In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, there is a passage that pertains to life and maybe even to sports and our Minnesota teams.
Brutus and Cassius are debating whether to attack Octavian’s and Marcus Antonius’ forces during Rome’s Civil War. Cassius is in favor of resting their troops and Brutus is against laying up and has this to say to Cassius:
"There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." He goes on to say, "Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, and we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures."
In other words, Shakespeare is saying there is a good time to make your move and if you don’t, you’re going to regret it. Looking at the various Minnesota teams, is this the time they need to make their move and if they don’t, the moment is lost?
First, the Minnesota Twins. Are they prepared to make their move? The answer is simple. No, they are not! No matter what Terry Ryan says to bolster attendance, the Twins are far from that moment. They have traded two regulars for the future and the pitching they have acquired is stopgap. They have no front line pitchers and adequate starting pitching is the best we can hope for. High tide is not coming until 2014 and more realistically 2015.
Our Minnesota Gopher football team is moving forward and getting better, but there is such a long way to go that no one should feel badly if they just ascend to the middle of the pack. Their time is not now and one can only hope for the future.
The Minnesota Timberwolves were on the fringe of marching to the playoffs. It appeared the tide was coming in and the Wolves would make their move. It was not to be, as injuries have dismantled the team. Injuries have turned the Timberwolves into a fair team that can, on some nights, be a little better than fair.
The state of the team is much like Cassius and Biutus’ army, if they were ask to attack Octavian and Marcus Antonius without one of their legions. The Wolves’ spirit is strong, but their flesh is weak.
Our Minnesota Vikings are on the cusp of being a very good team. Sure, many point out there are weaknesses in the team and they need another year of draft choices and free agent stocking to be of championship caliber. That may be true, but a championship destiny could come a number of years earlier or even as little as one year earlier than expected.
President Barrack Obama is a good example of that tide rolling in sooner than expected. Obama had not held national political office until he was elected Senator from Illinois. This all stemmed from his keynote speech at the Democratic convention where he said, "We are not the red United States of America, we are not the blue States of America, we are the United States of America." Obama had the reputation of an up and coming politician. He could have laid back as a new inexperienced Senator and waited for events to unfold. Instead, he took on heavily favored Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for President. He took the rising tide and is now being inaugurated for his second term as President.
So there is a time and place to catch the tide and one should take advantage of it, for it may not come again.
