Don't go away mad, don't go away sad, don't go away glad...
If I had run into ESPN's Mike Greenberg on the morning of March 4th, I would have slapped his smirky face off. Then, in a moment of Cosby-esque furor, I would have shrieked, "YOU PICK THAT #### FACE UP!" And then, I would have slapped it off again. That just begins to tell you how mad I was --- and likely, still am -- at Mr. Greenberg.
Of course, if I allow myself to get logical, I know that he's not the only reason why my QB is playing for his team and not for mine. But when it comes to love -- and yes, you can love a team and its QB as deeply and profoundly as anything in this world -- logic is besides the point.
Still, Greenie was among the Greek Chorus of sportswriters and talking heads who forced Brett Favre's hand back in March to retire -- kind of. "Oh, you have to tell us all what you're going to do,' they cried. "You CAN'T let the Packers go into the draft without saying whether you're going to retire or not, " moped Greenie and all the others -- ESPN's nattering nabobs of negativity.
So, of course, after he says goodbye, Brett Honey starts to get that proverbial itch and wants to come back to Green Bay. Except that team's present brain trust (and I use that term loosely) has other plans that don't include #4.
Ted Thompson might accomplish much in his NFL management career, but I doubt it. When he dies, the New York Times' obit will read, "MAN WHO TRADED FAVRE."
And where does #4 wind up? Yuppers, Greenie's beloved New York Jets! I used to like the Jets, I really did. Unlike Greenberg, I can actually remember Joe Willie Namath playing in Shea Stadium, the Heidi game and "chicken ain't nothing but a bird." (As another former denizon of Shea used to say, you can look it up, Greenie.)
Like any spurned lover, it would be much nicer to slide into the shadows and not reminded of it. No dice. All of the Wisconsin CBS affiliates are trying to cash in on the Brett Favre love train and have been broadcasting nothing but Jets games this fall. It's like some girl leaves you for the rich guy and you have to keep seeing them ride by in that flashy car.
Back in September, when locals were choosing sides and some were going through their own Kubler-Ross levels of loss, many were still saying Packers Uber Alles. This team can still be a winner, they shouted from the highest hills. I begged to differ.
When they were hyperventilating over the 2-0 start, I humphed and said, this team will finish 7-9 or 9-7 -- it's simply mediocre without you-know-who at QB. Now that it's December, to paraphrase Denny Green, the Packers are who I thought they were.
Okay, Ted Thompson becomes the Grinch who stole the Packers' season. I can hate him for the rest of my life -- and likely will. And Brett Favre becomes just another ex who dumped me when things got tough. That leaves Greenie.
Let's tally it up, shall we? Mike Greenberg:
A) pissed and moaned that Favre should retire
B) was rewarded by Favre playing for his New York Jets
C) wouldn't know trivia if it bit him on the tuckus, but still got to host a trivia show -- (even if nobody watched Duel) and
D) is still ducking me in a debate on who would make a better next baseball Commissioner.
Yes, I threw the gauntlet down back last summer -- even had a few fans write back with their own pledges to vote for me.
I feel not unlike Kool Moe Dee trying to call out LL Cool J in that rapper's duel back in the day. LL couldn't rap his way out of a paper bag, but jeez louise, he's sooooooo cute anyway. LL is making movies these days and Kool Moe is left with little more than the knowledge that he was the superior rhyme writing talent.
Still, I'm still throwing it down, Greenie. You got Duel, you got Golic (okay, you can keep HIM) and now, you stole MY QB! If I may channel my inner Ice T, it's on! As Kool Moe once rapped, "if somebody knows the boy, better tell him 'cuz the boy ain't got no heart."
I again challenge you, Mike Greenberg, to a debate on who would make a better baseball Commissioner. You can bring all of your ESPN buddies -- Buster Olney, Peter Gammons and the rest -- have them ask us both the same questions. Afterwards, let's see if they don't say, "jeez Greenie I like you but the Beer Man made some good points out there.'
Yes, a Beer Man should be the next Commissioner. And if someone like me -- the product of a white mother and black father -- can grow up to be President, why can't another White Sox fan aspire to run the National Pasttime.
And it would give me something to do while avoiding Greenie and the Bretts.
With all the hubbub about former Green Bay Packer QB Brett Favre's allegedly sharing inside information with then-Detroit Lions' GM Matt Millen, you may also have wondered to yourself: If the Lions knew what was coming and still lost by several TD's, then the Detroit football team must be -- to quote the esteemed Homer Simpson, the suckiest team that ever sucked.
1. The latest Brett Favre brouhaha would be a bigger deal from a Detroit perspective if, one, the Lions didn't get their butts kicked by Green Bay and, two, Matt Millen were still the Lions' president.
2. The Lions fell behind by three touchdowns in the first quarter and gave up 447 yards in the game. If Favre helped them prepare, that's just further evidence the Lions stink. And we already knew that.
3. Millen knows Favre from his days as a broadcaster. They have a lot in common as country boys. It would be no surprise if Millen called Favre to invite him over to hunt and then milked him for some football info.
4. Think of the Green Bay perspective, though. Imagine if Steve Yzerman had an ugly divorce with the Red Wings toward the end of his career, went to play for the Islanders and helped a lowly division rival like the Blue Jackets try to beat the Wings.
5. It would do Rod Marinelli no good to comment on the Favre thing if there's any shred of truth to it. If he lies, he's a liar. If he dances around the truth, he's shifty. If he comes clean, he makes everyone looks bad and invites more questions.
Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times checks the pulse of the Wisconsin locals on the subject. (Yeah, I know it's a long way from home, but it's not like he has an actual NFL team in LA to cover.)
On Brett Favre Pass, some folks are wishing he had thrown his last.
"I just wish he had stayed retired," said Ron Enke, manager of Champion's sports bar, located a Hail Mary away from Green Bay's Lambeau Field. "What coming back has done for his image, what it has done for the mood of the town, lots of people wish he had stayed retired."
Eight months after the face of the NFL tearfully announced his retirement, that face is bruised and blushing.
It is the face of an accused liar. It is the face of an alleged cheater. It is a face lost.
The works of a lifetime, tarnished in less than a football season. An American hero, undone by the American way.
That's the thing about freedom. It gives us the right to choose wrong.
The score is now final, and it's not even close.
Brett Favre, New York Jets quarterback, Green Bay Packers traitor, fast-leaking legend, should have quit when he said he was quitting.
The college football season lingers on here in Madison. but the Wisconsin State Journal's Tom Oates suggests that the UW has now become a hoops school.
It may be for this year only, but, as they do at Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina and other basketball-first schools, UW fans have largely pulled the plug on football and are eagerly anticipating the start of the men's basketball season.
So are the Badgers, though it has nothing to do with football.
"We're just ready for basketball to start," junior guard Jason Bohannon said this week, the first full week of practice for the Badgers. "I don't know about everyone else, but we're ready for it to get going."
Why wouldn't they be?
They've won 30 and 31 games the last two years and last season won the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles. The comparative lack of success in the NCAA tournament is an underlying issue only the Badgers can make go away, but aside from that, the program put together by coach Bo Ryan is rolling merrily along, methodically retooling every year and generally exceeding expectations.
Ryan admits, however, expectations are growing for a program that has averaged 24.7 wins per year during his seven seasons.
Of course, once upon a time, Wisconsin used to be a hockey school, so it's still a big deal when arch-rival Minnesota comes to town.
Their response to the Wisconsin Badgers on Friday, the way that goaltender Shane Connelly sees it, was that it wasn't yet time for them to get their first victory.
Minnesota rallied from a 2-0 deficit with a pair of goals off redirections in front of the net — the kind of plays that can be considered either highly skilled or highly lucky — and earned a 2-2 tie in front of 13,184 fans at the Kohl Center.
