Castro and Baseball

A narrative for a baseball team is always very important, especially in the beginning of a season. The Miami Marlins have found their narrative in Ozzie Guillen's comments about Fidel Castro.  Ozzie Guillen is the manger of the Florida Marlins, who had some words for the Cuban dictator.  However, some believed the comments were not as bad as they seemed.  In the article, "What Guillen Revealed about Miami,"  there is a disturbing twist to the narrative of Ozzie Guillen's comments.  The article argues that Miami is changing, no longer are Cuban Americans worried about Castro.  There is no more personal connection to the dictator, rather Cuban Americans see him just as any other dictator.  The article continues to argue that the older generation is sort of nostalgic for the old times of personally hating the dictator. One member of the older generation says of Castro, "I don't hate.  Normal people hate.  I don't know aht hate is.  I don't hate anyone.  I don't hate Castro.  If I could kill him tomorrow, I would kill him as a benefit for Cuba."  However, when you ask the younger generation they seem to have a more casual view; they seemed not even to notice.  The older generation wants them to care; they want to go back to the time when Castro was more than hated. 

Just like the old generation reaches for the past, so do the main characters in Underworld.  One of the main themes is nostalgia in Underworld.  The characters believe that the time in the 1950's was the best time in the world, the Giants made a massive comeback and everything was great.  However, people don't remember the terror they lived in.  The Capitalism verse Communism was in full swing, and so was the Cold War.  Though this is quickly forgotten about when looking back on history.  We choose what we want to remember; and we remember the Giants comeback and the Honeymooners.  This is the same as the old generation now.  Yes, they want Castro to be hated like he was in the 60's.  However, do they really want the fear of Castro back?  No one really believes Castro can do anything anymore, thus they don't see him as a threat to America.  But back in the 60's he was a threat and people lived in fear.  The older generation only remembers the hatred, not necessarily the fear.

This argument all stemmed from one baseball manger's comments.  Thus this shows how much power the baseball industry has over media.  Who knew a comment about Castro would turn into two generations clashing over the fear of a dictator?     

Age just a number?

Andy Pettitte is back with his old team, the Yankees.  But at thirty-nine years old how good can he be, especially after taking a year off?  On tuesday he proved that he can hang with the best of them again, according to the Yankees.  Russell Martin commented on Pettitte's performance in the article,  "Impressice Andy Pettitte wows Yankees with first bullpen session since returning from retirement", "That's as good of a bullpen as I've caught all spring--from anyone.  I don't know what the velocity was and what his arm strength feels, but as far as executing pitches, it was pretty impressive."  So as of right now it seems like Andy Pettitte is feeling pretty good right.  But what happens in the middle of the season when his arm wears out or he gets injured due to his age?  Thus this brings in the question, when is it time to stop playing and just retire?
In the novel, The Great American Novel, Gaffannon says, "he will play without pay."  This is basically saying that he knows he is getting up in age, and most likely no one will want him.  He is so desperate to play the game, even though he is not wanted.  No one wants to retire and give up the thing that they have loved the most.  Majority of baseball players have been playing this game their whole lives.  Thus they do not know what to do when they no longer can play.  For example, Brett Favre retired three times from the NFL because he couldn't handle not playing football.  Is the same to be said about Andy Pettitte?  He retired for a year and came back.  Yes he might have one more year in him, but what happens after that.  At some point all the athletes have to stop playing, and become part of the history of their sport.  However, it seems increasingly hard for athletes to do that.  Many athletes do not want to think their best days are behind them, but at some point your best days are very much behind you when it comes to sports.  So yes, age does matter and athletes need to start address that age is an issue in sports.     

