Muhammad Ali's patriotism (and poetry)

I've had the somewhat odd experience the last two Junes of being on location when something historic happened. In 2015 I was at the Library of Congress, in a seminar room with windows looking out at the Supreme Court, when the Court handed down its ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. In 2016, I was in Louisville’s Galt House, in an 8th-floor room with a view of the Muhammad Ali Center, which I visited May 31 for the first time, and which four days later--in spite of the rain (read that as a metaphor, perhaps)--became a memorial for The Greatest, who passed away at the age of 74. (Note: I’m not trying to equate the two, or their significance--just noting that in both cases, I’ve been in an interesting setting to reflect on history.)

From the 8th floor at the Galt House.

Already by the time I walked over to the memorial on Saturday morning, national and international media were on-site, most of them hunkered down under pop-up tents and with cameras trained on either the memorial, or the stairs up which visitors were making their way.

Visitors in the rain, Saturday morning (before 8am).

The eulogies quickly appeared in print, on the web, and on TV, but the comments on social media were equally interesting. A number of my friends and acquaintances posted quotes, commented on Ali’s significance--and in some cases criticized both Ali and those mourning his passing. A few were dismissive of his status as “just a sports star,” while others resented his refusal to “serve his country.” And it’s those criticisms I want to focus on, because I think they miss the point of Ali: that his rejection of the draft and refusal to fight in Vietnam, and his unapologetically confrontational comments on race in the U.S., served his country in a way that made him more than a sports star. (If you're unfamiliar with all this, check out "The Importance of Muhammad Ali," a brief essay from the Gilder Lehrman Institute.)

Tuesday afternoon outside the Ali Center.

We aren’t always accustomed to cultural icons making political statements. Remember the controversy about the Oscars earlier this year, and the speeches in which several actors called for greater environmental consciousness, action on climate change, and attention to race and diversity? Entertainers and celebrities risk their earning power when they use their fame as a platform to express political ideals. When the Dixie Chicks, a country band, blasted George W. Bush and the Iraq war in 2003, their sales plummeted and they lost endorsement deals, among other consequences. With marketing teams and agents managing the public images and careers of athletes, musicians, and actors, it’s more notable when those figures are outspoken and opinionated than when they’re not. Michael Jordan may be the archetype, in some ways--a brand unto himself, but bland (“inoffensive,” if you’d prefer) to an extreme.

Ali’s boxing, and then his decisions involving the draft and his statements on civil rights, made him a cultural icon and a political figure, one of the United States’s most visible black citizens. His fame as an athlete provided him the platform--the audience, the media access, and the economic resources to remain independent and maintain his stance when he was unable to box--to not only express his opinion, but demonstrate his willingness to sacrifice a great deal of good will and money. This was citizen action not through the act of voting to express an individual political position, but through advocacy and persuasion and modeling.

In my class on American Wilderness last semester, we naturally read Thoreau and Emerson (bear with me a moment here). One piece of our discussion of their work was their effort to construct a national literature to help define a distinct American identity, rooting both American letters and nationalism in the United States’ unique relationship with the natural world. They embraced their Americanness, and Americans claim them.

But Thoreau also famously refused to pay taxes to a state government that was complicit in racial slavery and the Mexican-American War, spent time in jail as a consequence, and wrote Civil Disobedience to explain his rationale. In that essay, he pointed to a tension between individual conscience and legislation and argued that men can “serve the state with their consciences also.” That contribution was no less a contribution to his project of encoding American identity in American letters than his celebration of nature.

And I think it’s also a key to understanding Ali. Both sought to articulate what it means to be an American. Both engaged in a similar project, and at times in similar ways. Where Thoreau sought economic independence by simplifying his needs during his experiment at Walden Pond, Ali could lean on his existing wealth for economic support as he endangered his earning power with political action. Where Thoreau sought to contribute to a national canon that would perpetuate American ideals, Ali used his existing fame to highlight the uneven application of those professed American ideals. Both identified racism and imperialism as American practices at odds with the nation’s professed ideals, and both worked to hold it accountable to those ideals. In short, neither rejected his nation. Instead, each seized on the more admirable characteristics of his country--the ability to act and speak in accord with one’s conscience--to combat its least admirable practices, acting alike to serve a nation not as it was, but as they believed it should be.

