It's awesome living in today's world. We can communicate with everyone all the time via text message, instant message, e-mail, or telephone call. News is updated by the second, not the day. The women are more beautiful and the TV shows are funnier, and the cars are faster. Sports is no different. Athletes run faster, jump higher, and are stronger and more athletic than ever before. In theory there's nothing we should have to complain about in sports right? Wrong. There is one attribute, one characteristic to sports that has deteriorated completely over the last 25 years. To put it bluntly, there's no more hatred in professional sports. I don't like that.
I mean sure, there is the occasional scrum, but it's nothing like it used to be. I've heard the stories. Thurman Munson trucked Carlton Fisk at home plate in 1973, sparking a 10-minute brawl between the Sox and Yanks. In 1984 Kevin McHale clotheslined Kurt Rambis in the NBA Finals. The normally subdued Robert Parish snapped and sucker-punched Bill Laimbeer in the 1987 playoffs. The Philadelphia Flyers and their Broad Street Bullies kicked the crap out of everyone in the 1970s. The Bad Boy Pistons were the same way in the NBA in the late '80s. But all of that was well before my lifetime. I've grown up with players who have played with each other through high school, college, summer camps, tournaments, and AAU. By the time they reach the pros, there is a mutual respect. For some, it is a legitimate friendship. Yuck. Sure when rivals play each other there will be some tension, but it's not the same as it once was. That's why I was irked when Philadelphia Eagles' quarterback Donovan McNabb was traded to the Washington Redskins this week. Are you kidding me? THE EAGLES TRADED THEIR FRANCHISE QB TO ONE OF THEIR BIGGEST RIVALS?!?!?! Ridiculous. Can you envision an aging Roger Staubach being sent to the Giants? Or Ted Williams swapping Boston red for New York pinstripes? How about Larry Bird going Hollywood on everyone and being traded to the Showtime Lakers? It would never have happened. In the words of grown-up Smalls in The Sandlot: "Never in a million years, even for a million dollars." It just wouldn't happen.But today is completely different. Today it is okay for Johnny Damon to be a key member of the "Reverse the Curse" Red Sox team, then a few years later be a New York Yankee. Players can go as they please to division rivals (this year alone it happened for Vlad Guerrero and Chone Figgins), and teams can trade within the division. And brawls are not true brawls.
When Alex Rodriguez and Jason Varitek started the most recent scuffle between Boston and New York, afterwards A-Rod said he hated the Red Sox. If he truly hated the Red Sox he probably wouldn't have almost signed with them earlier that winter. Just saying. The closest thing we have to pure hatred in any professional sport is the distaste superstars Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby have for one another in the NHL. But let's be serious here. Who really pays attention to the NHL? I do, but that's because I'm an unusual young fellow. People loved it after the Olympics, but three days after the closing ceremonies we were back to not caring in the U.S.It seems kind of ironic that a lack of hatred is a negative thing. Yeah, games are as competitive as ever. But as a 17-year-old who has never seen a true rivalry, one full of hate that brings out the absolute best in two teams, I long for something that reaches even half of what the Celtics and Lakers had in the '80s, or what the Red Sox and Yankees had in the '70s. My proposal is to have Bill Laimbeer come out of retirement and spark a new era because let's be serious. No one likes Bill Laimbeer. There is no doubt he would irritate someone to the point where he gets sucker punched again. But I'm not getting my hopes up too high on that one. So I have to hope for today's friendly athletes, and for them I have but one message: Please don't give me some love. Give me the hate!
No comments:
Post a Comment