The Human Athlete

Did anyone else see Kevin Garnett's post game speech? I'm really not even sure you can call it a speech. He seemed to shout out his entire past introducing us to a world that we rarely see in sports.

For better or worse, we saw a real human reaction out of a man from South Carolina via the inner city of Chicago who had just reached the pinnacle of his professional career.



We met Kevin Garnett.

Of my many problems with sports these days, the rehearsed athlete is near the top. Athletes that say what they are supposed to say even when it is so transparent that they are completely full of it.

We have one athlete to truly thank for this: Derek Jeter.

Derek Jeter, since his introduction as the prince of New York City in the mid 90's has always said and done the right thing. He spoke eloquently, dressed properly and acted maturely, a true member of society's upper class.

I have no problem with Jeter for this.

By all accounts, Jeter actually is a real good guy.

But from Derek Jeter spawned Alex Rodriguez, the stripper seducing man by night, who when he speaks to us, always tells how great everything is.

A-Rod is a poster child for the modern athlete. He is a four sentence cliche, who despite all his tremendous talents, is truly unlikable.

We have never met Alex Rodriguez.

And for that matter, we have truly never met Kobe Bryant.

Since day 1, Kobe Bryant has acted like the next Michael Jordan. He talked like Michael, walked like Michael and led like Michael.

Only problem is, he is not Michael Jordan.

Like A-Rod, we the fan have never truly met Kobe Bryant.



Which to me, made it so enjoyable to see him lose his first championship without Shaq. This was Kobe's team and they lost. Michael NEVER lost.


..............

There is no better feeling for a fan in sports than when we feel truly connected to an athlete. When, despite the fact that they don't know us from our neighbor, these athletes are our buddy, our brother, or our son.

It is for this reason that fans get so much more pleasure rooting for players that came up through a system, as opposed to players lured by the mighty dollar.

We knew these guys as kids and now we are watching them mature.

And it is for this reason why I fell in love with the Texas Rangers on Saturday night.

In the midst of a terrible thunderstorm at Shea Stadium, it was 2000 all over again.

Rangers players including Josh Hamilton and Milton Bradley- Two of the teams stars- jumped out of the clubhouse and onto the soaked Shea Stadium field for a child's game of slip and slide.

These players became human.

They were doing what any American would want to do if they had a tarp and some rain. These were no longer the multi-millionare crybaby superstars, these were our fraternity brothers or even our teammates.

The crowd chanted "Lets go Rangers," because the crowd really liked who these Rangers were. Just as these fans wish they could be out on the field playing baseball everyday, they wish they could be playing in the rain during the storm.

This brings back fond memories of 2000.

My favorite Met of all time, Robin Ventura,drew a fake mustache to pretend to be Mike Piazza. He then proceeded to play the same game of slip and slide on the Yankee Stadium tarp.

I always loved Robin. I always felt like he was a dude, one of the guys. He was so matter of fact, so honest. He was a ballplayer.

The Mets went on to make the World Series that year.

Just as the 2004 Red Sox did when they were "the idiots."

Ballplayers became human. We loved them, they liked each other and they won.


.............

This to me was always biggest problem with Willie Randolph. He was a statue. We never got to know Willie, we got to know Willie's public persona. He wa sa product of Jeter's late 90's Yankees. He saw people that could do no wrong and wanted to be just like them. But Willie wasn't Jeter. He wasn't Joe Torre. He was Willie. And Willie the good guy was boring.



This can be said about the Mets as a team right now.

This team lacks an identity, a flare, a real reason to truly love them.

There is no outspoken leader, or party guy, or controversial guy. We've had one Billy Wagner outburst all season (hands down the most exciting moment of the season for that matter) and nothing else.

Lost is Professor Reyes.

Lost is Al Leiter screaming at himself.

Lost is the energy that makes these guys more than baseball players.

...............

We have seen firsthand thru the Yankees, that winning in baseball is not putting together the best fantasy team possible.

Baseball is about putting 25 individuals together to make the best possible team.

These Mets don't feel like a team. They look more like a bunch of guys wearing Mets uniforms who see baseball as a job. That to me was always Willie's biggest problem.

He was too professional.

So lets have a little fun here.

I don't know if this team needs to sign Rube Baker to give them the kick in the butt that they need, but something needs to get going to light a spark.

Hopefully Jerry Manuel can be that guy.


Vaya,
Sip

(Pics courtesy of wallpaperbase.com, wordpress.com)