We Are Not the Players. And the Players Aren’t Us.
by MooheadJanuary 24, 2007 3:40 pm
I grew up in Canton Ohio. The home of Thurman Munson. We all remember the tragic day of the crash. Mr Moohead grew up watching Nick Weatherspoon play at McKinley High School. Same with Phil Hubbard. Life in the 60’s and 70’s was different. While we loved our local athletes, there was ONE who stood out. One.
Thurman Munson didn’t really solely belong to Canton. He was captain of the Yankees, and New York adopted him. Nick Weatherspoon went to the University of Illinois, and then to the Bullets in the NBA. Phil Hubbard went to Michigan, Cleveland, then Detroit. Only one guy belonged to Canton.
He was a funny looking kid who ran all over town wearing a cap. You saw him running everywhere. He was a student at Canton Lincoln High School. He was my Mom’s student. She taught there. He was a really good runner. But nobody really knew how good, until he stepped to the starting line in Munich in 1972. His name was Dave Wottle, and he represented his country in the olympics. But there wasn’t a tv in Canton that wasn’t tuned in to his 800 meter final.
The race was so close. Wottle lagged behind the field and passed each runner as he rushed to the finish line. One Kenyan…2 Kenyans…Then a Russian. Watch it here. People in the country were captivated by this amazing performance. But Wottle wasn’t going to New York or Washington. He wasn’t going to have a series of TV ads named after him. No million dollar endorsements. A week later the country had moved on. Except Canton.
From that day forth, when you took a drive around town, you started seeing kids running in caps. Everyone wearing that silly cap. Dave Wottle was from Canton. He lived there. He came back with a gold medal. No one else claimed him. No other town offered him more money to become “theirs”. We were all Dave Wottle in Canton. And he was us.
So now, a blurry YouTube video is all that’s left of our local hero. We’ve grown up. We’re sports fans, but we don’t know who to identify with. We cheer for the guy wearing the local uniform, but he’s not one of us. He makes 10 million a year and changes teams every three or four years. And we’re not him. We’re working people trying to get through another tough economic year. Is Jim Thome an Indian , Philly or White Sock? Is Manny Ramirez an Indian or a Red Sock? Is Ozzie Newsome a Brown or a Raven? And what will LeBron be 4 years from now?
For one summer, Johnny Damon was a Red Sock. But Dave Wottle will always be from Canton. And he will always be a part of me.
January 25th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Nice article Moo!!
January 25th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
I hope LeBron is still with the Cavs 4 years from now. Win a championship for Cleveland. That city is cursed and truly needs something positive.
I would fully expect the Knicks and possibly Lakers to come strong for LeBron in the next few years though.
I don’t believe the Cavs current lineup is good enough to win right now.
Drew Gooden is overrated. He doesn’t show up when needed in the playoffs. Doesn’t provide enough scoring. Ilgauskas probably should have been traded two years ago when he had good value. Now he is an aging center with bad knees. Larry Hughes was supposed to be the big compliment to LeBron but he has not been that. He is instead injury prone and not reliable. He doesn’t provide enough scoring punch to take the burden off of LeBron.
The rest is the rest. Not much help. Although Varejao should be starting and they should trade Z for a point guard or shooting guard.
I fear the day LeBron gets burnt out (which he is already saying) and doesn’t feel he can win in Cleveland and leaves for brighter lights and bigger cities.
January 25th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Looking at the backs of baseball cards is interesting now. I used to remember looking at Ozzie Smith or Cal Ripken and seeing under the team category (St. Louis………..all the way down or Baltimore ……..all the way down) Players never thought of leaving. They wanted to be there and fans wanted them there. Being a Brewers fan I hated Paul Molitor when he left for Toronto. He left for money of course. Yes the Milwaukee was partly to blame because they weren’t paying much to their stars then but I was still mad.
It’s hard for fans to love and hate players when they change teams so often. I couldn’t believe it when the Packers signed Jim McMahon. Jim McMahon of the hated Bears. The same McMahon that Charles Martin slammed down to the turf with a late hit injured McMahon’s shoulder. I could never accept him. Thank god all he had to do is a few kneel downs.
Finally, when players are voted in the Hall of Fame it becomes interesting as to which team they are representing. It shouldn’t be that way unfortunately.