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October 12, 2010 Racking up the Air Miles
After Vancouver and Utah, on to October and it must be Maui.
It is.
After Vancouver and Utah, on to October and it must be Maui.
It is.
October 15, 2010 Sports
The Texas Rangers baseball team is in the playoffs for the 4th time in the history of ever.
Before their Division series last week with the Tampa Bay Rays, they had won exactly one
playoff baseball game...ever. Then they won 3 games in Tampa and won their first playoff
series...ever. They still have never won a playoff home game.
Tonight in Arlington, Texas, the Rangers begin play in the first American League Championship
Series in the franchise history against the current world champion New York Yankees. The
Yankees have made 49 playoff appearances in their history, won 40, yes forty, American League
Pennants and have been the world champions 27 times. Twenty seven.
Some non-fans (certainly it is a coincidence that they be primarily of the female persuasion) scrunch up their noses
and wonder aloud why all the fuss about sports? I might try to explain it to some if I believed there was ever a scintilla
of sincerity in the question. I usually judge there to be less than none, but it is a judgement call. I suppose it is
possible that I might occasionally be wrong.
Not.
Someday I might try to put it to words. It is just that important.
In the meantime, as you all sit down tonight to watch the Rangers defeat the mighty Yanks, you might consider the
explanation about the importance of sports from Elmo. No, not that Elmo. Elmo the short order cook from one of my
favorite sports movies of all time - Visionquest starring Matthew Modine. Elmo's young friend, Louden Swain, was
wrestling in the Washington state high school championships that night against his nemesis, Brian Shute. Louden
stopped by Elmo's dingy apartment to see if his friend would be coming to the match and discovered that Elmo took
the day off and was putting on his only suit to attend the match.
Louden Swain: You never took a night off to see me wrestle before. They’ll dock you for that.
Elmo: Hey, kid – money ain’t everything.
Louden Swain: It’s not that big a deal, Elmo. I mean, it’s six lousy minutes on the mat, if that.
Elmo: You ever hear of Pele?
Louden Swain: Yeah, he’s a, a soccer player.
Elmo: A very famous soccer player.
[pause]
Elmo: I was in the room here one day… watchin’ the Mexican channel on TV. I don’t know nothin’ about Pele. I’m
watchin’ what this guy can do with a ball and his feet. Next thing I know, he jumps in the air and flips into a somersault
and kicks the ball in – upside down and backwards… the goddamn goalie never knew what the fuck hit him. Pele gets
excited and he rips off his jersey and starts running around the stadium waving it around his head. Everybody’s
screaming in Spanish. I’m here, sitting alone in my room, and I start crying.
[pause]
Elmo: That’s right, I start crying. Because another human being, a species that I happen to belong to, could kick a
ball, and lift himself, and the rest of us sad-assed human beings, up to a better place to be, if only for a minute… let
me tell ya, kid – it was pretty goddamned glorious. It ain’t the six minutes… it’s what happens in that six minutes.
Roger Angell is a real life writer. He has written many things about the game of baseball. In the discussion about why
baseball or any sport holds importance for people, Roger is as capable as any of conveying a passionate point of
view to the matter. Roger is a tiny bit more accomplished at communication that Elmo. Their effectiveness is neck and
neck. It is my impression that Roger's passion drives his talent when it comes to baseball. This quote is from him:
“What I do know is that this belonging and caring is what our gamers are all about; this is what we come for. It is
foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and
commercially exploitative as a professional sports team, and the amused superiority and icy scorn that the non-fan
directs at the sports nut (I know this look — I know it by heart) is understandable and almost unanswerable. Almost.
What is left out of this calculation, it seems to me, is the business of caring — caring deeply and passionately, really
caring — which is a capacity or an emotion that has almost gone out of our lives. And so it seems possible that we
have come to a time when it no longer matters so much what the caring is about, how frail or foolish is the object of
that concern, as long as the feeling itself can be saved. Naivete — the infantile and ignoble joy that sends a grown
man or woman to dancing and shouting with joy in the middle of the night over the haphazardous flight of a distant ball
— seems a small price to pay for such a gift.”
I will leave you now to sit in front of the TV in my Ranger cap to experience what happens in that six minutes, which will
actually be about three hours in this case.
Aloha.
The Texas Rangers baseball team is in the playoffs for the 4th time in the history of ever.