I will admit one major difference.

Ali was the better poet.



"I've wrestled with alligators,/I've tussled with a whale./I done handcuffed lightning/And throw thunder in jail./You know I'm bad./Just last week, I murdered a rock,/Injured a stone, hospitalized a brick./I'm so mean, I make medicine sick."--Muhammad Ali

LeBron James

LeBron James is pouting a lot... Does it matter, considering he's not the best player in the league anymore?

autugraphs

I'm not a huge autograph fan, I was at one point, but i'd rather get a photo or get a nice handshake from an athlete I once looked up to. I went to a celebrity golf tournament a few years ago and have a picture of emmit smith and I shaking hands and greg maddux doing his best "damnit another photo" pose. the e smith photo popped up on my fb timeline recently and got me thinking, which athletes past or present in any sport i'd actually be a little overwhelmed to ask for an autograph or actually would go out of my way to get one...here's my top 10

1. Jordan-c'mon, it's obvious....held the door open for him at the silver legacy casino in the same golf tournament...couldn't even speak a word....
2. Aaron
3. Ali
4. Ruth
5. Montana
6. Bonds
7. Jessee Owens
8. Bruce Lee
9. Koufax
10.Gehrig

A little yankee heavy but man...nostalgia factor....

Booger

We suck at keeping up with posts on current events when we all have jobs and kids. But it's baseball's Hall of Fame season, so I have one short post before I get back to my Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale.

I feel like I'm seeing more and more of the "You can't tell the story of baseball history without ___" arguments from baseball writers this year--usually pertaining to the McGwire/Sosa combination, sometimes Bonds and Clemens as well (though I think we distinguish the latter pair as outright great and enhanced later in their careers, whereas the former are arguably more borderline HoF candidates and part of the debate is whether they'd have reached that level without PEDs). Anyway, the point is that some writers seem to be embracing the mission of the Hall of Fame as a museum celebrating the history of the sport and recognizing that all four of those guys play a major role in that history, warts and all.

Which brings me to Larry Walker. I don't think his case is a slam dunk at all--he was well-rounded but injury-prone, and he has some very good numbers (.313/.400/.565, 72.5 WAR) but didn't retire with huge totals in some categories that matter to voters (2160 hits, 383 HR, but 1300+ RBI and runs). He has the hardware (an MVP, 3 batting titles). But of course, he earned most of this playing in Coors Field, and the splits are dramatic.

But it's again his borderline status, combined with his role in baseball history, that makes him fascinating. How can we talk about baseball in the 1990s without Coors, those Rockies teams, the humidor, expansion, etc.? Even if he was a product of his environment (baseball-wide, but Coors even more so), so were other guys in different eras, and he represents some huge parts of the story of baseball. I get the skepticism about his numbers, but does that disqualify anybody who played the majority of their career in Coors, like Todd Helton (another borderline guy, probably)?

I dunno, just raising the question. Plus, there's the All-Star Game showdown with Randy Johnson, and the nickname "Booger." If nothing else we should keep having this discussion so we can show that clip and use "booger" in headlines.

Postseason Experience

I don't want to get way ahead of myself, because the series is only 2 games in, but isn't it readily visible how much better Kansas City is during this world series than the Metropolitan's? The Mets are comparable to the Giants in 2010 where they snuck in and on timely hitting and great pitching were able to rally through a few series and ultimately were so hot when they reached the series against Texas that they dominated. Kansas City with nearly 3 decades of finishing in the cellar of the division and routinely striking out with top picks and the inability to hold onto stars in their prime, instead having rosters of up and comers and aging veterans, to now with the stream of expendable cash brought to you by revenue sharing (i'm sure they had it before, but now they are forced to spend it instead of owners pocketing said cash).  To the eyeball test this team is hands down more experienced and ready than the mets have played so far. I'm hoping for a 6 or 7 game series but the way it's going now, looking more like a 4 or 5 game series.

