Prime

After writing my Brett Favre blog last night, I started thinking about other people I like watching perfrom, whether they're athletes or musicians or actors. See people like that, who are on "stage" in front of millions of people every year, they have their "primes". Those times when they seem untouchable and their ceiling for greatness in limitless. Those times when everyone talks about how these people will change the respective business of which they are a part. In these "primes", these people are clearly five or six notches above your average person. They carry themselves differently, they do things that only the smallest percentage of society can do. People say athletes are overpaid and maybe they are. Same with musicians and actors, but tell me how many average people can do what they do. None. These people are special. I will say, however, that we (as a society) in the past twenty or so years have done a great job at making average/below average actors and musicians seem great. Sadly, people with only minimal talent (see Toby Keith or almost any other country music artist on the radio today) are making the most money. Alas, that is another blog in and of itself. This one is about five people who have or had unspeakable talent and were at the top of their industry at one point. These are the people I would love to go back in time and watch:

1. Brett Favre - Green Bay Packers Quarterback - 1995 - Why this year? This was the year he won his first MVP award and even though the Packers did not go to the Super Bowl that year anyone could see that it was just a matter of time before they were there. He was still young enough to throw his body and his arm 100% into every play. He played and lived with a lot of rebellion. Truly a gunslinger.

2. Will Clark - San Francisisco Giants First Baseman - 1989 - As a 25 year old, cocky, brash player, he took the Giants to the World Series and set a record for play-off batting average that still stands today. I'll never forget (as a 9 year old) watching him get the game winning hit off Mitch Williams on an October afternoon. I was hooked. His eye black was smeared like war paint and the camera shook because the fans were so loud. No one doubted he would get the winning hit...it was a given. Clark retired in 2000 after making one more play-off push with the St. Louis Cardinals and leading them to the National League Championship after taking over for Mark McGwire. He hit .345 with 12 homeruns and 45 RBI's in only two months. Average those totals over a full season and they would stand with anyone's best year.

3. Adam Duritz - lead singer for Counting Crows - 1996 - After releasing their first album in 1993, Rolling Stone compared Duritz to a young Van Morrison with the songwriting ability of Dylan and Springsteen. After touring two years straight, Duritz folded under the pressure and went into a state of depression. After facing his fears of being in the spotlight, he and the band released "Recovering the Sattelites", an angry, noisy album completely different from the previous album that garnered so much praise. RTS was full of angst and doubt and was probably their best album overall. Today Counting Crows are still touring, but seem to be on their last leg. Duritz had another bout with depression and has gained a lot of weight. They haven't released an original studio album since 2002.

4. Mel Gibson - 1994 - It's hard to remember the initial feeling you get when you see something great for the first time. I've seen Braveheart at least ten times and each time I know I'm watching something great. I would love to see Braveheart again for the first time in a movie theater and ride the emotion of it from the beginning to the end. It's a shame what Hollywood has done to him after he made "The Passion of the Christ". That movie, itself, was another one I would love to see again for the first time.

5. John Irving - author - 1978 - The year he released "The World According Garp", his signature novel. I would love to have started reading him then and waiting impateintly for his next novel and next novel and next novel. Too bad I wasn't born until a year later. After reading "Garp" you knew he would have many more great books on their way. I would've loved to have taken the ride. To wait and see how the next novel would be. I've been able to the next best thing and just read them all at once. After "Garp", Irving wrote "The Hotel New Hampshire", "The Cider House Rules", "A Prayer for Owen Meany", and "A Widow for One Year". What a streak of novels! I have read all of these except for "The Cider House Rules" and they are all great pieces of literature full of every emotion imaginable. I have not read his latest release which was in November of last year, but it's hard imagine it will top the other ones I have read.