It isn’t enough for poor ol’ Gar that football is inherently more exciting, due to having better overall athletes and a more watchable game; but couldn’t hockey just muster up a little shenanigans of its own?  The NFL just went through two weeks of crazy, while hockey, well, I think there’s still a goaltending controversy in Vancouver…

What makes the NFL so scandalous? Photo courtesy of Zak Hornung.

It has to be pretty hard to create some off-the-field buzz if you’re hockey. The baddest men in football are 6’5”, 240 pounds, have killed people and/or animals, have committed offenses alike, and have lead large-scale drug rings. While the NHL’s  baddest ‘boy’ is 5’10”, 180 pounds, can’t hold his liquor and sports a mullet come playoff time.

Whoa. These hockey players are out of control!

I mean, really, Roger Goodell couldn’t have tossed Bettman the ‘rivalry of the psychotic siblings’ that we now know all too much about?  Like, are the Stall boys not interesting enough?  Couldn’t it have been Jaromir Jagr using deer-antler spray to heal from an injury?

(I know you don’t know these names, but, like hockey, only family members follow this, too.)

What makes it even harder, is that Goodell even has his future stars making waves in the press.

Fake girlfriend?! Gary could have thought of that!  Though, including hockey-fan as part of her ‘back-story’ would have been a little hard to believe.

Maybe Gary should have tried the ‘President-having-to-think-about-letting-son-play-if-had-one’ angle, seeing as how severe head trauma is a serious issue in hockey, too.  And you just know that if Obama had a son, that child would be asking for an Alex Ovechkin jersey and a pair of skates by his second Christmas.  Same as every young boy living in the hockey haven that is Washington, D.C….

Or what if Mr. Bettman talked about all the life-lessons that hockey teaches you, and how playing hockey builds character and stuff, like Roger Goodell did Friday during his state of the NFL press conference. Never mind that a large number of Goodell’s players have criminal records, and that there’s a good chance they’ll lose their minds and kill themselves by the age of 50.

The ‘life-lessons’ make it all better.

Perhaps it’s not even the commissioners fault at all.  Maybe his players need to start liking God more, like that nice Ray Lewis fellow.  People love rooting for the possible-murderer-turned-Evangelist.  At least, they do a lot more than for the farm-boy-with-normal-upbringing from Alberta.

Well, at least it’s all over now.  There is no more football to be watched.  Maybe now Gary can relax, and just sit back and watch as the NHL starts grabbing some of those headlines…

Kings v. Blue Jackets tonight, anyone?

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That being said, baseball, in many ways, still remains America’s pastime.  There’s no denying a strong sense of nostalgia when it comes to Americans and their feelings toward baseball; the names, the stories, the records all seem to hold a special significance for each of us, similar what Miguel Cabrera’s triple crown meant to many fans and MVP voters.  We are seeing many of these special and prideful attitudes toward baseball brought up again, as the 2013 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot was announced last week, with some of the game’s most infamous names on it for the first time.

The 2013 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot was released last week, containing a few highly controversial names. Photo courtesy of Zak Hornung.

Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Roger Clemens, among others, are now eligible to become members of the Baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.  By their statistical achievements alone, they’d go in. Bonds is the all-time leader in home runs, Sosa is the only player in MLB history to hit 60 home runs in a season three times, and Clemens is a seven-time Cy Young winner.  Of course, these are also three of Baseball’s several revered stars to have their careers tarnished by allegations of steroid use.  Whether or not these men belong in the Hall of Fame has been widely debated for some time now, even before their names were mentioned in the Mitchell report or BALCO investigation.

Now, finally, a firm stance is required.  Do these men, who knowingly and willingly used banned substances to improve their on-field performance, belong amongst the greatest names to ever step on a baseball diamond?

The ‘knee-jerk’ reaction is often no, that putting these men in a class with Ruth, Gherig and Cobb is unfathomable.  While they and many others in the Hall of Fame are regarded as American legends, Bonds, Sosa Clemens are considered science projects.  And, while trying to gain a competitive edge over one’s opponent has been accepted and even celebrated in the past (i.e.: Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry and the spitball),  the use of performance enhancing drugs seems to cross a line.  Steroids go past the institution of playing with one’s natural ability, and threaten the integrity of the game.

