Too Great An Expectation
// August 29th, 2010 // 19 Comments » // Baseball, Football
Some might say this is the best time of year to be a sports fan. With the NFL preseason underway and the MLB season winding down towards the hunt for October, fall brings about not only a renewed optimism for sports fans that their team might just clinch a championship, but also an almost cyclic enthusiasm for the next superstar who will lead the way. Call it a need to have hope, a desire to see a young athlete achieve great things, or perhaps just an old fashioned envious nature that those with consistently disappointing teams can have a highly touted prospect move in and move their team to victory, but the start of every season always seems to come with the same old talk around the water cooler about whether this year might be different….
July 4th weekend 2010, I traveled to Washington D.C, for what had been a summer determination (some might call it obsession) with attending a game at every ballpark on the east coast within traveling distance of my NYC apartment. I’d selected this particular weekend not only because the Mets fans were in town, which usually ensures an entertaining ballgame regardlesss, but more importantly because I figured for all the fuss it was about time I saw this year’s No. 1 draft pick Stephen Strasburg in action. I’d watched Strasburg grow up a bit, having helped with the College World Series at ESPN as well as MLB games in which producers were always wanting a little footage of Strasburg in their back pockets should his name come up in in-game conversation. I’d been impressed with his outings at San Diego State as many had, and held optimistic enthusiasm for his future, that is…until his major league debut.
On June 8, 2010, Strasburg made his debut to a sold out crowd in Washington D.C. as well as viewers watching from all over the country. Bob Costas described Strasburg’s debut to the Washington Post as having “no precedent” in all of baseball history with regards to hype and buildup for a player debut. Yes, the Strasburg media machine was in full action, and one can imagine the love of sports fans everywhere being a bit too overwhelming, a pressure cooker of sorts for a 21-year-old kid trying to prove to the nation he deserved to be chosen No. 1. Fourteen strikeouts later, zero walks or fly balls, and a punch out of the last seven batters he faced, and the game was over, but sports writers everywhere had already lit up the digital world with their take on the future of Strasburg, calling him “the new era of the Nationals, (Washington Post), “ a real foundation for hope and expectations” (The New York Times), “the greatest pitching prospect ever” (ESPN), and in summation of the night, “a star – and maybe a franchise – was born” (Fox Sports). Each headline I’d read with ever increasing concern, yes I’d never seen a rookie debut with such talent as Strasburg, yes there was indeed great optimism to be had about the future of this pitcher and perhaps the future of the franchise, but could this outpouring of love and expectation be asking too much of a pitcher, a player who only plays the game every five days, and worse yet is contracted to one repetitive motion, expected to retain the top form of that movement in every appearance, which for Strasburg meant pitches clocking in in the high 90s and a paralyzing curveball? I’d watched his postgame interview with even more concern, many who have viewed it as well as his other media appearances often quote his humbleness, others critique him as too emotionless (not so exciting for television), but I see a player who is trying to let himself off the pedestal we’ve created for him now and again and remember that he’s just human. In his interview after been congratulated for achieving the impossible, for exceeding the hype at his debut, he reminded us all that “it’s a long road in the season, it’s a long career,” and even more importantly that “(he’s) human, it’s not always going to be that good,” a point many fans seemed to gloss over in their rush to discuss his future home in the Hall of Fame. That’s not to say he shouldn’t be praised, this is a kid who has worked hard to hone his skills, a leader and someone well respected in the baseball community, and a name to finally wear proudly on the back of a Nationals jersey.
As I watched his performance in person that hot July afternoon I won’t say I wasn’t a tad disappointed, as he ended up having one of the worst outings of the season outpitched by the Mets’ R.A. Dickey. It was Strasburg’s 6th major league start and possibly the shortest of his career. He lasted five innings, allowed two runs on four hits, struck out five and walked three. While his numbers were hardly anything to be too disappointed about, able to bounce back after a disappointing inning or two to keep the game close and eventually paving the way for a Nationals win, I felt a sting of envy as I listened to the Nats fan next to me describe in detail how riveting it to was to see his debut in person and the excitement in the air. Still, I was impressed with his form, his speed and his last two innings, as Strasburg threw a combined 22 pitches and retired six straight. Yet as I watched him return to the dugout each inning I grew nervous, feeling the pressure cloud around him producing its own battle internally, one that came across very loudly in his post-game interview in which he talked as if he had had the worst outing imaginable, working too fast on the mound and desperately needing to slow things down. During the game he stormed backed to the dugout bench after each outing, didn’t say a word to his fellow teammates, and any onlooker could see just how hard he was beating himself up over a single game in the middle of the season, clearly frustrated and disappointed in himself to such a point that others would place a hand on his shoulder but not say a word as if the best medicine was to leave him to his own demons.
Fast forward almost 2 months later and the headlines tell a different story about Strasburg, a story that is almost a parallel in the degree of disappointment and sadness fans have as they originally had in optimism and awe towards Strasburg at his debut. Some writers in the D.C. area going so far as to call it a “day for mourning” as news has come out that Strasburg will have to undergo Tommy John surgery, removing him from play for the rest of the season and likely for an entire year with the added physical therapy needed to get him back to his old form. This isn’t the most devastating news, many players have had the surgery and come back to stellar careers like A.J. Burnett and Chris Carpenter, but rather it’s that the young superstar didn’t even make it through a season before finding his career stagnated and his health diminished. Fans immediately look to the ballclub for not resting him enough, or the media hounds who have criticized the young star too harshly, as guilty parties for this horrible news, but I don’t. I think back to being locked in on Strasburg in that dugout after every inning of a roller coaster performance and seeing a young kid with a nation of parents, parents who offer love and support but also place vast expectations on a kid who still beats himself up, feeling as if if he isn’t pitching perfectly he isn’t doing well enough. Strasburg’s surgery in some ways might be good for him, to get away from the pressure to have time to work on his mental game as much as his physical therapy, and to offer up a chance to grow into a man who defines himself by his own standards and expectations both in his life and in his career. I wish him the best of luck and I will be rooting for what I hope will be a long and successful career, albeit without complete perfection.
In the meantime I’ve been noticing a few headlines that are starting to get me feeling queasy all over again, in his first career start Sam Bradford, the NFL’s No. 1 draft pick, went 15 of 22 for 189 yards and two touchdowns, leading the Rams to a preseason victory over the Patriots. He wasn’t perfect, in the way Strasburg was, but he did make terrific passes and many can be quoted as saying “he looked every bit like a starting NFL quarterback,” (Yahoo! Sports) , “Bradford made the Rams sing…an exclusive quarterback,” (NFL Fanhouse), “Rookie Bradford performs like a veteran,” (Fox Sports), “Looking like a pro-bowler in his rookie season…the Ram’s future is bright! (ReviewSTL.com). All I can say is this: football fans you have reason to be excited, a reason to look forward to the future with Bradford at the helm, but try to remember he’s only 22-years-old, and like any good parents, encourage, support and love are what bring out the best qualities in a person. Try not to set the expectations too impossibly high, give Bradford room to grow, expect there to be some growing pains, and just enjoy the ride, and maybe we’ll get to see him play the whole season and many, many more….
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