THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS

I am an infrequent blogger now, having said most of what I have wanted to say, but occasionally I am moved to comment further.

In the world of sports, relatively speaking, life is short. Any number of factors can blight athletic careers: injury, poor conditioning, drugs/booze, psychological blocks---and age.

We live in a titan age of superb athleticism where emphasis on physical fitness and health surveillance on a regular basis have created a new breed of athletes. It's a list covering many sports: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Mickey Cabrera, Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter, Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovich, Cristano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi---add your own to the list.

Their bodies are minutely-tuned mechanisms and are as fragile as eggs out of the crate. A tweak here, a spasm there, suddenly they are losing efficiency.

Then the psychological turn of the screw can happen. Perhaps an accident leads to a temporary sidelining and loss of agility. The athlete returns to his sport and gets beaten by a player to whom he has never lost. Or suddenly cannnot putt or find the natural rhythm of his swing.

Once he has lost his invulnerability, strange things begin to happen. He cannot hit or can't keep the ball within the fairway or the tennis court sidelines; Then he starts to lose to people to whom he has never lost before
---all kinds of disarray from physical to psychological factors take place.

Then add in age and the gradual (or sometimes rapid) dimunition of your skill.

We are seeing many examples in sports today.

Look at Tiger Woods whose body is suddenly betraying him so that he no longer dominates the field and has to take time off to repair that body. And a lot of young tigers of the fairway are waiting to pounce and take over his crown.

Look at Rafa Nadal, no doubt the greatest clay court player in the history of tennis. He has lost three straight clay tournaments, the latest of which, Barcelona, he had won seven times in a row, but this year he lost to another Spaniard, Nicolas Almagro, to whom he had never lost. He has also suffered from some traumatic knee injuries over the years due to the excessive torque he exerts on his knees, and such traumas affect your game. As in golf, a host of talented challengers are waiting to seize his crown.

Or, arguably, the best tennis player of all time, Roger Federer, reviving this year, currently ranked fourth, but still losing to people who a few years ago couldn't touch him.

In baseball, Albert Pujols, having signed two years ago, a ten-year contract to swirch from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Anaheim Angels at age thirty-two, went through two disappointing (by his standards) injury-prone years but seems to be off to a fast start this year. In terms of a ten-year contract, how effective and efficient will he be in seven or eight years? (Look at the example of Alex Rogriguez.)

No, many gods exist in sports in this golden (as in money) age of sports, but I think we are beginning to see the twilight for many of these gods. Such is the stuff of life...Sic transit gloria.

WELL, GET BACK, WHERE YOU ONCE BELONGED

                      

Last night, thanks to C.B.S., I turned back the clock to that signal night of February 9, 1960 when The Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and changed the popular musical landscape indelibly.  For two hours I was in a state of minor ecstasy, seeing the original “Fab Five” in black and white, then seeing the surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, both in well-preserved seventies, in the audience and then performing. In addition to  the dynamic duo, the TV audience witnessed a plethora of today’s stars, from pop, to country, to hard rock, pay tribute to The Beatles, playing and singing their songs.

You could see the combination of reverence, appreciation and musical kicks on that C.B.S. stage last night, plus luminaries of stage and screen recapturing their lost youth. It was a love fest, a tribute to the group, more than any other, who made rock n’ roll a household word.

When my wife and I sat with the three of my four kids who were then born to watch that Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964, we were in our mid thirties and simply looking to see what all the fuss from England was about. We were the younger edge of the “square” generations grown up on swing and jazz music. As a jazz buff, I had always liked what was known in the old racist days as “race music”, the rhythm and blues of the early pioneers of what became r & b. I dug Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Fats Domino, Leadbelly and the southern blues /folk school and was beginning to like the sounds of that white kid from Memphis who made some of those great black and blue sounds. By the time that show was over, I knew I was witnessing a force of nature, the way those kids synthesized the early "r&b” sounds and gave it their own inimitable twist.

So, thanks and plaudits, C.B.S., for transporting us back in time and reminding us what a legacy and library of great songs The Beatles bequeathed us. Their songs sounded great at the time---and equally well in the hands of modern artists who stamped their songs with their own mark. We got back to where we belonged and heard great music, better than ever after fifty years.  And , let me tell you, those two seventy-year-olds show eternally young souls.

I had a blast from the past and a big wind from today.