The common opposition to this stern belief is a more objective viewpoint that Baseball is ever changing and can be broken down into different eras.  The period of baseball from 1998 to roughly a few years ago, is already considered the steroid era, and players like Clemens, Bonds and Sosa would go into the Hall of Fame as the best players from that era.  Also, a valid argument.

My favorite, and possibly the freshest take on whether or not to let players of the steroid era into baseball’s Hall of Fame, is the one Chicago Cubs broadcaster, Len Kasper, tweeted last week.  Kasper’s opinion is essentially this: let them in, and let them either explain themselves or stew in their own inner turmoil while giving their acceptance speech in front of their peers.

Frankly, I agree with Kasper.  So much of me wants to say ‘no, no way, no how,’ but Major League Baseball itself turned their heads in 1998, when suspicion of steroid use arose while Sosa and McGwire saved baseball with their chase of Roger Maris’ single-season home run record.  Plus, these players still hold all of their individual accolades, so why now?  Let these men, who for years have denied their wrong doings in a cowardly and defiant manor,  stand up in front the Baseball immortals, and accept their ‘honor’ as a member of the game’s elite.

While more to this grey-area remains, whether it be the monetary gain of signing one’s name ‘HOF’ or determining if a player’s pre-steroid career is enough to get him in,  I just simply want to hear from these men.  I want to see if Bonds and Clemens, who have taken on perjury indictments while pleading their innocence, will break down and come clean, or if Sosa finally remembered how to speak English.  In the end, no right or wrong answer exists, and the voting process as whole remains confusing and imperfect.  However, Kasper’s view seems to be the most fitting.  It obviously meant enough for them to cheat, so let them live with their record achievements, and let them live with the guilt, too.

The post What To Do With Baseball’s Steroid Stars? appeared first on Maryville Pawprint.

Minus a few tweaks and alterations, this routine is, and always has been, my Thanksgiving tradition.  It’s not much, and it may be somewhat ordinary, but I like it.  It’s simple, manageable, and it serves its purpose.  No one in the house is obnoxiously drunk, screaming at the kids, or looking for critters to shoot out back, though that last part could be coming to fruition for my family real soon. 

Black Friday has many thankful for huge sales, and others thankful they stayed home. Photo courtesy of Zak Hornung.

I decided to get a little adventurous this year, though, and, perhaps, a little foolish.  As Thursday’s end drew nearer, I recharged my batteries, dressed back up, and set out with a couple friends to experience all that is Black Friday.

Now, I have forever been immune to the callings of early holiday specials and long, trying nights out in the cold in front of a Wal-Mart, and I have never once given thought to trying to shop during normal business hours on the Friday after Thanksgiving, let alone at 2 a.m.  I’m still not quite sure what came over me.

Still, you really can’t dog something until you’ve tried it, and even though it doesn’t take much to see how carried away our society has gotten when it comes to Black Friday (there were people setting up camp at my local Best Buy the Monday before Thanksgiving), I guess I can say that I’ve become more credible for actually getting my hands dirty in the deep trenches of Macy’s before dusk.  Plus, it is fairly satisfying to have your long-held personal beliefs and opinions about something reaffirmed.

I never thought a Black Friday discounted TV was worth being trampled to death over, and… I still don’t.

In all fairness, though, I did not ‘attend’ Black Friday with the intent to a make a purchase.  I merely went to observe, and what I saw, did in no way make me scream, “How have I never done this before?!”

What I did see, however, was what I imagine townspeople trying to stock up at the local grocery store before the end of the world would look like: just a mass of mouth-breathing weirdoes in winter coats and pajama pants, rummaging through boxes, and flocking from store to store in a ‘no tomorrow,’ ‘do or die’ fashion.  I was expecting to see store windows being bashed in, and people walking out with boxes of preservable Panda Express.  To say the least, I was not enticed.

