of all time” whenever he walked down the street. Maybe if Teddy Ballgame saw life just a little bit beyond his exploits at Fenway Park his family wouldn’t have sold his dead body for deep freezing like a stripped-down Buick.
I can’t speak for Armstrong, just as I can’t be the moralist in this debate. I don’t know what it’s like to be a “champion” or the “best” in any arena of life. I’m just like the vast majority of folks on Earth, a run-of-the-mill, 44-regular, off-the-rack person. When I played football I played for horrendous teams and enjoyed just being part of the action and the lifetime of jokes I can share later on about the experience. I had no delusions about glory and trophies or busts bearing my face. I played to earn my scholarship, played for the love of contact, played for the love of being on the field, even when my time was when games were hopelessly out of reach (usually with us on the losing end), and didn’t really put up a fight when John McKay chased me off to graduate school. Football was a fun chapter of my young life, and I was already looking forward to the next chapter of life in academia and chemistry labs. By the time I became a cancer patient, my football career was already seven years in the past. My objective was to beat the cancer, and keep living a life I still saw evolving in front of me as a person of faith, integrity, knowledge and relationships. Even if it was remotely possible, there’s no way I would’ve gone to my doctors in 1991 and said, give me back the athletically powerful body I had in 1981. Chances are none of you would consider saying that either, but maybe that’s because none of us see our lives the way Armstrong saw and continues to see his.
Perhaps Armstrong made his deal with the Devil, and perhaps the bill for that deal will come due later on in a much crueler way than his first bout with cancer did. What will be our reaction then, regardless of what the feds and anti-doping experts find out? Will we be as conflicted as we are now, or will our response be more in-line with how we respond to the growing list of cheats who fall from grace?
We react as viscerally as we do, pro or con, because nothing is crystal clear with Armstrong. On one hand, he’s a cancer survivor, raised tons of money for cancer research, inspired an entire nation with Live Strong wrist bands, had a very public romance with Cheryl Crow, and above all, a multi-time Tour de France champion. On the other hand, he bailed out on Crow as soon as she was diagnosed with cancer, too many rumors continue to circle him like vultures in the desert, too many former associates are willing to talk, too many responses seem inadequate, claiming “you’ve never caught me” as opposed to “I’ve never put my body at risk,” too many questions simply won’t go away, too many sponsors seem skittish, and worst of all, too many folks are no longer buying what he’s selling. We wanted to believe the best about him, and many still do, but heroes can be tainted, and Armstrong may end up being just as human and flawed as the rest of us.
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Are you a professional basketball player or major league baseball coach? Are you feeling cranky and tired of fans who say what’s on their minds at the arena or ballpark? Need to alleviate all that built-up stress from being in front of thousands with nowhere to hide? I got it! Why not shoot off a few sexuality slurs and take a load off your back?! Yep, this apparently is the new trend in MLB and the NBA. First Atlanta Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell spewed invectives and threats toward a few fans in San Francisco, then the Lakers Kobe Bryant gave a referee a piece of his mind during a game, now Chicago Bulls forward Joakim Noah is $50,000 lighter in the pockets after calling a Miami Heat fan the “new F word.” I guess because Noah apologized during his post-game media session NBA Commissioner David Stern decided not to fine him the same $100,000 Bryant was fined. No matter how you look at it, it seems like the people we collectively pay millions to to entertain us over six-month seasons continue to fail as members of our community-at-large, members of what’s supposed to be a melting pot society, and role models for our nation’s youth.
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Am I the only one who wonders why Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis can’t think before he speaks? Here’s a man who faced capital murder charges after two people were killed in a melee following Super Bowl XXXIV, January 2000, in Atlanta, only to escape with obstruction of justice charges, telling ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio during an interview that the crime rate will increase if there’s no NFL season this fall. Lewis’ qualifier? People will be bored with nothing to do! Crime rate for who?! Is the NFL’s version of Inspector Clouseau referring to himself and fellow NFL players? Is he referring to the millions of fans who watch NFL games? Maybe an extended lockout might help reduce the testosterone levels of players and fans, reduce the instances of drunk driving, domestic violence, and trips to the emergency room? Maybe we’d see a decline in stupid behavior? Maybe we’ll see historic lows in the amount of body and face paint purchased from hardware stores? Could you imagine how this might affect sales for alcohol, hot dogs, barbeque grills and other supplies, such as big-screen televisions?
Maybe we might see a dramatic increase in book sales or visits to libraries? Maybe we might see an increase in guys going to the movies with their wives, girlfriends and/or families? Who knows? Museums on Sunday could become popular again. Leaves might be raked more regularly. The trash might be taken out more regularly. Maybe even the recycling will be sorted! Women might be able to talk more with their men, no longer doomed to play second-fiddle to the remote control. And you know what THAT can lead to... GARAGE SALES!
PLEASE! For the love of G-d... Settle this collective bargaining deal already! This nation’s balance of nature and order depends on it!
All kidding aside, perhaps Mr. Lewis might wish to consult Denver Broncos safety David Bruton on what to do when there’s down time from the NFL. Bruton’s been working as a $90/day substitute teacher in Ohio since the lockout started. Bruton, who graduated from Notre Dame with a degree in Political Science, has taught second graders, middle and high-school level social studies, and today he’s teaching a tenth-grade geometry class, telling ESPN’s First Take crew, “I had to re-learn all that math I haven’t taken since my freshman year at Notre Dame.”
