MidValleySports.Com

By Joe Torosian

Kick it!

What the angry athlete doesn’t get is that real fans want them to be happy. It’s good to see people (other people) happy, especially when they’ve mastered something.

I don’t like concerts. I go to a concert, and I bring a book to read. (Heck, I go to Disneyland and I bring a book to read.) It’s hard for me to sit and listen. To me, music is like a conveyance that keeps me in motion until a task or job is done.

When I am stuck at a concert, I focus on the performer. I think of the thousands of times they’ve performed and the ten thousand hours they’ve put in to prepare for those moments on the stage.

And what puts me over the top is seeing them happy. There’s a brief shot of Rob Orbison in the Traveling Wilburys’ video “Handle Me With Care” where he turns to George Harrison and emits a great smile.

A few years ago, in the Sunday Night Football opening, they incorporated Joan Jett, and there’s a shot of her smiling while playing the guitar.

It’s beautiful.

And seeing Jalen Brunson choke up in a post-game interview, recognizing what it meant to him, seeing him hug his family, he was so happy.

Seeing all the humbleness and gratitude of that Knicks team was the best.

(The Villanova Effect?)

Seeing Carolina Hurricanes Stanley Cup Final MVP Jordan Staal hand the Cup over to Frederik Andersen first—after all the goalie’s struggles—was the best thing to see and such a great demonstration of character in what can be described as a crooked and depraved generation.

For me, this is the reason I watch sports. I forget and lose focus for long stretches, but then I observe a title celebration, and I remember.

It’s a rich joy that someone who disdains sports will never know. And happiness is the great, unsung, narcotic of sports. Give me more! Mainline that stuff directly into my veins.

Can you be happy? Can you pretend to be happy? If you’re in a position of influence and can find a way to be happy—then you’re going to make a lot of other people happy. Core happy, joy happy, not angry happy.

I’m going to let you in on a secret… Most of the time, I’m only pretending to be angry. (Don’t let anyone know, I just do it for effect.)

Quick Baseball Question: The other day, who did you feel most sorry for? Yoshinobu Yamamoto or Mookie Betts?

Yamamoto is easy to root for. In that moment, when Betts kicked that ball, Yoshi exhibited a lot of grace out there. And grace is not something you can acquire. You either have grace or you don’t.

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Coming back down to the valley…

Just once, it would be nice to see one of Caitlin Clark’s teammates/head coach take a “T” or return an elbow or shove on her behalf. (Sophie Cunningham did it once, a year ago.)

Last Add Spurs: Wemby is not helping himself, and if Popovich is giving him counsel, then he’s leading the kid down the wrong path. If he doesn’t want to respect the national anthem, that’s fine, stay in the locker room—I think that’s a good call…But why cost yourself all the goodwill that’s just waiting to be picked up? And, given the Fighting Frenchman’s youth and talent, the opportunity to join Elon in the Trillionaire Club.

Really Last Add Spurs: They deserved to lose Game Five for the way they handled the Knicks’ player introductions alone. A blown 29-point lead in the Garden is the equivalent of a market crash circa 1929. The whole franchise needed to bear down on Saturday—and the whole franchise didn’t.

The passing of former San Francisco 49ers edge Aldon Smith was sad, but not surprising.

What was surprising was hearing die-hard Fog City fans cut him loose after he blew repeated make-right opportunities. They got tired of Smith real fast.

Back to The NBA: Charles Barkley talks tough, and often hits the mark, but looks soft when he backs off a true statement. How can you state that the Spurs played the dumbest basketball ever…and then come back—after pressure was applied—and say he didn’t mean San Antonio, HC Mitch Johnson?

Of course, Mitch Johnson had fault in that Garden meltdown. And depending on your point of view, maybe more so than anyone else. There were choices and substitution patterns that didn’t make sense. And there were a couple of times he needed to get into Wemby’s grill—for the young man to regain some focus.

Last Add Finals: My takeaway before the final minutes of Game Five was that Dylan Harper was the breakout star for the Spurs…and it was confirmed when they were looking to the 20-year-old to rescue them in those final minutes.

#66—May the San Francisco Giants rot and lie stinking in the earth…

The Dude abides…

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