So, as I suspected, it wasn’t for me. I guess I’m just not cut out to score big holiday deals in prime-time.  My morning did help me to realize, though, that regardless of how stupid Black Friday may seem to me, it still remains a rich Holiday tradition for many, and, I suppose, I should respect that. Who knows, my traditions may seem just as stupid and pointless to all those dedicated men and women who take off work to sleep on gravel for a few nights to obtain an otherwise easily obtainable item.

Except for that middle-aged man in the middle of the department store who kept trying to rally all of us into some sort of Black Friday musical number.

… I would have paid full price to see him get trampled over on his way in.

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The Indianapolis Colts are vying for a playoff berth, but is that at all the effect of their ill head coach, Chuck Pagano. Photo courtesy of Zak Hornung.

The latest occurrence in a growing line of misinterpretations and misattributions involves Indianapolis Colts’ head coach, Chuck Pagano, who was recently diagnosed with a treatable form of leukemia. The Colts were last year’s bottom-feeder, finishing with a woeful record of two wins and 14 losses, which landed them the first overall pick in last year’s draft.  As we all know, the franchise went on to take the highly touted Andrew Luck, who now has the team in playoff position.  Naturally, Luck and his teammates have embraced their cancer-stricken  coach, shaving their heads and wearing ‘Chuckstrong’ shirts during warm-ups.  Although I understand the idea of wanting to honor a comrade and the adversity they face, the reporting and coverage of this ‘feel-good story,’ seems a bit forced.

First of all, ‘Chuckstrong’?

Undoubtedly a play on the whole ‘Livestrong’ phenomenon, though, is this really who/what you’d want to align your cause with?  Considering how we now know, for sure, that Lance Armstrong is a fraud who hid behind the yellow bracelets that, rightfully or not, carried a lot of meaning for many cancer victims and survivors, ‘Chuckstrong’ screams more ‘inspirational cancer-honoring playbook’ than genuine response.

Then comes the whacky idea that Pagano’s leukemia is what’s propelling the Colts to victory.  Wrong.  Sure, an athlete or competitor can play with more emotion because of a non-sport variable, and it’s not common to dedicate a performance to someone, or play with that someone in mind, as well.  In no way, however, does Chuck Pagano’s having cancer make the Colts better football players.  In fact, would Pagano’s illness even be covered like it is if the Colts weren’t winning?  It sure as hell wouldn’t be, if he wasn’t a football coach.

The media isn’t totally to blame, though, because we fans love to add themes of hardship and strife to sports, no matter how little they actually have to do with sports.  Here’s a news flash: (1) illness is devastating whether you’re a coach, player, child, doctor, teacher, salesman or pet; (2) a coach’s getting cancer is sad and worth recognizing, exclusive of his team’s performance; (3) sports can be compelling without additional story lines.

We need to realize that professional sport is a business, and not a bastion of moral supremacy and unwavering justice.  This is the kind of thinking that leads us to believe teams win to save their disaster-stricken cities, or that a quarterback deserves a chance because every sentence out of his mouth begins with “I’d like to thank my Lord and Savior…”

Don’t forget, there’s still a small college town in Pennsylvania that would have us believe the facilitation of mass child-rape, can be mitigated by a win/loss record.

The post The Keys to Winning: Talent, Hard Work and a Little Cancer appeared first on Maryville Pawprint.

Whether you like the current bowl system or you’re yearning for a playoff, the college football season is coming down to the wire, and a big finish is immanent.  This past Saturday, the four top-ranked teams stayed unbeaten.  Number one Alabama came down the field late, to sink rival and seventh ranked Louisiana  State. Heisman Trophy frontrunner Collin Klein and number two Kansas State took care of number 24 Oklahoma state, though Klein did suffer an injury in the third quarter of Saturday, Nov. 3′s game, the details of which are still unclear.  Number three Oregon put up 62 points in a shootout-type victory over number 19 USC, and number four Notre Dame survived unranked PITT, in triple overtime.

Football is once again proving why it’s America’s favorite sport. Photo courtesy of Zak Hornung.