"The hockey gods aren't making it easy for us to get our first win," Connelly said. "At least a positive is a tie, but at the same time, we've got to hold onto these leads. It has to change pretty quickly."
Speaking of gods (or God or whatever), the religion writer for the Washington Post has a perfect explanation as to why the Tampa Bay Rays were able to make their miraculous "worst to first" run to the World Series. And as Dave Barry might say, I'm not making this up.
Devil be gone!
For 10 years, they were a losing baseball team with a fiendish nickname: the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Then the club exorcised the "Devil" from its name, and suddenly Tampa Bay is in the World Series.
The Rays won the pennant less than a year after they put the Devil behind them, and some Tampa pastors would like to think that's the reason why.
Rev. Wayne Newman of Bay Life Assembly of God says the Rays' turnaround may be God's way of saying, "If you get the devil out, you're liable to go somewhere." Rev. Tom Atchison of New Life Pentecostal Church of God says that at the very least, the name change has allowed more Christians to root for the team.
Meanwhile, those Tampa Bay Rays fans (or is it, Tampa Ray Bays fans) are up in Philadelphia for the weekend and the hometown paper, the Inquirer is doing its best to be good hosts.
Just to clarify, we did not boo Santa Claus. We merely pelted him with snowballs. And most of the batteries we heaved at J.D. Drew were rechargeable. So lay off us, mainstream media.
Anyway, you have nothing to fear. As long as you follow these few commonsense guidelines, you should leave here with nothing worse than a fractured clavicle:
Make sure your health insurance premiums are paid up.
Pack heat.
Do not wear Rays gear, assuming there is any Rays gear and, if there were, anyone would wear it.
If you arrive early for Sunday's game, do not, under any circumstances, wander into the Eagles' parking lots. (If you're confused, the Eagles' lots are those where the balloons of nitrous oxide are going for $20 and the tailgaters are grilling Dallas fans.) The last out-of-town baseball fan who made that mistake was cornered, beaten, and forced to watch Eagles Post Game Live.
And since the games aren't scheduled to start until after 8 p.m., you'll have plenty of time to sightsee and partake of some of the city's historic culinary treats, and other items of interest.
Here are a few suggestions from a native:This is where the founding fathers approved the Declaration of Independence, drafted the Constitution, and ordered out from Joe's Peking Duck.
Independence Hall.
Morimoto. If you like sushi - and who among us doesn't enjoy raw fish wrapped in gummy rice and smeared with green paste hot enough for Beelzebub? - this tony restaurant is the place for you.
The fall foliage. Take a walk along beautiful Kelly Drive to see the lovely fall colors before they, like Jimmy Rollins' bat, vanish.
Geno's. The cheesesteaks are good, but the rocket scientist who runs the place asks that customers order in English, as if "Yo, gimme one wid" is the Queen's English.
Any Quaker meetinghouse. Take in a service on Sunday and you'll be amazed. Worshippers just sit there and meditate. They don't talk. They don't move. Sounds a lot like B.J. Upton, doesn't it?
You'll find out pretty quickly that, compared with Florida, Philadelphia is an unusual town.
People who live here actually were born here. There are no beaches, no early-bird specials and, thankfully, no Cuban sandwiches. (For Philadelphians unfamiliar with Cuban sandwiches, think stale Oscar Mayer Lunchables.)
So enjoy yourselves. Before you know it, that Mini Cooper will be here to take you back to Tampa-St. Pete.
Yes, this column has been rather Sarah Palin-centric of late. You might even say it's bordered on the Palin-oxious.
The Blues invited Palin to drop a ceremonial puck Friday, and before the game, arena workers laid out a roll of carpet in front of the team's bench. But before Palin came out, the Blues players took the ice and Legace was the first player on.
"I was going to ask (the arena worker) to move (the carpet), but he had his foot there, so I figured he was trying to secure it," Legace said. "He's yelling at us, 'Careful, the carpet ... Careful, the carpet.'
"I'm like I can't jump over it. It's too far and my little legs won't jump that far. I just figured he's holding it and the other end is usually secure, so I'm just worried about it sliding (one) way. As soon as I went down, he lifted his foot off the carpet ... I knew I was coming down and I just couldn't catch myself.
"It's not that serious ... we'll just see what happens tomorrow."
Legace is questionable for tonight's game against Florida at Scottrade Center, and if he can't play, Bishop would likely start and Marek Schwarz would be the backup.
As with Tina Fey, Palin is the gift that just keeps on giving.
Still, I haven't been this viscerally angry about somebody on my TV set since Barry Bonds slinked away from Major League Baseball. And he was simply ruining the National Pasttime. (I know, I just said that but please forgive me.)
This woman could bleep up a one-car funeral. Forget Canada. if she's President, we might need to look for a new planet.
I mean, we just went through eight years with an intellectually discurious person in the White House and we allllll know how well that worked out, eh?
And yet, if you asked Gov. Palin if she was intellectually inclined, she'd likely answer, "you betcha."
"And you have to be up on not only current events, but you have to understand the foundation of the issues that you're working on," Palin said in an interview with People magazine. "You can't just go on what is presented you."
Although Palin didn't name a single newspaper or magazine when CBS News anchor Katie Couric asked where she got her information, the Alaska governor told People that she has always been a "voracious reader" and named reading — anything from biographies to historical works — as her favorite thing along with her children and sports.
Besides author Lawrence Wright's terrorism history, "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11," Palin said she's reading a lot of briefing papers.
"I appreciate a lot of information. I think that comes from growing up in a family of school teachers," she said.
Palin said if she and husband Todd had had a sixth child, they had already picked a name for a boy joining siblings Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig.
"I always wanted a son named Zamboni," she said.
Finally, director Ron Howard would also like to talk to you about this election. And so would Andy Griffith and Henry Winkler.
When West Virginia head basketball coach Bob Huggins -- coaching at his third school in four years -- was given a 11 year extention on his contract, I was incredulous.
"Eleven years?!," I remember thinking, "Hell, my first wife only gave me eight years and that was supposed to be forever and ever amen!"
Let's face it, breakups are hard. As Elvis Costello once sang, all your friends must choose who they will favor, who they'll lose.
You spend so many years loving someone that often your first thought is, I'll show them. Things that were said and shared in confidence are suddenly spread around.
Breakups don't get much more bitter in these parts than the very public split between future Hall of Famer Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. Many in the state of Wisconsin have sided with Favre's side of the story (indeed, nearly every CBS affiliate is broadcasting New York Jets this fall) while others have said good riddance and bought the Packers' version of things.
It is in this context that we view FOX Sports' Jay Glazer's story last week of Favre briefed Detroit Lions coaches for over an hour on the phone about the Packers' offense prior to their Week 2 game.
Several sources have told FOX Sports that Favre earlier this year phoned the Detroit Lions prior to their battle versus Favre's old team, the Green Bay Packers, and gave them a rundown of the nuances of what Green Bay does on offense. According to the sources, Favre actually spent over an hour on the phone with Lions coaches, who were connected with Favre by then-team president Matt Millen.
While the Lions still lost and the Packers and Favre's replacement Aaron Rodgers played well, it's still baffling that the Packers legend would spend such a significant chunk of time giving tips to an opponent of his long-time franchise.
Other teams the Packers have played had also heard about the Favre coaching clinic with Detroit. In addition, there have been rumors that Favre has spoken to other teams giving them information, but most of those teams insist they have not heard from the famed gunslinger.
However, another team says it has had casual talks in the past with Favre and talked about some of what Green Bay does, but it was nowhere near the details he let loose to the Lions.
Still, Favre has the right to do whatever he pleases. If he wants to help other teams there is nothing in league rules that prevents him from doing so.
Well, did he or didn't he? How you see this depends on how you viewed the Favre-Packers breakup.
