Going for Three (One Sixty-Two: Day 67)

Writer’s note: One Sixty-Two is a season-long series of blog posts connecting baseball’s major-league players to life’s universal themes. Just as there are 162 games in a season, so there will be 162 posts in this series. Let’s play some ball.

Day Sixty-Seven: Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle Mariners

I think I’ve finally broken through. At long last, I have come to appreciate soccer. And baseball has shown me the way.

I’ve tried, every four years, to lose myself to soccer. I’ve watched those graceful, gritty Brazilians, Argentinians, Germans, Dutch and Italians, as they’ve glided up and down the pitch in search of the goal that will bring their country untold glory and honor. I’ve watched these men’s World Cup matches, and, to be honest, I’ve struggled. Struggled to find enjoyment in 90 minutes without a single score. Struggled to understand just what these soccer fans out there are seeing. Wondered if they were seeing something that I just couldn’t see.

As I’ve watched pieces of this year’s 2010 World Cup, I haven’t had an epiphany, where I now see every facet of beauty in the game. High-definition is good, but not that good. Yet, I have figured some things out, and I’ve done it by viewing soccer through the prism of my own passion of cowhide and red stitches.

The one thing I’ve always known about soccer is that there are very few moments in sport as thrilling as the scoring of a goal. The electricity of the goal is on par with the boxing knockdown, the horseracing photo finish, the basketball fast break, the hockey breakaway, and the football “Hail Mary” pass. In baseball, the most exciting play I’ve ever seen is the triple. And it is here that I see my way into soccer.

When you’re at a ballgame, there is nothing like it – a line drive is hit in the gap, it splits two outfielders, and the ball rolls all the way to the wall. As the runner nears second base, he makes a quick, aggressive decision and kicks his legs into another gear. The fans pop to their feet and shout, “He’s going for three!” The outfielder grabs the ball and throws to his cutoff man, who then fires a line drive to third. The runner dives head-first, the umpire keeps his eyes glued to the white base, and a cloud of dust kicks up on the left side of the diamond. We look to the man in black, who makes the call.

So imagine, if you will, a baseball game in which teams can only score a run if they hit a triple. Think about that for a second – no home runs, no stolen bases, no ground-rule doubles, no singles. Just triples, or else you’re out. And teams would still be required to play their nine men in the traditional defensive positions, or else they’d be called offside. It would be a much, much lower-scoring affair, but teams would have to strategize on how to hit the ball in ways that make a three-bagger more possible. They’d also set their defense in order to defend better against the triple.

So there would be no home-run heroes, with bulging triceps and slow trots around the bases. There’d be no stolen-base thieves, who turn singles into doubles. Instead, the sport’s heroes would be men who could manipulate the bat to shoot the baseball into those gaps, or along the foul lines. These heroes also would have speed on the basepaths and in the field, and perhaps even a strong arm to throw out those runners on their way to third.

In a game like this, a man like Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners would be a dominant player in his sport. With his 70 career triples, his ability to maneuver the bat like a magician (2,132 hits in 9½ years), and his rocket arm (nine Gold Glove awards in nine years), Ichiro has all the tools needed to produce and stop triples. He would join the likes of Carl Crawford of Tampa Bay, Shane Victorino and Jimmy Rollins of Philadelphia, and Jose Reyes of the Mets as baseball’s most important players.

It would be a lower-scoring sport, all right, but what a roar you’d hear when those triples appeared. Instead of the “Goal!” calls we hear now, it would be a “Three!” Some fans would complain that the sport is too slow. But others would call it pure, gorgeous, and brilliant. Ichiro, who is arguably the world’s most famous baseball player already, would be even more popular across the globe.

So that’s my in – I’ve selected the most beautiful part of the sport I love, and connected it to soccer. I’m still not sure what a yellow card means, nor do I get the whole offside thing. But it takes a lot of strategy, skill and speed to score those gorgeous goals. I can see that, at least. I’m getting there. My appreciation of soccer hasn’t completed its circuit yet, but I’m standing on third base. And I like the view.

