Friday, October 14, 2005

the pressure of the spotlight

Mike Martz, the coach of the St. Louis Rams, is in a hospital with a heart condition. Sad news to hear, but it bears some reflection. This is the same coach, who in the first play of this 2005 season used his first coach’s challenge. He challenged the kickoff, where his returner stepped out of bounds with the ball at the Rams own 2-yard line. Needless to say, he lost that challenge.

Because of that, and for many other reasons, Mr. Martz has been the whipping boy of a few pundits over the last few years. His coaching style is unorthodox to say the least. Now on the global stage this Monday night against the monster that is the Indianapolis Colts, he will not be at his team’s sideline. Could it be that the pressure finally got to him? Or is he just pulling a Willis Reed?

To the MLB playoffs. Somehow I knew that the game between the White Sox and Angels this past Wednesday night was going to be a classic. I was even going to mention it here. But I didn't. Somewhere off in the distance, a baby is crying. Life goes on.

I think now that we have lost the media globs that are the yankees and the red sox, baseball, from a baseball perspective, is at it's best. The games will make the news, not the historical teams. Except for the fact that the White Sox haven't won a World Series since 1917. Expect that to come up fairly often should the White Sox make it to the Series. History notwithstanding, the baseball being played in the championship series is really fun to watch these days. Cheerleader says, "go team."

I attended a lecture last night by Mr. Tariq Ramadan and Alex Neve. It was about human rights and security. Mr. Neve presented an argument which included the point that human rights are always being put second (or being sacrificed) to some other thing, these days it is security.

Mr. Ramadan presented many valid points revolving around the responsibilities of Muslims in the Western world. It can't be boiled down to simple points. It is a huge subject. But I guess the point is that there is a struggle within each of us, between the crazy dude who seems more fun, and the rational one who is a little more boring. Right now extremism is the way to go. We are not listening to voices in the middle, because they don't sell advertisers. So we automatically align people in extreme camps. Which is unfair. A small minority of people is shaping the image of the vast majority of those people.

What can be done? Speak up before we are sold that we are all crazy dudes of one extreme or another and that we have no rational human side to our selves. Say one thing, and mean that thing. Do not have separate universes. Be one person with everyone, it's easier not to lie than to try to appease everyone else by being what we think they'd like you to be.

We all have different sides to us. But we are all globs of soul. Big and small at the same time.

Glob noun 1 : a small drop : blob 2 : a usually large and rounded mass.

I think the Angels will win in 6, and that the NLCS is going 7, and I flipped a coin that said that the Cardinals will win in 7. The people in St. Louis might not have Mr. Martz, but they do have the Cardinals. And it all comes full circle.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Angels in 6 eh?

Not if the umps have anything to do with it...

Unknown said...

St. Louis in 7 doesn't look good either. Thoughts like these are why I'm not sipping beer on my own island. Most of my thoughts are wrong.