Favre tried to cover his tracks by texting Sports Illustrated that the story was "Total BS" and that version of the events got plenty of air time during Sunday's pre-game TV shows.
"I do find it disappointing some of the denials...Peter King gets that text message from Brett saying, 'Total BS.' And I've gone at it a little bit with Peter, let me...This is the same guy (Favre) who when reports originally came out saying he was going to come back, called one of his best friends in Biloxi (Al Jones) and said, 'It's all rumor. It's all rumor.' I will say this, Jim, I stand by my story 1,000%. 1,000%....These are strong accusations (against Favre), damn right you have to be 100%, are you kidding me?...You have to get it straight from the horse's mouth on this, you have to get it from people who know the situation and who've been involved with the situation. That's why I stand so strongly behind my source. My sources I should actually say because it was from more than one person. I had actually gotten a hold of this several weeks ago and I kind of was waiting for the right time. Then obviously when his conversation happened with Tony Romo, one of my guys in Dallas called me and said, 'How about this guy (Favre)? You know, bug off our team. Leave us alone.' It just seemed like a natural time to do the story."
Is there any possibility that Glazer was misled by his source? Negatory, he replies.
"No. They didn't care one way or the other. And it didn't help them. There was no reason for the sources to mislead me. It didn't come from Packer sources. Although it was interesting when I talked to the Packers they had known about it -- they didn't know about the Lions. They had actually heard about another team and the Packers, when they heard about it originally, had switched up a bunch of stuff supposedly for this happening. My sources, there are zero...there's nothing for them to gain or lose."
So, how did it all happen in the first place?
He called Matt Millen, Matt's been trying to get in touch with him to go hunting and this is the part that hasn't really been out yet. But Matt was trying to get him to go hunting, Matt has a house down in Pennsylvania and Brett's up there in New Jersey, so Brett just happened to call back the week that they were playing the Green Bay Packers. Maybe it was coincidence, maybe whatever it is. Brett said, 'By the way, who are playing this week?-type of thing.' (Favre said) 'Oh, you are? You guys want any tips?' And then Matt hooked him up with the coaching staff and Brett...When Brett talks, he doesn't do anything in snippets. Brett talks...I've always said he's my absolutely my favorite person to ever sit down with in production meetings where I had done games at Fox because it's the world according to Brett and it's phenomenal. You sit in there and he just goes. That's what he did with the Lions' coaching staff."
Now, there was a time when the good people of Wisconsin would take each and every word out of Brett Favre's mouth as the gospel truth. That time now seems firmly in the rear-view mirror.
Long-time colleague Andy Baggot of the Wisconsin State Journal captured the feelings of many around here when he opined, "the point has been made that Favre didn't break NFL rules by calling Detroit coaches and giving them a prolonged glimpse into the Green Bay playbook. There's no law against adultery, either, but both are crimes against character."
Meanwhile, another of the Madison writing fraternity, Doug Moe -- with a Favre book just hitting the shelves, no less -- wonders aloud, what's next?
"Now when the columnist goes to bed at night, rather than falling asleep dreaming about the oceanfront home in Maui he was planning to buy, his eyes snap open with nightmare headlines that might be coming any day.
"Favre: Deer hunting for wimps."
The story begins: "Brett Favre, quarterback for the New York Jets, today denounced deer hunting in Wisconsin and questioned the manhood of anyone who participates in the annual ritual.
"'Stalking the ferocious white-tail deer,' Favre said, his voice dripping sarcasm. Are you kidding me? They'd look dainty in those orange suits -- if their butts weren't so big.'"
Another headline:
"Favre buys condo in Chicago."
The story: "Former Packers quarterback Brett Favre has purchased a condominium in the trendy Lincoln Park neighborhood and announced he will join former Bears coach Mike Ditka as co-owners of a new Chicago restaurant called Titletown South.
"'Chicago is the real Titletown,' Favre said in a statement."
On bad nights, it's just swirling headlines, one after another:
"Favre, Moss to star in buddy film: 'Moon Over Cheeseheads.'"
"Favre speaks out on 'The View,' claiming, I never liked bratwurst.'"
"Minnesota Metrodome renamed for Favre."
"Favre: Vince who?"
I argued in this same space a couple years back that the beat reporters were sick of the "is he gonna retire or won't he?" circus and had pretty much turned on the famed Packer QB. Now, that Favre's character or lack thereof has been exposed, I can't find a single sportswriter in the state has anything good to say about him anymore.
Some people say that hard times build character and I'd say those people are idiots. Hard times, like a messy breakup, don't build character, they expose it. And this sorry episode leaves Brett Favre looking less and less like Mr. Packer Hall of Fame each sad day.
Even though he picked a poor week for alleged truth-telling, Jose Canseco would like everyone to know that he's really, really sorry. No, really.
I can imagine Mark McGwire is somewhere saying to himself, "yeah, I bet he's sorry...he's the sorriest SOB I know!"
Still, the former Oakland A's slugger gave his mea culpas on a documentary, Jose Canseco: Last Shot, running this week on the A&E network.
If the now broke former steroids shooter thought he'd catch a break from the media, much less the American public at large...well, he's got another thing coming.
Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press expressed these views when he told FOX Sports, "maybe there has been a more clueless, more self-serving big-name athlete in the last 20 years, but if so, I don't want to meet him. Canseco has the self-awareness of a porcupine who keeps licking his skin.
Canseco is a career steroid user. I don't mean he used steroids for his whole career. I mean using steroids was his career. He juiced his way to 462 career home runs, The New York Times Bestseller List and brief fame as the only man in baseball who would tell the truth.
"I never realized this was going to blow up and hurt so many people," Canseco said.
I hate to write like a eighthgrader's text message here, but: WHAT?!?!?!? You never realized this was going to blow up and hurt so many people? Jose, are you on drugs?
Oh, right.
Cedric Golden of the Austin Statesman adds, "sure he’s a rat that outed a lot former colleagues and now he’s broke with no prospects of earning money in the future, but he still doesn’t come across as sympathetic. Canseco created his problems. Now he has to deal with the fallout.
One scene has him standing outside his mansion, unable to get inside because the bank has foreclosed on the property and changed the locks on the doors. It’s almost a metaphor for Jose’s lot in life. He would love to return to baseball in some fashion, but writing that book killed any chance. Just like his house, Jose is on the outside of baseball looking in. He’s a sad story but I’m not sad for him.'
To use the old Woody Allen joke, you get the feeling that if you looked up the word pathetic in the dictionary, you'd find a picture of Jose Canseco.
As if to confirm this analysis, Dan Gross of the Philadelphia Daily News reveals that Canseco plans to battle Broomall-born Danny Bonaduce in a Jan. 17 bout at a location to be annouced, promoted of course by Damon Feldman's Celebrity Boxing outfit.
Bonaduce, who we recently reported was being considered for the morning gig at 94 WYSP, has fought at three earlier Celebrity Boxing Federation bouts. The 5-foot-7 "Partridge Family" star can be seen Saturdays on CMT's "Hulk Hogan Celebrity Wrestling," which also features Northeast-raised Frank Stallone.
"The bigger they are, the harder they fall," boasts Bonaduce.
"Think of what Mike Tyson used to do to bigger guys. That's what I'm going to do to Canseco."
Canseco was charged last week in federal court in San Diego with misdemeanor possession of an illegal fertility drug he allegedly acquired in Mexico. The bad boy of baseball, an admitted steroid user, was caught with human chorionic gonadotropin, which helps produce testosterone in steroid users, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Canseco claims to have had food poisoning when defeated by Sikahema, and says he didn't train, either. This time, Feldman says, Canseco swears to flatten Bonaudce in Round One.
In his column, Gross also notes that the last time Canseco stepped into a boxing ring, former Eagle special teams whiz Vai Sikahema laid him out in a minute.
