First of all, I was watching TXCN or Texas CAble News while "surfing" channels, and apparently it rained like a mo-fo in Houston today. Big time flooding. It was pretty insane. So I hope all you houston readers (probably just Glover) made it out OK.
With that said, the day after the slowest day sports day of the year and we are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. Football season is fast approaching and it is a very good time to be a sports fan.
A's top Rangers 6-0, but it gets worse:
Unfotunately, out in Oakland, the Rangers got damn close to having Rich Harden throw a perfect game against them. 2 singles (all we got was 2 god darn hits) by Sori and Dellucci were the only thing stopping Harden from throwing a perfect game. He only needed 81 pitches to throw a 2 hitter with no walks. Pretty incredible. I'm as much a ranger homer as anyone, and I don't like the way this thing is heading. I hope we make a deal or something. Because it is looking like the team in its current form probably isn't going to catch Anaheim. And the wildcard is an even bigger pipe dream and with the Yanks/Orioles/Red Sox/Indians/Twins all probably more likely to win the wild card then the rangers. However, if Hart can swing a deal that nets a decent right fielder and/or a starting pitching option (yea right in this market), then the Rangers might have a prayer.
On a brighter note, I got to check out the HBO documentary/biography on Mickey Mantle, and it was really a moving story that everyone should check out if you at all are interested in our parents' generation hero worship of Mantle. It also touches on his bad alochol problem and how he really was a poor father for a variety of different reasons.
As much bashing as I heard by those blowhards on "the Ticket's" http://www.theticket.com/ shows today, Mantle really was a fascinating person regardless of your interest in sports. He was one of the few athletes to transcend sport and actually became part of American (mostly-white) culture. For all of his great flaws in his personal life, Mantle was the best position player during the 50s and 60s outside of maybe Willie Mays. Of course, being white and playing for the yankees didn't hurt either. Mantle actually won 7 world series and played on 12 world series teams with the Yanks. He hit 536 HRs and probably would have been closer to 6 or 7 hundred if he hadn't had such bad luck with his body both on and off the field.
The show has a lot of interviews with the usual (Costas and Billy Crystal) and not so usual suspects (Ed Harris??? and Richard Lewis). One of the more poignant portions of this show were the stories by Billy Martin's son about Mickey and his father during their time with the Yankees. I can only imagine the boozing Mickey, Billy Martin (who also tragically died about 150 yards from his own driveway in upstate new york coming home from a bar Christmas Day in 1989), and Whitey Ford did in NYC and all over the country during their playing days. It must have been a hell of a ride hanging out with Frank Sinatra and others.
One of the creepier portions of the show was Ed Harris reciting a poem that he wrote about Mickey when he was 10. It was cute and scary at the same time.
I think Mantle may have been the last true sports American hero for our parent's generation. Maybe Jack Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer could argue, but Mantle's passing definitely affected a lot of the people born in 30s, 40s and 50s. Mantle had the charisma despite his off the field problems not being known to the American public. It does bring up an interesting point that Mantle probably never would have reached his near-mythical status if he played in today's media environment. Back then, players could keep their private lives away from the press as long as you were winning. Much like the Cowboys shenanigans of the early 90s under Jimmy, Mantle and his buddies could get away with whatever they wanted as long as they were winning. But unlike the Cowboys escapades being widely known, Mantle was able to avoid public scrutiny despite playing in the largest media market in the country for the best known team in professional sports.
It also shows that there may never be another hero like Mantle who actually made you feel like he was one of us out there on the field. Because athletes are so over-exposed by today's in your face coverage from the time athletes are very young, you don't feel the personal connection with today's athletes. Even Jordan no matter how great he was on the court never really let the American public into his personal life. Regardless of how many books were written about him, Jordan never let people get to close to him. And when you stop to think about, maybe that's not such a bad thing.
Mantle was so beloved that it was almost impossible for him to assimilate back into society when he retired. It's not hard to understand the demons Mickey faced when he realized his playing days were over. At least Mantle at the end of his life realized how foolish he had been throughout his life, and he let the American public know he had screwed up as a father. He has to deserve some credit for owning up to his mistakes to the public.
I think that Mantle really defines a hero in every sense of the word. Heros are human and Mickey Mantle was most definitely human....
Anyways, check out the program sometime will ya.
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