Having four unbeaten teams at the end year (not including number nine Louisville), may seem like it would expose the problem-side to the current bowl system. Though, with three regular season games and the conference championships left to play, distinguishing the top two teams may not be so difficult.  Notre Dame is definitely the weakest of the four, as they continued their lack of dominance at home over the weekend, and still have yet to play Southern Cal.  On the flip-side, it seems nothing short of a loss will bounce Alabama from the top spot, and the only ranked team left on their schedule is number 15 Texas A&M.  That leaves Oregon and K-State, either of whom would be deserved of a BCS championship birth, given they run the table.

Switching over to professional football, the NFL season has been most entertaining throughout its first eight weeks.  One of the reasons the National Football League is so popular, is that a majority of fan bases each year believe their team has a legitimate shot at the Super Bowl.  Half way through the season, a championship case can be made for several teams, with really no true favorite emerging.  In the NFC, the undefeated Atlanta Falcons, have not been all that convincing, and the 7 -1 Chicago Bears have yet to face any real tough competition other than the Packers, who handed them their only loss.  Green Bay itself has had some issues, loosing to a mediocre-at-best Colts team, and getting jobbed by the replacement refs against Seattle.  Luckily, quarterback Aaron Rodgers seems to be finding his groove, despite missing star receiver Gregg Jennings.  We’ve surely learned by now, that an Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin lead Giants team should never be counted out, and the San Francisco 49ers remain very much in the picture with their stout running game and defense.

Over in the AFC, the Houston Texans sit on top at 7-1, but got torched by Rodgers and the Packers in prime-time.  They also lost star linebacker Brian Cushing for the season, after he tore ACL on Oct. 8 vs. the New York Jets.  The 6-2 Baltimore Ravens hold the AFC’s second best  record; although, they too are playing without a key defensive player in future hall-of-famer, Ray Lewis.  Lewis was originally believed to be out for the season, but remains on the injured reserve/designated to return list as of this past weekend, according to espn.go.com’s Jamison Hensley.

After Baltimore, comes a string of 5-3 teams with a very talented quarterback.  Tom Brady and the Patriots could easily be 7 – 1, if not a pair of close losses to the inferior Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks.  Payton Manning looks at times like he hasn’t skipped a beat, after missing all of last season, and has his new team, the Denver Broncos, atop the AFC West.  If the season ended today, Manning would face his former team, the Indianapolis Colts, in the first round of the playoffs.  The Colts have been a surprise so far this season, as many believed first overall pick Andrew Luck would be good, just not this good, this soon.  The last AFC playoff spot belongs to Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers, who had a huge win over the New York Giants, this past Sunday, Nov. 4. 

With so many teams a game or two apart in the standings, and so much inconstancy week to week, with the exception of a few, the second half to this year’s NFL season is sure to be even more intriguing than the first.

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The Cardinals win; the Cubs don’t.  I have no room to talk, I’ve told myself, refraining from writing negative Cardinals articles, and even having to tell some St. Louis fans that, “Hey, you don’t have to tell me… I know all too well how bad the Cubs are.”

But then it happened.

The Cardinals find themselves in the midst of another improbable post-season run, but how do fans really view their October success? Photo courtesy of Zak Hornung.

While watching some post-game coverage of game-six of the National League Championship Series (NLCS), in which the San Francisco Giants forced a game-seven with a 6-1 victory, a local reporter said what I’m sure many Cardinals’ fans may feel deep down, but has been rarely, if ever, articulated.

In what seemed an effort to justify the red bird’s game-six loss, KSDK’S Alex Fees reported on fans’ post-game reactions and noted that with it being manager Mike Matheny’s first season, any success for the Cards this year is “icing on the cake.”

Really?

Back-to-back losses and Cardinal Nation is taking the position of Oh, it doesn’t matter if we win this year or not; we’ve already exceeded expectations. 

How convenient…

Now, I’m not disagreeing that Cardinals have performed better, or at least have gotten farther than expected, but this new sense of satisfaction comes after nearly a whole year of We don’t need Pujols! and 12 in 12! chest-puffery. I was even beginning to hear comparisons of the Cardinals to the Yankees, who, even if St. Louis wins it all this year, will still have more than double the World Championships that the Cardinals will!