What's Next? (One Sixty-Two: Day 56)

Writer’s note: One Sixty-Two is a season-long series of blog posts connecting baseball’s major-league players to life’s universal themes. Just as there are 162 games in a season, so there will be 162 posts in this series. Let’s play some ball.

Day Fifty-Six: Nick Swisher, New York Yankees

Throughout the year, ESPN has been running an innovative collection of documentaries titled “30 for 30.” In the series, the network celebrates its 30 years of existence by airing one-hour documentaries about sports events from the past three decades, created by various filmmakers.

Last night, ESPN debuted “June 17, 1994,” directed by Brett Morgen. Without conducting a single retrospective interview and using only video footage from that day, Morgen has created a breathtaking review of one of the most fascinating days in recent sports history.

The New York Rangers are parading down Broadway to celebrate their first Stanley Cup in 54 years. Arnold Palmer is limping along the course at Oakmont in his final U.S. Open. The World Cup is getting underway in Chicago, with President Clinton and Oprah Winfrey welcoming the world. Ken Griffey Jr. has launched a homer off of David Cone to reach 30 home runs in a season faster than any man in baseball history.

In Madison Square Garden, the fast, furious and physical NBA Finals between the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks are set to play Game 5 on this evening. Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon are both in search of their first-ever title, and the teams are about as evenly matched as the 2010 Celtics and Lakers are.

So much sports excitement. And yet, it is all being pushed aside without a moment’s hesitation. The news is out of Los Angeles: One of sports’ most celebrated superstars has been charged with murder, and the L.A. police cannot find him. As O.J. Simpson and the infamous white Ford Bronco become visible on the highways of Southern California later in the day, American television news is quickly ushered into a new era. It is an era of news as entertainment, as soap opera, as sensationalism, as reality and as 24-hour Shakespearean drama.

It’s a day that altered the way our news is covered, and its imprint is all over the electronic journalism we encounter today – from the 24/7 oil spill camera, to the coverage of Tiger Woods and Michael Jackson, to the up-to-the-moment critiques and analysis of every political maneuver, to the constant overlap of news and reality television (balloon boys, White House gate crashers, American Idols, and YouTube sensations, to name a few).

My brother was showing me his Twitter account the other day, and he was explaining how it all works. He was using his iPhone to search around Twitter for people to “follow,” and he came across a very popular Twitter page for New York Yankees outfielder Nick Swisher. The people who follow Swisher’s Twitter page get any up-to-the-moment thoughts that the friendly Yankee slugger has to share each day. How was last night’s game, Nick? What are you up to today? Who are your Twitter friends? Swisher has voluntarily placed a portion of his life on display every minute of every day. He knows that his fans crave nothing less.

Technology has changed dramatically over the past 16 years. But the cultural shift of June 17, 1994, is guiding what we do with this technology: We create our own news, our own realities, and give ourselves the constant rush of something new. We want to be both consumers and newsmakers at once, so we take off for the highway overpass and wave to the cameras following the Juice.

You don’t get to follow a Ford Bronco through L.A. every day, with one of the best football players in history holding a gun to his head in the back seat. But when nearly 100 million people tune in to watch something as gripping as this, they want to know one thing: What’s next?

It’s June 17, 2010. Turn on your phone, your laptop, your TV. He’s still there, still in that Bronco. It never ends. It never has. There’s always something next.

Waving the Flag (One Sixty-Two: Day 50)

Writer’s note: One Sixty-Two is a season-long series of blog posts connecting baseball’s major-league players to life’s universal themes. Just as there are 162 games in a season, so there will be 162 posts in this series. Let’s play some ball.

Day Fifty: Mark Teixeira, New York Yankees

And so it begins – one month of frenzied passion, as athletes from around the globe converge in South Africa for the most-watched tournament in sports. As the World Cup kicks into gear today, 32 teams are vying for the ultimate title, to be determined in the World Cup final one month from today. There’s a lot of soc … ahem, football, to be played in the next 30 days, and a lot of amazing plays to be seen along the way.

