BrokenCowboy: Sports Views with a West Coast Bias

Remembering David Halberstam

On Monday afternoon we lost David Halberstam, one of this generation's greatest writers. The seventy-three-year-old Halberstam was killed in a car accident in Menlo Park, California, shortly after speaking to a group of journalism students at UC Berkeley.

Halberstam was an accomplished journalist (he won the Pulitzer Prize for his groundbreaking reporting from the front lines of the Vietnam War), but I grew to love him as a sports writer. He brought an historian's perspective to the world of sports, highlighting issues ranging from civil rights to the globalization and commercialization of America's sporting culture. My words could not do justice to Mr. Halberstam's talent as a writer, so instead I'll drop a few lines from three of my favorite Halberstam books:

[DiMaggio] was the perfect Hemingway hero, for Hemingway in his novels romanticized the man who exhibited grace under pressure, who withheld any emotion lest it soil the purer statement of his deeds. DiMaggio was that kind of hero; his grace and skill were always on display, his emotions always concealed. This stoic grace was not achieved without a terrible price: DiMaggio was a man wound tight. He suffered from insominia and ulcers. When he sat and watched the game he chain-smoked and drank endless cups of coffee. He was ever conscious of his obligation to play well. Late in his career, when his legs were bothering him and the Yankees had a comfortable lead in a pennant race, a friend of his, columnist Jimmy Cannon, asked him why he played so hard -- the games, after all, no longer meant so much. "Because there might be somebody out there who's never seen me play before," he answered.

Summer of '49

There was a certain gallantry to Mickey Mantle as he pressed forward in the twilight of his career. By the start of the 1964 season he had already hit more than 400 home runs, and he appeared to be on his way to a .300 career average. He was the man who carried the team, and yet he played now in constant pain, reaching for physical skills that were no longer there. However, in some remarkable way, the athlete within continued to rebel against the pain and refused to accept the limits set by his body. Again and again he endangered himself. Watching him tape himself every day -- for the ritual of taping his legs had been going on for so long that he could do it himself -- his teammates were in awe of him. "He is," his teammate Clete Boyer once said, "the only baseball player I know who is a bigger hero to his teammates than he is to the fans."

October 1964

...suddenly Bryon Russell was the loneliest man on the planet, out there isolated one-on-one with Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Jordan let the clock run down, from about fifteen seconds to about eight. Then, when Russell made a quick reach at the ball, Jordan started his drive, moving to his right as if to go to the basket. Russell bit, going for the drive, and Jordan suddenly pulled up, giving Russell a light little tap on the ass with his left hand just to make sure the fake worked... Russell was already sprawling to his left as Jordan stopped, squared up, and shot...

There was a remarkable photo of that moment in ESPN magazine taken by the photographer Fernando Medina. It is in color, covers two full pages, and shows Russell struggling to regain position, Jordan at the peak of his jump, the ball high up on its arc and about to descend, and the clock showing 6.6 seconds left in the game. What is remarkable about the photograph is the view it offers of so many Utah fans. Though the ball has not yet reached the basket, the game appears over to them. They know it is going in. The anguish -- the certitude of defeat -- is on their faces, as if the arrow has already pierced their skin and is entering their hearts.

Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made

Man On Fire

The game isn't supposed to be this easy. You aren't supposed to have streaks like this, even if you are Alex Rodríguez, the best player in baseball.

A-Rod's struggles in New York have been well documented, and it was only six months ago that every baseball expert in America -- and I mean every single one -- was dead certain that his time in New York had come to an end. (You probably could've gotten pretty good odds at an online sportsbook.) After another abysmal October capped off by the humiliation of being dropped to the eighth spot in the order for the Yankees' final game, it looked like Rodríguez would be traded. Even though he had won the MVP in 2005, he had failed when it counted. GM Brian Cashman didn't seem to have any choice. Like Jack Clark, Rickey Henderson, and Dave Winfield before him, Rodríguez seemed destined for the trading block, sure to bring nothing but flotsam and jetsam in return.

Thankfully, Cashman knew better.

What we're seeing now, quite simply, is the best player of our generation performing at the absolute peak of his abilities, so pay attention. In case you've been distracted by the close of the NBA season or the latest round of American Idol elimations, here's a quick synopsis of what A-Rod's done so far:

• 10 HRs and 26 RBI in 14 games
• More home runs than eight other teams
• Basehits in all 14 games
• Extra base hits in 13 of 14 games
• Two walk-off home runs

Those numbers, though, don't tell you the most important part of the story. Alex Rodríguez is having fun again. His home run have all been no-doubters, allowing him to break into this home run trot before leaving the batter's box. It's the same each time: as the ball rockets into the stands, he flips his bat in the air and looks into the dugout, smiling with joy. Following his one-handed blast on Wednesday night, he was seen doubled over in laughter at the ribbing he was getting from the rest of the guys, the batboy included. As unlikely as it seemed six months ago -- or even six weeks ago -- A-Rod is one of the boys.

