thought of the week
Big shout out to the Saint and the LSU Tigers for great performances this weekend. In the grand scheme of things, sports mean quite little, but they're really quite important to the fabric of this country.
Baseball continued to be played during WWII due mostly to FDR's "Green Light" letter to baseball commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis. Landis was prepared to shut the sport down in the days following Pearl Harbor, but FDR told him that baseball would have a positive psychological effect on America. Many players of military age went into the various services, dampening the quality of the baseball played (Joe Nuxhall of the Reds pitched in the majors at 15 while some players who'd recently retired came back in their 40s) but it still drew fans and helped with morale.
From a personal sports standpoint, there are few things I'll remember as well as being a Yankee fan after the attacks four years ago. To have one of New York's teams do well, even if the end result was a loss in the World Series, well, it was a little comforting for me that there could be something so normal left in the world.
Still nothing will ever erase the memories of war, terror and nature. Even if only for a few hours a day, even if only to serve as a distraction, sports will give people something else to talk about, something to take a little joy in, and it'll aid in the long transition to come.
"... tum nihil est quod malim quam me et esse gratum et videri. haec enim est una virtus non solum maxima sed etiam mater virtutum omnium reliquarum."
"Yet there is nothing that I esteem more highly than being and appearing grateful. For it is this one virtue is not only the greatest but also is the mother of all other virtues."
-Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Plancio
Baseball continued to be played during WWII due mostly to FDR's "Green Light" letter to baseball commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis. Landis was prepared to shut the sport down in the days following Pearl Harbor, but FDR told him that baseball would have a positive psychological effect on America. Many players of military age went into the various services, dampening the quality of the baseball played (Joe Nuxhall of the Reds pitched in the majors at 15 while some players who'd recently retired came back in their 40s) but it still drew fans and helped with morale.
From a personal sports standpoint, there are few things I'll remember as well as being a Yankee fan after the attacks four years ago. To have one of New York's teams do well, even if the end result was a loss in the World Series, well, it was a little comforting for me that there could be something so normal left in the world.
Still nothing will ever erase the memories of war, terror and nature. Even if only for a few hours a day, even if only to serve as a distraction, sports will give people something else to talk about, something to take a little joy in, and it'll aid in the long transition to come.
"... tum nihil est quod malim quam me et esse gratum et videri. haec enim est una virtus non solum maxima sed etiam mater virtutum omnium reliquarum."
"Yet there is nothing that I esteem more highly than being and appearing grateful. For it is this one virtue is not only the greatest but also is the mother of all other virtues."
-Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Plancio