Recreational Panic

I thought about ignoring the whole thing, believe me. Weeks could go by without mentioning anything and eventually it would be forgotten and my ignoring of it would put the seeds into your mind that maybe I had actually called it that way, not seeing any need to talk more about it.

But I cant do that. It doesn’t make sense. What makes sense is that I was wrong. Well, I was right about the Illinois-Louisville game, wasn’t I? Right down to the way the game played out. But State lost to UNC and then those fucking Tar Heels got the last laugh at the edge of the briar patch and good ol Roy Williams finally took home his career vindication. I’d be more mad about it I think if, if I allow myself to admit it, I realize that Jim Boeheim went through a similar thing, and the fact is, I do see that as an honest success. So I guess I have to see Williams’s victory as an honest success as well.

All right, this is getting way too melodramatic. Roy Williams got lucky, and that’s a fact. Illinois played the whole game like theyd never been there before. That they had never been there before didn’t give it any more meaning. They should have been up for that game. All UNC had, after all, was mystique. Theyd never been there before either, man to man. But the history of the school, the history that none of them nor Roy Williams had anything to do with, led them down the thorny road and, while they didn’t play exceedingly well, they played well enough to hold off a meager, tired and chaotic attempt by Illinois.

It’s also perfectly possible that Roy simply paid off the officials. They called a good, careful game. Just enough to eject the MVP of the Big 10 conference tournament with over 6 or was it 7 minutes left in the game for fouling people away from the ball all night. Or, as I saw it, for playing hoops under the net. Meanwhile, the Fighting Illini were flailing around on the floor with elbow dents and there was nary a whistle to be heard.

But no one likes to blame the officials, isnt that right? Players can be flawed. In fact, we don’t know what else to say besides that there are exactly that after every game always played. Coaches can be flawed. Often several times throughout a game, in every sport, on every day.

From there it goes on. Nobody is safe. The media – forget it. They’re wrong more than theyre right. Parents, friends, politicians, oh mercy. The list goes on and on. Everyone is flawed. Give me an interpersonal situation, I’ll show you someone who fucked up. No one is safe.

No one is safe except the officials. We debate for hours, days, years, about whether the field goal kicker or the cornerback is more guilty for the loss, but the men who can negate entire plays, singlehandedly reverse a momentum, and install their objective split-second declarations throughout every aspect of every game are immune to even thinking about.

So let’s not think about it, then. Let’s ignore it. Illinois lost and lost hard. They ran their Indy car into the cement wall just before the end of it. It was a good run while it lasted, and everybody cheered.

So exciting basketball is over and I’m grateful for the time we had. Now it’s baseball and the beginning of the long lingering boredom until September comes. But to hold us over we have the NFL draft coming up. And we have the imminent baseball players being outed by steroid testing to keep us going.

The first baseball player to launch legal action against the newspaper accusing him of steroid use, and probably the last, was a football player. All hail Bo Jackson the behemoth wonder of the Oakland Raiders (or was it Los Angeles?) who shortened his career due to injury. Yeah, he played baseball too. He was at the top of his class in both sports. And he got very angry at the first accusation of steroid use. That’s what we like to here, Bo. I would say that Mark McGwire could use a few lessons from Bo. But the fact is, the only lessons that would have been worthwhile to the Big Whopper would have been way back when. The lesson would have been: don’t shoot that shit, Mark, you’re gonna pay.

Bo didn’t always seem the brightest bulb, but he knew when to play and when to work, and if he used anything that mommy wouldn’t approve of, it was only for fun. That’s the way to do it. Don’t operate heavy machinery and don’t use the shit on a union job. Otherwise, go nuts. See? We all learned something today. Speaking of all this, I’m glad it’s the weekend. I’m not watching any television – nothing on. I’ll have to find something better to do.

- posted by seanmh @ 9:28 AM