The interesting thing about his streak, though, is that as flaming hot as Rodríguez has been, he's still seeing pitches to hit. Take Thursday, for instance. Even though his advance scouts must've told him A-Rod's been pounding everything, and even though he had seen it with his own eyes during the first two games of the series, Cleveland manager Eric Wedge still chose to pitch to him in the ninth inning with the winning runs on base and first base open. The results were predictable. Another A-Rod walk-off blast.

Rest assured, though, that there are whispers. What happens when things get serious? Rodríguez might be able to carry a team in April, but what about September and October when (excuse me for this...) Yankees earn their stripes? We'll start getting some answers this weekend when the team makes its first trip to Fenway Park and A-Rod digs in against Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett, and Daisuke Matsuzaka. (Needless to say, my TiVo is already set.)

Expect big things.

An Interview with Jonathan Eig

Just in time for the sixtieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first appearance with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Jonathan Eig has recently released Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season, a book which features a new look at Robinson's historic rookie campaign. (Click here to read an excerpt, and here for my review.) Last week he was nice enough to meet me at Starbucks in between an appearance on the Tavis Smiley show and a book signing at a local L.A. bookstore. (The lineup makes perfect sabermetric sense, by the way. Smiley's on-base percentage is much higher than mine, but my slugging can't be denied.) Anyway, here's the interview. Enjoy.

BrokenCowboy
I wanted to start out with this. When I was growing up I was a huge baseball fan, and I learned about baseball history -- and just American history, I think -- by reading biographies. And so as a young black boy growing up, Jackie Robinson’s story obviously had some special appeal to me. So I was curious -- what drew you to the story? What about Jackie Robinson’s story really touched you or made you want to pursue this?

Jonathan Eig
It wasn’t the baseball at all, it was the history. Like you, I learned about prohibition by learning about Babe Ruth, right? All I read was baseball stuff, so what little history I absorbed was through the baseball books. I think I can relate to that. And with Jackie Robinson’s story, I just became really curious about what it was like in ‘47, what that particular year was like. Because I knew all the stories about him, I knew all the myths. I knew all about his career with the Dodgers and the World Series, but as I got older what really got me going was thinking about this friendship with Pee Wee Reese. It’s probably what sparked the idea for me. When I realized that they weren’t such good friends in ‘47, that Jackie was really alone for that first year -- later on it got easier -- for that first year he was all alone. I wondered what it was like -- where did he live that year? I didn’t know any of that stuff, so I just became really fascinated by that.

BC
Obviously there have been a lot of books written about Jackie Robinson. What inspired you to do another one? I know that your angle here is a little bit different, but what made you think you could bring something new to the picture that we have of Jackie Robinson?

Eig
It was a challenge, there has been so much written. But I felt like lately over the years we’ve tended to mythologize him, and I felt like it was time for somebody to sort of scrape the barnacles off the story and look for the truth, just get at the bones of it. I felt like if you just focused on a really tight time period, on one year, you could really get beyond the baloney and find out just what happened. Just stick to the facts. And I was also intrigued by the fact that, you know, Rachel Robinson was still around, and she wasn’t going to be forever. She cooperated on a biography ten years ago, and it was a good biography, very good, but nobody had ever tried to force their way into that apartment with her and ask what their life was like as newlyweds, and I thought if I could get her to open up I might have a shot at doing something different.

Excerpt from Opening Day by Jonathan Eig

There have been countless articles and books written about Jackie Robinson over the past sixty years, but none with the focus of Jonathan Eig's new release, Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season. Eig's thoroughly researched book chronicles Robinson's rookie year, covering the drama both on and off the field. I hope you enjoy this excerpt from the book's Prologue.

April 10, 1947

The telephone rang like an alarm, waking Jackie Robinson from deep sleep.

"Hello," he mumbled.