As I left school today, I saw two students looking at a bracket that one of them had filled out for the tournament. I walked over and took a look. The student had Argentina defeating Brazil in the final – a pretty safe pick, as Argentina has won the tournament twice and Brazil has claimed it a record five times. Since only seven countries have ever won the World Cup, most of the teams in the tournament are playing for their first-ever title. And that makes their fans all the more rabid.

Portugal is one such country with a reputation for success yet an empty World Cup trophy case. Star forward Cristiano Ronaldo will try to take his team to the promised land this year, but with Brazil, the Ivory Coast and North Korea in the same first-round group, just making it to the second round will require serious effort from the Portuguese team.

Outside of Ronaldo, the most famous athlete of Portuguese descent in America is probably New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira. Now in his eighth season as a big-leaguer, Teixeira has already slugged more than 250 home runs and driven in more than 800. The 30-year-old switch-hitter claimed his first championship last year with New York, and he’s won a trio of Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards.

Teixeira is known for his slow starts. But his 2010 season has been even slower than normal, as he’s hitting only .226 nearly midway through June. At this rate, he won’t come close to meeting his average batting numbers for a full season. The Yankees remain patient, though, penciling his name into the lineup’s No. 3 spot every night.

Perhaps Teixeira was just waiting for the World Cup to get his blood boiling. As Ronaldo and Co. fend off those tough teams in Group G, maybe Teixeira will draw inspiration from his ancestral home and lift some long fly balls to deep right field. Perhaps it will be Portugal’s year, at long last. If by chance it is, there will be a man in pinstripes waving the flag. It’s that time of year.

From Wizard to Whiz Kid (One Sixty-Two: Day 46)

Writer’s note: One Sixty-Two is a season-long series of blog posts connecting baseball’s major-league players to life’s universal themes. Just as there are 162 games in a season, so there will be 162 posts in this series. Let’s play some ball.

Day Forty-Six: Stephen Strasburg, Washington Nationals

It’s a scintillating time for sports, with more events to cover than newspapers can handle. This weekend offered fans a choice of watching the French Open tennis finals, the Belmont Stakes horse race, a boxing match in Yankee Stadium, the Stanley Cup Finals or the NBA Finals. Later this week, the World Cup men’s soccer tournament begins in South Africa. Major League Baseball began its amateur draft today. And, to top it off, legendary NCAA basketball coach John Wooden died on Friday at age 99.

It is not surprising that the coverage of Wooden’s death eclipsed all of the live events this weekend. This man was more than a 10-time national champion at UCLA, more than the most successful college basketball coach in history. Those who have listened to or read Wooden’s words have learned so much about life from the man, and this weekend they wanted to take some time to honor him in any way possible. In a sports world full of me-first athletes, the loss of Wooden brought us all back to the lessons of teamwork and humility that this "Wizard of Westwood" worked so hard to teach.

ESPN.com compiled a list of “Woodenisms” on its Web site. Reading them felt a lot like flipping through the pages of Thoreau or Emerson. "Be more concerned with your character than your reputation,” Wooden said, “because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."

Another: "Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability."

And still another: "Talent is God-given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful."

Tomorrow, the biggest story in sports will take place in Washington, D.C., when Nationals rookie pitcher Stephen Strasburg takes the mound for the first time as a major-leaguer. Blessed with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball, Strasburg has dominated every level of minor-league ball since the Nationals drafted him with the first pick in last year’s amateur draft. Tomorrow, the 21-year-old’s big-league journey begins.

Television cameras will follow Strasburg’s every move. But if Wooden were still with us, he’d remind Strasburg to focus on his team, not his own spotlight. "The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team," the great coach once said.

Wooden would remind Strasburg to pay attention to more than that fastball. He’d suggest working just as hard on character development, perseverance, humility and gratitude, no matter how many lights are shining on you in that clubhouse.

Because at the end of the day, it’s the way you live outside of the sporting arena that matters most of all. Soccer, basketball, hockey, tennis, baseball – whatever the sport, the story’s the same. "It isn't what you do,” John Wooden said, “but how you do it."

Good luck, Stephen. In more than just the game.