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Thursday, January 7, 2016

99.3%, but not perfect


Yesterday, George Kenneth Griffey Jr. was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by receiving 437 of 440 votes (99.3%), which is the closest any player has come to a unanimous selection in the history of a sport that cares a great deal about history. It is an impressive number to anyone's standards and represents a glistening moment in an otherwise dark era for Major League Baseball. A few years ago I wrote this and I felt compelled to dust off my blog on such a historic day.

To be honest, my emotions are somewhat mixed on this day. As his election margin indicates, Junior was hands down one of the most spectacular players the game has ever seen. A friend of mine recently sent me a GIF of his swing, which is nearly as iconic as Air Jordan. Part of me wishes that the only memories I have of Griffey are his iconic swing, his jaw dropping catches, and his hat on backwards with a smile.

Unfortunately, that is not the case. Much like the 0.7% of votes that didn't fall to him, the universe rarely grants perfection (as if I didn't already know). While amazing, Griffey was not perfect, nor was he a saint. He never won or played in a World Series and on multiple occasions he was guilty of ill-tempered transgressions that border on petty. There is even a rumor that he was so angry with ESPN after the Jim Edmonds story that he demanded they create a reel of ever single one of his HRs, a gift for his mother. Am I a Griffey hater? Certainly not! But I have been watching him closely for 25 years (as has the rest of the world) and, believe it or not, flaws have been identified.

He is not alone in his imperfection, which reinforces the message that perfection is a noble pursuit, but will never be reached. The goal of an athlete is to win, nothing more. LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Archie Griffin, Herschel Walker, Dan Marino, Adrian Peterson, Lance Armstrong, Michael Phelps, Johnny Manziel, Aaron Hernandez, OJ Simpson....these are all athletes that reached pinnacle moments in their respective athletic careers, but ultimately their perfection was shattered (on or off the field). They captured our attention and our hearts, but that magic does not translate to real life. Bottom line Sir Charles had it right 20 years ago.

In an age of instant gratification, global connectivity, and high speed access, we have become a society of editors, endlessly searching for imperfection to validate our vigilance. My wife recently sent me this article on the plight of Carrie Fisher's aging and I can't help but shake my head. Who are we to demand perfection?

Getting back to Griffey, one could argue that Bonds's swing was actually more fundamentally sound because it was level (ie, you don't pop the ball up) or Griffey should be more of a sweetheart like Barry Sanders, wait....Barry wasn't perfect either. Its unfortunate that the first quote from Griffey in the ESPN article was "I can't be upset", likely responding to a question of why he wasn't unanimous; who cares why he wasn't perfect, no one ever will be. What's worse is that there is a chance that the lasting narrative for this event won't be Griffey's 99.3%, but rather the flaws in the voting system. Bottom line, the only thing that matters, the only question we should ask ourselves when we look at athletes is this. If the answer is 'no', shut-up. If the answer is 'yes', change the channel.

Perhaps I am arguing with my own perfectionist demons, but those are the demons that drive us and make us the successes we are. A smarter man than I once said, "Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence." 

Congratulations Junior, you are the man of the hour. The rest of us apologize for the 0.7%.


Just my thoughts

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