Before their Division series last week with the Tampa Bay Rays, they had won exactly one
playoff baseball game...ever. Then they won 3 games in Tampa and won their first playoff
series...ever. They still have never won a playoff home game.
Tonight in Arlington, Texas, the Rangers begin play in the first American League Championship
Series in the franchise history against the current world champion New York Yankees. The
Yankees have made 49 playoff appearances in their history, won 40, yes forty, American League
Pennants and have been the world champions 27 times. Twenty seven.
Some non-fans (certainly it is a coincidence that they be primarily of the female persuasion) scrunch up their noses
and wonder aloud why all the fuss about sports? I might try to explain it to some if I believed there was ever a scintilla
of sincerity in the question. I usually judge there to be less than none, but it is a judgement call. I suppose it is
possible that I might occasionally be wrong.
Not.
Someday I might try to put it to words. It is just that important.
In the meantime, as you all sit down tonight to watch the Rangers defeat the mighty Yanks, you might consider the
explanation about the importance of sports from Elmo. No, not that Elmo. Elmo the short order cook from one of my
favorite sports movies of all time - Visionquest starring Matthew Modine. Elmo's young friend, Louden Swain, was
wrestling in the Washington state high school championships that night against his nemesis, Brian Shute. Louden
stopped by Elmo's dingy apartment to see if his friend would be coming to the match and discovered that Elmo took
the day off and was putting on his only suit to attend the match.
Louden Swain: You never took a night off to see me wrestle before. They’ll dock you for that.
Elmo: Hey, kid – money ain’t everything.
Louden Swain: It’s not that big a deal, Elmo. I mean, it’s six lousy minutes on the mat, if that.
Elmo: You ever hear of Pele?
Louden Swain: Yeah, he’s a, a soccer player.
Elmo: A very famous soccer player.
[pause]
Elmo: I was in the room here one day… watchin’ the Mexican channel on TV. I don’t know nothin’ about Pele. I’m
watchin’ what this guy can do with a ball and his feet. Next thing I know, he jumps in the air and flips into a somersault
and kicks the ball in – upside down and backwards… the goddamn goalie never knew what the fuck hit him. Pele gets
excited and he rips off his jersey and starts running around the stadium waving it around his head. Everybody’s
screaming in Spanish. I’m here, sitting alone in my room, and I start crying.
[pause]
Elmo: That’s right, I start crying. Because another human being, a species that I happen to belong to, could kick a
ball, and lift himself, and the rest of us sad-assed human beings, up to a better place to be, if only for a minute… let
me tell ya, kid – it was pretty goddamned glorious. It ain’t the six minutes… it’s what happens in that six minutes.
Roger Angell is a real life writer. He has written many things about the game of baseball. In the discussion about why
baseball or any sport holds importance for people, Roger is as capable as any of conveying a passionate point of
view to the matter. Roger is a tiny bit more accomplished at communication that Elmo. Their effectiveness is neck and
neck. It is my impression that Roger's passion drives his talent when it comes to baseball. This quote is from him:
“What I do know is that this belonging and caring is what our gamers are all about; this is what we come for. It is
foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and
commercially exploitative as a professional sports team, and the amused superiority and icy scorn that the non-fan
directs at the sports nut (I know this look — I know it by heart) is understandable and almost unanswerable. Almost.
What is left out of this calculation, it seems to me, is the business of caring — caring deeply and passionately, really
caring — which is a capacity or an emotion that has almost gone out of our lives. And so it seems possible that we
have come to a time when it no longer matters so much what the caring is about, how frail or foolish is the object of
that concern, as long as the feeling itself can be saved. Naivete — the infantile and ignoble joy that sends a grown
man or woman to dancing and shouting with joy in the middle of the night over the haphazardous flight of a distant ball
— seems a small price to pay for such a gift.”
I will leave you now to sit in front of the TV in my Ranger cap to experience what happens in that six minutes, which will
actually be about three hours in this case.
Aloha.
October 25, 2010 I Love Surfing
It has been a while since I mentioned how much I enjoy surfing.
Not actually doing the surfing.
Just observing surfing.
Uh, well, observing surfers,
er...uh...well, some surfers.
That's it. I enjoy observing some surfers.
Yes...well.
That is all for now.
It has been a while since I mentioned how much I enjoy surfing.
Not actually doing the surfing.
Just observing surfing.
Uh, well, observing surfers,
er...uh...well, some surfers.
That's it. I enjoy observing some surfers.
Yes...well.
That is all for now.
