8-1-2008
Cubs fans are on a rampage, literally. This week featured two stories of fans taking a baseball game a little too seriously. On June 19, a Chicago White Sox fan was beaten by three Chicago Cubs fans, resulting in the Sox fan losing his right eye. Then on June 30 three Chicago Cubs fans were accused of beating up a Milwaukee Brewers fan. While the circumstances for each case should be looked into, I’d rather like to look into the nature of rivalries themselves. But instead of looking at all rivalries, I would like to focus on one city: New York.
While I spent a few days in New York last week, enjoying both Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium (where the N.Y. Mets and Billy Joel frequent), I was intrigued by many things. Before I left to go on my New York trip I explained to many friends and fellow baseball lovers that both Shea and Yankee Stadium are in their final years. Most reacted by saying oh yeah, I know Yankee, but Shea too?
I thought this was kind of odd. It is like the Mets are the odd men left out. I kept this in mind when I attended a game at each stadium. While Yankee Stadium is considerably older (1923) than Shea (1964), I was not really all that surprised with the newer amenities that Shea offered (escalators). Instead I was surprised by the fans in attendance.
Now I’m not going to knock on Yankees fans, but they confuse me. They seem to attend games in droves, like any good team’s fans often do, but they do not seem all that into the game that they are watching. They seem to be more in love with the idea of the Yankees than the actual act of watching the Yankees. Maybe it was the one game that I attended that made it seem like this, but I attended another game last year at Yankee Stadium and I was left with a similar impression. One overzealous fan even swore at an eight year-old child because he was wearing the opposing team’s jersey.
The new Yankee Stadium promises to be state of the art and will include a Hard Rock Café and an upscale steak restaurant. But while the new stadium will be luxurious, it will come at a pretty hefty price. The budget is scheduled to cost $1.3 billion with a portion of the money coming from taxpaying citizens ($450 million to be exact).
The Mets on the other hand seem to be the forgotten crew in New York. Located in Queens, the Mets seem to be more of a working class hero team. Shea Stadium is inconveniently located right next to a junk yard, giving it a gritty feeling.
While I attended two games at Shea (wearing a hat and a t-shirt of the opposing team) I had an overall enjoyable experience. The fans and employees were very friendly. Even after the Mets won a game against my team, I was not taunted for my team’s failure (this normally happens at Wrigley Field).
Fans are one of the more interesting parts of attending a baseball game. If you have annoying fans surrounding you, it can change your whole experience.
While Mets fans may hate Yankees fans for stolen attention and a certain arrogance that can be associated with having a $1.3 billion stadium (and the highest payroll in baseball), I am glad that they (or at least most) are not angered to the point of violence. When fans become more than fans (becoming reckless vigilantes instead) the sport is no longer a sport. These people need to check their team’s and their egos at the door. Baseball fans are supposed to have friendly rivalries; they are not football players – warriors preparing for war.
Next time you attend a game against a rival team, just think about how you would like to be treated. Quick jabs and jokes can be fun on occasion, but when these things turn to violence, there is a bigger loser than just one team.
SPORTS: When its more than just a game
Dominating the world one Gold medal at a time
By Joel Ebert
7-25-2008
The obsession that some people have over the Olympics confuses me. I am not anti-American, but sometimes I wonder if people are rooting for the American team for the right reasons.
Allow me to digress.
Occasionally I run into people that I enjoy talking sports with. Seeing as how I live in Chicago, I mostly run into people that want to talk about whatever sport is in season. There are so many Cubs fans right now that you wouldn’t even believe it.
On occasion though, I run into Chicago Bulls fans. We reminisce about the 90s and Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen (sometimes Dennis Rodman) and their dominance over the NBA for six years. The thing that strikes me odd about this is not that people stopped liking the Bulls when Michael Jordan left, but that people seemed to stop liking them when their dominance was over, although this coincided with Jordan’s exit.
I don’t exclude myself from this observation. I especially lost interest once Jordan and Co. dismantled; leaving a team of mediocrity that was in place for the same amount of time as the one that was dominant - six years. The seasons between 1998/99 and 2003/04 were among the worst seasons (record wise) the Bulls have played in their entire franchise.