So, Cards fans, are you beginning to see the problem?

You’re an 88-win team, that snuck into the post-season via the newly added ‘second wild-card team’ while four other major league teams with a better record have been watching from home since early October.  I’m not arguing that the Cardinals’ presence in the playoffs isn’t fair, nor that St. Louis fans shouldn’t rejoice in their team’s season and cheer them on throughout their post-season run; but many, if not all, of the Cardinals fans I’ve come into contact with, have brushed off their relatively mediocre regular season performance and, at least publicly, viewed the NLCS as a destination the Cardinals ‘should’ be in, not fortunate to be in.

I’m not trying to take away what the St. Louis Cardinals have accomplished and dismiss it simply as happenstance or the bi-product of a first-year rule, but Cardinal Nation can’t have it both ways.  Either you’re a world-beater whose playoff run has come as no surprise to you, or you are a solid major league team who got in by the skin of their teeth (again) and is outperforming expectations.

As I write this article, the Cardinals are hours away from game-seven.  As you read this article, we will know if they won.  It’s pretty sad, though, that after weeks of obnoxious celebration resulting in cancelled classes, campus-wide amplified play-by-play, and what-are-you-doing-with-clothes-of-a-100-loss-team-on? buffoonery, the Cards aren’t even eliminated yet, and you’re already trying to justify a collapse of your own.

The post The Luxury of Being the World’s Greatest Mediocre Team appeared first on Maryville Pawprint.

Many statistics now exist in baseball that can more accurately determine a player’s worth. Photo courtesy of Zak Hornung.

Historic and impressive, Miguel Cabrera’s Triple Crown is also somewhat ironic.  In recent years, there has been a sizable change in how teams measure a ball player’s worth. Although suspicion may always remain, the steroid-era seems to have passed, and with it has the importance of home runs (HR) and RBI as statistics. 

Now, more significance is being put on stats like on-base percentage plus slugging (OPS) and wins above replacement (WAR),  which was constructed by the sabermetric baseball community to try and accumulate a player’s overall contribution in one stat. More simply put, if a player has to be replaced, WAR calculates how much value the team would be loosing. Due to these newer trends in major league baseball, one might wonder if we will even care about something as prestigious as a Triple Crown a few years down the road.

It isn’t so much that HR’s and RBI’s will go unnoticed and unappreciated, as much they simply won’t be as highly regarded when considering what makes a player valuable.  With the Triple Crown on his resume and his team in the playoffs, Cabrera seems to have the American League MVP award locked up; however, the Angels’ Mike Trout also made a very good case himself this past season. 

In fact, if your looking at all the new-age statistics, bringing fielding and base-running into consideration, Trout should be the MVP.  The Los Angeles rookie lead the league in stolen bases and runs scored, and his WAR was tops in baseball at a staggering 10.7. He also led the league in Offensive Win Percentage (OWP) which measures a player’s rate of offensive performance.  Cabrera finished only sixth in WAR and fifth in OWP.  Defensively, Trout plays a gold-glove caliber center field, while Cabrera is, for the most part, a defensive liability.

Despite Trout’s dominance in some of the newfangled baseball statistics, and his excellence in areas other than hitting, many still believe Cabrera’s reign on top of the more traditional offense categories is too much to overlook.  Statistically, with that league-leading 10.7 WAR, Trout is the most valuable player in baseball.  However, capturing an award that has gone unclaimed for nearly half-a-century as well as leading your team to the post-season does say a lot about a player’s value, too.

MVP or not, Miguel Cabrera’s Triple Crown is part of baseball history, a feat that only some of the game’s very best have ever conquered.  It is also the perfect celebration of what were once the key measurements of offensive production in baseball, but what are now outdated and increasingly irrelevant benchmarks in the sport’s modern era.

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I thought of the reputation Maryville has for providing ample internship and volunteer opportunities.  This past weekend, I, along with several of my fellow sport business management peers, partook in one of those ‘ample opportunities,’ as we played a sizable role in a big event.

Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Ill. Photo courtesy of Zak Hornung.

