Around 9 p.m. E.D.T., as the Knicks rolled toward a 3-1 lead against Boston, a loose ball near midcourt prompted Jason Tatum - the great Celtics star - to turn his ankle in a way it is not designed to move. They carried him off the court. The game was basically over, the Knicks in charge. Tatum is probably gone for the remaining playoffs, however long Boston lasts.
About two hours later, in the 9th inning of an otherwise forgetful win, Yankee 3B Oswaldo Cabrera - the only "Oswaldo" we've ever known - awkwardly swiveled his ankle to touch home plate on a close play. This time, they didn't try to carry him. He went in an ambulance.
Today, both will endure a conga line of scans and x-rays. Next time we see them, they will probably wear street clothes. They'll cheer teammates, their legs immobilized, smiling through the clouds that suddenly shade, if not obscure, their futures.
Tatum will do fine. A superstar in a sports-mad city, he's one season into of a 5-year, $315 million contract, biggest in NBA history. He's 27. He'll return. (In fact, maybe it's not so gruesome, and he'll be back this week. Ya never know.) But the NBA is football without helmets. If the ankle is broken, or severely damaged, you wonder if he'll ever be the same.
For Oswaldo, it's far more troubling. At 26, he had become the Yankees' everyday 3B. No all-star, but he was batting .243 and playing solid defense - still earning the MLB minimum of $783,000. Next winter, he'll be eligible for arbitration. It's possible that his season is over, and his entire life just changed immeasurably.
I raise this to remind us - in case your allegiances were lagging - that pro sports is a chaos of human motion and emotion, run by meager assholes. And beyond the owners, most of whom are nepo babies, there are what we call the juju gods - bile-driven demi-deities whose loaded dice decide who rises and who falls.
They'll break your heart, every time. And every player who achieves greatness, or who merely inspires hope - they shall age and wither before our eyes. From Ruth to DiMaggio, from Mantle to Judge, they come and they go - in the relative blink of an eye, or in one horrible moment.
Remember: Whenever a deal boils down to a disagreement between a billionaire owner - who never breaks a sweat, much less an ankle - and a player who is elbow deep in the meat grinder, let's take the right side. That goes for Carlos Rodon, for Cody Bellinger, for Gerrit Cole, and for every other player whose career can end in one fucking moment.
I leave you with the words of the Captain, whose ability to put things into perspective has been overlooked by his physical greatness. After the game, Aaron Judge summed it up this way.
"What Cabrera meant to this team, what he means to me. A guy who shows up early and does his work. He cares for everybody in this room. He loves being a Yankee. He wears this jersey with pride. This is a tough one, especially a guy who’s (worked) his whole life and finally got an opportunity to be our everyday guy and has been excelling at it. You see something like this and it’s tough.”
In simple terms: The juju gods are assholes. Never trust them.
Posts
12 comments:
I don't trust their candy, either. They're like the Keebler Elves of movie sweets.
As a youth, I was a victim of their confectionery torture device and pulled out a tooth filling while attempting to chew one. Beware of the infamous Jujube!
Evil Keebler Elves*
There are moments that remind us all how fragile our existence is. How we can take things for granted and then lose them in an instant. The looks on everyone's faces last night was confirmation of that fragility.
We never know when tragedy will hit us and our lives take an abrupt turn. Best of luck to OC, hope he can recover from this.
Amen, Duque—great piece. Yeah, it's awful to see. I often think of two guys from this generation of Yankees, Sevvy and Miggy, who looked like they could be real superstars. They've managed to patch together their careers with the Homeless A's, and good for them, but what a shame that we didn't see them at their best for any longer.
Let's hope Oswaldo is a quick mend.
Men suffer. The gods laugh.
That looked terrible. The poor guy. All of the tendons, muscles and small bones involved looked like they were horribly tortured. And he crawled to the plate and scored, afterward.
Give him at least a ceramic tile in Monument Park, just for that one play. He earned it.
A very innocent looking play turned horribly wrong. Still no word on the Yankee site about what the doctors say.
Judge with a sliding catch and got up slow, banged up. I cringe whenever he makes a diving catch. I wish he'd be more like Joe DiMaggio and never dive for a ball.
If anyone is on Bluesky, check this guy out. He's great.
@cheatingfraudgers.bsky.social
Everything can change in an instant. That's a practical reason why I don't like Judge hitting #2. A 300 lb behemoth running the bases. Not ideal. Especially when he's your best player and the best player in baseball. If he gets hurt, it's curtains for the season.
Oswaldo Cabrera did a real good job this year. He was holding his own. The stats were not flashy, but he was helping the team. Probably better overall than half the team. He was above the median, I mean. He seemed to do something in nearly every game that was a positive.
Things have a way of resolving themselves. DJL is coming back and we were all wondering where they'd put him. Now there's plenty of room to stash him. Looks like they won't have to send anyone down.
Cabrera asked Judge if he scored on that play. Kind of like the mortally wounded soldier asking "did we make it?" in a war movie. Yeah, you made it, soldier. Always a team player. Winning is the only thing that mattered to him.
Post a Comment