This isn’t terribly political, but it brought a smile to my face, so I thought I would share it. I was reading this article earlier from the sole remaining MSM outlet that I trust, ESPN. It probably helps that it’s about my favorite baseball team.
The article is about Andruw Jones, a baseball player from the small Caribbean island of Curacao, and how he changed the whole of his little island, simply by realizing his dream of playing Major League Baseball in the United States.
I thought about trying to relate all of this back to our entertainment industry, our misplaced idolizing of entertainers of all sorts, and all that. But I know you are all perfectly capable of making those connections, so I’m going to skip it, because this is more fun, dammit.
“Andruw Jones gave this country a gift,” Seferina said. “He gave all these little kids the belief that a Curacao kid can make it. He’s the dream they have, he’s the spirit that lights each one of their hearts. They listen and learn from every word he says.”
This is the American Dream incarnate, in the form of our American Pastime.
Baseball is one of the few remaining bastions of idealism in American culture; it is a deliberate game that has survived the me-first, instant gratification, 5-minute attention span era. It has flourished despite strikes and scandal, because in baseball, the players are human and can be forgiven. There is no cage over their face, they’re not ensconced in pads and armor. The game is based on one on one battles between men. We watch these players, and see that they’re human. We see them sweat, we see them grimace, and sometimes we even see them bleed.
Through it all, baseball has still maintained a reverence for the history of the game, something that no other sport in the United States can claim. The best announcers are the ones who know the history, and can tell you that a pitcher reminds him of a young Sandy Koufax, or that a batter has a swing nearly as smooth as that of Ted Williams.
OK, got a little carried away there…sorry. Back to Andruw. Just look at the joy he gave back on his first night of playing in the United States!
On a tiny island in the southern Caribbean, 2,500 miles away, Carnival had begun four months early. People flocked to the streets — singing, dancing and drinking. They shot off fireworks. They drove through the capital of Willemstad blasting their car horns.
I’ll admit, I was doing the same thing here at home, but I was the only one. For some reason, all of the U.S. did not join me in celebration of Andruw’s 2 home runs against the dastardly Yankees. I know, unbelievable.
I guess the reason I feel justified in posting this here, is that with all that we read nowadays, other countries opinions of us, all the hatred directed our way because of our leaders’ choices, sometimes we just need a break. We need to see that there are still aspects of our country that are good, that can still inspire and give hope.
Because I don’t know about you, but I’ve been kinda short on hope lately.
And after all, the ball is round.