And then suddenly the 2004-2005 season catapulted them back into the playoffs and coincidentally, popularity. For the past three seasons now there has been a level of excitement surrounding the Bulls that have not been seen since the Jordan era. Once again, I am not immune to this. At some point in the 2007 season I found myself at a local bar watching one or two playoff games that the Bulls were in. This is especially odd because I probably didn’t watch more than five minutes worth of basketball since that wonderful 1997/98 season when the Bulls won their sixth title.
This all occurred to me as I began doing some research on the 2008 US Olympic Basketball team. With a team featuring a host of NBA superstars including LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Dwayne Wade, there has been much excitement surrounding it. Some people have even called this the Redeem Team (an obvious take on the 1992 Dream Team which featured M.J., Larry Byrd, Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson) because of the failings of the US Olympic basketball team in three previous Olympic competitions. And by failings I mean their inability to win the Gold medal.
So now all of the sudden, perhaps because of the Olympic team, we may see a surge in basketball fans. But I am pretty sure that this will only happen if they win the Gold. If they fall anywhere short, it will be seen as a disappointment.
Now I’m wondering if this is such a good idea – to break things down into such extremities. Why is it that we feel disappointed when our team does not succeed in the fullest capacity possible?
I will come back to this question later.
It seems to me that there are two types of sports fans:
1) The type of fan that enjoys the actual sport and who may or may not like a particular team for one reason. Reason may include physical location or personal upbringing.
2) The type of fan that claims to enjoy a particular team but whom only passively enjoys the actual sport.
The major difference between these types of fans is where their allegiance lies – in the team or in the sport. You can determine whether you or someone you know fall into which category by asking yourself a simple question: If the I watch most often was the worst team in the league/division/conference/etc for several years, would I continue to watch/follow/like them?
You should be able to figure out what type of fan you are by answering this question.
Now let us go back to the question I asked above. Why is it that we feel disappointed when our team does not succeed in the fullest capacity possible?
Perhaps one of the reasons (and most likely not the definitive reason) is because when the team that you support fails, you in essence fail along with them. And when the team succeeds, we succeed with them. This is exactly why I think so many people are excited about the 2008 Olympic basketball team and to a larger extent why so many Americans enjoy watching the Olympics.
We inherently desire our team to succeed because it ultimately reflects on our nation. Winning a gold medal says not only that we have dominated in one sport over the rest of the world; it also gives us that feeling of dominance over the rest of the world that we felt for so many years.
Looking at the sluggish economy, the weakening US dollar, highly disputed foreign policies, and a much despised President, the United States is viewed today as less dominant in the world than it used to be. So we look for successes and dominance in any form we can get them. This may secretly be the reason why so many Americans will glue their heads and hearts to the US Olympic team this summer. Not because they love the sport that they are watching, but because they are yearning for American dominance in one form or another.
And honestly, I can’t say I blame anyone that may feel this way. I’m not saying we need to dominate the world, but it would be nice to be a leader in the world again, and perhaps an Olympic Gold medal will push us in the right direction.
Chicago's Hometown Heroes
7-23-2008
I was born and raised in the Chicago-area. I grew up going to Cubs games with my dad, and playing catch in the backyard. I spent most of my childhood in a suburb where one enjoyed the best of the city and ignored the worst.
The worst was the segregation, poverty, and police brutality. I heard about it, but I never saw it. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I learned about the deep divisions of my city. In some Chicago neighborhoods one can feel as if every step is scrutinized. Although I loved it here, I began to be uncomfortable in my city; uncomfortable with what my moving into the neighborhood meant for my neighbors (who were mostly African-American and Latino).
Any Cubs fan who moves away will probably tell you that the thing they miss most about Chicago are games at Wrigley Field, and that’s exactly what I was craving.
The funny thing is I don't even like baseball all that much. It can get kind of boring. And let's face it, if you're looking for superb athleticism you might want to try another sport. I was missing what happens once you walk into the stadium. The love of Cubs fans for their players is hard to explain, and I'm not sure most would want to understand it even if they could. There is one universal fact though, baseball fans love a good player no matter where they come from.
When I sat down at my first game of the season this year my heart swelled when I heard the crowd chanting Kosuke Fukodome's name (our star left-hander from Japan). Imagine arriving in a strange country with no friends and have 40,000 people rise to their feet to welcome you - every day. Kosuke may not have realized it, but in the hearts of Chicagoans he was one of us.