It was early morning in Manhattan. Robinson was alone in room 1169 of the McAlpin Hotel, across the street from Macy's. He had been on edge all week, his stomach in knots. As he listened to the voice on the other end of the phone, he was poised to embark on a journey -- one that would test his courage, shake the game of baseball to its roots, and forever change the face of the nation. Throughout history, heroic quests have often been launched on grand orders. "The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River . . . ," wrote Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis. "The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!" General Dwight David Eisenhower exhorted his troops before the D-Day invasion. But the commanding words that sent Robinson on his way this cool, gray morning were uttered by a humble secretary.

Come to Brooklyn, she said.

Crossing the Line

There are few Americans who cannot tell you at least something about Jackie Robinson. His story has become ingrained into our cultural awareness through countless books, magazine articles, and songs detailing his heroic integration of the National League and his subsequent brilliant career. There are statues of his likeness, schools and streets bearing his name, and a plaque in baseball's Hall of Fame. He has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, and there are plans for a Jackie Robinson Museum in New York City. He slides home triumphantly on a 33¢ stamp, and he even starred in a movie about his life. Thirty-five years after his death, Jackie Robinson is everywhere.

As we commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers, it wouldn't seem that there would be a need for another book. Thankfully for baseball fans everywhere, Jonathan Eig thought otherwise. Only two years after producing his award-winning Lou Gehrig biography, Luckiest Man, Eig returns with another outstanding effort in Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season. It should be added to your reading list right now.

As suggested by the title, Eig's angle here is to focus on that historic season stretching across the spring, summer, and fall of 1947. By narrowing the view to this pivotal campaign, Eig reminds us of what we already know about Robinson while shedding light on aspects of the story that haven't been told, skillfully integrating the narrative of the baseball season with stories reflecting the social importance of Branch Rickey's "Great Experiment."

The author's stated ambition is to demythologize the story of Robinson's struggle, and he clearly achieves this goal. More importantly, however, he gives us a more detailed picture of the man before he became a legend. Leaning heavily on newspaper reports of the day and interviews with Robinson's wife Rachel and others who experienced the events of 1947 firsthand, Eig tells the story from a fresh perspective, free of the weight of the past sixty years.

Certain stories which we have come to take for granted might have been exaggerated -- or even concocted. Most notably, teammate Pee Wee Reese's famous embrace, meant to show support for Jackie in the face of abusive fans in Cincinnati, doesn't seem to have happened, at least not in 1947. Also, the threatened league-wide boycott which was rumored in the early days of the season appears to have been all smoke and no fire.

In debunking these myths, however, Eig does nothing to diminish the enduring power of Robinson's legacy. Instead, he actually strengthens it by detailing the enormous breadth of Robinson's influence, even in the early days of his career, and this is where the book shines. We have always known that as great a ballplayer as Robinson was (1949 NL MVP, 1955 World Series Champion, baseball Hall of Famer), his social and historical significance is much greater. Eig emphasizes this by telling the stories of individuals whose view of the world changed by watching Jackie's struggle. There was the white high school student who would eventually question the absence of black students at Stanford University, the black prisoner who would become one of the nation's most contraversial civil rights leaders, and the factory owner who saw Robinson's arrival in Brooklyn as a signal that he should integrate his business as well.

As triumphant as Jackie's rookie season was, Eig reminds us that he was far from the only hero. Branch Rickey took a considerable financial and social risk in pushing for integration, and Rachel Robinson was the rock that Jackie needed during his difficult year. The black press, especially Wendell Smith, served as shepherds for the entire integration process.

Jackie Robinson touched people then, and continues to be an icon today, almost fifty years after he hung up his cleats for the last time. So when you're finished reading stories this week about Major League Baseball's various tributes to Jackie Robinson, do yourself a favor and check out this book. You owe it to yourself -- and to Jackie -- to see where it all began, back when 42 was just another number.

One Shining Moment

Now that the Florida Gators have wrapped up their second consecutive national championship, I think it's time that we pause to reflect on the eloquence of Joakim Noah as he expressed what lay ahead for him and his teammates: "We're gonna do it BIG tonight! We're gonna do it HUGE all day and all night! You guys have no idea what i'm talking about, but my boys know! Dem Gator boys know!" Let's see Joakim, is it something like this:


It's my guess that the party's still going.

But there's business to attend to, namely the announcement of the winner of the Innaugral Broken Cowboy March Madness Out-of-Office Pool. Congratulations go out to Vijay, who rode dem Gator boys to victory. When reached for comment, Vijay had this to say: "We're gonna do it BIG tonight! We're gonna do it HUGE all day and all night! You guys have no idea what i'm talking about, but my boys know! Dem Oracle boys know!" It sounded like he was dancing at the time, but I have no video to confirm this... His prize will be in the mail just as soon as I get his address.