As Casey Stengel, who could have qualified for a doctorate in youth studies managing the expansion New York Mets, once said of a hot catching prospect named Greg Goossen:
"He's 19 years old and in 10 years he's got a chance to be 29."
That was the 1960s, the age of peace, love and flowers, but Woodstock or no Woodstock, growing up was hard to do.
Fifty years later, growing up is harder, if anything, with cable, the Internet and tight camera shots reading your lips as you engage the fans behind the bench in a little homophobic banter, as Chicago's Joakim Noah did in Game 3 in the Eastern Conference finals against Miami.
Amid the subsequent feeding frenzy before Tuesday's Game 4, which the Bulls must win or go home feet first, it was hard to remember there will be a Game 4.
Noah handled it professionally — after the fact, of course — apologizing before and after the NBA fined him $50,000.
"I think that with the comment to the fan, I just want to apologize about that," Noah said Monday.
"I had just picked up my second foul. I was frustrated. He said something that was disrespectful toward me and I lost my cool.
"People who know me know I'm an open-minded guy. I'm not here to hurt anybody's feelings."
Off the floor, Noah is as personable as quotable. On it, he's a great high-energy, selfless young player, who does for the Bulls defense what Kevin Garnett does for that of the Boston Celtics.
Of course, Noah is also Out There, as you may have noticed, watching him put his shoulder-length-or-longer hair up in a bun coming out for pregame.
Former Bulls great Dennis Rodman actually said Noah "runs around without his head sometimes."
The Bulls still are trying to figure out if that's grounds for concern, or high praise from someone who kept his head just long enough to show off that night's dye job.
As an incident, this one was most significant for its lesson to the young Bulls:
At this level, when things go wrong, they go really, explosively wrong.
If Noah hadn't said anything, the media would have landed on Derrick Rose, who took only two shots in the fourth quarter Sunday, shot 15 for 42 in the last two games, and — inadvertently, he claimed — was just quoted calling steroids a "huge" issue in the NBA.
Reprehensive as Noah's outburst was, let's not be too shocked.