The thirst.

Bang The Drum Slowly is a movie I've always been fond of. Its one of those movies, when I see a clip, I will click on it, and try to watch more. It just is so well written, acted and filmed. The cast is off the charts. Basically, its a movie about two unlikely friends, one an urban, city type, a high end baseball pitcher on the best team in the league, and the other, his friend, a backwoods hick who is a catcher, but barely able to make a major league roster. Because the catcher is sick and his friend takes him to the Mayo clinic, he finds out that his friend is terminally ill and will die in a year or two. He attempts to conceal this from their team, so he can continue to play until he gets too sick to carry on. Its a movie that is set in the backdrop of a baseball team and the inside stories and personalities that go on within that, but there are very few baseball playing scenes, and its not about the game. Its about people. What can be and should be kept private, and who has a right to know those things. 

Back in the day, Jim Bouton wrote a book about what really went on behind the scenes when he was a member of the New York Yankees in the 1960s. There were many big stars in that era, none bigger than Mickey Mantle. Most if not all of the reporters of that era knew exactly what Mantle and others did when the lights went down at the stadium and the game was over. Excessive drinking and sex parties, alcoholism, popping pills, strip clubs. All sorts of deviant behaviors. They reported none of that, and nobody really needed to know. Mantle showed up and played at all times. According to many, it never affected his on the field performance. The point is not that it went on, or that players are still humans/people, and that they do the deviant, and sometimes good things, that humans do. The point is that it has little to nothing to do with the game on the field, or ice, or court, and that I dont need to know about it. If I was a fan. If I was management, I did need to know about it and probably did. Whether or not that mattered probably was more related to the ability to produce than to ethical behavior and practices.

In 1973, I was 8 years old. I had not read Bouton's book, or anything like it. I just watched the games. All the games. It was my life.
As long as I could remember, I was a massive Montreal Expos fan and I lived for the games. I knew nothing about the players' lives other than what they did on the field. Nor did I want to. Or could I have. Nothing was ever reported like what Jim Bouton wrote in his book. I'm sure it went on, and there are now stories out there about those players.
One day, my Aunt took me to a department store because two Montreal Expo players were there and were signing autographs and a baseball if you brought one. It was in the morning, after a night game the previous night. One of the players who I won't name but was a marginal starting pitcher at that stage and another player I dont remember but who was of similar insignificance were sitting at a table. I suppose I remember the pitcher specifically for one reason. He was borderline drunk and reeked of alcohol. You could smell it at least two aisles away. I never forgot that. His eyes were glazed and he was hungover as well. He was unshaven and looked like a bum off the street. In today's world, that would be all over social media and he probably would be released or put on waivers. That was a very different time and nothing like that happened.
Nevertheless, I remained a big fan and did not hold it against him or want more info on the other players. To me, they were just players. Players doing their jobs and that job was to play a game, get paid for it, and provide joy in my life. Which they did.
Isn't that all that should matter? Maybe it should, but today, it does not. More fans are interested in the soap opera than the game. It gives them a chance to gossip and speculate like teenage girls. And what is the result of that sort of thing?

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/corey-perry-chicago-unacceptable-conduct-1.7042523

On Wednesday at my weekly floor hockey game, the rumor was breaking that Corey Perry had slept with Conor Bedard's mother after a function for the team. This had evolved over a week and the snowball effect of social media and rumor spreading had gotten wildly out of control. I hadn't even heard that rumor, as I go out of my way to avoid anything like that. I am basically only interested in the on ice product. The game. Enjoying the game. All the rest is meaningless to me, and frankly, none of my business. I am, for sure, a lone wolf in that respect.
All I knew for sure is that whatever Perry did, it was bad enough that his team and the league had to deal with it. Which they did eventually. What that was is not nor will it ever be my business. In fact, It's none of my business. If I was a fan of that team, I would know he was not playing for my team anymore. That's it. It's a private business and personal matter that didn't happen on the ice or alter a game.

Ryan O'reilly seemed like the perfect fit for the Toronto Maple Leafs. A player--a type of player--they really needed. Strong and responsible defensively, a very good faceoff man, can both kill penalties and fill a role on the powerplay. And most important, he will score goals when you need them, when they are hard to get. It's not a stretch to say that they probably dont win the first round playoff series last year without him. Down in game 3, he scored a big goal to tie the game with less than a minute left in the game. That turned the series for them. That was just one of many moments in that series where his skill set paid off. He was a previous MVP when St. Louis won the Stanley Cup and they needed that type of player to get them over the hump.
On top of that, he was a local boy coming back home. He seemed very eager to be part of the hockey crazy experience that is Canadian hockey, and more specifically, Toronto Maple Leaf hockey. This is a craze that includes reporting on anything and everything. Part of that is who plays with who in practice, where the players go on a daily basis, and little things about those players that nobody really needs to know.
Like this.

https://torontosun.com/sports/hockey/nhl/toronto-maple-leafs/taking-subway-to-work-has-become-habit-for-nylander

If an insignificant low level player is traded, there has to be a full analysis on how that impacts the entire organization. All of this and more feeds the frenzy. There are countless daily talk shows devoted to just what goes on with this team. Some of them are 3 hours long and the fans can't get enough of them.
When it was time for O'Reilly to get a new contract, by all accounts, the Maple Leafs were willing to pay him what he wanted and for the term he wanted. Yet, it was clear right away that he was going to move on. So, what was the problem?

https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/toronto-maple-leafs/news/ryan-oreilly-reveals-spotlight-as-influential-factor-in-maple-leafs-departure

From the article above:

