Tewksbury, Mass. -- I'm here in suburban Boston after having attended the Paul McCartney concert on Thursday night at Fenway Park . . . and there's no "maybe" about it. I was amazed.
To think that McCartney -- with that voice, energy, talent, appearance -- is 67 years old just might be the most . . . well, it's beyond words with which I'm familiar. Frankly, the show (2 1/2 hours in length) was almost unimaginably good.
Anyway, despite McCartney's stuff continuing to ring in my ears, it's still Friday around here, and you know the drill.
Enjoy . . .
I am enjoying The Post-Standard's articles about the New York Jets' training camp down there at SUNY-Cortland.
I am a Jets' season-ticket holder since 1984. I live in Auburn, which is more than four hours from The Meadowlands. I just made the decision to sign PSLs to keep my seats . . . gulp.
My office door at Le Moyne College, where I teach, is painted Jets green, and is loaded with my collection of Jets memorabilia. My license plates say NYJETFAN, which gets quite a reaction here in Buffalo Bills country.
I'm quite sure there are more of us in your midst than you might imagine. Go, Jets!
-- Cathy Leogrande, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Education Department
Le Moyne College
In separate incidents last month, two high-profile professional boxers died of apparent suicide -- Alexis Arguello and Arturo Gatti. Initially, both deaths were considered suspicious, and both were later ruled as suicides following their respective investigations by local authorities.
End of story.
Yet, I'm not so sure. Typically, a man dies or chooses to die the way he lives. That's why the deaths by of Arguello and Gatti by "apparent suicide" are to this writer three parts "apparent" and one part "suicide." They don't add up. Sure, boxers can be brutish and given to moodiness, fits of temper, spates of lawlessness and an assortment of antisocial behavior. In violence, like drug use, men ramp up on aggressive highs, forgetting who they are.
Indeed, few fighters would make the Top 20 on the list of the World's Most Mentally Stable, or be eligible for induction into The Self-Control Hall of Fame. But boxers are more apt to take their aggressions out on others, not turn violence in upon themselves.
We don't pity those who look for trouble; we blame them. But neither Arguello nor Gatti was of that ilk. Each fought with determination, fierceness and pride, leaving everything in the ring. Each performed admirably in his sport, always taking the high road with class, distinction and sportsmanship. More importantly, they were stand-up men in the face of defeat, devoid of whining or alibis. Each trained with exceptional diligence and discipline, and were at peak condition come fight time, giving fans their money's worth.
In the ring, both were men who never beat themselves, never self-destructed by their own hand, never were reckless. Opponents had to bring their own "A" game in order to beat them. And their reputations as class acts in and out of the ring were something each earned and was careful to uphold and value. Lastly, both had family and were legacy-sensitive regarding same.
Is it then fitting to conclude, beyond reasonable doubt, that both died by suicide? Maybe so. After all, they were mere mortals, subject to flaw, foible and foolishness. And as such, like the lot of men, they were quite capable of leading lives of quiet desperation, or being driven to the brink. No one can fully comprehend the mind, will or motives of another. Yet in the cases of Arguello and Gatti, there is room for doubt.
I simply don't see either of these former champions taking the easy way out, KO'ing themselves as their last and final acts, and in so doing taking the luster off their hard-won public images, legacies and reputations, not to mention the memories of themselves left for loved ones in their wake. I don't care what the authorities say. Fact is, one would be hard pressed to find significant suicide rates among professional fighters anywhere and here I reference "Suicide in Athletes," a 2005 study by A.L. Baum, M.D. Until recently, when was the last time you recall hearing about a boxer ending his own life?
Granted, Arguello struggled with depression, alcohol and drug use. But as a man of the people, it's equally possible that his outspoken foray into politics as mayor of Managua found him stepping on some powerful toes, like those of the notoriously corrupt Sandinistas. And as for two-time champion Gatti, a man known for his joie de vivre and overall optimism . . . self-hanged by his wife's purse straps? Come now. A recent poll conducted by boxingscene.com found 83% of its respondents skeptical that Gatti died by his own hand. Following his funeral services, it now appears an exhumation is in the works at the request of the Gatti family.
I'm not proposing we hatch conspiracy theories, confuse disenchantment with truth, cultivate paranoia or give the honorable names of Alexis Arguello and Arturo Gatti tabloid-like attention. I'm simply suggesting there may be more here than meets the casual eye, or has thus far been disclosed in the boilerplate disinformation spiels released by the so-called "authorities." After all, truth fears no questions.
As for authorities? Locally, the meteorology "experts" are telling us that the torrential month of July had below-average rainfall for the month. And no one contests it. Why, last month I emptied my rain gauge more often than my bladder. So much for experts and authority.
It doesn't take a genius to conclude that things often aren't what they appear to be, or what they're made to appear to be. Recall, in like manner it was reported that former heavyweight champion Sonny Liston died similarly, of a drug overdose, alone in a Las Vegas hotel room in 1970. Uh huh. Few really believed that story, and for good reason. Liston had plenty of friends, and enemies, in low places. And we all recall how the so-called "expert" investigators handled (bungled) the crime-scene evidence in the O.J. Simpson affair.
No individual or nation is immune to impropriety, instability, ineptness or injustice. But as for finding justice and fair play south of the border? Says here you'd have an easier time finding sombreros in Sumatra, Mariachi at the Met, or tortillas in Tokyo.
Meanwhile, it's 10 bells and a moment of silence for Arguello and Gatti -- and of late, Vernon Forrest, U.S. Olympian and three-time champion gunned down in Atlanta during a random violent crime. Three boxing notables gone, violently, inside a month.
On the subject of violence, controlled or otherwise, and our wholesale desensitization to it, perhaps John Milton said it best in "Paradise Lost": "Who overcomes by force hath overcome but half his foe."
-- Joe Masterleo
(Bud Poliquin's column and his "To The Point" observations appear regularly in The Post-Standard. His work, including freshly-written on-line commentaries, can also be found virtually every day on syracuse.com. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org.)