The Trash Heap

Something for everyone today as I clear my mind of some of the sports garbage that has been taking up space over the last two weeks:

--Pete Sampras may just be the best role model for young athletes in any sport. His gutsy performance in the recent Davis Cup tie against Sweden, offering himself up to his country and a fallen friend (Vitas Geralitus), shows us that athletes can still believe in icons other than money, even when his body and mind might disagree with his heart.

Andre Agassi's U.S. Open victory may ultimately help restore some of tennis' popularity among the masses in this country, but it saddens me to see that this can only come from a guy who for so long seemed to believe his own commercials (and by the way, image is NOT everything). Sampras scares people with his youthful composure, I guess, and Agassi's girl-friends (Barbra Streisand, Brooke Shields) seem to get all the publicity. (Sigh.)

--Michael Schumacher, Formula One points leader, suspended for two races for skipping a black flag for one lap? It's not like he banged his brother into a wall or anything.

[NASCAR fans out there, take note. I just told a joke you and you alone might get. Enjoy it, because it may never happen again.]

--Mark Eaton of the Utah Jazz just this week retired (and God bless him) from basketball--a true blob with tall arms and long legs if ever there were one. Maybe his next calling is to manage the Red Sox.

--How cool would it be if sports in America operated on the promotion/relegation system, as we have in soccer around the globe? Imagine the Las Vegas Thunder or the Atlanta Knights joining the NHL, at the expense of, say, Ottawa and Hartford? Or the Milwaukee Brewers going "down," as they say in England, and the Richmond Braves being promoted to the big leagues?

This would be one hell of a way to spread the gospel of big-time sports to all parts of the country. We already have a system with Las Vegas in the IHL where the team is independently owned and operated, serving for some old (e.g. Clint Malarchuk) and some new (Radek Bonk) stars as a financial safe haven in the world of labor and management strife...how tough would it be to piece together such a system which would truly put the pressure on bad teams to improve?

Teams like the San Diego Padres selling or trading all of their best players solely to improve revenue? Would never happen...the big leagues would say bye-bye and move on. Just a thought.

--Speaking of soccer, one reason you'll never hear of a full-blown players' strike in the "Simplest Game" is a fact which often escapes the attention of the average American sports fan: there is more than one "top" league. We talk about baseball players going to Japan for more money, or basketball players to Italy...but that's how it works all the time in soccer.

As long as there are effective monopolies in our four major sports (and the death of the USFL, the best "rival" league to emerge in our life-time, seems to indicate that such a condition may be permanent), and players are locked into one "business" (i.e. league), the labor troubles we see will never end.

--Count to yourself how many times in your life an inspired act of sports greatness moved you to hug and high-five people you don't even know, people who just happened to be sitting next to you, in a bar or in the stands.

It happened to me while watching the Colorado-Michigan "Hail Mary" last Saturday. And that feeling you get is the truest essence of that which sucks us back into the world of sports time and time again, no matter how screwed up or money-conscious it gets...as long as there is a game, people will watch it. Remember that.