THE SECOND PICK GOES FIRST? SOMETIMES

The idea of a ‘second pick’ can be a way of life, not a mistake.

You’re heard of ‘one hit wonders?’

That’s what they call a band that only reaches the stratosphere of popularity with one song, not an entire catalog.

Most of the time we hear ‘second pick’ and think of professional sports drafts.

Maybe it’s just me, but aren’t the #1 picks who don’t work out more interesting?

Moving from people to places, it feels like I’ve lived in second pick town and cities all of my life, starting with my hometown of North Bend, Oregon.

See, North Bend is one of those towns that shares the city limits with the next town so you can stand in one and spit on the other, not that anyone really does that, or did that.

 

The next town over was Coos Bay, the biggest city on the Oregon coast.

My Dad chose to raise his family in North Bend. Why? The old Marine liked bulldogs, but it probably had more to do with buying a house.

I went off to Ashland for college, the second fiddle city to Medford.

After a year of that I joined the Army, which in my home was below the Marines, but above the Navy.

They sent me to work in Philadelphia, a suburb of New York.

The second pick way of life settled in when I moved to New York a few years later and lived in Brooklyn, not Manhattan.

 

Second Pick By A Second Son

That’s me, the second son.

I had a big brother to break trail, and I followed along.

We started one varsity football game together, which was a big deal to me.

He probably doesn’t remember it; he went on to play four years of college ball. That’s a lot of games.

I say he probably doesn’t remember it based on the reply I got from the guy I wrestled in the second biggest match of my life.

This was a guy who went on to win national titles in his four years of D1 college wrestling and beyond.

He didn’t remember some match from high school, even if it was on the center mat at University of Iowa in front of a full house for a Junior National title.

We tied. I remember that we tied, which says something about remembering a big match.

Needless to say, I’ve got experience on the second pick notion of life.

I’ve been overseas and asked local people of they’d heard of Portland, Oregon.

 

 

About 80% had no clue, but they knew Seattle and San Francisco.

I felt the underdog feeling as a kid when I watched the Dallas Cowboys lose to the Green Bay Packers for a chance to go to the Super Bowl. Twice.

If they’d won, Dandy Don would be in the same conversation as Roger Staubach.

Focusing on a second pick may sound like something a chronic loser does, but it’s not.

It has more to do with disdain for first picks.

By the time we hear about a great person, they’ve already had years of experience being the first pick every day.

They’ve already got their entourage, their supporters, sycophants, and suck-ups.

You can worship them from afar while cheering for someone else.

We all like winners, but why get all gushy when it’s not your favorite?

 

The Biggest Mistake 

It can’t be just me, but who doesn’t feel like jumping on the bandwagon when something gets hyped just right.

I do it with the Oregon Ducks every football season, along with the Dallas Cowboys, and North Bend Bulldogs.

My teams.

If they all win it’s good; if they all lose it’s bad.

But, if the Ducks and Cowboys both lose, and the Bulldogs win, I feel there’s justice in the world.

What’s that say about my world?

What it says to me is I pay attention. I see second picks and see something worthy.

A coach once told me, “You never know where the big time is. For some kids it’s a high school football game no one else remembers, a wrestling match that ended in tie, but it’s their big time, their life time memory.”

 

 

The biggest mistake is degrading the memory because it wasn’t on a national stage being broadcast on TV.

Personal history is a right for all of us. It’s not a negotiation.

Taking a big step out, I also claim that history, general history, national history, world history, is a right for all of us.

If, like me, you are a history major with twenty years of historical agency work, then you understand how history is made, and how it is recorded.

Someone is credited for doing something amazing, then writers swoop in and talk to witnesses, take note of the surroundings, and write their account.

It’s called a monograph if it’s one book by one author, an anthology if their stories are collected together.

After that, panels assemble to discuss.

Some get it right, some don’t, but the important thing is access to primary sources so anyone interested can make up their mind after doing their own research.

The biggest mistake is listening to someone re-explain what you already know and putting their own special twist on it.

What you read and understand is your truth, not some shill trying to out-truth truth.

Trust me on that one. It’s the truth.