The Overreactions

Emotions are raw tonight.

A day after Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven other people died in a helicopter crash, there has been a collection of suggestions on how to honor him.

Major League Baseball retired Jackie Robinson's number 42 across the league in 1997.

The National Hockey League retired Wayne Gretzky's number 99 in 2000.

Since then there have been calls for baseball to add Roberto Clemente's number 21 and, once in a rare while, Babe Ruth's number 3.

Beginning last night, basketball fans have recommended hanging up Kobe's two uniform numbers (8 and 24) league-wide.

Some have suggested making August 24th (8/24...get it?) Kobe Bryant Day.

Still more have said the the NBA logo -- modeled after the great Jerry West -- should be changed to be a silhouette of Kobe.

To that end, a petition exists that has over 280,000 signatures as of Monday night.

Look, I get it. Everyone handles grief in their own way. Far be it for me to say how anyone should grieve.

But this is over the top.  Kobe died yesterday. Let's stop the fast break.

In due time, there will be appropriate, rational ways to honor Mamba, his daughter, and those who died.

A Kobe statue certainly makes sense at Staples Center.

A Kobe Bryant Award is also logical.

But I think we need to calm down a bit.

The Lakers postponed their game tomorrow night. I actually would have been OK with the NBA taking last night off, but I kind of feel like it would have been good for fans in Los Angeles to be back together.

This isn't something I feel strongly about that I want to have a debate but it does bring me back to Aug 3, 1979 when the Yankees hosted the Orioles.

We all needed it. Over 51,000 fans attended and cheered.

For nearly 10 minutes.

The cheering roared through the grand ballpark as the Yankees openly wept on the field and the spot behind home plate remained empty.

The roar of the crowd was like a wave. It kept going, grew stronger, began to subside just a touch, then exploded again.

I watched on TV, and stood in silence. Even at 10, it was overwhelming.

It was cathartic.


The Lakers can have that moment when they're ready, I suppose.

But I don't think tomorrow night would have been a bad thing.

*****
I sat down last night and started a recorded edition of Doubleheader that I finished up this morning. I talked about Kobe, Eli Manning, and Derek Jeter, among other things.

I wanted it to air today at 4pm, as I would be unable to host a live show. I'm still running to and from Poughkeepsie and balancing things.

The show did not air due to lack of time to put it in our automation system. So I resurrected Tales From the Booth -- the Doubleheader edition. Please listen.