Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be pro athletes

April 16, 2026

A bit late in posting this but it’s still relevant, so…

Excellent essay in the March 29 Op-Ed section of The New York Times by Devin Gordon, author of So Many Ways to Lose: The Amazin’ True Story of the New York Mets — the Best Worst Team in Sports and Bookshelf Conversation guest.

“Help! My Favorite Athlete Is an Idiot.” is a reminder, or perhaps a warning, of why we shouldn’t get too close to our “heroes,” lest they break our heart.

An illustration of a wooden baseball bat tied in a knot.

Juxtapose Gordon’s suggestions with A.M. Gittlizt’s thoughtful Metropolitans: New York Baseball, Class Struggle, and the People’s Team, which is full of political activism (but mostly on the liberal side).

0Shares

Comments on this entry are closed.

Previous post:

Next post:

script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-5496371-4']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();