Results tagged ‘ Rickey Henderson ’

The Greatest of All Time

There are very few people in the sports world who can create a stir the way Muhammad Ali can, actually none. Just his very presence wherever he goes sets off a buzz of excitement that can spread through, say, a Spring Training venue like ripples on a lake.

Ali made another appearance at a Cactus League game on Friday, something the Scottsdale resident has done in the past — and again, his presence floated like a butterly and stung like a bee. It didn’t exactly settle things down when “The Great One” Wayne Gretzky sidled next to him, along with baseball Hall of Famer George Brett and likely future Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre. That’ll get the cameras clicking.

ali.jpgAnd so it did, bringing back a couple of memories here:

  • A few years back, Ali visited Phoenix Muni for an A’s game, and that ripple effect was in perfect form. He walked to his seat that day, and people literally stood and cheered him as he went by as if he were royalty. After the game, the A’s players and the reporters and others who happened to be in the clubhouse were treated to a magic show from The Greatest, and basically just soaked in the greatness. He was more frail and too wobbly for anyone’s comfort, yet he was THE MAN — just owned the room, like he does everywhere.

  • A few years before that, it was the 10th anniversary of Rickey Henderson breaking Lou Brock’s career steals mark. In an interview about that while he was playing for the Padres, Rickey explained his “Greatest of All Time” line — he said it’s because Brock spent time at his house in Oakland leading up to the record, and they discovered that they were both huge Ali fans. So the line was actually an inside joke, he said, as opposed to the “diss” most everyone seemed to think it was. This anecdote has appeared a few other places, but isn’t universally known. Know what? Makes sense. Why not? The story was due right away and never did talk to Brock, unfortunately. Doubt he’d say “Muhammad who?” Hope he wouldn’t say “Rickey said what?”

Yakyu Haiku
That’s the American tradition of baseball in Japanese, and here’s an Americanized version of a Japanese tradition:
Pudge dons new uni,
the number on it this spring?
Not 7 on ‘stros

The Grind begins

Pitchers and catchers report.

Some might say that with those four little words echoed from Arizona to Florida this past weekend, life begins again. Sheesh. That’s a bit much, don’t you think?

Perhaps: Life has meaning again. That’s better. Life has some pop, some heat again, a little more swing to it. Life isn’t an endless series of bone-crushing collisions and endless laps and the same old dunks anymore.

Being back in the baseball season means life is back to being about, as the late, great George Carlin said, going home. We’re going home.

It’s a beautiful thing. Again. Always.

It’s as cliché as it gets, but perhaps now more than ever it’s time to smell the grass. It’s time and then some to hear the crack of the bat. It’s time and a half to start fresh with a new year.

Now more than ever, in the grand old game and the country it serves as national pastime, we could use some Cactus and Grapefruit sunshine to warm our bones. We could use a good stretch, a good long toss. We could use a little PFP on a sunny morning, followed by some live BP.

Even with all that, the clouds won’t go away, everybody knows that. Just a few days after those glorious four words at the top, another four words are being invoked again: Steroids apology press conference.

Not exactly the kind of tradition you’d like but for the second straight spring, that’s on the agenda at Yankees camp. And even after A-Rod’s press conference takes place Tuesday and who knows what else about him come out, there’s still a Barry Bonds trial scheduled to begin in a couple of weeks. There could still be 103 shoes left to drop if performance-enhanced names from 2003 keep coming out.

No, it hasn’t been a pretty offseason, and that trickles into Spring Training 2009.

But this was an offseason in which we also saw Rickey Henderson earn his rightful place in Cooperstown — can’t wait for the speech this summer, a surefire classic. We saw the Yankees put together an offseason haul like none seen before — can’t wait to see them in a new Yankee Stadium in April, even if you can’t stand the Yankees. Already this weekend we’ve seen CC and A.J. in pinstripes, Kerry Wood and John Smoltz in their new places and, let’s be honest, has Manny Being Manny ever played out quite so bizarrely? The Dodgers have a locker waiting for him in Glendale, where they moved after forever in Vero.

So, yeah, there’s still room to bask in the glory of spring now it’s time to hear that baseball pop in the glove. And, no matter what else happens surrounding the game, the gloves will keep popping until somebody dances on the field at the end of October, day after day, pop after pop. It just won’t stop till we get to the end.

And that’s what The Grind is all about.

| back to blog home |
Theme: MLB “retro” | Get a free blog at WordPress.com
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.