Yesterday, while eating my lunch at my desk, I decided to take a quick break from the barrage of e-mails and IM's. I headed over to www.cnn.com to get the latest headlines.
The story that jumped out at me wasn't the latest on Chen Guangcheng (the blind Chinese dissident) or the continuing saga of Patricia Krentcil (the horrifically tanned New Jersey mother). Nope. What caught my eye was the news about Terrell Suggs tearing his ACL.
Right away, I knew I needed to share this news with Nick. Figuring that he'd have his cell phone on in school, I quickly shot him a text to let him know that the Ravens were officially done for the year. Sure enough, Nick's cell phone was on in journalism class and he immediately responded to me. Unfortunately, Nick wasn't nearly as upset by the news as I thought he'd be. Usually, any sort of bad news about the Ravens sends him into a tailspin. Not this time. He just said "Good thing we drafted Courtney Upshaw" and left it at that. I must admit -- Nick's failure to get all upset about Terrell's ACL tear was a bit of a bummer for me. I love to be the bearer of bad Ravens news.
God must have decided to teach me a lesson about taking joy from the misfortune of others. That's the only way I can explain Mariano Rivera tearing his ACL last night while trying to catch a fly ball during batting practice.
As a Yankees fan, I've always admired Rivera. He's been a rock for over 15 years. Despite being the best at his job, he's never had an ego. I never remember him being in the midst of a contentious contract negotiation or being at the center of any sort of controversy. He does his job, minds his own business, doesn't overreact to a poor performance, and handles the pressure of his job. He's been great.
I have to admit that the way he got hurt was a bit comical. It's never seemed to me that baseball requires those who play it to be great athletes. Seeing Mariano clumsily fall to the ground while pivoting to catch a lazy fly ball kind of proves that for me. It actually reminded me of the couple of tumbles some of the old guys on the street (including me) had last fall in the annual touch football game we have with the boys. Like Mariano, we forgot that we were 40+ years old. We still thought we had the ability to twist and turn like we used to when we were kids, making the "great" plays we used to make in our backyards. But, that's just not the case -- not for me and, unfortunately, not for Mariano.