Dark Star and Cocoon

These past three weeks, the country has been slowly collapsing into our homes like a dark star, sucking in all of the light while compressing the energy.  It is rolling blackouts as the fire bells ring.  New York sounded the alarm first for the incoming virus that was already here.  Broadway shutdown on March 12 furloughing thousands.  Broadway generated $1.8 billion annually for 15 million patrons in 2019.  Nevada closed all of the casinos on March 18 furloughing hundreds of thousands casino workers and entertainers.  The economic losses are in the tens of billions.  On March 18, Florida officials announced they were keeping the beaches OPEN over the Spring Break weekend. Florida finally furloughed 142 lifeguards, shuttered seven Dairy Queens and Moon Doggies surf shop.  Then all those spring break revelers went home to infect their friends and families.  Florida has now closed their borders and does not want New Yorkers coming down to escape NY.  Florida officials also maintain there is a no pee zone in the Municipal pools.

March Madness being cancelled was painful at the Yard.  The tournament consumes our minds for a month or more.  Stories are earned.  Legends are born and a champion emerges.  It was not to be.  Wimbledon one of our favorite tournaments in tennis was cancelled.  Fortunately, Wimbledon had pandemic insurance.  Tournament officials took out a policy 20 years ago and are getting paid $141 million for not holding this year’s tournament.  No matches, no people, no winners except Wimbledon. Not their fault and whoever voted to take that policy out probably took heat at the time.

The suspension of Major League baseball is especially painful at this time.  Baseball is the elixir that has healed this country in the past.  In January of 1942, FDR issued his famous Green Light Letter that green lighted the 1942 baseball season during WWII.  President Roosevelt said, “I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before.” The fans had a brilliant season with the Cardinals taking out the defending champion Yankees 4-1 after losing game one.  Twenty-three-year-old Ted Williams appeared in his third All-Star game and finished second in the MVP voting.  He would leave after the season to fight in WWII for the next three seasons.  The greatest generation would emerge, and baseball’s popularity remained unchallenged for decades.

After 9/11, baseball shut down for a week.  The first professional sporting event in New York after the attacks was the Mets hosting the division-rival Braves in the midst of a pennant race. With the Mets trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the 8th, Mike Piazza stepped into the box for his fourth and final at-bat of the night and went deep for the go-ahead two-run homer.  It was a magical moment for NY.  The Yankees would eventually carry the city all the way to the World Series.  Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling and the Arizona D’backs would deny the story book finish but baseball helped the city heal.

Since FDR’s bold declaration that this nation needs baseball, this nation has responded.  In 1942, baseball was the only game in town.  There were early versions of the NFL and the NBA, but these sports would not emerge nationally until the 1950’s.  Baseball was already popular in 1942.  Babe Ruth had put baseball into the mainstream consciousness a decade earlier.  As Jane Levy asserts in her book The Big Fella, Ruth was the first real celebrity in this nation.  He was baseball’s rascal and ambassador.  He manipulated the media like a Kardashian.  There were many more NY newspapers in the 1920-30’s and getting to Ruth was competitive.  Baseball was roaring down the tracks and the Babe was driving the engine.  With the popularity of the sport, the coverage in the sports page were expanded.  Baseball had statistics, storylines and characters.  The public ate it up and when the newspapers figured out how to publish photos of these icons, the paparazzi were born.  President Trump is sounding like he is ready to declare his own Green Letter.  Not sure if that is the right move in this time and space but someone is going to need to put a toe in the water in May.  I am trying to determine whose hand I might take a chance and shake and when.

Baseball has been this nation’s national past time since there was such a thing.  It has been mine since the late 1960’s.  I inhaled that sports page every morning before my father could, much to his chagrin.  I usually spilled cereal and milk all over it and never put the section back together correctly.  My father was not a fastidious man and I had already lapped his overall interest in mainstream sports by the time I was eight.  So, he let it go.  Oh, how I harken back to the days of those glorious LA Times sports pages in the day.  Jim Murray you were the best.  The Sports Page today is a discussion on when sports are coming back, the NFL Draft, and This Day in Sports. I have not been on ESPN in a month.

This past week one of the all-time greats Hall of Famer Al Kaline passed away. In 1968, the powerful St, Louis Cardinals played the surprising Detroit Tigers in the World Series.  The Cardinals had future Hall of Famers Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, Lou Brock and Orlando Cepeda.  Cardinal Curt Flood who would later challenge the reserve clause that lead to free agency was their All-Star centerfielder.  Kaline was the only Tiger from that Tiger team to make the HOF. Atlanta Braves legend Eddie Matthews was on the roster at the end of his HOF career at the end of the bench.  The Cardinals had the pedigree and the superstars.  Bob Gibson’s ERA for 1968 was 1.12. He had 28 complete games in thirty-four starts.  In 2019, the entire MLB had 46 complete games.  The Cardinals were the defending WS champions and the hated ones for Yard youth.  We rooted for the Tigers. 

The Tigers had the personalities if not the fame.  Denny McClain was the last 30 game winner winning 33 that season.  He would be out of baseball by 1971 and eventually end up in prison. Gates Brown had a very wide stance and a powerful swing that was imitated by a former life- long friend who become known as Gator.  Jim Northrup had 21 homeruns that year and four were Grand Slams.  He hit his 5th in the WS and a game winning triple in Game seven against Bob Gibson.  Mickey Lolich was Detroit’s portly #2 starter who was demoted to the bullpen in August of 1968.  Lolich would be the WS MVP rallying the Tigers from a 3-1 deficit in October.  Lolich would pitch three complete game victories in the WS.  He and Bob Gibson battled for nine innings in Game 7 with the Tigers prevailing.  

We hope it all gets back to some degree of normalcy in May.  Sports might be the elixir even if the fans are not there.  As the worm emerges from the cocoon a beautiful butterfly is born, so may the economy. Or maybe that was the worm that went down with the last shot of tequila on Easter.  Regardless, be smart, be safe and be ready to hit the gas when the light goes green.