This humble essay has spent a longer time in gestation than normal. The longer pregnancy is brought about by the fact that it deals with human failures. And secondly, some of the characters in the essay are less than glorious. No one likes to read about failures; they like to read about cuddly dogs and lap cat kittens and well-behaved children. But on the obverse side there are, in fact, failures. This essay will deal with four of those failures.
All of this was brought into focus when I recalled an untitled recitation that is a part of Irish literature and folklore. The name of the author is unknown because over the course of years, his memory has been erased from the memory of man. We suspect that it was written sometime in the 18th or 19th century and we know that it is not the work of William Butler Yeats, the premier Irish poet. The first verse reads like this:

“He stumbled home from Clifton Faire
On drunken legs and cheeks aglow.
But there was something in his air
That told of kingship long ago.
I turned and inly burned with grief
that one so high should fall so low.”

When it comes to failures one needs to look no further than the collapse of the 2007 New York Mets. The 2007 Mets were a club that this poem must have been written about. They were indeed the baseball club so high, and in the end, they sank so low.
Midway through the season, the New York Mets enjoyed a fourteen-game lead. In baseball circles, such a lead is considered largely insurmountable. In the final 17 days of the baseball season, the Mets had a seven-game lead.
They managed to fritter it all away while the Philadelphia Phillies put together a winning streak that overtook the Mets. On the final day of the season, it was the Phillies who were in first place, not the Mets. So we have here a case of “that one so high should fall so low.” The Mets missed the playoffs and at the end of their season, they packed their bags and went home. No playoff money, and no World Series money. And no paid appearances on television.
So this is the first failure that is brought to mind by the untitled poem by the Irish author whose name has been erased from the memory of man.
The second case of failure also involves a baseball club, the New York Yankees. The Yankees made the playoffs for the 12th consecutive year under the leadership of Joe Torre, their manager. But they also found that for the third consecutive year, they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. So they packed their bags and headed for their home cities. Again it is a case of “that one so high should fall so low.” On top of this failure, the Yankees in effect fired their manager.
One of the reasons that this essay has spent so much time being birthed is that it was held up while the Yankee Series was open to question. That series was soon settled as the Cleveland Indians took three of the four games from the Yankees. But now comes a further holdup in that the owner of the Yankees, George Steinbrenner, ha threatened to fire the manager of the Yankees unless he won that series. Well, the Yankees lost that series and we waiting for the other shoe to drop, to see whether in fact Steinbrenner would fire Joe Torre.
In terms of manliness, George Steinbrenner is a gnat. Joe Torre, on the other hand, is a decent giant. Yet in this case, it is the gnat determining the future of the giant.
After ten or more days of deliberation, the Yankees offered Joe Torre a contract that he had to refuse. In the Joe Torre incident, the New York Yankees, including their owner, have covered themselves with dis-glory.
About all that can be said about the New York Mets and the New York Yankees is “wait until next year.” In the 2008 season, both of these baseball clubs will have an opportunity to chase the golden chalice once again. The third failure that I wish to discuss today has to do with the 2000 Olympics. In that Olympic contest, held in Sydney, Australia, the American sprinter, Marion Jones, was clearly the outstanding female performer. She won a total of five medals. Four were for individual performances and the fifth was for her anchoring the relay team in the women’s races.
Since the 2000 Olympics, Marion Jones has been plagued by the accusation that she had taken performance-enhancing drugs. The reason for this skepticism is that her performances defied human expectations. I know very little about women’s track and field records, but it seemed to me that the questioners were so persistent that they must have known something. This past week Marion Jones appeared before a federal judge and pleaded guilty to having lied to a federal agent. Marion Jones admitted that the charges against her about taking performance-enhancing drugs were true. Again, it is a case of “that one so high should fall so low.”
Marion Jones is a mother. She faces the possibility of a jail term and what is she going to tell her child about this incident? I suspect that will be the most difficult speech that Marion Jones will ever have to make.
And finally we come to the Senior Senator from the great State of Idaho. You may recall that early this spring, Senator Larry Craig was arrested because he propositioned an undercover cop in a Minneapolis men’s room. Senator Craig had two months to study the charges against him and, in the end, he signed a confession which gave him rights to appeal. Yet in the past week or so, Senator Craig has hired a high-powered Washington lawyer, Billy Martin, to go to a Minneapolis court to try to overturn his own confession. The effort failed. Now whereas Senator Craig had said that he would resign from the Senate on September 30, it subsequently developed that it is his intent to stay on in the Senate until his term expires in January of 2009. You may recall an earlier essay in which I deplored Senator Craig for his hypocrisy. He is a closeted homosexual, voting against every right that homosexuals might possibly enjoy. Here he voted against marriage between homosexuals as well as civil unions. And he also voted to keep them out of the Army. When it comes to being a hypocrite, Larry Craig is the world’s champion.
Another reason for the delay in the gestation of this essay is that back in his home state, the authorities there had nominated Senator Craig to be in the Idaho Hall of Fame. This of course was done before the news of the bathroom incident became known. Now it remains to be seen whether they will withdraw their nomination of Larry Craig to be in the Hall of Fame for the great State of Idaho. It seems to me that Senator Craig should be memorialized by a marble statue depicting his “wide stance” for all of posterity. But be that as it may, this is another case of “that one so high should fall so low.”
Well, there are four failures – the New York Mets, the New York Yankees, Marion Jones, and the great Senator Larry Craig. Reading about them may not be inspirational but in fact it seems to me that the anonymous poet from the 18th or 19th century had them in mind when he said “that one so high should fall so low.”
The final verse of the untitled recitation goes like this:

“But he plucked a flow’r and sniffed its scent
And waved it toward the sunset sky!
Some old sweet rapture through him went,
And kindled, in his bloodshot eye.
I sighed and inly cried for joy
That one so low could rise so high!”

So you see all of the failures mentioned today are not without hope because in the second verse of the unnamed poet’s contribution, he says that there is a possibility that “one so low could rise so high.” So the poet had his eye on 2007. If however I had my choice, I would hope that never should Larry Craig rise to any level of human acclaim. As far as I am concerned, Larry Craig is of a piece with George Steinbrenner. They are gnats of humanity. As for Marion Jones, I hope that one way or another she will recover, because her sprinting days at age 30 are now over. And as for the New York Mets and the New York Yankees, I can only repeat that well-worn timeless phrase, “Wait ‘til next year.” Perhaps in 2008 we will have a world series between the Mets and the Yankees. That indeed would be a case of starting so low and rising so high.
Finally with respect to Larry Craig, I have been waiting for 65 years to site a reading that capsulizes etiquette in men’s restrooms. There was a saloon in Nameoki, Illinois, that had a sign over the urinal in its men’s room. The sign said, “We aim to please. You aim too, please.” If Larry Craig had stuck to this counsel, he might not be in the legal mess that he finds himself in today.
E. E. CARR
October 15, 2007
Essay 264
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Kevin’s commentary: No dice on that 08 world series, though the cardinals did pick up a 2011 win, which is definitely a plus! A real case of the low rising high, though, would involve the Houston Astros and a winning season record. Alas, the American League has not been kind to them.