Dude- I'm sorry, but all he did was show up for work every day for a long time. That's great and I don't want to detract from the achievement, but I can think of a few athletes greater as heroes/role models:
Jackie Robinson (who showed up to work where people hated him and wanted him dead)---when the entire league retires #8, then Cal has his status
Lou Gehrig (who worked through immeasureable and eventually terminal physical pain)
Ted Williams (who would have set every hitting record in baseball history had he not---twice---gone to risk life and limb in two wars)
Lance Armstrong (the tumor was the size of a lemon when he started to get treatment and then when he came back he simply dominated his sport's main event for several years)
Yeah, yeah: Roberto Clemente, Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali, etc..
Cal didn't take on anything nearly as big as those guys, and I agree that he's not in the highest pantheon of sports heroes, but he's still pretty great. Beyond simply showing up, he also played the game at a very high level and was a class act. For Eric and me, he was the guy who happened to be the best player on our favorite team, and in that sense we were pretty lucky. Given the stuff that dominates headlines in sports these days and the current state of the Baltimore franchise, the HOF induction has been both timely and gratifying for O's fans. We're all kind of worried that it was the last hurrah for a long, long time.
4 comments:
Yeah, Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey were great Yankees. I'm glad they retired #8, too.
(No, seriously, you should drive down to Bmore and see the game then stay to watch the induction/speech in the Yard.)
Good times. Good times.
greatest hero/role model in sports history. has there ever been any athlete who has been more rewarding to root for? i say no.
Dude- I'm sorry, but all he did was show up for work every day for a long time. That's great and I don't want to detract from the achievement, but I can think of a few athletes greater as heroes/role models:
Jackie Robinson (who showed up to work where people hated him and wanted him dead)---when the entire league retires #8, then Cal has his status
Lou Gehrig (who worked through immeasureable and eventually terminal physical pain)
Ted Williams (who would have set every hitting record in baseball history had he not---twice---gone to risk life and limb in two wars)
Lance Armstrong (the tumor was the size of a lemon when he started to get treatment and then when he came back he simply dominated his sport's main event for several years)
I can think of more, but I need to go to bed.
Yeah, yeah: Roberto Clemente, Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali, etc..
Cal didn't take on anything nearly as big as those guys, and I agree that he's not in the highest pantheon of sports heroes, but he's still pretty great. Beyond simply showing up, he also played the game at a very high level and was a class act. For Eric and me, he was the guy who happened to be the best player on our favorite team, and in that sense we were pretty lucky. Given the stuff that dominates headlines in sports these days and the current state of the Baltimore franchise, the HOF induction has been both timely and gratifying for O's fans. We're all kind of worried that it was the last hurrah for a long, long time.
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