Meanwhile, Evil Empire 1.0 (the New York Yankees) and Evil Empire 1.1 (the Dallas Cowboys) have entered into a partnership, combining their evil powers and subsequent marketing possibilities.
Rachel Cohen of the Associated Press reports "two of the most recognizable franchises in all of sports — and two of the highest-profile owners — are forming a company together. Legends Hospitality Management will handle concession and merchandise sales at the clubs' new stadiums, with the goal of eventually doing the same for other pro teams and college programs.
"Mr. Jones and my dad have had a mutual respect for each other for decades," Yankees co-chairman Hal Steinbrenner said at a news conference Monday. "So it made perfect sense for us."
Each franchise moves into a new stadium next year.
Gerald Cardinale of Goldman Sachs, who has worked with the Yankees and their YES Network, first pitched the idea more than a year ago. The Cowboys already manage their own concessions and merchandising.
Yankees president Randy Levine said his team will have a "market-rate" rights agreement with Legends, and that money will be subject to Major League Baseball revenue-sharing. But the company's profits will not.
Former Pizza Hut president Mike Rawlings will serve as CEO. He said teams and fans alike aren't happy with the current quality of stadium concessions.
Food and drink prices have yet to be set for the new stadiums, Rawlings said. While he insisted the goal wasn't to raise prices, he said increasing "value" was the main objective, from shortening lines to offering fresher food and a greater variety of options.
Legends could eventually expand its services to handle areas such as sales of seat licenses, Jones said.
"We are the No. 1 television team in the NFL. We have that kind of visibility. The Yankees have unparalleled visibility," he said. "That should, if we perform and get the job done, create inordinate interest in where we rank in this business."
There's no confirmation as yet that the Cowboys' new stadium, as part of this agreement, will be known as the Death Star.
With the World Series opening in Tampa tonight, many folks in the media are being asked about their own favorite memories of the Fall (now almost winter) Classic. Depending on your age, in Wisconsin, you might recall 1982 when the Brewers' Paul Molitor got five hits and Mike Caldwell shut out the Cardinals, 10-0.
Still, if you're old enough, you might fondly remember the name Nippy Jones. As the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel wrote a couple years back...
Jones, whose given name was Vernal, was 32 and had not played in the big leagues since 1952 when the Braves purchased his contract from Sacramento of the Pacific Coast League July 6.
He was batting for Spahn when he walked to the plate to lead off the bottom of the 10th with the Braves trailing, 5-4. The Yankees had gone ahead on a single by Milwaukee native Tony Kubek and a triple by Hank Bauer after Spahn had gotten the first two outs in the 10th.
Jones, a right-handed batter, stepped in against left-hander Tommy Byrne. In a 1978 interview, Jones recalled what happened.
"Byrne started me off with a curve ball," he said. "The ball hit me on the foot and I dropped my bat and started toward first base. But (umpire) Augie Donatelli said, 'Come back here. That's ball one.' I couldn't believe it."
Meanwhile, the ball had hit the base of the concrete grandstand and was rolling back toward the plate.
"I went right for the ball," Jones said, "and (catcher) Yogi Berra was pretty smart, so he did the same thing. I got there first, and there was a spot of shoe polish about a half-inch in diameter.
"The kids in the clubhouse shined the shoes after every game, and they were spotless. There was no question about the shoe polish, so I took the ball over to Donatelli and showed it to him.
"Just then (Yankees manager) Casey Stengel came out and said, 'What the hell is going on here?' Donatelli told him and I went to first base. Yogi said something or other, but he knew it had hit me."
Braves manager Fred Haney sent Felix Mantilla out to run for Jones. Meanwhile, Stengel summoned Grim to replace Byrne.
Red Schoendienst sacrificed Mantilla to second, which prompted Stengel to pull an outfield shuffle. He removed centerfielder Mickey Mantle, who had a sore right shoulder, shifted Kubek from left to center and put Enos Slaughter in left.
Up stepped Johnny Logan, playing on an injured ankle that had to be drained of fluid before the game. "All I could think of was base hit, base hit, base hit," he said. "I kept telling myself not to go for the long ball."
Logan took two balls, then cracked a double into the left-field corner to tie the score. Slaughter misplayed the ball and Logan was tempted to try for third "so Eddie could drive me with a long fly, but I couldn't take the gamble."
Mathews was 1 for 11 in the Series and was using one of Adcock's bats because the knob of his own had given him a blister. The count went to 2-2 and Grim threw a hip-high fastball that Mathews belted to right.
"I was pretty sure it was going over but I was worried for a second when I saw Bauer up against the fence pounding his hand into his glove," Mathews said after the game.
"How did I feel? I felt about 10 feet tall."
The victory kept the Braves from falling into a 3-1 hole in the Series, which almost certainly would have been fatal against the Yankees. The Braves went ahead the next day with a 1-0 victory by Lew Burdette, and on Oct. 10 Burdette shut out the Yankees again, 5-0, in Game 7 at Yankee Stadium, giving Milwaukee its only World Series championship.
Sure, Burdette was the biggest hero, with three victories in the Series. And sure, Mathews and Logan had the biggest roles in the Game 5 comeback. But who knows what would have happened if Jones had led off the 10th with an out instead of reaching base?
"It's funny," Jones, who died in 1995, said in the 1978 interview. "The importance of the event seemed to grow as time went on. The main thing to me was winning, and I didn't care how we did it."
Five days after the Series ended, the Braves assigned him to Wichita in the American Association. Jones refused to report, got his release and returned to the Pacific Coast League. He played through 1960, but never appeared in a major-league game again.
Finally, since Hollywood seems to have run out of any and all original ideas -- bringing dozens of old TV shows to the screen - why not remake a few movies than could truly use a decent retelling.
At the top of the list, I'd recommend Your Cheating Heart, which starred the hopelessly miscast George Hamilton as Hank Williams Sr.
George Hamilton? I mean, George freakin Hamilton?! What were you smoking?!
I love the guy, I do. He made a super consigliari in The Godfather III and I enjoyed his Toasted Chips commercials with the tag line "I know toasted". And I giggled my way through Love At First Bite.
But the idea of him as country music's greatest song writer is beyond the pale, It's just another example of the Hollywood mentality that a bunch of moguls sit in a hot tub and do enough cocaine until The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island sounds totally plausible.
Oh, you think I made that last one up, Guess again, my friends. Read and then weep over this wikipedia entry.
In the film, the Harlem Globetrotters, a traveling troupe of merry basketball players, are on a plane ride over the Pacific Ocean when it has engine trouble and they are forced into an emergency landing onto Gilligan's Island. After a brief time struggling in the jungle, they are discovered by Gilligan and Skipper and welcomed to The Castaways. Meanwhile, a corporate raider has a plan to bamboozle the owners of The Castaways (Gilligan and his friends) into signing over ownership to him, as the island contains ore which provides large sources of energy. Eventually Gilligan and the Skipper uncover the conspiracy, and it results in a basketball game between the Globetrotters and the doctor's robots.
The original script was going to be known as The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders on Gilligan's Island, but was changed to have the Harlem Globetrotters star instead. On the original series, the Howells are childless (in fact in one episode they adopt Gilligan). Despite this, a new character of Thurston Howell IV (the Howell's never previously mentioned son, portrayed by David Ruprecht) was added due to the ailing health of actor Jim Backus, who appeared only briefly in the movie's final scene. Thurston Howell III was written out of the script by saying he was tending to business on the mainland United States, and ordered his son, Thurston Howell IV, to manage the island resort. Although Backus was not in the cast, at his insistence to keep up the series canon he made a cameo appearance at the end and is thus credited.
This is specifically the kind of sports news that you can't, don't or won't find anywhere else. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to look for funny cigarettes so I can forget all the above.
It was 50 years ago today. Miles taught all the cats to sway.
What is hip? Tell me tell me, if you think you know.
