Being Young Is The New Old
By Chad Hollingsworth
Love of Sports Correspondent
You ever notice how the autumn can be kind of a depressing season?
I know I’m taking the risk of bringing on the wrath of all you foliage enthusiasts, but it’s true.
Trees die and afternoons are spent raking leaves. Days get colder and shorter. Baseball ends and football games begin to see games decided by inclement weather (which is fun to watch … baseball ending is the depressing part of that).
The ironic thing is sports fans are seeing new things happening in the Fall of 2008. Yes, the theme du jour (or whatever word is French for “season”) is youth. If you don’t believe me, let’s take a quick look around the sports spectrum.
Remember when the United States won the Ryder Cup last month? I sure do. Now let’s take a look at the members of the team that made the biggest difference in bringing the Ryder Cup back to America and helped pry it lose from a very talented European team.
Three players on the U.S. squad didn’t have a loss in any of their matches at Valhalla: Hunter Mahan, Boo Weekley and J.B. Holmes. All three of them had never competed in a Ryder Cup before, and Mahan and Holmes are both under 30 years of age.
Oh, and I almost forgot … Anthony Kim had a big Ryder Cup as well.
Kim had a 2-1-1 record and, like the other rookies on the team, didn’t back down from the favored European team. By the way, he’s only 23 years old. U.S. captain Paul Azinger picked him to lead off the singles matches on Sunday against one of the best Ryder Cup golfers ever, Sergio Garcia. Most captains choose to lead off with their best players in the singles matches. The fact that Azinger chose a 23-year-old rookie speaks volumes of Kim’s talent and what he will offer to the game of golf.
Not long after the Cup ended, the NFL season started to shake out pretenders and contenders. Really, who can tell anything after three games? Well, the Lions probably could tell they were pretty bad. And the Patriots probably knew Matt Cassel wasn’t going to be very good. Other than that, the NFL is still hard to decipher early in the season.
However, rookies in the NFL are helping teams that didn’t have high expectations from their fans and the media. Look at Matt Forte. The Bears are presently 3-3 and tied for second place in an NFC North division that’ll probably come down to the last week of the season. Forte’s taken the bulk of the carries as a rookie and rushed for 459 yard and three touchdowns. He’s also caught two touchdowns as well. Speaking of pass-catching, he has to be a big reason Kyle Orton is finding more open receivers in a somewhat rejuvenated Bears offense.
Speaking of rejuvenated franchises, it wouldn’t have been a stretch to say the Falcons were going to be awful this year. Well, they’re not. New coach Mike Smith has put the offense into the hands of rookie quarterback Matt Ryan, and the Falcons have thrived. Ryan’s thrown for a modest five touchdowns and three interceptions. However, in four of his last five games, he’s had a QB rating over 90. He also led the team into field goal territory to beat the Bears in the closing seconds of last Sunday’s game. This just shows he’s more than capable of success as a rookie quarterback, but he can also get it done when he’s under pressure.
Finally, playoff scenarios always cause the most pressure for teams involved them. It’s even more amazing that the Tampa Bay Rays are the team on the verge of defeating the defending World Series champions. Oh yeah, have you heard the Rays are young team?
The oldest player on the field defensively for the Rays is Carlos Pena, who’d also be the oldest in the lineup if Cliff Floyd or Eric Hinske weren’t the designated hitters (although Willy Aybar does that as well and he’s only 25).
The Rays have the soon-to-be Rookie of the Year on their team in Evan Longoria and a budding ace in Scott Kazmir, who’s only 24. Finally, the Rays have one of the best farm systems in the league. They could stay a young team and still be as talented as they are now. No matter what happens to them this season, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with for years to come.
It’s more than evident the fountain of youth is flowing freely this fall. And while the U.S. Ryder Cup rookies, NFL rookies and basically all the Rays are winning, we all win too just by having the chance to watch them.
So, yes, fall can be a season where things don’t grow and days end quicker. It’s just that these young upstarts are bucking the trend this year.
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