Thursday, October 18, 2007

Many moods

The fuss about Manny Ramirez and his "Who cares?" comments reminds me that earlier this year I was interviewing Edson Buddle after another Galaxy loss and he seemed pretty calm. (I'd just interviewed Joe Cannon, who was anything but). I asked Edson why he didn't seem upset.

"It's just a game," Edson answered.

At first I was surprised, then I remembered that people deal with stress differently, and they motivate differently as well. Not everyone is exactly the same. Some people carry losses and setbacks with them and take them personally and use that as a push to improve. Others let go and move on.

Sure, Edson wants to score, just like Joe wants to prevent goals. They're different types, though, and they're going to go about their business differently.

Some fans would rather have a player say that the game is the end all and be all - others would rather have the player who, regardless of how he works to stay loose, can get the job done in the end.

No comments: