SNATCHING
DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY
A photo of National’s
pitcher Drew Storen on the Washington
Post website says it all. Stunned
and disconsolate, he is sitting in front of his locker long after midnight
staring into the distance trying to figure out how he could have given up four
runs in the 9th inning to allow the St. Louis Cardinals to steal the
National League East Division title.
Much as
we fans were depressed at last night’s turnaround, it’s hard not to feel
terrible for Storen, who understandably -- if not correctly -- feels he has let
the team and city down. Fortunately, his
teammates kept coming up afterwards to give him hugs and reassure him that it
was a team letdown, not his entire fault at all. But try telling that to the so-called closer
who had the Cardinals down to a final strike five different times and let them
get away.
My fear
is that Drew Storen will join the ranks of Bill Buckner of the Boston Red Sox
whose error led to the Red Sox losing the 1986 World Series; Georgetown’s
Freddy Brown whose errant pass in the closing seconds of the 1981 NCAA
Championship final robbed them of a chance to defeat North Carolina; Cleveland
Brown’s Ernest Byner’s crucial fumble as he was about to score the winning
touchdown against the Denver Broncos in the 1987 AFC Championship Game; and the
Minnesota Vikings Jim (“Wrong Way”) Marshall in 1979 who picked up a fumble and
ran it back the wrong way into his own end zone. Their numbers are legion.
Perhaps best known is Fred
Merkel of the 1906 New York baseball Giants whose base-running error earned him
the lasting name of “Bonehead” despite a career that included playing on four
National League Championship teams.
Sadly, all these players
will be remembered primarily for miscues and errors that live on indelibly and overshadow
all their other accomplishments. These
mistakes haunt them even after they are gone, usually ending up in the first or
second line of their obituaries, calling to mind Shakespeare’s rueful
observation in Julius Caesar: “The evil that men do lives after them; the
good is oft interred with their bones.”
Is it
unfair? Of course it is. But, unfortunately, it’s not only sports;
it is life. Some of us have drunk
deeply of that bitter cup of our own mistakes made at crucial times in our
lives. If we personally haven’t experienced
such moments, perhaps we can remember it happening to a spouse or to one of our
children in little league sports or playing for a high-school or college
team. Or to a friend or colleague.
Whatever
the case, after watching a gut-wrenching game like last night’s, before self-righteously
lashing out at players in frustration, we should step back and reflect on similar
failures in our own lives and the lives closest to us. It helps foster perspective along with a
gentleness of judgment and better understanding of those involved in
professional sports. Sure, most sports
figures earn a lot of money and are well paid for their labors. But they are
still fallible human beings trying to do their best. And when
they are trying their best, they deserve our support and appreciation, not our
boos, catcalls, and condemnation.
After
all, that’s us out there making those mistakes and bonehead plays, and that’s
what makes it personally painful, I have always believed. We can see ourselves
doing the same thing. At least I can. If not us, our sons or daughters or nieces
and nephews. If we think of players that
way, we will become much different and much better fans and supporters.
As for the Drew Storen and
the Washington Nationals, I have only this to say after the magnificent season they
gave us: Well done, lads, you made us
proud, and we can’t wait till next year.
And the wonderful thing about sports is that there’s always next year.
Gerald E. Lavey
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