Fans Controlling the Players

This week Corey Hart of the Milwaukee Brewers had arthroscopic surgery to repair torn cartilage in his right knee.  The following day Hart came to the Brewers' Spring Training grounds in Maryvale Arizona. In the article, "Hart says Surgery was Right Call,"  Hart makes a declaration to the fans "Other people said 'Well Rickie (Weeks) played through it, Craig (Counsell) played through it,' but those were minor tears, not like mine."   Baseball is unlike any other business.  In baseball we learn specifically what happened to a player.  For example, Corey Hart showed up to Spring Training with an X-Ray of his knee to prove he really did need the surgery.  In other professional sports, like hockey, the medical records remained sealed, unless they are leaked by an outside source.  Though in Baseball everybody needs to know everything! Why is baseball one of the only sports where everything is exposed? It is because fans idealize the players, and need proof that these players are actually hurt.  Fans believe that they are actually part of the team.  In no other business would we see a boss telling their employees another co-workers medical chart.  However, in baseball the X-Rays are shown to millions of people.  
In Coover's The Universal Baseball Association, the players are idealized, especially Damon, the star pitcher.  Henry, the creator of the game, finds himself enthralled with Damon, feeling as if he has a connection with him specifically.  Henry makes Damon a celebrity, which is what fans do to their players.  Henry literally has complete control over Damon, and it is not much different in the MLB.  Corey Hart would not make front page news if he was idealized by fans.  The fans are the ones who create the player's persona; they make them the celebrity.  Our society can take a regular baseball player and blow him up to the extent that he is bringing his X-Rays to press conferences. This shows clearly the effect of fandom, and how much influence fans really do have on baseball players.      

Morneau's Concussions

Twins first baseman, Justin Morneau, has gotten a lot of sympathy over his concussion recently.  In the past week he has received a great deal of tweets and letters from fans worrying over the state of his health.  What got fans into this frenzy was a statement that Morneau made referring to his health and his retirement.  Recently he has had concussion like systems for a while, and has yet to be cleared to play.  Morneau says of his comments "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that if the stuff continues I probably wouldn't be able to play again. It wasn't anything other than stating the obvious."  However, for fans this was anything but stating the obvious.  
Morneaua's fans have loved and watched him for years.  They think of him as someone who comes home for family dinners, and they talk about him as if they truly know him.  Any fan can tell you that when their favorite player retires they don't know what to do with themselves.  They feel a connection with this person, even though they have never had a real conversation with this person.  This is demonstrated in Coover's novel, The Universal Baseball Association. Henry the main character becomes so intertwined in his players' lives that he doesn't know what to do when one of them dies.  Even though his players are imaginary, he feels a deep connection with them.  This is no different than Morneau's fans.  They consider him to be part of their lives, so if he was to stop playing tomorrow what would his fans do?  Although, Henry and Modeau's fans have never truly met their star player, they feel as though their  decisions affect their lives.  Thus in this since we glamorize baseball and make it more than just a game.   

Ryan Braun and Steroids

The Milwaukee Brewers are waiting on an important decision regarding their last prized possession, Ryan Braun.  After Prince Fielder left the Brewers, they were left with their left outfielder and National League MVP, Braun.  However, now the Brewers may be with out Braun for 50 games because he was caught with performance enhancing drugs.  Thus without the Brewers' heavy hitters, the season doesn't look too promising.  So once again a team is stuck to deal with the steroid talk.  The old game verse the new game.   The traditionalist verse the modernist.  The traditionalist believe the MLB needs to keep the game clean and pure, while the modernist are ready for change, which includes updated statistics and possibly not even banning performance enhancers.  If everyone was able to take a performance enhancer what would that really do to the game?  Most likely there would be more deep threats on teams and possibly a player could play longer.  So what really is wrong with that?  As we see in Cover's The Universal Baseball Association tradition and The Game are parts of our culture.  Henry, the main character in The Universal Baseball Association, finds the game to be something bigger than just men trying to hit a baseball.  He sees it as a way of life.  For one of his players to be doing steroids would be unheard of and a blow to his Game.   It is hard for a traditionalist, like Henry, to image a game where steroids are accepted.  In his mind and other traditionalist it ruins the purity of the game.  Thus Ryan Braun has betrayed the purity and the traditions of the game.  So for that reason it becomes bad, just because it takes away from what our culture was told about the game, baseball.  Thus all eyes are on Ryan Braun and the Brewers to see if another great player will go down wearing the scarlet letter of steroids.

Milwaukee Brewers waiting on outcome of Ryan Braun hearing