2008 Woodie Awards
Baseball season is over
Rudy Ornelas
Issue date: 5/11/06 Section: Opinion
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"Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men's reality. Weird heroes and mold breaking champions exist as living proof in those who need it that the tyranny of 'the rat race' is not yet final," Hunter S. Thompson.
What separates regular people from legends? Or heroes from legends? I am reminded of one of my favorite childhood movies, "The Sandlot" which stated, "heroes get remembered but legends never die." Could that be the answer I'm looking for? Is that the answer to my previous question?
Perhaps so, and perhaps not, perhaps a hero is someone who dares to start of a commentary with four questions when according to Associated Press style you should never even start with one.
Am I a hero? Is the person reading this a hero? I am reminded of my childhood when all I wanted to fill my head with was an infinite number of baseball stats from every single player, alive and dead. I used to visualize the ones from the past and worship them like gods. What I would have done to be like them.
As I've grown older the stats have slowly faded out of my memory. And I realize that the heroes I once worshiped are no more. And all that are left are oversized, steroid using phonies chasing the heroes of yesterday. Surpassing milestone after milestone, while polluting the most beautiful game in the world.
In the movie starring Robert DeNiro, "The Fan" he states "Baseball is better than life, it's fair." What truth behind that statement, what beauty. I love baseball so much, and there is an emptiness inside me because for the first time in over ten years I'm not going to play. And I can't even enjoy watching it because the beauty is gone from it. Baseball has turned into life, unfair, and hard, with cheaters looming in every dugout.
So who's left? Who do I and those younger than I have to look up to? To idolize? Who will inspire us? Perhaps I started off believing wrongfully. Because all the people that I idolized don't really care about me, because they don't know who I am.
What separates regular people from legends? Or heroes from legends? I am reminded of one of my favorite childhood movies, "The Sandlot" which stated, "heroes get remembered but legends never die." Could that be the answer I'm looking for? Is that the answer to my previous question?
Perhaps so, and perhaps not, perhaps a hero is someone who dares to start of a commentary with four questions when according to Associated Press style you should never even start with one.
Am I a hero? Is the person reading this a hero? I am reminded of my childhood when all I wanted to fill my head with was an infinite number of baseball stats from every single player, alive and dead. I used to visualize the ones from the past and worship them like gods. What I would have done to be like them.
As I've grown older the stats have slowly faded out of my memory. And I realize that the heroes I once worshiped are no more. And all that are left are oversized, steroid using phonies chasing the heroes of yesterday. Surpassing milestone after milestone, while polluting the most beautiful game in the world.
In the movie starring Robert DeNiro, "The Fan" he states "Baseball is better than life, it's fair." What truth behind that statement, what beauty. I love baseball so much, and there is an emptiness inside me because for the first time in over ten years I'm not going to play. And I can't even enjoy watching it because the beauty is gone from it. Baseball has turned into life, unfair, and hard, with cheaters looming in every dugout.
So who's left? Who do I and those younger than I have to look up to? To idolize? Who will inspire us? Perhaps I started off believing wrongfully. Because all the people that I idolized don't really care about me, because they don't know who I am.
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