Here's hoping an eye injury is transitory

Needs no introduction

Raise a toast to the WNBA? The league might still be looking at a bumpy road even after capitalizing on the "CC effect." We all know what that is. 

"CC" gives us another exhibit of celebrity in America. Obviously it's a delicate thing, like a high-wire act. Once you get into a fishbowl like this, it's a mixed bag for what can happen. Whatever it was that made you famous, you will have competitors. I am assuming that CC has an agent, part of whose job is to guide her through the potential shoals of "celebrity." 

We used to see household names go on the Larry King show on CNN to ask for redemption. Famous people are human beings who can succumb to peccadilloes like the rest of us. We shouldn't act surprised but we do. We want someone like "CC" to be perfect but we know down deep that a slide downward is possible. 

Is Garth Brooks guilty?

You know the kind of things that could happen. Too unpleasant to even cite them here. 

One that would be totally innocent is the career-ending injury or career-impeding injury. We as fans don't feel any of the pain or limitations of an injury. There was the scary eye-poke incident with CC on the receiving end recently. We can sometimes overlook how frail the human body is. I pray with all Caitlin backers that it was a passing incident. 

I think we as fans assume too often that when an athlete gets back on the court or the field after an injury, it's "all systems go." Remember Keith Millard of the Vikings? He had injury issues that may not have driven him out of the game, but he was no longer the player he was. 

And let me cite here the best example for how an injury does not routinely pass. That would be Tony Conigliaro. Pro sports has so many dangers for players - in Tony's case the incident was a "beaning." The biggest danger in baseball, right? 

A somewhat comparable incident happened with our Minnesota Twin Jimmie Hall in the 1960s. That is getting to be a long time ago. Well I'm 69, I remember, I was part of the first generation of young Twins fans who got so emotionally involved in the Twins. Our enthusiasm could get out of proportion. We loved Jimmie Hall. Twins legend has it that we traded original Twin Lenny Green because Hall afforded more power at that position. 

I cite Hall with emphasis in this post because it's a good example of how injuries don't just "go away." In the next breath I must note that not all are agreed on how Hall's career declined. A top theory is that the "beaning" by Bo Belinsky in early-season of 1964 was the cause or catalyst. Other players through baseball history have picked up the reputation of having been permanently affected by such a thing. 

To be a superstar athlete, you must court risks. Could Hall's eyesight have been affected? Or, maybe on a psychological level he developed a fear that affected his normal focus? Getting hit in the head with a pitched ball is highly concerning. 

 

A resilient attitude, yes

Would you believe Tony Conigliaro of the Boston Red Sox actually had his best home run season after his major incident of getting beaned? First he had to take a whole season off. He resumed play but with mixed success, the highlight obviously being his 36-home run season of 1970. All mended, then? Not at all. Even his eventual death was attributed to what happened to him. 

In Jimmie Hall's case, the beloved early Minnesota Twin made the All-Star team in 1965. The year after the beaning. All mended, then? While we can't know for absolute certain that the beaning took a toll, well-circulated speculation points this way. The Twins of course made the World Series in 1965. It was a major chapter of joy in Twins history. But by the arrival of the World Series, our manager had decided to platoon Hall. Hall the A.L. All-Star was being platooned. And he was being platooned with very pedestrian hitter Joe Nossek. 

What about 1966? Twins fans hardly remember 1966 because we placed second instead of first in the A.L. in a time when only the pennant winner advanced to post-season. Strange. Only six years earlier, Minnesota didn't even have a major league team. We had the minor league "Millers." So in '66 we were second in league and it made no splash. Let's say "anticlimactic." 

Jimmie Hall, popular early MN Twin

And what about Jimmie Hall? Now he really was platooned. His home run frequency went up some but his batting average dipped below where it needed to be for an outfielder. He got shipped off after '66. Then he really bounced around. I suppose teams were happy to sign him in the hope he could find his earlier form. 

In later years, Hall could not be persuaded to come back for Twins reunion events. Sid Hartman wrote that Hall was "bitter about baseball." Well, Hall's prime was before players started getting the substantially increased $ compensation. The players union with Marvin Miller got dug in. Players got paid better and treated better. Because of the $ invested in them, pitchers got handled better, protected from injured arms. Hence the "pitch count." 

I have plunged into all this background about Hall and Conigliaro because I was reminded of this by the Caitlin Clark incident with getting poked in the eye. Pray to God it's a transitory thing. Sports injuries can sometimes be "degenerative." In other words, they can only get worse - that's what happened with basketball player Ralph Sampson. 

Again we must remember how frail the human body can be. My goodness, fans overlook this, don't want to be bothered to think about it. Well, we want to be entertained. We wanted Keith Millard to keep being the bruising defensive lineman. He could still play, he just couldn't play as well. 

 

Wunderkind's future

So now what will develop with this total wunderkind of America, Caitlin Clark? If she fades for whatever reason, we'll slowly lose interest in her. She has the very delicate game of making the "logo 3's" for which, well obviously, sharp eyesight is her raison d'etre. 

So what will happen? Can she stay on course to being the "straw the stirs the drink" with a WNBA team? That's asking a lot even for someone with CC's talents. Will her sheer celebrity status stay on course? America can do cruel things with its "celebrities." This can happen when we simply discover they are human. CC is a pro now - she's no longer in the college environment where there is a benevolent purpose with how she's handled. Now it's wins and money, baby. And hey, with money comes temptations, pilgrims. 

So maybe we'll have to hold our breath with Caitlin on that count. We wouldn't want her to be in a position like some of Larry King's guests of old, in effect asking for a "second chance." We lost Larry to covid. His talk show approach on CNN was eventually judged to be dated. Sometimes I feel nostalgia for it. If anyone needs "redemption" it's Donald Trump, but this man might be on the verge for being president again. Larry King, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com