by A.J. Coltrane
Lebron had this to say after the Heat were defeated by the Mavs in the NBA Finals:
[Wow, I Googled “Lebron James” to find the link and the autofill popped up “Lebron James Jokes” as the #1 search. There’s definitely some vitriol going on.]
But I digress, here’s his quote:
“All the people that was rooting on me to fail, at the end of the day they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today,”
“They have the same personal problems they had today. I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that. They can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy about not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal, but they have to get back to the real world at some point.”
That reminded me of the March 30 entry in Ball Four:
Now about Roger Maris. Roger fought a lot with the people in the stands , especially in Detroit, where he used to give them the finger. He and the fans would get to calling each other names and then Maris would roll out his heavy artillery.
“Yeah? How much are you making?”
Roger was making $70,000 a year.
After a while every time Maris got into an argument the guys in the dugout would say, “C’mon Rodg, hit him with your wallet.”
That’s certainly how I interpreted Lebron’s comments, though in the linked article he says he really didn’t mean it that way. Not that I believe him. I heard that as: “You have to go to work on Monday and I don’t.”
I think Joe Posnanski did a great job of summing up my feelings about James and the Heat:
…After all, I spent the entire NBA season rooting against LeBron James and the Miami Heat. I rooted against the Heat with a joyous zeal. People often asked me why — some lectured me about it. That’s OK. I’m sure I can put the reasons into words if necessary. I rooted against the Heat because I was ticked off at LeBron for quitting on the Cavaliers at the end of last season. I rooted against the Heat because I was ticked off at LeBron for making a mockery of Cleveland and how much the fans there loved him. I rooted against the Heat because something about three buddies deciding to get together in an exotic locale and dominate the NBA seemed like a plot for a bad James Bond movie. I rooted against the Heat because I do not like anyone cutting in line…
A final quote from Ball Four, since the Maris entry always reminds me of the March 4 entry about Mantle:
“…I remember one time he’d been injured and didn’t expect to play, and I guess he’d gotten himself smashed. The next day he looked hung over out of his mind and was sent up to pinch-hit. He could hardly see. So he staggered up to the plate and hit a tremendous drive to left field for a home run. When he came back into the dugout and everybody shook his hand and leaped all over him, and all the time he was getting a standing ovation from the crowd. He squinted out at the stands and said, “Those people don’t know how tough that really was.”
Which is why when I went to a Mariner game and Bouton threw out the first pitch the guy next to me said “Isn’t that guy the traitor to baseball?”
The M’s game was in 2009. Ball Four was written in 1969. People don’t forget.
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[Link to a film about the Seattle Pilots that looks interesting.]
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