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.