| 11 March 2010
Nomar retired yesterday.
Despite some pretty ugly days back in 2004, he came back to Boston and sat down with Larry Luccino and Theo Epstein to sign a one-day contract and retire as a member of the Boston Red Sox.
Twitter, Facebook and the blogosphere exploded with phrases like "classy move" and "welcome home," but one man decided (admittedly) to be the fly in the ointment - Dan Shaughnessy.
Yesterday, Dan chose to focus on the negative, while everyone else put 2004 aside and cheered the return of a Red Sox legend. It's no secret that Dan and Nomar never really got along, but his article got me thinking...
Despite being human like the rest of us, pro athletes have been looked at like superheroes for a long time. Let's face it, the legend of Babe Ruth is as powerful as the legend of Hercules or Superman. But somewhere along the way, we started focusing alot of energy on destroying the legends with ugly details about their personal life and strange idiosyncrasies.
Don't get me wrong, TMZ didn't invent the idea of tabloid news, but I wonder if we are really better off villafying our favorite athletes in the same way that we tear down our favorite actors and musicians.
When did it become so enjoyable to see other people at their worst?
I understand that some feel that learning personal information about their favorite player, actor or musicians makes them feel closer to that person, but media machines like MTV VH1 and E! (just to name a few) seem to have taken this idea to a whole new level by creating TV shows like Tool Academy, The Soup and even the father of reality tv: The Real World. There are no legends or role models featured on Tool Academy, but the point is: All of these shows are specifically designed to showcase the worst in human behavior.And people love it.
Somewhere along the way, this cultural phenomenon crept into the world of sports.
Shaughnessy would probably kill me if he saw that I put him and Tool Academy in the same blog post, but yesterday he chose to focus on the negative because he knew it would sell papers - or increase click-throughs - and that doesn't make him all that different from the rest of today's media.
I'm ranting here, but my point is simple: What is more enjoyable, watching a potential legend like Jacoby Ellsbury grow through stories about stealing home plate and catching a running deer with his bare hands... or hearing stories about how your favorite player growing up was really a jerk in the clubhouse and had strange issues with personal space that made life difficult for the media.
Bottom Line: I'm not saying that media members should only write/talk about the good stuff, but sometimes the personal details take away from legend and I think that hurts the game. Kids look up to these guys whether we like it or not, so why not add to that culture, rather than destroy it.
Okay... I'm done now.
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