From Sept. 28-30, roughly 15 (dependent on the day) sport business management students woke up before sunrise and headed across state lines to work the AAA National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Midwest Nationals, at the Gateway Motorsports Park, in Madison, Ill. Being one of them, I can tell you first-hand that the experience was at times fun and at other times grueling; but looking back now that it’s over, I think we all can say we are glad that we did it.

Anywhere from ticket sales and will call to merchandise and hospitality, sport business students had a hand in nearly every role that went in to the past weekend’s festivities.  Our day’s were long, as we were awake around 5 a.m. and on the road by 6 a.m.  Ideally, we’d hit the employee parking lot by 6:30 a.m., and from there we would take a quick shuttle to the track.  Roughly an hour later, we were at our various posts, mentally and physically equipped, and ready to go.  Hours varied between students, though generally, we were there all day.

Some parts of the ”job” were easier than others and sometimes it almost seemed a little boring.  On the whole, though, because we had an opportunity to ‘touch’ so many different parts of the event, I think there was a lot to take away from the experience.  I know I personally have a better understanding of what goes into, not only the planning, but the execution of an event like this; and I learned plenty this weekend that I can carry into the next internship or job opportunity.

I’ve been trying to sum up the experience and what I learned at the track this weekend, but I’m going to leave that up to someone else.  

Following the conclusion of this weekend’s event, assistant professor and sport business management advisor Dr. Chris Barnhill said, “Event management is an important and sometimes overlooked part of our business.  You can do a great job selling and marketing your event, but if the event is run poorly people won’t come back.” 

This is the type of knowledge that, not only sport business management students, but all Maryville students can gain during their time here.  And gaining that ‘pre-career’ knowledge is one of things that makes Maryville attractive.

The post Maryville Sport Business Students Play Role in NHRA Midwest Nationals appeared first on Maryville Pawprint.

Unlike the last lockout, which resulted in a hard salary cap and a few changes to the rulebook that were implemented to open up the game, this current labor dispute focuses more on the sharing of revenue between the players and the owners.  The 04-05 lockout, although a sad time for the hockey community, was somewhat needed, and seemed to spark a noticeable rebirth for the both the NHL and the game of hockey itself. 

The National Hockey League (NHL). Photo courtesy of Zak Hornung.

As hockey became more exciting, interest rose and so did revenue, from $2.2 billion in 2006, to a record $3.2 billion last year (Bloomberg.com).  Under the recently expired CBA, the players were entitled to 57 percent of that hockey-related revenue.  In a league where more than half of the teams lost money last year, it’s hard not to see why that number won’t work, especially due to the fact that team-value in the NHL has actually increased since the last CBA was put into effect. 

According to Forbes.com, the average NHL franchise is now worth about $240 million, yet player salaries are keeping organizations from turning a profit.  A player-share closer to that of the NFL and NBA, 48 percent and 50 percent respectively, seems like the best option for a league that may not be able to sustain another lost season. 

As stated on Bloomberg.com, the owners’ latest offer to the players was a 47 percent share of league revenue, which did not entice the players, as that would mean a loss of roughly $256 million in salaries next year.  In turn, the player’s union proposed a deal linking the players’ portion to revenue growth, with the players’ share of revenue decreasing slightly each year so long as revenue continues to increase.

The NHL’s struggles to cultivate a wider fan base have long been documented. Prior to the start of last season, the average NHL player made $2.4 million, a near million dollar bump from the average salary back in 2005-06 (Bloomberg.com).  Even with a much greater share of their leagues’ revenue, the average NHL salary is significantly less than that of the NBA and MLB. Surprisingly, the NFL’s average player-salary is lower than hockey’s at $1.9 million, but that number is skewed due to the increase amount of players in the NFL. 

Bottom line: the NHL’s stars aren’t making nearly what the biggest names in other sports are.  In fact, out of the Forbes list of the 100 highest paid athletes, none play hockey. None. Not even Sidney Crosby, who, after agreeing to an extension with Pittsburgh Penguins this summer, netting him $104.4 million over the next twelve years, cracked the list.  Now, while that figure does only include Crosby’s salary,  Lebron James, who was fourth on Forbes’ list, will make $53 million in total earnings this year alone.

