Dear Readers: Due to unforeseen circumstances, your regularly scheduled article in this series will not be shown. Please tune in next week to read the column that would have been written for today had our beloved author not tried to jump off his balcony Monday night. However we will be presenting what are believed to be a few selections from the author's personal writings. Below are a few disjointed passages which were found strewn across the author's desk, scribbled onto post-it notes and allegedly written in his own blood. It is believed, however, that were the author lucid enough to actually give his consent for their being published, he would have no problem in doing so.
[Post-It 1]I just don't get it. I can't believe the Yankees did this to themselves again. Three years in a row and we don't get past the first round. I listened to all 162 games this summer, and for what? Nuthin'. Big deal that Clemens got his 350th win; who cares that A-Rod hit number 500; and what good is it that Torre picked up his 2000th managerial win? Huh? Who cares that the whole world wrote the team off in May, and they proved everyone wrong. Honestly, who really gives a crap that they made an incredible second half comeback just to make the playoffs? No one, that's who! Cause when you got a $200 million payroll, it's not so that the team can have an unforgettable regular season. These guys ... they shouldn't just make the playoffs; they shouldn't get close to winning it all; they gotta' do it. That's their job, and those are the expectations as set by the Boss from Below (George Steinbrenner, Tampa Bay). To hell with this, I can't take it anymore. I'm gonna go jump off my balcony.[End Note]
[Post-It 2]I've always loved the movie Gattaca. When I was younger I used to watch it all the time, struggling to put into tangible terms the psychological undertones that run through the movie. Somehow, no matter how close I got, they always seemed to escape me in the mental ineptitude of my youth. And, once gone, they were replaced by a sort of restless angst that can only be felt when one comes so close to achieving his goal, only to forget what it was in the first place. Happily for me though, this cycle did eventually end, and I think I finally wrapped my noodle around that puzzle which had so befuddled me for all those years. And, alas, here's what I found: By making all people such that they can and are expected to achieve incredible things, society takes success from being a wonderful thing to which we can aspire and which we can truly enjoy, and makes it into something that is simply expected and coldly taken for granted. And when we remove from life the exhilaration of victory and the agony of defeat and replace them with emotionless attainment and unimaginable sin, what we're left with are lives that are listless, monochromatic and joyless. But then again, at least it's pretty sweet that my neighbor right below me bought a trampoline and positioned it conveniently just off my balcony. Oh the possibilities. [End Note]
[Post-It 3]Dear Post-It Note?,You're always so good at listening to me; I'm glad we're BFF. Today I was thinking back to when I was in high school. It always seemed like I was being built up so much by my parents and teachers and other people. I can't believe how full my head had become with mindless praise and the unwarranted expectations of others. Sometimes it's amazing how when everyone expects us to be perfect, falling short of those expectations - irrational as they may be - can be a really terrible thing. And sometimes, even when we do succeed, it's no longer the cause for celebration that it ought to be. But the real kicker is that when you don't quite achieve what you were supposed to, the closer you get to the goal, the worse it is. "The sky's the limit," you say? I think not, sir. The limit is the sky, and every inch higher that you soar in failure just means that you have further to fall on your way back down. But I think that it's all taught me something really important. I've learned to shrug off all of the excess baggage and expectations that other people put on me, and to take pride in and truly enjoy all of the successes and achievements in my life - grandiose or seemingly insignificant as they may be - because they really do matter, and should never be ignored or treated as insufficient. And, I'll tell you another thing. I wouldn't wish that burden of living up to someone else's expectations onto anybody else, individually or collectively. Because in baseball or in life, everyone has the right to enjoy all of what they do; even though this can sometimes be easily forgotten from an angry fan's perspective. [End Note]
[Post-It 4]Gee, I sure hope nobody ever finds these post-its lying around. It would be really embarrassing if one day they were published. Also, do remember that Janice took down the trampoline for the week. Try not to forget that fact if you, let's say, happen to fall into a momentary fit of rage.[Splat]
