Stewart Drowning

For some, the occasion is simply too large.  The stage too grand.  The shirt...too heavy.  It's impossible to know, of course, which individual will respond to the enormous pressures placed upon him by coach, club, and city.  For every resounding success, there exists resounding failures by the tenfold.  For every hidden gem sprung from Grêmio or Monaco, there exists a foil - the next big thing flop - nurtured through La Masia or Clairefontaine.  Stewart Downing is neither.  A Middlesbrough academy product before switching to Aston Villa following Middlesbrough's relegation, Stewart Downing's journey has been relatively straightforward, if not pedestrian.  181 league appearances for Middlesbrough produced 17 goals and 31 assists, while 63 for Villa saw 9 goals and 10 assists.  2010-2011, a season in which he received Villa's player of the year award, was a career year for Stew, where he recorded 7 goals and 9 assists.  Targeted in the summer as a cornerstone of Kenny Dalglish's homegrown revolution at Anfield,  it was expected that Downing would slot in on the left and immediately provide Andy Carroll the kind of services he regularly displayed at Villa and Boro.  At 27 years of age, after all, Stew was entering into the peak of his playing career and had an already established premier league reputation - albeit at smaller clubs - for creating goals.

On December 22nd, 2012 Stewart Downing recorded both his first league goal and league assist for Liverpool Football Club.  A full 18 months following a £20 million move from Villa and 46 appearances later, Stewart Downing is finally on the Reds' scoresheet.  After months filled with transfer speculation and discussion questioning Downing's desire to even feature, he had finally broken through.  Moreover, he had been rewarded for a streak of games in which he had played well above his Liverpool average.  Why then must he tarnish it by this petulant gesture (above)?  Is it actually possible that Stew believes the criticism directed his way is unwarranted?  That this one goal, against a deplorable Fulham side makes up for his complete profligacy to date?  Silencing the Kop, one of the preeminent supporters sections in the world, shows a remarkable lack of class for a decidedly unremarkable footballer.  Heavy hangs the Famous Red upon Stew's shoulders.  And, ironically, in one of a precious few positive moments for Stewart Downing, he's again confirmed he's drowned by it.


YNWA.

A Nation of Generalizers

As long as I can remember I have been obsessed with (sports) statistics. I remember picking up the local newspaper and flipping immediately to the sports section to mesmerized useless baseball, basketball, and football statistics. As an 8 year old it did not dawn upon me that the numbers were not going to change much day to day (Still struggling at 26 to figure it out). In my mind it justifies or explains how valuable each player is to his/her team. As I have grown older and wiser, I have learned to attribute statistics to more of my opinions in life, but why am I so eager to generalize? Is this obsession my own or a by-product of being an American?
I traveled to Western Europe and Ireland in the summer of 2009 for a month vacation. Having already traveled fairly extensively for someone my age (I have been to 25 countries and 5 continents), I like to believe I fit outside the classic two week American vacationing in Bermuda stereotype. Traveling with my college friend, Brittany we hit Paris, Amsterdam, Geneva, and finally onto Cork, Ireland for a few days to visit my second cousin. My cousin, Caroline graciously picked us up at the Cork train station less than 5 days notice. We really did not have an agenda, but  I always attempt to see the city as the locals see it( We had previously stayed with a friend in Paris and met with a Swiss national friend in Geneva to experience the city). As I stayed with my cousin in downtown Cork, she lived with her boyfriend, the lead singer of a band called Fred, and another 30 something couple. The woman a local teacher and her boyfriend an American from Nebraska. Upon meeting them out at the bar, I could tell the fellow American was excited to talk to another American. A nice enough guy, who purchased me a few beers. As we spent more time with the group, I could sense the frustration the locals had with my fellow American in basing internet "facts" as his main points in a discussion. He was not basing things upon his own experience, but rather what he read in the New York Times opinion piece as to why the Greeks were in an economic downfall. After picking up several rolling of the eyes and witty sarcastic comments as to how short sighted he could be. It dawned upon me that many Americans (me being one) base our opinions largely on what we read rather than what we experience.
Think about it... everyone goes to whatever website they prefer to read their daily news or entertainment feed. A large portion of what we read, we are not concerned with the credibility, but the quote unquote content. I like to pride myself on trying not to read any US news feed and try to read foreign news feeds to base my political opinions. If I am traveling to a foreign location, I try and speak with any of my friends who have been there or lived there (this helps when the majority of your friends are Merchant Marines and can tell you about the best place to drink a beer in Tonga), but I am still guilty of generalizing. We (Americans) like to believe we have a place figured out by spending two weeks there and spending hours "researching" the internet what the culture and people are like. Lets put it this way, if you overheard a Portuguese national describing the US as an over cramped, rude nation and finding out they had only been to Disney World and New York City, you would chuckle at their perception. Lets focus on generalizing less to better understand everything... or else we might turn out like this....

Hall of Integrity

For the baseball purest, cheating is cheating. With what seems to be the only thing still held to the highest ethical standard is admission to the most sacred town in upstate New York, Cooperstown (sorry, Buffalo). As the 2013 class is filled with more steroid era players, the question that persist will the voters cave to the pressures of numbers over whatever ethos is left in baseball.

I am all for keeping Pete Rose, the all time hit leader out of the Hall of Fame as long as Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro, and Alex Rodriguez remain out as well. Pete Rose bet on the very team he was managing. Of course, it took him til 2004, 15 years after, to admit to all the gambling he had done. " I bet on my team to win every night because I love my team, I believe in my team." The admission by Rose that he bet on his team to win does not make it any better. He disregarded the integrity of the game for his own gain ,(which was not significant if at all) was hubris to say the least. My question is though, how is what he did any different from what the steroid laden era did any different?

 Mark McGwire gave baseball fans the feeling of raw power and jubilation while him and Sammy Sosa went home run for home run in the summer of '98. I remember watching as a 12 year old love struck boy in awe of the raw power those two displayed. It was not until Mark McGwire was hired by the Cardinals for 2010 as a hitting coach, that he felt compelled to confess to his use. He did not feel obligated in March 2005 at a congressional hearing(our tax dollars hard at work), "I'm not hear to talk about the past." Interesting.... only after you are beginning to collect a paycheck again from the MLB do you "owe" to come clean. It does not make much sense how we watched Pete Rose go into a hole(rightfully dug by himself) selling his autograph  and coming out with an autobiography in 2004 to make some scratch.

While Mark McGwire remains in baseball making a few hundred thousand dollars, Alex Rodriguez continues to chase the home run record while making a cool 27.5 million a year, renegotiated by the New York Yankees in 2007. While Alex was comfortable telling Katie Couric and the rest of national television a bold faced lie in December 2007.

It was not until February 2009 that Alex felt compelled to come clean about his use of steroids. The worst part of the situation is A-Rod will continue to make hundreds of millions of dollars to chase records he is suppose to "break". His current contract is filled with incentives of 6 million dollars each  Home Run milestone of 660(Mays), 714(Ruth), 755(Aaron), 762(Balco.. I mean Bonds) and another 6 million for breaking it. Obviously the Yankees still see these records as profit making venues. One can only hope that Cooperstown does not acknowledge these "achievements".

I fear for the millennium generation that has grown up in such as era of baseball where it is simply a 50 game suspension for Peformance Enhancement Drugs. Nothing more than a slap on the wrist to not get caught again. Our only hope is for the Hall of Fame to keep the cheats out because the MLB certainly does not seem to.