pitching

Has their ever been a year where more pitchers dominated than this year?
NL: Scherzer, Cole, Greinke, Arrieta, Bumgarner, Zito, Kershaw, Harvey and  Degrom

AL: Price, Gray, Hernandez, Keuchel and Sale

1/4, .25, 25% analysis

Unlike college football, I wait till at least a quarter of the season is through so I don't have too many knee jerk reactions after 1 week of football. Here are a few

1. Colin- my god. How the mighty have fallen. He looked decent week 1 against the vikings. No mistakes, limited playbook, like Joe Ayoob, he did nothing great and nothing terrible. But since then, his numbers are terrible. 2 TDs (1, rushing  1 passing), 5 interceptions, 50% completion percentage, missed open receivers (yes there have been some drops but ultimately he has missed so many open receivers).  His supporters always point to his bad o-line, yes it's not good, but he had like 8 dropbacks that he had protections longer than 3.5 seconds and finished something like 1-6 for 4 yards, a sack and a first down run(can't remember the stat exactly). 3.5 seconds to an nfl qb should be plenty of time to find an open receiver. During the packers vs chiefs game they kept showing rodgers get rid of the ball in .35 seconds after the snap.....The calls for Gabbert are getting lounder and I'm one of them. Well we won't win with Gabbert or make the playoffs....umm dipshit fans...we aren't going to do it with Kap so lets try something else. Hopefully he can turn it around but it looks like his confidence is shot and he looks like a deer in headlights out there.

2. Analysts- How do these guys keep their jobs?!?!?! Cool you played football so that makes you an expert. Like 90% picked Miami to be a sleeper pick to be better than New England this year, 90% picked the Colts to go to the super bowl, etc. Wrong all the time, and are they ever brought out in front of everyone and said goddamnit you are an idiot- why would anyone pay attention to anything you have to say without laughing at you.

3. Ryan Tannenhill- apparently during scrimmages against the practice squad he's been getting torn apart and the now ex coach philbin told his practice squad players to take it easy on him so that he doesn't lose his confidence. Tannenhilll has been heard yelling at his practice squad players "Enjoy your practice squad paycheck!" Miami Dolphins i'm goign to say are the biggest embarrassment to the nfl. they have suh who is turning into albert Haynesworth 2.0, a caravan of qbs since marino left and a front office and management team that is in turmoil. Best thing that ever happened to this franchise recently is playing in the super bowl in Ace Ventura

4. I don't see ANY reason to say theres a single qb that's going to be the "next great qb." Rodgers is still young enough to dominate for several more years, brady, manning, brees and rothlisburger are all getting up there in age. The next echelon are a bunch of medicore to ok qbs- palmer, wilson, flacco, dalton, newton, etc. I think Dalton has potential to get there but he always seems to fade in the postseason. Luck has taken a step back and I just think those other qbs are ok but none that will literally be able to carry a team like the above have. We are looking at you Goff!!!

5. Nfl officials- I would hate to have the game slow down more, but I think there should be a rules official at each game- so that incidents like the bullshit non call in the mnf game are able to be corrected.How does an nfl official not know a rule or too scared to call it when obviously the player committed the infraction? Seattle should be 1-3 and again got the help of horrible officials.

6. Injuries- the one thing goodell implemented,whether he wanted to or not he still did, was the concussion protocal procedure. I wrote a lot about concussions in college and the ncaa had a huge study before the nfl was doing much about the impact of second impact syndrome, basically how much more susceptitble our brains are to prolonged injuries and adverse effects if injured again before it had a change to fully heal from an initial injury. The way the nfl has a 7 day waiting period, a protocal by a non team doctor etc is one thing i'm actually pretty stoked about. We wont know until a few more years if it has any long term effects but yay NFL

7. What do you think of the new extra point kick? I for one like it, isn't automatic. Makes team really debate on whether to go for 1 or 2 and puts that extra spin on things later in the game when you score the td to get within 1 but your kicker sucks or just the fact that a tie game isn't inevitable.