The NYC Marathon has just been canceled and I’m not sure it’s the best call. It was obviously a tough decision (and I realize I am commenting from the outside), but events like this can give community energy and help with the rebuilding process. Not to mention there will be tens of thousands of extra hands to help out before and after the race.
This situation reminds me of a letter my old General Manager had framed on his wall when I worked for the Indianapolis Indians. It was written by FDR and sent to Kenesaw Landis, Commissioner of Major League Baseball at the time. It is now called, “The Green Light Letter” and was in response to a question of whether or not MLB should cancel the baseball season during the war:
My dear Judge:
Thank you for yours of January fourteenth. As you will, of course, realize the final decision about the baseball season must rest with you and the Baseball club owners – so what I am going to say is solely a personal and not an official point of view.
I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before.
And that means that they ought to have a chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work even more than before.
Baseball provides a recreation which does not last over two hours or two hours and a half, and which can be got for very little cost. And, incidentally, I hope that night games can be extended because it gives an opportunity to the day shift to see a game occasionally.
As to the players themselves, I know you agree with me that the individual players who are active military or naval age should go, without question, into the services. Even if the actual quality to the teams is lowered by the greater use of older players, this will not dampen the popularity of the sport. Of course, if an individual has some particular aptitude in a trade or profession, he ought to serve the Government. That, however, is a matter which I know you can handle with complete justice.
Here is another way of looking at it – if 300 teams use 5,000 or 6,000 players, these players are a definite recreational asset to at least 20,000,000 of the fellow citizens – and that in my judgment is thoroughly worthwhile.
With every best wish,
Very sincerely yours,
Franklin D. Roosevelt
I lived through the Nashville floods a few years ago, so, on some level, I understand what the Northeast is going through. Several people have lost their possessions, homes, and lives. This is a brutal experience and I completely empathize for everyone who has been affected. But as New York knows all too well, and we saw in Nashville, there is no choice but to move on.
New York’s race is the largest in the world, and if you’ve ever watched a marathon, you know how inspirational they are. The Country Music Marathon ran by my house every year and after watching, I was always ready to tackle the world and change my life.
I really feel having thousands of runners and spectators embracing streets that were just ravaged by a storm is a symbolic way to say, “This is our home. We will not give in.”
Marathon runners touch lives all the time. They are people who have committed to a very difficult challenge. I don’t see how it can hurt to have 40,000 people with that type of character on your side.
As I understand it, Mike, many, many of the hotel owners were not really in love w/the idea they would need to kick locals out of hotel rooms, as they had just lost their homes to fire or flood, to accommodate marathoners & tourists. Also, as it’s been a slow clean up so far, supplies (food, water, fuel, other basic necessities) have been slow or unable to get to areas that need them, bridges and streets still remain closed along the marathon route & the utilities have so far been unable to restore power to most along the route.
I saw a news clip earlier today of locals being angry b/c they were bringing in generators to power up time clocks for the marathon, that could power up approx 400 residences & yet those same residents still didn’t have heat, lights, etc. They were bringing in food & water for marathon runners & spectators and yet the residents were still waiting for supply trucks that have yet to leave the staging areas.
I understand your hard work & enthusiasm as an athlete, and realize that the city could probably use the extra money coming in, but the priorities here have got to be the people that were just so recently devastated by this hurricane.
Fair enough, Kate. I’m not there and don’t know the whole story. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened here if the marathon would have happened right after the flood. I just think if you bring in that many positive and determined people there is good energy that comes from it. But obviously there are a ton of challenges.
Kate – You are absolutely right. Not to mention they found more dead bodies on Staten Island (the start of the Marathon) only yesterday. Many New Yorkers who had planned to run the race decided not to ahead of the announcement it was cancelled. Had the marathon been only a week or so later, it would have been a unifying event with positive energy. But to see the generators (including one sitting idle as a back-up generator) in the park to power media and food tents while so many were without power (and without gas to fuel generators if they had them) didn’t make sense. Not to mention the burden on overflowing hospitals. However, it’s a shame the call to cancel was made so late.
I agree w/AA that the call to cancel was made too late. That should have happened right away. Or maybe as an alternative, the run could have been postpone for another couple weeks or since the weather will probably be getting much colder very soon, rescheduled for Spring.
Mike, I’m pretty sure some of the would-be participants did indeed decide to say around to help once they were told the event had been canceled.
Two things: 1) It was suppose to say “decide to stay” & 2) The time stamp is wrong for my last comment. It says I replied @ 6:42am….it’s actually 12:47am Nov 5th. I’d hate for anyone to think I actually got up THAT early and ruin my “slacker” rep.
I’ve worked hard @ it!! ; )