The same with Carlos Zambrano, who embodies the dreams of all the big farm boys pitching away in small towns across America. Then there's the story of Jim Edmonds...oh wait, he was actually born in America - well he used to be a Cardinal, so he’s actually the most foreign of all. And even though we needed some time to warm up to him, he's now loved like he's been a Chicagoan all along.
Most people who watch baseball understand that it's no longer a national pastime - it's an international pastime. It wouldn't be any fun without immigrants. Imagine turning on the game and not seeing Aramis Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano or Carlos Marmol step onto the field. What if all the immigrants disappeared from baseball? Would we even bother watching anymore? Now think about how we would feel if all the immigrants disappeared from our city and then our country.
We don't often like to admit it, but immigrants make this city and this country more vibrant. How would our lives change if we could transfer our loving embrace as baseball fans into other areas of our lives? What if we could take this love and bring it home or to our jobs or on our morning commute? What if we could look past an accent and block out the noise on Fox News and just see people for who they are? I think it would make this good city even better, maybe even as great as a summer day at Wrigley Field.
(Images gratefully borrowed from Wallyg's photostream (statue of liberty) and Chicago photogirl's photostream (Chicago skyline) at flicker.com/creativecommons)
SPORTS: He Loves You, He Loves You Not
By Joel Ebert
7-11-2008
Here in America we just can’t seem to resist guilty pleasures. We do things we know we shouldn’t. American sports fans seem to enjoy the lingering relationship between themselves and a superstar. This type of relationship is much akin to exclusively dating someone and sooner or later breaking up with them. Both are a type of love-hate relationship that continue until one party either finds someone else, more money, or a sense of clarity. Feelings linger, emotions peak, and rationality is thrown completely out the window when we are invested in these types of relationships.
Usually the scenario goes like so: Person A says to Person B “Look, it has been a wonderful run, but I really must go now. I appreciate all you have done for me and I wish you the very best in the future. Don’t worry about me, I think I’ll be fine.” Person B then overanalyzes Person A’s speech and thinks about what it means. Person B thinks, “Can he/she really be gone? This can’t be it; can it?”
Then one day Person A calls up Person B and expresses a hint of regret and suggests that maybe, just maybe, they can get back together. This type of relationship comes around every so often in the world of sports, specifically when an athlete is considering retirement.
Recently, Brett Favre (the former Hall of Fame bound starting quarterback) has played the role of Person A and the Green Bay Packers have played Person B. Favre officially retired from the game of professional football in March 2008 saying “I know I can play, but I don’t think I want to.” This sort of pseudo answer is exactly the sort of fuel that kick started the suddenly turned forest fire that has become Favre Watch 2008.
In order to understand the intensity of the relationship between Favre and Packer Nation, you have to understand how much he meant to the organization. He played for the Packers for 16 consecutive seasons. That is extremely rare in professional sports nowadays. He won a Super Bowl title with the Pack in 1997 and also holds a host of records. The man was basically the face of the organization for nearly two decades.
So when Favre officially retired, hearts were tested. This happens with sports figures. They build a good rapport with a city’s fans, media, etc, and then one day it all must come to an end. Michael Jordan did it in Chicago, Magic Johnson did it in L.A., Barry Bonds (sort of) did it in San Francisco, and Roger (the Big Easy) Clemens does it over and over again wherever he can (Houston, New York, Boston).
But frankly, I am getting kind of tired of these games. I’ve learned to not be emotionally invested in athletes anymore (after the great downfall of one of the people I used to hold dearly went down in severe flames).
Sometimes its fun, as in the case of Manny (the Spazzy) Ramirez, who will do whatever and say whatever to get a rise out of fans (this year he even caught a ball in the outfield, high fived a fan in nearby seats, and threw the ball back into the infield to complete a double play). During the offseason, fans hear Manny constantly talking about being traded, retiring, or just not showing up.
But when fans grow up idolizing a figure, such as Brett Favre or Michael Jordan, they deserve better than to be toyed around with like a dog chasing a luscious bone. Jordan and Favre, while both unbelievable and irreplaceable athletes, need to learn when enough is enough. Although at 45 years old, I sincerely doubt Jordan could toy with our hearts anymore by attempting a comeback, it would not surprise me in the least if he did. And if Favre continues his coded innuendos about coming back to the Packers for another season, I would also not be surprised either.
