Mike's Take on Sports Archive

For a guy my age, it was really good.  Younger people saw you for the first time.  They don't know what kind of ball player you were.  Guys in my generation know you were the best ever.  My father's generation had Joe D and Ted Williams.  You came along and left those guys in the dust.  We know the difference in your play and theirs.  They were healthy while you played through terrible injury.  I can't imagine what that was like.

You should see things nowadays.  You wouldn't believe it.  Big Leaguers today won't play with a hang nail.  Any little discomfort will put them on the disabled list.  And they think of themselves as superstars!  All these guys care about is hitting home runs.  You would not believe the fans.  All they want to see is home runs.  These home run hitters get so caught up in this stuff, that they use chemicals to enhance their abilities.  Their natural abilities won't get them where they want to be, so they have to use performance-enhancing drugs.  There is no player in the Major League with the kind of talent you and your contemporaries had.  It's unbelievable; you would think it's crazy.  Those of us real fans do.

That movie I mentioned also included a lot about your wild lifestyle.  My generation knows about it and understands.  We saw that it did not prevent you from playing as well as you could.  We saw you play an awesome game in center and go four for four.  We knew you played that well for your team and for us.  Also, some of us understand that, given your family's medical history, you had every reason to believe that you'd fall victim to the same affliction.  I understand how you felt you had to try to pack a whole life into a very short period of time.  I hope that others who watched the movie gained a better understanding of your life.  We also really thought the world of your friends Billy and Whitey.  In case you didn't catch it, Billy managed the Yankees five times.  He did a great job.  He got killed on Christmas in a car his friend was driving.  It was terrible.  I'm sure you know it, but Joe Torre has been the manager since 1996 and has been doing a really good job.