What is hip? If you're really hip, the passing years will show.
Tower of Power asked that musical question -- aw jeez, can it really be 38 years ago? All of which makes me -- since I can remember buying the album in 1970 -- well, to the younger generation, this fact anong others makes me old.
What is old?
I used to define becoming old as that time in your life when you start saying that young people have nothing of value to say and their music is too loud. That could come at age 29 or age 59, I reasoned, but once it did you were old.
Is this the year I finally got old? I can't say their music's too loud -- I mean, I once saw the likes of Living Colour and Television in bars with their stadium Marshall amps making the glass windows reverberate like the speakers of a Hammond B3 organ. Still, if Tupac is considered old school and borderline old, well then what's the point?
Yes, I can remember John Kennedy being shot. I can remember my dad bringing home our first color TV and listening to WLS Friday nights for their Silver Dollar Surveys.
Yes, I can also remember the 70's, although admittedly not as much of the decade as I would like. I actually saw the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin LIVE in the Dane County Coliseum.
What started this morning's rant was my ill-fated attempts to discuss the 50th anniversary of one of the most important albums ever recorded.
(And by the way, it's STILL AN ALBUM! It is a collection of songs, like a collection of pictures or poems, so it's still an album -- whether it's produced on vinyl, cassette, 8-track, CD, DVD or nuclear-fotoschmear. Okay, I made the last one up.)
Still, can't young people consider music that's more than minutes old? I was trying to discuss the importance of Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue and was met by painful sighs and rolling eyeballs.
Kind Of Blue was an album that transcended jazz itself, easily the biggest selling album in Miles Davis' illustrious career and perhaps, the biggest selling jazz album ever. It is intrinsically and eternally hip -- it was played by uber-hip DJ Clint Eastwood in Play Misty For Me.
It was one of the last recordings of its kind -- produced almost entirely in one take with no overdubs, no sonic enhancements, no digital remixing. It was also an important historical milepost -- in a way, it was almost the last jazz record of its kind. It precedes the free form jazz of John Coltrane and the jazz-rock fusion of Miles himself in the late 60's.
Kind Of Blue is being re-issued in a 50th Anniversary package, and that's a misnomer as well since it was recorded and released in 1959. Maybe, that's because Columbia/Legacy wanted to get it out before the holiday shopping season or perhaps because 1959 is also the 50th anniversary of Miles' own Sketches of Spain and Coltrane's Giant Steps.
Disc 1 of Kind of Blue: 50th Anniversary Collectors Edition will feature the original album in its entirety with the “Flamenco Sketches" alternate take, the rare “Freddie Freeloader" false start, and a selection of in-the-studio dialog from the Kind of Blue sessions. Disc 2 is a CD of rare musical material circa the Kind of Blue recordings including the very first session by the classic Miles Davis sextet (May 26, 1958 -- Davis's 32nd birthday -- with Adderley, Coltrane, Evans, Chambers and Cobb), more than a half hour's worth of studio material -- “On Green Dolphin Street," “Fran-Dance," “Stella By Starlight," “Love For Sale" -- previously available only on the two-time Grammy award winning Miles Davis & John Coltrane boxed set ("The Complete Columbia Recordings 1955-1961); and the first authorized release of two extended live performances: “So What" from the April 9, 1960 Den Haag Concert featuring Miles, Coltrane, Kelly, Chambers and Cobb. The final disc, Disc 3, is a DVD including an in-depth documentary illuminating the story behind Kind of Blue; and the historic April 2, 1959 television program “Robert Herridge Theater: The Sound of Miles Davis" starring Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
This deluxe Collector's Edition will also include a blue pressed vinyl copy of Kind of Blue, a poster, and an LP-sized 60-page hardbound book.
What's the secret of its staying power, asks Jack Garner of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle ? I doubt anyone could answer a question about something as ephemeral and mysterious and magical as a piece of music. Certain things are obvious: First, it's performed by the greatest small jazz band ever assembled. Besides trumpeter Davis, there were saxophonists John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb (the sole survivor from the '59 session). Central to the album's greatness, though, was the then-young pianist Bill Evans, who plays on four of the album's five extended tracks and co-wrote two of the tunes with Davis. Considered one of the great intellectuals in jazz, and the Chopin of improvised music, Evans famously collaborated with Davis on the album's breakthrough concept of modal improvisation.
Try as I may, my limited technical understanding of music has never allowed me to understand what modal means. All I know is this music is heavenly in its grace and simplicity and sublime beauty.
The album's five tracks work together almost as a suite, with at least two of the tracks now recognized as gems in the oft-performed standard jazz repertoire — "So What" and "All Blues."
"It grabs all kinds of people," says Cobb. "To see how good those guys are, what they could do with just a little, that they could make it sound like that—you know, that's the thing. That's what it is. Just bring it down and it reaches everybody. There's something to that. It was just something that came along and clicked with everybody. It's just probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing."
"Man, I don't think Miles even thought that it would have that longevity," he says. "If he even thought that that day, he would've asked for a pile of money. You know, if he thought that he had something that was going to really be selling for 50 years, he would've asked for real money."
As for the drummer, "I was probably the soberest one in the band," says Cobb, the only member of the Blue sextet other than Adderley to fully escape a heroin addiction. "And he knew I was going to be on time. And he knew when I got there, I would give 150 percent. So like that, you know. That's the pluses I had."
Here, in a sixth-floor East Side conference room, Jimmy Cobb hums the "Round About Midnight" melody.
"I started right there. I played that with them. I was in the band—no rehearsals, no nothing. So that's the way it started, man."
The ending, however, has yet to be written. Jimmy Cobb, suitably enough, is at the forefront of the 50th-anniversary DVD. This month, the drummer will be recognized as a National Endowment for the Arts Jazzmaster. November brings appearances at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, as well as a number of dates in Germany. In January, Jimmy Cobb will turn 80 years old; in February, he'll be leading a new outfit, the So What Band, as part of Kind of Blue's continuing golden-anniversary celebration, still officially 11 months away.
But despite all the attention that comes with this territory—and having provided percussion on a work of acclaimed and enduring genius—it's the people he remembers, not the songs: "I'm proud to be here, man. I'm proud to be going on 80 years old. I never thought I'd be 80 years old. I'm here. I'm sorry that all my friends are gone, you know, but I've got them here."
80 is most certainly old to most people. John McCain is the old one in this current election and his counterpart. Barack Obama is essentially the young one. I could add that -- although, the aforementioned young whippersnappers who considered me old for bringing up Miles Davis -- Sen. Obama, That young One, is a mere three and half years younger than me.
This age thing comes up in context in the sports world these days with the success of Joe Paterno. Penn State is currently #3 in the polls and I said three weeks ago that the Nittany Lions were the best team I've seen all season.
(Every once in a while, you get it right in this business. Three weeks ago, after Wisconsin laid a big stinky egg at Michigan, I told anyone who would listen that the Ohio State game was a toss-up, but that Penn State was going to murdalize the Badgers -- something like 42-10. This, of course, led to a barstool wag to confront me, 'hey if you think so, why not give me those 32 points? You said it right?" At 48-7, I still comfortably covered.)
I would also argue that Penn State has the easiest road to the BCS Championship game as they have no conference title game to slip them up on the way. And yet people are still saying that Joe Paterno is too old to coach football.
The Canadian Press offers that the man can still coach, even if a sore hip means he does it most weekends from the press box. He still knows how to win, too, seven straight and counting this season on a familiar climb back toward the top of the college football poll.
And so two months shy of his 82nd birthday, with two national titles to his credit and a third in his sights, the last thing left for Joe Pa to prove is that he cares as much about the future of Penn State football as he does about its past and present.