But one thing is for sure, if it were any other profession (aside from a musician or movie star) we, the fans, would not tolerate this type of abusive relationship. If a politician, for example George Bush Sr., threatened to run again for President, I don’t think our hearts would throb as much as they do when Brett Favre opens his purse of tricks. So I warn you fans with aching hearts, let those athletes back in slowly. We can forgive, but we must never forget.
Our National Pastime
By Joel Ebert
This weekend the citizens of this fair land will see three large events simultaneously occur. Of course the most obvious is the opening weekend of a new Will Smith motion picture (Hancock) – an event which coincidentally coincides with the celebration of Independence Day (and not the 1996 film also starring Mr. Smith). While big Willie has shown dominance on the American holiday (in terms of the film industry) for the past six years, an even greater dominance on the holiday has been seen by an organized sport called baseball.
With its roots tracing back to the late 1800s, baseball has often been referred to as a national pastime. While baseball may not be as old as our great nation, it certainly has held its own throughout the years. Baseball on July 4 has provided us with some of the most memorable moments in major league baseball history.
In 1881, there were two complete games (9 full innings) thrown by one pitcher. In 1900, roughly 1,000 fans celebrated their Independence by firing pistols into the air at a game in Chicago. On July 4, 1939, Lou Gehrig, “the luckiest man on the face of the earth” made his farewell speech. In 1980, Nolan Ryan became the 4th pitcher in baseball history to record 3,000 strike-outs (today there are still only 16 pitchers who have done so). And in 1985, after a 6 hour and 10 minute game between the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves (which lasted until 4 a.m.), the 1,000 fans that remained were treated to a pre-dawn fireworks display that frightened local neighbors.
This year, I am especially looking forward to the long weekend because of a historical match up between two epic rivals: the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals. There seems to be a perfect brew for this to be a great series: the Cubs and the Cardinals have the two best records in the National League; an ace returning from his recent stint on the disabled list (Carlos Zambrano); and a pretty even match up (what with the Cardinals’ less than dominating home record along with the Cubs’ below par road record).
If you are unfamiliar with this rivalry, I can’t think of a better time to start watching. There are many things that Americans will do this weekend to celebrate Independence Day, but I urge you to make time to fit in an inning, a game, or the entire series. And if these teams are not for you at least check out a different form of a game of baseball (whether its professional or not). It’s as American as fireworks, barbeques and Will Smith.
SPORTS: Unstoppable Forces of Nature
By Joel Ebert
Here in the United States, many of us idolize the unstoppable athlete. We love our most valuable players, Olympic Gold Medal winners, and first place finishers. But if there is something we love more it is the injured or flawed athlete succeeding while fighting an internal or near impossible battle.
Example 1: Paul Pierce injured his knee (some say it was sprained) in Game 1 of the 2008 NBA Finals, only to come back less than 2 minutes later and rain on the Lakers parade. Pierce got into the locker room with trainer Brian McKeon and after they discovered he could put wait on both legs, they sent him back out on the court. Pierce later said "I had to get back out there to help my ballclub, That was all that was going through my mind, just being a part of it. I just wanted to get back out there."
Example 2: Tiger Woods won this year’s U.S. Open after playing with a torn ligament in his left knee for nearly 10 months and suffering a “double stress fracture” in the same leg two weeks before the tournament. Woods won the tournament in a playoff with Rocco Mediate only to turn around that same week and announce that he needed surgery to repair his knee that would prevent him from playing for the rest of the current season.
Example 3: In Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling pitched 7 effective innings and gave up only one run on four hits. Controversy swarmed around Schilling because of what was known as the bloody sock. Throughout the game Schilling’s right sock was focused on, revealing that there was blood on his ankle, where Schilling had sutures.
Now some people believe these athletes were exaggerating or faking their injuries.
Laker fans complained that Pierce was faking it, citing his instant turnaround by simply going to the locker room. L.A. coach Phil Jackson even said "Paul got carried off and was back on his feet in a minute. I don't know if the angels visited him in that time-out period or what, but he didn't even limp when he came back out on the floor.”
Fellow golfer Retief Goosen said that he believed Woods was exaggerating his injury as well. Goosen went as far as to say “It just seemed that when he hit a bad shot his knee was in pain and on his good shots he wasn’t in pain. You see when he made the putts and he went down on his knees and was shouting, ‘Yeah’, his knee wasn’t sore.”
