What a wonderful post, Doc.
I said my piece on Halman and his positive impact on my life this summer at my own lightly traveled blog, but I'm glad you took the time to say something here a hundred time smore eloquently than I ever could.
My heart broke a little this morning...and I don't even know the man. That's what baseball is to me, though...it's not just a relief from my own life and its problems...it's a way to love at a distance. It's a way to feel like I'm a part of a community, even if my community hates me.
This is just as bad as Niehaus for me...I really loved watched Halman play, even though it was only for a little while - I felt like you knew something about Halman from watching the way he played...he was open like that on the field...or at least he could fool me into feeling that way and that's all I want. At least Dave died after a life well lived...Greg had his life stolen for no good reason.
*sigh*
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Malcontent says,
It's hard to think and talk about a game, when you read 30 minutes ago about the brutal death of a player. It's not something I say very often, but my thoughts are very much with Greg Halman's family.
Took the kids to Happy Feet last night, and the shrimp / prawn / whatever started dancing, remarking offhand that he needed a momentary relief from the existential terror of existence...
As we all know, baseball is a momentary relief from, not a substitute for, our responsibilities.
Feel terrible for Greg's mom. As to Greg's brother, to borrow from Jackie Chan, "I hope you were arguing about something important."
In the Seattle baseball blog-o-sphere, the argument isn't about anything important.
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Many of our arguments these days, in America, aren't about anything very important. We hope that, as we go forward politically in this decade, we can keep our anger in proportion with our grievances.
All it takes to make some people angry, is for others to have a more expensive car than they have. Or for somebody to say that he believes that he is right and the other person is wrong.
It took an awful lot to make Gandhi angry, took a lot to make the Apostle Paul angry, takes a lot to make the Dalai Lama angry. There isn't any inherent reason that I couldn't be like them, if I wanted to be.
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About 200,000 people per day pass into the next realm, having fulfilled (or not) their purposes on earth. We deeply hope that Greg Halman's mother -- as unlikely as it seems -- quickly finds comfort, peace, and strength towards fulfilling her own purpose. It's not easy, but people do accomplish it.
Here's to the 30 homers that Greg might have hit, the sunshine on his face, in the summer of 2015.
Prayers,
Jeff
Comments
But it ain't this one amigo.
Just 'cause the umps have to hose down a raging beanbrawl when it breaks out, don't mean the players don't go out after the game and have sody pops later. ;- )
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Am quite fond of your analysis, and of you personally, and would especially welcome your review of the Batter MPH series.
'ave at thee,
Jeff
...I break my own philosophical beliefs often enough when I get challenged on the web that I despise my own web conduct...why should the community be any different in their response?
I have *many* thoughts about this new work by Mike Fast...but the first reaction is giddy childlike excitement. It feels like a new chance for me to incorporate someone else's brilliant insights into my analysis techniques.
THAT is what started the fight for the Halman brothers?? Loud music??
I sure hope there's more to this story, because if Greg died because he wanted to blast his hip-hop...I have a strong desire to devote my career to building a space-worthy craft and finding some other planet to live on.
Wow.
There are plenty of times when I come back to the monitor and go, Ahhhhh, c'mon, did I write that ...
:- )
In fairness, Baker's column did provide the inner glimpse that Greg was into the whole bad*** thing ... which all the ink on his body doesn't exactly contradict...
Doesn't justify the tragedy, of course, but we begin to get a more nuanced understanding of the situation ... when athletes get into bad situations, chances are that they did something to get there...
Again, the macho head-butting does not imply that anybody *deserved* such a tragic outcome. These guys rage, and things get way out of hand, and next thing you know it's too late. "The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water; therefore leave off strife, before it be meddled with."
Prayers,
Jeff
This event is a heartbreaker. The person I feel the worst for is the Halman brothers' parents. I don't know how a parent can live through this kind of event. Every parent hopes for good things to happen to their children. I pray to God that this sort of thing ends someday.
Why did Jason do it? He was probably jealous of his more successful brother and a fight which should have been petty brought the issue out. I don't know any of this, I'm just noodling on a motive, and the case of Cain and Abel comes to mind.
If they are ... sigh, were ... both "baaaad" types, and Greg the one always winning, always with the cash handy, etc etc, the dynamic could have been extreme frustration for the "baaaad" brother always getting shown up.
Just surmising, but the Cain-and-Abel syndrome does not sound implausible to me.
Well put - hard to imagine how a parent makes it through such a chapter in her life.