With the third-ranked Nittany Lions back in the national conversation for all the right reasons, there's a rare moment of consensus in the debate that has divided Penn State people for years. Just about everyone agrees once more that Paterno has earned the right to go out, whenever that is, on his own terms. What he needs to understand is there's no time like now to let the rest of us in on just what those terms might be.
Stubbornness is admirable sometimes, but it's not always an answer. Paterno doesn't have to come up with a date - more on that later - but sitting down with school president Graham Spanier to start discussing a successor would be a good place to start. Paterno is in the last year of a contract and with Michigan headed into Happy Valley this weekend and the Nittany Lions travelling to Ohio State the next, he could lose a whole lot of bargaining power in a hurry.
During his midweek conference call, Paterno turned aside questions about his own future the same way he always does. Someone asked how long before he could move back down from the press box to the sidelines and JoePa replied, "I don't know," then added a moment later, "I don't get get-well cards. Can we talk about the football team and not me, for crying out loud?"
ESPN has revealed that 42 Penn State football players faced 163 criminal charges of varying circumstance since 2002. Twenty-seven players either were convicted or pleaded guilty to a combination of 45 charges.
There will be significant blemishes on any major football program when placed underneath such a piercing microscope. Paterno sternly rejects the notion of compromising character for better talent and more victories, but in the aftermath of that report Paterno nonetheless wielded a sterner disciplinary stick — dismissing three prominent players from the team.
This was precisely how one paves the exit road for a longtime college head coach — create the appearance that he's losing control. All of a sudden, the skeletons that consistently remained hidden behind lock and key see the light of public scrutiny.
It's not worth it any longer for Paterno.
He injured his hip demonstrating an onside kick during preseason practice. He might need hip replacement surgery after the season. Paterno's relegated to the coaches' box upstairs because he can't get around on the sidelines without the use of a cane.
JoePa's proven he's still got it, but it's time he realizes he's had enough.
If not old, perhaps the word for the day should be OOPS!
As in the Tampa Bay Rays being seven runs up and seven outs away from dispatching the Boston Red Sox and reaching the World Series for the first time before OOPS!
After losing that lead and that game, how will the Rays react? The Boston Globe's Shira Springer reveals that Tampa Bay designated hitter Cliff Floyd will stick with a steady diet of Nickelodeon. He will bypass all news and sports channels. He will toss the daily papers aside. Sitting beside his kids at home, Floyd will try to forget last night's devastating 8-7 loss to Boston with an overdose of "Dora the Explorer" and "SpongeBob SquarePants."
"That's how you eliminate all the stuff," said Floyd. "You can't turn on the news and see how we made history."
"We've got two games to see what we're made of," said Floyd, who made (and won) a World Series with Florida in 1997 but fell short with the New York Mets in 2006. "We win Saturday and we go to the World Series. We've got to go out there and play.
"We learned a valuable lesson tonight. Anything can happen at any given time. The only luxury we have is that we were up 3-1. The momentum has shifted to them, but we're in our house where we feel real comfortable."
Meanwhile, the BYU Cougars were undefeated and making noises of running the table and barging their way into the BCS discussion before OOPS!
Now his team has given voters a reason to stop wondering whether the Horned Frogs deserve to be mentioned among the nation’s best.
TCU dominated No. 9 BYU in all aspects of the game, snapping its Thursday night curse at five games and putting a damper on the Cougars’ reign atop the Mountain West Conference with a 32-7 victory before 36,180 fans at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
TCU (7-1, 4-0 in Mountain West Conference) has lost just once this season — to then-No. 2 Oklahoma — and BYU had won 16 straight games and 18 in a row against conference foes.
But Patterson knows he can’t tell voters which way to go.
"We wanted to come out and be the best TCU football team," he said. "Then we’re going to let everybody else judge it.
"This was a big win, but I’d be making a mistake for my football team if I made this the season-ending victory. We’ve got a lot of good football left. To win a championship, it takes them all."
In Green Bay, came word of the Packers finishing the paperwork for a trade with Kansas City's Tony Gonzalez and then OOPS!
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Tom Silverstein claims that the Green Bay Packers and one other NFL team had agreed on a third-round pick as compensation for Kansas City Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez, but according to Gonzalez, Chiefs general manager Carl Peterson pulled out at the last second.
According to an NFL source, the Packers were the team Gonzalez was focusing on and preferred them over the other contender. He had approved a trade to Green Bay. It was up to the Chiefs, however, to determine where he would be traded.
"Last night I talked to Carl and I point-blank asked him what it would take to get it done," Gonzalez said in an exclusive interview. "I wanted to know if it could happen with a fourth (-round pick). He started talking about a second and a fifth like the (Jeremy) Shockey deal. Nobody is going to trade a second for a 32-year-old tight end. All along Carl said he would do something that works for both parties. Then he talked about how he traded a third for Willie Roaf, and he made it pretty clear to me that's what was going to get it done. That was certainly fair.
"I know teams offered a third and in the end, Carl made the asking price a second. I'm very disappointed that he didn't go through with it after he told me he was going to try to make it happen. I've been around this league a long time, it's a business. There's nothing I can do about it. I was (ticked) off about it, but I'll get over it. I won't let it affect my play and my preparation."
Down in Chicago, Denis Savard was preparing his Blackhawks for their fifth game of the new NHL season, when OOPS!
The Tribune's Mike Downey (yeah, he's getting entirely too much ink here, but what can I say when he's front and center ice on the biggest stories of the day?) thinks that the team didn't give Savard much of a chance.
Canning a coach four games into a season is a pretty bloody ice-cold act on the Blackhawks' part.
Particularly when the gentleman in question is Denis Savard, a prince of a fellow who in Chicago is considered to be hockey royalty.
"Like a brother to me," said the general manager who fired him, Dale Tallon.
"All class," said the team president who fired him, John McDonough.
Two minutes for back stabbing.
Savard was given—wow—four whole games to show results.
No, check that. Three games. It is plain that the process of kicking Savvy off the Blackhawks' reservation was well under way before Wednesday night's icebreaker over Phoenix, isn't it? You don't win a game and lose your job for it. Willie Randolph can vouch for that.
Hypothetically, could Savard have saved his job if he had gone 4-0 rather than 1-2-1?
"Hypothetically, probably," Tallon said.
Well, as long as he got a fair shot.
A bombshell was dropped like a puck on a faceoff Thursday at the United Center, where the smiley-faced Blackhawks took the mask off like the Phantom of the Opera and revealed an ugly side underneath.
They cut their ties with Savard, who was given a new goaltender, a new defenseman and less than a week to go 4-0 with them or else.
Unless you accept the explanation that he also was fired for how the team looked in training camp.
"It was a flat camp," Tallon said. "Then we got out of the gate flat."
Savard's team lost unimpressively on the road against the Rangers and Capitals, then looked better in the home opener with the Predators but lost in a shootout.
I was at that game and heard people speculating Savvy's job was in jeopardy.
"But the season began Friday," I said. "This is Monday."
Meaning that it's never too early to give up on a Blackhawks' season or coach.
As previously mentioned, the college football season been a drag locally. Last Saturday, the Badgers turned in one of their ugliest performances at Camp Randall, a 48-7 shellacking at the hands of 7-0 Penn State. It was Bret Bielema’s second consecutive home loss (following a streak of 16 victories), and the worst Wisconsin football home loss since 1989, when the Don Morton-led Badgers lost to Miami 51-3.
Still, the biggest story of the week might have been the UW Police Dept. feeling the need to Tazer a 54-year old woman during a scuffle at the stadium. The Capitol Times reports Margaret Hiebing, 54, of Madison was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest while her husband, Roman Hiebing Jr., 65, same address, was charged with disorderly conduct, according to UW-Madison police.
The brawl between the Hiebings and the cops started when too many people were trying to sit in Row 69 of Section U on the stadium's east side, said UW police Sgt. Jason Whitney.