And since 2004, when Schilling had two bloody sock games (the aforementioned one, and once during the World Series) there have been a host of critics calling the bloody sock a public relations move. Broadcaster Gary Thorne said that he believed the sock was painted, citing a conversation that never seemed to have taken place with Red Sox catcher Doug Mirabelli, who later denied Thorne’s claim.
I am not going to weigh in on those arguments, however. What I am going to weigh in on is the fact that these American athletes and a host of others (Michael Jordan and the famous Flu Game, Eight Belles, the horse that broke it’s legs at the Kentucky Derby, etc) feel the need to play when they are not 100% healthy.
It seems to me that the reason behind them doing this is because they feel the need to either a) prove that they are capable of doing miraculous things despite an injury b) they love the game/sport so much that nothing can stop them from playing or c) their team desperately needs them for support.
Once the task is completed, we (the audience) glorify these people. Maybe this is because we see ourselves in these athletes, at least in small doses. There are numerous occasions when we don’t feel like going to work or school but must tough it out because we don’t have a sick day left or our job is too important to miss.
I am worried that this idolization of the imperfect, yet unstoppable athlete may be part of a bigger problem within our society. What that problem may be I have not yet solved.
Maybe this is reflective in the rampant use of steroids in professional sports today. I am not suggesting that professionals such as Paul Pierce, Curt Schilling, or Tiger Woods are using steroids. But perhaps the fact steroids usage is so prevalent in American sports today is because American athletes want to be that big, bad, unstoppable force of nature (ie the aforementioned athletes) that we all idolize. I get the sense that this is a growing epidemic in American sports - do you?
Hurricane Zambrano
By Joel Ebert
Having two baseball teams in one city can be pretty interesting at times. Only Chicago and New York have cross-town rivals in the Major Leagues, both of which have high levels of scrutiny of the players, coaches, manager and owner coming from the media. Chicago has Ozzie Guillen on the South Side and the Lovable Losers (newly turned winners) on the North Side.
Last week, Guillen took a beating from the press after his tirade, including his boss Ken Williams. Chicago sports writer Jay Mariotti called for Guillen to be fired. They said his latest explosion was the icing on the cake of a man who has said some pretty crazy things over the past few years. A few weeks ago Guillen ranted about Hulk Hogan and complained about the cross-town rival Cubs. But the media attention surely seems to flock around Guillen because you never know what he’s going to say next.
Ozzie’s North Side rivals certainly don’t lack their share of clowns. From the soap opera love affair with the streaky and unsteady leftfielder Alfonso Soriano to Lou Pinella’s ramblings, the Chicago Cubs have their share of enjoyable moments in the media. Perhaps there is no greater clown under the giant tent of the Chicago Cubs than Carlos Zambrano. Known for his emotional outbursts in times of frustration (although he claims he doesn’t know this word) and grand displays of passion in times of exultation, Zambrano is as unpredictable as the hurricane season.
Big Z’s career has been full of outbursts. Last June, Zambrano, and then Cubs catcher Michael Barrett, battled it out in the dugout after a bad inning. This year, Zambrano broke a bat over his knee after striking out, saying he was “ticked off” during a game, which his team was winning. As recently as June 7, Carlos Zambrano added yet another chapter to the book after a five minute implosion, which saw the Cubs lose their lead and the game. Zambrano went into the dugout and took his anger out on a few Gatorade coolers. Big Z raged it as his teammates and coaches avoided his flailing arms and the flying jugs.
I find it funny that reaction to Zambrano’s tirades isn’t the same towards Guillen’s rants. People laugh and are amused by both, but never once has Zambrano’s emotion gotten him in trouble like Guillen’s mouth has. Cubs manager Lou Pinella said that he doesn’t have a problem with Zambrano’s emotional tantrums. He said “if I was in the dugout, I probably would have enjoyed it.”
I’m not so sure Zambrano should be encouraged. He will probably eventually injure himself or someone else, thinking that his outbursts are acceptable. This kind of treatment is sort of like handing a kid who has a propensity to yell “FIRE!” in a megaphone. The Chicago sports media’s lack of criticism of the Zambrano circus only encourages a beast that needs to be reigned in.
