From Sam Potts, graphic designer, “My Five-Point Plan for Doing Projects.” I especially like no. 3: “Heed the wisdom of Mickey Rivers,” who said this:
“Ain’t no sense worrying about things you got no control over because if you got no control, ain’t no sense worrying. And there ain’t no sense worrying about things you got control over, because if you got control, ain’t no sense worrying.”Mickey Rivers played center field for for the California Angels, the New York Yankees, and the Texas Rangers.
Some years ago, Sam Potts created Infinite Jest : A Diagram, mapping the relations of the novel’s characters. I still have my copy, 2′× 3′.
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I admire that philosophy of his, and also the fact that he once went through a phase of calling everyone “gozzlehead.”
Has anyone ever written a group biography of those mid-1970s Yankee teams? What a bunch. Reggie Jackson once objected to Thurman Munson being described as moody, saying, “Munson’s not moody, he’s just mean. When you’re moody, you’re nice sometimes.”
He sounds like a born Stoic. I like the one-liner in the Wikipedia article: “When Reggie Jackson remarked to a reporter that he had an IQ of 160, Rivers responded, ‘Out of what, a thousand?’”
A group biography? Maybe another baseball-minded reader will know.
I was thinking something along the lines of Roger Kahn’s The Boys of Summer.
Its focus might be a little earlier and on players like Mickey Mantle, but Jim Bouton's Ball Four is a classic.
Pete, I bet you already know that.
For many years I've said, mostly to my kids, "Control what you can control," which is essentially the same, in fewer words (Michael should like that). Two responses to my simple sentence: First, are you a member of Alcoholics Anonymous? (I'm not.) Second, are you a Buddhist? (I'm not.)
Thanks, Pete and Stefan, for the book recommendations. I read Ball Four years ago (in high school) — I thought it was hilarious.
I read somewhere that there’s a biography of Thurman Munson that’s something like a group biography of the Yankees.
Joe, it does sound like you’re something of a Stoic. I think I am too. I recall telling a colleague some years back why I wasn’t worrying about Illinois’s looming pension crisis: because I couldn’t do anything about it. I wish I had been able to invoke Mickey Rivers back then.
I first read Ball Four when I was ten. I even did a school book report on it. It’s obviously due for a re-reading (I’m 56).
That’s quite a book for ten. : )
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