While the NFL has canceled this year’s annual rookie symposium, not only did the league once again drop the ball on a vital and potentially profound career-shaping experience for young men entering a world of sudden riches, hyped-up expectations and the harsh realities of how fleeting fame and fortune can be, it denied itself the incredible opportunity to take the negative of the lockout and present a positive in the off-season activities of David Bruton. If you know me and regularly read my columns, you know the special regard I have for pursuing higher education and teaching as a vocation and intellectual journey. David Bruton breaks the mold of the standard moron football player with nothing better to do when not on the gridiron or weight room, and just like other wonderful young men like Myron Rolle and Andrew Luck, the NFL continues to screw up royally and invest its hype in the semi-literate, the semi-articulate, and the trouble-making and trouble-finding Neanderthals who get the most exposure for highlight show catches and hits, the kind of on-field play that fuels the off-field idiocy Ray Lewis cutely hints of to Sal Paolantonio. What a shame. What hypocrisy.
Kudos to Bruton for not only doing something productive and positive with his free time, but for demonstrating that professional football players can do something with a genuine college education. Most impressive to this former chemistry and physics professor is that Bruton shows that someone with an academic background outside of math and science CAN successfully utilize faded knowledge. In other words, for all you folks who like to say math wasn’t your thing, well, that’s no longer a valid excuse, courtesy of David Bruton!
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Let me get this straight... Mets owner Fred Wilpon tells the New Yorker that there’s no way he’s paying out “Carl Crawford money” to pending free agent shortstop Jose Reyes, right fielder Carlos Beltran (another pending free agent) is about “65-70% of what he used to be” when he was a younger centerfielder, and third baseman David Wright isn’t a “superstar,” and everyone’s in a tizzy?! Yeah, this is hardly the kind of thing we’d ever expect from Freddy from Lafayette High, but the man’s under enormous stress from the Bernie Madoff mess, he’s disillusioned at how this year’s team will never remind anyone of the 1986 Mets, 25 years after winning an incredible and memorable World Series, and he likely feels like he’s over a financial barrel looking at how fragile the core of a very good team only five years ago seeks new contract security and riches, an investment any reasonable owner would have second, third and tenth thoughts about.
Does it hurt to hear such words from Wilpon? Sure, but is it because the truth may hurt, or is it because we never thought Wilpon would ever take a page out of the Yankees playbook for how to publicly assess stars in the process of passing their prime? Fred Wilpon deserves a lot better than how the federal court system and its appointed trustee, Irving Picard, have treated him. Say what you want about the Mets and the way things have soured since Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS, but this is not the way the team CEO of over thirty years should have to function while his world is repeatedly turned upside-down by things very outside of his control.
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Even if the baseball season doesn’t seem to be going the way some folks want, you have to smile at how the Mets continue to hang tough after a 5-13 start, how the AL East may be a five-team race all summer long, how the Texas Rangers survived 36 games without last year’s MVP Josh Hamilton, how the San Francisco Giants are showing last year’s World Series title might not have been a fluke, and how the Cleveland Indians continue to have MLB’s best record. Yes, you heard me... the Cleveland Indians continue to have MLB’s best record!
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Speaking of David Wright, could all the pontificators of gloom and doom hold off saying anything until Wright comes back from Los Angeles and his scheduled consult with noted back specialist Dr. Robert Watkins? Watkins has a very solid reputation working with professional athletes who endure considerable spinal trauma during competition. If Wright, at only 27-years old, indeed has a spondylolysis after landing on grass during a baseball game, he’s more than entitled to a second opinion from one of the best. Spondylolyses are not to be taken lightly. Ignore one in a 27-year old athlete’s back for several years, and Wright could be staring at a spondylolisthesis, or instability between vertebrae, when he’s in his forties, requiring the kind of extensive fusion surgery I needed a few years ago.
But think about it... Wright lands on grass and the result is a stress fracture between lumbar vertebrae, and we all accept it as cause and effect.
So how is it that GEICO, my former auto insurance company, a company I’m suing in federal court, spends three years insisting that the impact of a Ford pick-up truck, driven approximately 15 miles per hour into the back of my Toyota Corolla (stopped at a Yield sign), crushing the back of my Corolla, could not possibly cause a spondylolysis between vertebrae adjacent to my previously surgically-fused ones? Better yet, how is it that the driver’s auto insurance company, AAA Mid-Atlantic, a company I’m suing in state court, spends three years insisting the same thing, despite the driver’s sworn testimony that he plowed his truck right into the back of my car, declaring his full liability, and AAA Mid-Atlantic declaring my car completely totaled?
That’s two auto insurance companies claiming to know more about orthopedics and Newtonian physics, and willing to fight tooth and nail in court in order to avoid paying out for medical damages. Maybe we should all question whether Wright really hurt himself on that awkward play at third base against the Astros five weeks ago? Maybe Wright slipped in a shower, or hurt it during locker room horseplay, or late-night hijinx in a Manhattan club? No... We’d never consider raising such doubts, because Wright’s one of the legit stars and the face of the Mets. We never question his integrity, especially when we try to understand how a perennial All-Star is hitting so dreadfully at this point of the season. Yes, I believe the injury’s legit and the explanation both logical and probable. So why would two auto insurance companies challenge the veracity or cause of my injuries? Because they believe they and their staff lawyers can get away with it, and who ever stands up on behalf of regular folks like us? If David Wright can’t walk or play baseball again, that’s a major loss to to an organization that invested millions into him. If I can’t walk or enjoy my livelihood again, whose real loss is that? It’s not like any of us are worth that many millions to our employers or financial backers, right?
I don’t begrudge Wright or any athlete their worth or due, but who wrote the rules that makes their well-being more important than anyone else’s? Let’s face it... David Wright could be one major injury or surgery away from becoming a regular folk, just like you and me... Then what would we say about his obtaining a second opinion in Los Angeles?
Just a thought.
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Last thought: Please try to keep former Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter in yours while he seeks treatment at Duke University for four recently-diagnosed small brain tumors.
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