{"id":1335,"date":"2015-01-29T10:02:12","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T17:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/?p=1335"},"modified":"2015-01-29T10:29:14","modified_gmt":"2015-01-29T17:29:14","slug":"the-uncomplicated-beautiful-go-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/the-uncomplicated-beautiful-go-hawks\/","title":{"rendered":"The Uncomplicated, Beautiful “Go Hawks”"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was a kid in L.A., I\u00a0loved<\/em>\u00a0the Dodgers. \u00a0It was the era of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Maury Wills (Perranoski, Fairly, Tommy and Willie Davis – if you were there, you know what I’m talkin’ about) – World Series appearances in ’59, ’63, ’65 and ’66 and a heartbreaking near miss in ’62. \u00a0Players didn’t make astronomical salaries and stayed with the same team (and city) throughout their careers. \u00a0Ernie \u00a0Banks died this week and he was a wonderful man who played with grace and joy for an atrocious Chicago Cubs team for his entire professional life. \u00a0It was a nice fantasy – that these guys were playing for us and our neighbors. \u00a0Of co\"Seahawks\"<\/a>urse, there was its own brand of injustice to this sweet ideal that a 12 year old boy clutched to his heart. \u00a0Professional athletes were forced to stay with the same team by a “reserve clause” in every contract and got paid pretty much what the owners wanted to pay them.<\/p>\n

Well, the pendulum has swung to the other pole now with whiplash-inducing velocity. \u00a0When Alex Rodriguez signed a 2001 contract paying him $25 million dollars per year, he banked more in\u00a02 days<\/em> than most fans made in an entire year (over $130,000). \u00a0The minimum salary for the major league baseball player who may spend most of the year riding the bench is now $500,000. (Who do you know that makes anywhere near that kind of money? \u00a0Few, I would guess.) When a contract is completed, they go to the highest bidder – with an annual salary of $8 million dollars not being good enough if they can make $10 million per year somewhere else. \u00a0The days when a pro athlete could remotely be considered “one of us” are long dead and buried. \u00a0So has my love for following sport waned – only to pick up if the\u00a0current team, composed of some familiar and some new, big contract guys start winning. \u00a0Owners, like Howard Schultz, unload a “civic institution” like the Seattle Sonics on a group that immediately moves them to Oklahoma City because the place they play can’t accommodate wealthy business people and their hunger for luxury suites. \u00a0Professional football players are forced to play a game on Thursday night, given just three days rest after taking a beating equivalent to a mugging\u00a0with a steel pipe. \u00a0Why? \u00a0More wealth\u00a0for the already wealthy. \u00a0Boy, talk about the corruption of money in American life – look no further than the world of sports.<\/p>\n

And then the Seahawks stage a miraculous comeback and land in their second straight Super Bowl, to be played in three days. \u00a0I just received an e-mail from a therapist I don’t know commenting on a piece I just wrote for a local therapists’ newsletter and she ended her message with “Go Hawks!” \u00a0I had a couple I work with in therapy end their session two nights ago with the same exhortation. \u00a0Drive through Seattle or Bellevue and you can’t go more than two blocks without seeing a “12” banner, signifying the Twelfth Man – the team’s fans. \u00a0It doesn’t matter if you are black or white, rich or poor or even freakin’ red blooded or blue blooded. \u00a0Everyone around here is pumped and an entire civic culture is joined around two words “Go Hawks.” \u00a0If Russell, Marshawn, Richard, Doug, Bobby and the rest of the Legion of Boom win on Sunday, strangers will beam with unalloyed joy at one another for weeks afterward. \u00a0If Brady and his crew of talented cheaters prevail, the disappointment well be joined, a great ride having been shared. \u00a0So for all the corruption of values inherent in modern sports, the gift to a community – of\u00a0unity<\/em> around a goal is refreshing, lifting spirits around this region – regardless of politics, station in life or present circumstances. \u00a0When it’s all over, weeks or months from now, we can all go back to our old divisions and gripes. For now, though….Go Hawks!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a kid in L.A., I\u00a0loved\u00a0the Dodgers. \u00a0It was the era of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Maury Wills (Perranoski, Fairly, Tommy and Willie Davis – if you were there, you know what I’m talkin’ about) – World Series appearances in ’59, ’63, ’65 and ’66 and a heartbreaking near miss in ’62. \u00a0Players Continue reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[28],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1335"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1335"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1337,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1335\/revisions\/1337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}