It’s obvious that player salaries are what’s crippling the NHL, and even though a more evenly shared revenue means a significant pay-cut, the players need to think long-term.  Giving up more now would hopefully result in a more stable league, and potentially lead to higher salaries down the road.  However, continuing under a CBA similar to the one which just expired, could very well ensure future labor disputes.

In response to the passed deadline, the NHL issued a statement Sept. 16 saying, “This is a time of year for all attention to be focused on the ice, not on a meeting room… we owe it to each other, to the game and, most of all, to the fans.”

For right now, all fans can do is remain optimistic and pray that an agreement is reached sometime within the next month or so.  Unlike seven years ago, this current lock out could be too much for the NHL to bounce back from.

The post Another NHL Lockout Now In Effect appeared first on Maryville Pawprint.

A packed house at Wrigley Field for Bruce Springsteen. Photo courtesy of Zak Hornung.

In a musical era, where the phrase ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ reeks with the stench of wrinkly old-farts doing a rendition of their own hits, while pleasing their wrinkly old fans just to collect a paycheck, Bruce Springsteen has managed to continually put out fresh and relevant material.  A tale more of perseverance than reinvention, Springsteen has become something of a ‘Rock ‘n ‘Roll’ Noah, packing up his family, The E-Street Band, and a zoo of musical influences, to withstand the nasty flood that washed away his peers.  His longevity is a testament to the devotion and effort he plays with, and the vast catalog he has accumulated over the past forty years.  Both of which were on display Friday night.

“The Boss” led with “Prove It All Night,” incorporating a long, fierce guitar solo/introduction, pulled all the way back from his 1978 tour.  Next came the lesser known “My Love Will Not Let You Down” a hard-rocking love song from the 1998 Tracks box set.  After a couple more of the classics, Springsteen moved into his latest album, Wrecking Ball, and brought out Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine for “Death to my Hometown” and “Jack of All Trades.”  A Libertyville, Ill. native, Morello was called up onstage again for “Ghost of Tom Joad” a song which he covered with Rage and has performed live with Springsteen several times before, inserting his own incendiary guitar solo.  As if we in attendance weren’t treated enough,  Pearl Jam front-man Eddie Vedder, of Evanston, Ill. was summoned for “Atlantic City,”  and, for the first time on this tour, Springsteen and the E-Street Band played Born in the USA outtake, “None but the Brave,” a song only released on the compilation album, The Essential Bruce Springsteen.  

After closing out the set with “Land of Hope and Dreams,” Bruce came back out for seven encores, including four tracks off his 1975 breakthrough album, Born to Run.  During one of those four, “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out,” Bruce paid tribute to former E-Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons with a long, mid-song moment of silence.  “The Big Man” as Clemons was known, was Springsteen’s onstage foil and the most recognizable member of the band after Springsteen himself.  Bruce finished the evening with The Isley Brothers’ “Twist and Shout,” of course made famous by The Beatles, for which both Morello and Vedder came back onstage.  It was the perfect ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ ending to a perfect ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ night. The legend goes that “Twist and Shout” was the first song that Springsteen ever learned to play.

Since 2007, I have seen Springsteen perform three times, with Friday’s performance being the most impressive.  It is hard to fathom that a 62-year-old man, with decades of rock-service under his belt, could come out and sing and play with the exuberance of 22-year-old kid trying to make it big; but it just goes to show what Bruce means to music and what music means to him.  Even now, after bandmates have fallen, the money has been made, and his place in music history has been solidified, “The Boss” is showing no signs of slowing down.

All in all, Bruce Springsteen at Wrigley Field was everything one could have asked for in a live performance, and then some.  Sure the venue was beautiful–especially when the on-field product isn’t so hard to look at–but I feel the “where,”  just as the “for how long” doesn’t matter to Mr. Springsteen.  As long as he’s performing at the highest of levels, he’ll do it.  And as long as he’s doing it, I and millions of others will come join him.

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