When speaking to the media on July 1, Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving dismissed the notion that the veteran forward left because of the culture in the room and instead said that playing in the spotlight of Toronto "isn't for everybody."
O'Reilly was ..... asked .... if the 'spotlight' was a reason he decided to move on from the Maple Leafs.
"It wasn't the ultimate decision there. I think so many things come into play, but yeah I think that is a factor as well," O'Reilly replied. "It is different. It is something I did enjoy for the time there but I just felt it was better to be somewhere else."
"There are so many great things that do come with that though. I think that team is amazing and with the pieces they added this year, they're going to be right there contending for it. It is an amazing place. But like anywhere there are two sides to it."
"It was incredible. I couldn't have gone to a better place. The way the organization is, the Yankees of the NHL, it was an amazing time," O'Reilly said. It was such an amazing experience, being from Ontario and playing for all my friends' favourite teams, it was amazing.


Despite what O'reilly says, he knows, and everyone knows, it's a problem to play in Toronto if you value your privacy. He previously played in St. Louis and Buffalo. Both decent hockey towns, but I doubt he would be recognized everywhere he goes. There is no privacy for a professional hockey player in the Toronto market. Some like that. Very few probably do. In Nashville, where he signed, I'm sure he is virtually invisible outside of the rink. He signed there, with a team he would have to know that has no shot to win the Stanley Cup, and very little chance to even make the playoffs, because it wasn't in a crazy market like Toronto, which has a team with legit aspirations to go all the way.
In this day and age, it isn't just a big market thing. Love of the game for the games sake doesn't seem to be anywhere near enough for most fans. They want more, more, more. There is a thirst out there that goes much further and deeper than just watching and enjoying games. A lot of that has to do with how social media has changed life in every aspect. Sports are no different. There is a sense of entitlement to information and access. A thirst for it that must be quenched. Teams feel an actual obligation to adhere to that.
Players dont just do interviews anymore. They now call those things 'availability', on off days, pre game on game days, and after the game in rooms that are there just for the purpose of trotting out the players and coaches for long question sessions. The thirst is out there and demands that. They even do them on the ice before games as they warm up. Sometimes coaches are miked up and managers in baseball talk to hosts during the game. Those that resist that can get hefty fines for not participating. For not feeding the frenzy and the thirst for it.
This extends to other sports. At this point, you can't just play. You have no choice. You are expected to do it as part of the job.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/naomi-osaka-fined-15k-tennis-officials-after-refusing-press-sake-n1269122

Sportsnet's Elliote Friedman delved into this topic during the recent situation with Corey Perry. According to Friedman, Perry, and all NHL players, and for that matter GM's, coaches and reporters are public figures and all the attention and lack of privacy comes with being a public figure.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/32-thoughts-so-many-questions-not-enough-answers-around-corey-perry/


From the article above:

"when you become a public figure, you will face open criticism. It can be very legitimate. Maybe your performance is bad or you get something wrong or they reasonably disagree with your opinion.....people are going to say things to you online that a) they wouldn’t have the guts to say to your face and b) that you can’t believe someone would say or think about you......It’s not right, and it shouldn’t happen. But it does, you can’t escape it.....In this case, whether people think it's funny or they want to believe it, it goes absolutely wild. And, one of the worst things about where we’ve gone is the “pile-on,” where more people jump in — and do what they can to pile-drive the target even more into the ground....Anyway, where I’m going with all of this is it's one thing if you’re a public figure. You shouldn’t have to deal with anything anywhere near this extreme, but there’s a knowledge that, unfortunately, it’s baked into the pie. Where I thought there was a real failure is it affected a private person." -Elliote Friedman

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/nhl-corey-perry-chicago-apology-1.7045391

The question is not that Corey Perry did something wrong. He has now admitted that he did, and good for him for doing that. The question is not whether the Chicago Blackhawks and the NHL as an entity had to deal with it. They did. It was a contract violation and a workplace incident. The question is whether this has anything to do with the game and do fans have the right or expectation to know about it. Does it affect the on ice performance and product?
Players like Ryan O'reilly decide they would rather take their game somewhere where the thirst is not there on that level. Sure, they are public figures when they put on that jersey, and they accept that. But, they also value their and their families privacy to the point they will do what they have to to protect that.
In my opinion, Elliot Friedman is wrong. There was no shortage of answers here. There is an abundance of meaningless and pointless questions. The only questions that should matter are when is the game tonight, who is playing and will it be a fun and competitive game? Will I be entertained? Other than that, the rest is just hype and noise.

I love the movie Bang The Drum Slowly. It's a great drama about the backstory of what goes on in sports. I love it because it's a drama. It's not based on a real story, but about life in general. The following clip illustrates that.

Unfortunately, that is the world we live in now, where reality and real life are blurred by the make believe and dramatic world.
But I understand that the movie isn't about the game. It's make believe. If it was a real team, I would only be interested in the games they played. This backstory stuff would be none of my business. I enjoy it because it is art, not because it is sport. It is art with the subject of sports as the main theme. Its very much Ball Four the movie they never made. With made up characters and make believe plot points. As Law and Order states, inspired by real stories. But not actually a true real story.

The real story here is about the thirst. I have a thirst for the game. For the sport. Many have a thirst for the gossip, so they can somehow feel they are participating in it all. That that is their right. Its not. Not in my book. I will never lose my thirst for the game. It would be nice if others who are misguided, in my opinion of course, refocused more on that thirst for the game and less for the drama behind it. 

I have a thirst for a good drama like Bang The Drum Slowly. As long as its understood its drama, not real sport. Real sports is about the game, not the background drama.