"We asked her to go to her seat because she was sitting in the aisle," Whitney said. "We made attempts to contact guest services to help her to her seat, but that didn't happen, so our policy is if you're not in your seat, you get ejected."
This episode brings to mind the bad old days of Badger football in the late 1990's when the combination of lousy football and frisking any and everyone for liqour bottles resulted in acres of empty seats in Camp Randall.
Way to go, Wisconsin cops! What a great marketing campaign -- Come for the lousy football, stay for the Tazering!
A quick peek to the Badger Beat website reveals some other information from a friend of the Hiebings, conveniently left out of the UWPD report.
The victim has had 2 total knee replacements & a bad back from previous injury. She explained this to the female officer and that is why she could not occupy the empty seat in the next row 8 seats in from the isle, but the officer was unimpressed. Once the people in her isle finally moved down, she was able to get in her seat. By the time all the other police officers had shown up, they were pulling her hair & dragging her down the stairs and she kicked them because they were twisting her knees sideways and she was terrified they would damage the artaficial joints and she would need additional surgury.
All in all, do you really feel the police had to take things this far? To taser her? She was not threatening to anybody, just mouthy and standing up to what she believed were her rights, and yes, she shouldn't have done that. But once she was in her seat, which was her's which she paid for, the officer should just dropped it because the crowd was at that point getting very upset, but the officer just wouldn't let it go. And the additional police officers got into the frey and made it much worse. The police are getting too comfortable with using a taser and not using diplomacy and crowd control measures they supposedly were taught. All this because of someone sitting in the isle at a Badger game???
Another observer, three rows from the fracus claims the "rent a campus cop" blew this one. She did ask her to move out of the aisle and the lady kept telling her she has a ticket for this seat but no one would move down. The big bad rent-a-cop said well it looks like you need to go and tried to pull her arm to move her. The lady pulled her arm back and then that's when the rent-a-cop started yelling at her and pulled the mace out and stuck it in her face. When that did not work she called for back-up. The lady was able to get in her seat when a couple moved down into are row. The real cops arrived but by this time the lady was in tears and was curled up in her husbands arms. I think she was in shock and was not going to go anywhere with the cops. Then the 8 to 10 cops said it was show time and attacked the lady.
Having had my own up-close-and-personal such chats with the UWPD, I now stay miles away from the stadium on game day.
The question begs, though: If the UW cops are going to Tazer handicapped middle aged women during abysmal losing football, how many fans do they expect will show up for that November game versus Cal Poly?
Welcome back to the bad old days, which are already in progress.
Finally, another anniversary this week in sports. Forty years ago yesterday, track and field athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos made their famous, silent gesture at the Mexico City Olympic Games.
They raised two black-gloved fists in a black power salute from the victory stand, during an Olympic gold medal ceremony.
With that in mind, the pair returned to Mexico City, scene of that controversial stance, and Smith recalled that historic moment with Helen William of the UK's Morning Star Online.
"Athletes have a responsibility to speak because they are in a position to make a difference and they have a responsibility to make that difference. That is a truth which remains to this day," he said.
On October 16 1968, Smith clocked a world record 19.83 seconds to take the 200 metres crown ahead of Australia's Peter Norman and his US team-mate Carlos, who won bronze.
With the eyes of the world watching, the US athletes took their moment on the medal podium to make a stand against US racial discrimination.
Smith and Carlos, both shoeless, bowed their heads and raised a gloved fist as The Star Spangled Banner played.
Payback was swift and enduring. They were kicked out of the Games, ostracised, ridiculed, threatened and left struggling to find work.
"1968 was not a protest of anger. It was a cry for freedom through the only avenue that I had open to me," Smith said. "It was the only secular route available to me. It was the only stand that I could take.
"There is no such thing as perfection, but it did make a difference then and now because young people can associate with it."
With this in mind, Smith, who has a Masters degree in sociology, visited London last week to talk to youngsters about how sport and education can counter gang culture in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics.
The countdown to 2012 has made his visit, backed by the British Library and London's Camden Council, all the more timely.
Sport, with its health, discipline and safety benefits, has now been pushed up the political agenda, but there is also a violent knife and gun crime culture.
Smith said: "Young people today in Britain do not have the international platform that Tommie Smith had, but they have a community. They have places where they can start to learn.
"It starts from the inside, in families, and it is up to us to help those who do not have families to help them grow." The 1968 Olympics arrived amid a tense mood of unrest in the US after the assassinations of Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Robert Kennedy earlier that year.
But to make a political stand at an international event came at a huge price.
Smith was fired from jobs and scholarships for his family were taken away.
Carlos remembers chopping furniture up for firewood and putting his children to sleep in front of the fire when he could not pay his electricity bills. The pressure of it all saw relatives of both men become very ill.
So, does Smith regret his actions or feel it made a difference?
One possible legacy, he accepts, is that the US is now prepared to consider electing its first black president.
Smith said: "Yes, that is true. I was on that trail, but I was one of many humans who were on that trail, through from Dr Martin Luther King Jr and back to slavery. There was a lot of others on the same path as me, especially in the human rights campaign."
Now, 40 years on, Smith is trying to carve out a new legacy for the impact that sport and education can create. He said: "I am a sort of in-your-face person.
"I will look right at the kid and let them know they have a responsibility to get to class, to be responsible to their parents and to treat others how they want to be treated.
"A child's brain is like a computer chip and you have to programme it and that can be done in the home or in the classroom or potentially in the street.
"You cannot grow roses in a rock. Children have to have people around them who will give them a chance to broaden themselves. It is called cultivating our youth."
Yes, I'm old enough to remember that day. You have to consider the life and times of 1968. Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot. resulting in riots across the ghettos of America. Bobby Kennedy had also been shot and protesters had been billy-clubbed with the whole world watching in Chicago. In that context, Carlos and Smith decided to say something about all that to the Olympic audience.
They were among my biggest childhood heroes. And the fact that both men are still alive and giving of themselves to young people is one of those sparkling moments that -- Sarah Palin notwithstanding -- truly make me proud to be an American.
This is something of an accomplishment as the Milwaukee NBA franchise makes it on national cable television about as often as...oh, I dunno, the city of Cleveland gets to celebrate a championship.
Indeed, ESPN networks are televising 72 regular-season games, which include 29 games on Wednesdays and 35 on Fridays. The slate consists of 27 doubleheaders.
TNT is televising 53 regular-season games, including 47 as part of Thursday night doubleheaders and a tripleheader on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. TNT also exclusively televises NBA All-Star 2009 festivities in Phoenix from Feb. 13-15, culminating with the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, Feb. 15.
However, unless you have Fox Sports Wisconsin or pay good money for NBA-TV or Direct TV's NBA League Pass, you have a better chance of seeing Sarah Palin hug an illegal alien than watching the Milwaukee Bucks. Talk about your endangered species!
And yet, here were my Milwaukee Bucks on, of all places, ESPN Classic this morning as part of something called the NBA China Games 2008. This impressive monicker has been given to a couple of preseason games in China between two moribund NBA franchises -- the Bucks and the equally sad-sack Golden State Warriors -- who collectively could share space on a milk carton. Have You See This Team?
Still, here I was, watching my Bucks and feeling a lot like the guy in the beginning of Major League -- saying to myself, "you know, maybe they aren't so sh#$%#y." Of course, here is where the director would cut to the two Japanese groundskeepers replying, "no, they're still sh#$%#y."
The expectations are so low for the Bucks that even approaching the .500 mark will be considered a fantastic season. And a quick look at the sum of their parts reveals the makings of a decent basketball team.
This is where we cut for a moment to get you all up to speed on hoops-speak. Coaches are busy men -- along with some actual women in the women's game -- so they use numbers to define the five basic positions of a basketball team. To break it down simply.
