Keep on Keep Truckin'

So I drew the audience back in, now I need to follow it up. The theme is to keep on keep truckin' and there's NOTHING like a shout out from you VP of sales to kick start some blog creativity. So as you may or may not know...i teased the audience with my big comeback to the blog-o-sphere.

My once in a generation idea is a Drinking Game Manifesto. We have all played drinking games in our day, but there is no one authority or source to find the best games. Well that's what I'm working on. No matter if your sitting around with some buddies trying to take it easy, or if you want to escalate the party the way Lindsay Lohan escalates an AA meeting....we've got your poison.

Having said that, Manifesto's don't happen over night, just ask Karl Marx. I would be doing myself and my audience a terrible injustice if I rushed this manifesto and did not give it the thought and attention that a drinking game manifesto deserves. So I will be out there, crashing parties, playing drinking games, gathering evidence and formulating my thesis.

But I don't want to publish back to back teaser blogs. Instead I had a realization the other night while watching Baseball Tonight. And it sparked a terrible revelation about sports in 2010. Basically that it will never be as good as it once was. Now call me a cynic or a guy trying to hang on to the glory days but I just don't think its going to be as good as it was. I'm going all Tim Kurkjian here, so I present to you......

Why Modern Sports Suck  

I wanted to make the subtitle of this "why Michael Jordan and Pete Rose would be spinning in their legacies". It seems appropriate for several reasons. Jordan and Rose have tarnished their legacies in the years since they have retired. Both, arguably, were the best at what they did in their respective sports. If they went quietly into the night, their legacies would have been solidified and they would be recognized the way their play deserved to be. Instead they both fell victim to their competitive spirit; Rose with his gambling addiction and Jordan with his Hall of Fame speech (And yes Rose's decision has had a much bigger affect on his legacy, but Jordan's public image has taken a huge hit because of this speech, almost to the point where we forget how much we enjoyed watching Jordan dominate). But it was because of their competitive spirit that they were so great. Sports need athletes like Rose and Jordan because without passionate competition, professional sports because more about entertainment and money than it does about winning. Jordan and Rose simply serve as the backbone for why the competitive spirit is all but gone in the modern sports world. Both Rose and Jordan are where they are now, for good or bad, because they were the most competitive players in their sport. 

The reason I decided to write this is because I saw Nomar Garciaparra and Aaron Boone sharing the television screen on Baseball Tonight and it disgusted me. They were laughing and chumming it up like they were old golfing buddies instead of arch rivals. For those that don't know, Boone and Nomar are forever linked together by one of the most famous home runs in the history of baseball. Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS, arguably one of the most memorable postseason games of all time, ended in extra innings when Aaron Boone hit a walkoff home run, sending the Yankees to the World Series and adding another sad chapter to the Red Sox then tortured history. 

I remember everything about that game and that homerun. I know where I was, the explosion of cheers that followed and how angry I still get thinking about it. The second Boone hit it, everyone that was watching knew it was gone. I remember how upset I was as a fan and if I was actually playing for the Red Sox, that moment would stay with me forever. And yet for some reason that homerun and that moment has resonated more with the fans than it SEEMS to have resonated with the players involved. I mean do you think Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams would be standing where Nomar and Boone are now (and I recognize how ridiculous it is to compare DiMaggio and Williams to Nomar and Boone, but they shared the same rivalry, the so called "greatest rivalry in sports")

And i find this whole lack of competitive spirit totally in line with the biggest story line of the summer, Lebron James. Since I took the summer off from blogging I didn't have an opportunity to address this whole situation but it worked out for the better. We had to sit through "The Decision" and witness one person destroy an entire city the likes of which hasn't been seen since Sherman torched the South during the Civil War. But there's nothing that proves my argument more than Lebron throwing in the white towel to team with two other super stars. Even if Lebron wins a title now, what does that prove? That he's a great team player? Michael Jordan should be the happiest guy in basketball because Lebron has removed himself from the greatest of all time debate. He might put up comparable career numbers and might even win the same amount of championships as Mike, but he will never be mentioned as the G.O.A.T 


My point is this just would not have happened back when winning still mattered. Larry Bird would never have signed with the Lakers to play with Magic. They wanted to show that they were better than the other and spent a lifetime trying to prove it. It reminded me of a story I heard in college. One of my roommates' father played in the NFL, Cliff Harris. He played safety for the Dallas Cowboys from 1970-1979 and during that time he played in 6 pro bowls and 5 Super Bowls. The big rivalry at that time was between the Cowboys and the Steelers and one night at dinner we got to hear Cliff tell stories about the rivalry. It was almost 30 years later and you can still see how much he hated Lynn Swan. He even gave an interview on ESPN a few years ago and said "if he saw Swan laying on the ground today he wouldn't help him up". That kind of competitive spirit just doesn't exist in the modern game. Everyone today is friends with each other, they make too much money for it to be life or death, win or lose. 


But there is one competitive story line that still intrigues me. I never thought I would be drawn in by this example but it's all we have left (if anyone has other examples please let me know). I' referring to Kobe and Shaq. 


Shaq is 38 years old, he can't run the length of the floor, he's pushing 400 pounds and he still can't make a foul shot. But he's back for one more season with the Celtics and the reason is simple. With 4 championships,  15 All-Star appearances, 3 Finals MVP awards, 2 scoring titles and the '99-00 MVP, Shaq is still playing for one reason...because he can't let Kobe win more rings than him. Last year Kobe won his 5th championship, 1 upping Shaq and proving, for now, that Kobe is the better player. Shaq really has nothing left to prove in the NBA, he is a sure fire hall of famer and easily one of the most dominant players of all time. But he had something to prove to himself. He just could not retire knowing that Kobe has won championships, so he signed with Boston hoping to make one last run at the championship. (it might also give us a sequal to Shaq's grammy winning rap, would that be something you'd be interested in?)


And you know what? I'm rooting for him. Because a Boston Celtics championship means that they would have had to defeat King Coward Lebron James and the Miami Heat. And maybe this time Shaq can ask Lebron how his ass tastes.