As I pondered Winfield and his age, I thought back to some of the great catches he made in the Yankees Stadium outfield. This somehow reminded me of another great catch made at Yankees Stadium - a catch made by a player named Ken Griffey. Thinking about Ken Griffey made me feel even older.
Ken Griffey was another ballplayer whose career started in 1973. I'm too young remember his entire career ( I was born in January of 1970 ), but I remember Griffey playing in the 1976 World Series ( at Yankees Stadium ) when he was an All-Star outfielder for the world champion Cincinnati Reds.
However, this memory ( and the fact that Ken Griffey is already 59 ) isn't what is making me feel old. What's making me feel old is that Ken Griffey Jr. is now nearing the end of his baseball career.
Ken Griffey Jr.'s career started in 1989 when was a 19-year-old rookie ( He was actually teammates with his dad for one year ). Griffey's less than 2-months older than me ( he was born in November of 1969 ), so watching him age over the years has kinda been like watching myself age. It's hard to believe that such a young, skinny, and graceful ballplayer who once looked like this ...
... is now a washed-up middle-aged player with a big gut who looks like this ...
It's hard to believe that 20 years of his ( and my ) life has passed that quickly.
Seeing how Griffey has aged makes me think about how I have aged over the years. If I compare how I look now to photos from 20 years ago, it certainly doesn't seem like I've aged *that* much. Sure, I've got a wrinkle or two around my eyes, but I think I basically look the same ( Yes, I keep telling myself that - please don't correct me if I'm wrong. :p ). I also don't think I've lost too much athletically. I've lost a *little* of bit of ability when it comes to stuff that requires flexibility and quick bursts of power ( like sprinting, jumping, or lifting weights ), but I certainly have *far* better endurance than I did when I was 20 ( I didn't start a running regimen until I was 31 ). Of course, it's a lot easier for me to maintain the athletic ability of my 20's than somebody like Griffey. Griffey was a world-class athlete ( When he was in his prime, many considered Griffey to be the best baseball player in the world ), while I'm just a regular guy. Griffey had a lot more athletic ability to lose than me ( I guess that's one of the advantages of not being a world-class athlete. If you are not a world-class athlete and you work hard enough, you could theoretically be in the best shape of your life at 50. If you're the best athlete in the world at 25, there's no way you could be in even better shape at the age of 50. ).
In any case, I guess there's no way to stave off Father Time forever, so rather than dwell on that, let me end this post on a lighter note.
Earlier in this post, I mentioned the tension between Dave Winfield and the Yankees' owner ( Geroge Steinbrenner ). The tension stemmed from Steinbrenner's comments after the 1981 World Series ( baseball's championship series ). The Yankees lost that Series in large part because Winfield only got 1 hit in 22 tries in the Series ( Note to non-baseball fans: That is indeed a REALLY REALLY bad performance ). After the Series, Steinbrenner derisively referred to Winfield as "Mr. May". Why was this considered to be a big insult? Well, let me explain for all the non-baseball fans out there.
The baseball regular season runs from April to September. In October, baseball determines its champion through a series of playoff games which culminate in the 2 best teams playing for the championship in the World Series. The Yankees had won the World Series in 1977 and 1978 in large part because of the great performances of a player named Reggie Jackson. Reggie set a record for most home runs in one World Series in 1977, and he also led his former team ( the Oakland A's ) to three straight World Series Championships from 1972 to 1974. Thanks to his consistently great performances in the World Series, Reggie earned the nickname "Mr. October". When, Steinbrenner called Winfield "Mr. May", he was essentially telling him "You're no Reggie Jackson".
While most of the non-Americans reading this have never seen Reggie Jackson play baseball ( His last season was 1987, so most of you would have been too young ( or too unborn ) to have seen him play anyway ), you've all probably seen him in a movie. If you haven't seen him in the movie I'm thinking about, I strongly suggest that you go rent this movie right NAO! The movie I'm talking about is "The Naked Gun", which IMHO is one of the two or three funniest movies of all-time. Reggie plays the baseball player who keeps saying "I must kill the Queen". You can see Reggie's performance starting at the 1:54 point of the clip below:
I'll leave you with my favorite quote from "The Naked Gun".
"Jane, since I've met you, I've noticed things that I never knew were there before...
... birds singing,
...dew glistening on a newly formed leaf,
... stoplights."
Rich
2 comments:
Ahaha! Griffey's before and after shots made me laugh!
yeah, I accept that I need to learn things in a fixed period of time. I was talking out of personal frustration at the time.
Diminishing returns with levels of achievement and physical capabilities. A lifelong struggle. Unfortunately, to struggle is to live.
I constantly continue to question why do any of us have to follow preset ideas and concepts yet nobody really wants to change any of them.
Unfortunately the one rule that generally holds true is that whoever can do something different at a time when the money is good, is probably destined for greatness.
I hate having my frustrations with life and the constructs of society out. It makes me come across somewhat angry and pessimistic. I'm a generally quite positive person actually.
Hope all is well with you. I just know that I'll never be able to fully accept that whatever has to be the way it is because that's the way it has always been. That's just me.
whatever. later. I'm probably typing incoherently right now :P
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