In the race for Most Obnoxious New Yorker, the Yankee owner has always been neck and neck with Donald Trump, but this weekend “The Boss” made a strong bid for the title as he nears the finish line.
Emerging from what was assumed to be senile silence, the 77-year-old Mouth managed to offend everyone who enjoys baseball as an oasis from the cruder realities of modern life by threatening to fire his polar opposite, 67-year-old Joe Torre, one of the most gifted managers in sports history and a model for what a decent, caring man can accomplish in competition.
The team had lost two games of a playoff with Cleveland, the second of which hinged on the bizarre attack of swarms of insects that unnerved 22-year-old Joba Chamberlain, who up to that point had been their American Dream savior.
But Steinbrenner has no sensitivity to anything beyond money, power and his own insatiable ego.
The Yankees rallied to win last night and save their manager’s job. But even if they go on to win it all, Steinbrenner has once again, hopefully for the last time, poisoned our pleasure in seeing them do it.
Showing posts with label Joba Chamberlain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joba Chamberlain. Show all posts
Monday, October 08, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
American Dream Tableau
In Little Leagues or Bigs, baseball fields are places to celebrate our national ideals--individual skills as part of a team effort where everyone knows the boundaries and plays hard to win but respects the rules.
This weekend, when we needed it more than ever, there was a tableau in Kansas City to bring tears to the most hardened observer of American life. A 22-year-old named Joba Chamberlain stepped out on the mound and began throwing 100-mile-an-hour pitches for the New York Yankees.
But the real drama was in the grandstands where his father, Harlan, in a wheelchair, surrounded by neighbors from Lincoln, Neb. was seeing his son in the Major Leagues for the first time.
The elder Chamberlain, afflicted by polio when he was nine months old, was born on a reservation of the Winnebago American Indian tribe and left with little use of his left arm, a severe limp and deafness in his left ear.
Nonetheless, as a single father supporting his family, he played catch with his son while sitting in the wheelchair until his hand stung so much he couldn’t stand it. "If it wasn't blowing or a million degrees below zero, we were out there," Harlan Chamberlain recalls.
Joba, born Justin, is now a sensation in the American League after pitching in eleven games without giving up a run. But his father was not watching with statistics in mind.
“I just want to reach out to my son and touch him,” he said. "I just want to hold him for a few minutes."
This weekend, when we needed it more than ever, there was a tableau in Kansas City to bring tears to the most hardened observer of American life. A 22-year-old named Joba Chamberlain stepped out on the mound and began throwing 100-mile-an-hour pitches for the New York Yankees.
But the real drama was in the grandstands where his father, Harlan, in a wheelchair, surrounded by neighbors from Lincoln, Neb. was seeing his son in the Major Leagues for the first time.
The elder Chamberlain, afflicted by polio when he was nine months old, was born on a reservation of the Winnebago American Indian tribe and left with little use of his left arm, a severe limp and deafness in his left ear.
Nonetheless, as a single father supporting his family, he played catch with his son while sitting in the wheelchair until his hand stung so much he couldn’t stand it. "If it wasn't blowing or a million degrees below zero, we were out there," Harlan Chamberlain recalls.
Joba, born Justin, is now a sensation in the American League after pitching in eleven games without giving up a run. But his father was not watching with statistics in mind.
“I just want to reach out to my son and touch him,” he said. "I just want to hold him for a few minutes."
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