1 = Point Guard
2 = Shooting Guard
3 = Small Forward
4 = Power Forward
5 = Center
So, for the next umpty months of the hoops season, you can now prepare for each and every coach telling the reporters after each and every game, "well, we thought we could play him at either the 3 or the 4 and if we had to, maybe at the 5, but then we were stuck by not having anybody who could cover their 1 or 2."
Still with me? Good, there'll be a test at the end of this column.
So, new coach Scott Skiles has Richard Jefferson who play as the starting 3, but -- along with hold-over NBA All-Star and recent Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Redd -- can step back to be a 2, if the Bucks want to play a bigger lineup. Former No. 1 draft pick Andrew Bogut is firmly entrenched as the 5 with Charlie Villaneuva slated as the 4.
Yi Jianlian is gone and though we hardly know Yi, this is a good thing for the Bucks. I never quite understood why they drafted Yi anyway -- he was basically a unpolished rookie with the same skill set as a player already on your roster, Charlie Villanueva. It seemed to me that only reason in drafting Yi was to sell more Milwaukee jerseys in the burgeoning Chinese market. I mean, doesn't the Senator (Herb Kohl) have enough money?
So, I was elated that when the front office was cleaned out, Yi was sent out east and getting Jefferson was the proverbial frosting on the cake. I would have been happy if the Bucks had gotten Gary Sheffield and Pac-Man Jones in the swap -- receiving a very good small forward -- sorry, a 3 -- in the bargain made it a steal.
Another new acquisition, Luke Ridnour, joins Redd in the Milwaukee backcourt while two rookies will provide some extra firepower off the bench. Lottery pick Joe Alexander could be the next Larry Bird -- he does have much the same skill-set as the former Celtic -- while former UCLA Bruin Luc Richard Mbah a Moute gives some toughness with someone capable and willing to play defense and grab rebounds.
All of those parts were on display in this morning's victory over the Warriors.
Bogut messed around and got a double-double -- kudos for all who caught my pop culture reference to Ice Cube -- finishing with 18 points and 12 rebounds as the Bucks won for the first time in five exhibition games and recorded their opening victory under new coach Skiles. Ridnour added 16 points and 12 assists while playing 37 minutes, and Alexander finished with 11 points.
Jefferson added 13 points and five rebounds, and Mbah a Moute had 12 points and eight rebounds. And the Bucks were able to win a game -- albeit an preseason tilt over Golden State -- with Redd on the bench with left knee soreness.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Bucks' blog reports that the two teams will meet again at the Olympic venue in Beijing on Saturday morning (10:30 p.m. Friday Milwaukee time). The Bucks headed for the airport directly after the game and were scheduled to arrive in Beijing around 3:30 a.m. Thursday (2:30 p.m. today Milwaukee time).
Skiles said he expected Redd would be able to play in Beijing in the second game of the trip. Forward Charlie Villanueva suffered a neck injury in the second half today and had to leave the game, but it was not thought to be anything serious.
Alexander, who had struggled in his first two exhibition games, contributed some key baskets in the Bucks' fourth-quarter run.
"He was able to get a couple good looks and knock them down," Skiles said. "He still doesn't know what we're trying to do yet.
Before the Bucks’ practice Tuesday at the Guangzhou Gymnasium, the 6-foot-8 Alexander was swarmed by a huge group of reporters. His fluency in Mandarin was one reason for his popularity, and the fact he spent much of his youth living in Beijing, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
“They enjoyed me a little bit,” Alexander said in a phone interview. “There was a pretty fair amount (of media), more than I’m used to.”
The new Joltin` Joe didn't play in the Bucks' first two preseason game and is still acclimating himself to his new team and the NBA. Still, in the much weaker Eastern Conference, at season's end, Milwaukee -- with a new coach and many new players -- could be in the hunt for one of the last remaining playoff berth.
At least, they give the impression -- as those Cleveland Indians in Major League -- that maybe they won't be so sh#$%#y.
The World Series is approaching a Tampa Bay-Philly matchup, while FOX Sports might not appreciate this very distinct possibility, ESPN's Tim Keown would be eternally grateful.
If either the Phillies or the Rays -- or both -- advance to the World Series, this great country of ours will owe them an enormous debt of gratitude. The first two weeks of the postseason have provided us with indisputable evidence: Dodgers-Red Sox is a World Series matchup America simply cannot afford.
This isn't about teams or individuals. This is about coverage. This is about nonstop Manny Ramirez versus the Red Sox, with every angle exposed and every past transgression unearthed.
Your rooting interest is beside the point. You know this as well as I do.
There's only so much Manny anyone can take. There's only so much Red Sox anyone can take.
The combination? Sorry.
The Chicago Tribune -- surprise, surprise -- thinks that Da Bears have the best chance of the collective 3-3 teams in the NFC North to win the division. Call him provincial, but the Trib's beat reporter David Haugh makes the point that...the numbers clearly show neither the Packers nor the Vikings have a schedule loaded with more opportunity than the Bears.
The Bears' remaining 10 opponents have a combined 25-31 record, and the only team left on the schedule currently above .500 is Tennessee. And the Titans have to come to Soldier Field on Nov. 9. That's one of six home games left for the Bears—the most of the three first-place teams.
The Packers' remaining 10 opponents have a combined 28-28 record and Green Bay has to play three teams that currently have winning records: Indianapolis (on Sunday), Tennessee and Carolina. They have to play the Titans on the road, as well as the Saints in New Orleans and the Jaguars in Jacksonville.
The Vikings might face the toughest schedule of the three. Minnesota's remaining 10 opponents have a combined 29-28 record and the Vikings still have to play four teams with winning records: at Tampa Bay and Arizona and home games against Atlanta and the New York Giants.
Meanwhile, leave to to a Madison poltical wonk to crunch the numbers on our Liquid Assets feature the other day, MB did so and insists that this columnist indulged in a bit of fuzzy math.
Hey, I was merely sharing another reader's letter, MB. I didn't get paid for it and you didn't have to pay for it, so I think we're about even.
Still, MB makes the case that...DAL (Delta Airlines) was trading at around $20/share a year ago and now trades at $6/share. That’s, huge – but that $1000 investment would still be worth around $300 today. Whereas, $1000 in six-pack cans (assuming $5/six-pack, for 200 six-packs or 1200 empty cans) wouldn’t yield anywhere close to $214 unless you could find a recycler that’d pay $.18 per can – in which case I would only drink beer in cans and not curb them.
Okay, picky, picky, picky. Still, MB did offer to cop me a Obama yard sign, so it's all good
Finally, loyal readers might have noticed that your new favorite sports blog -- the column formerly known as Talking Sports -- has a lot of @$%#(&^%()* where there are clearly some words. This is not self-censorship, but many of my former editors would make the case for SOMEBODY, ANYBODY censoring my syntax, verbiage etc etc etc...
The proclivity for this ^%@*&^$(^*#@ is due to FOX Sports bleeping out what it deems as objectionable speech. For those who will claim that I've sold out to the Dark Side, I'll remind you again that I don't get paid for this, so the worst you can call me is a collaborator.
I can't even quote Dave Barry -- an award-winning columnist, if FOX Sports ever saw one -- saying the words Adolf #### without finding it bleeping bleeped.
Still, if I may once again channel my inner Ice Cube, I wrote this whole column and didn't even have to use my AK.
Letters, we get letters...loyal longtime reader CJ from the Netherlands (HOLLAND?! Yeah, we global, booooeeey!) asks what impact the financial meltdown will have on the sports world. Well, we're seeing it already on a micro and macro level.
Locally, the sad economic news has forced both the Madison Mallards and Green Bay Packers to scale back proposed stadium improvements. (Full disclosure moment: This columnist is employed by the Northwoods League baseball club.)
The Mallards have had put the kibosh on big plans for a brand spanking new park. The original plan would have remodeled the Duck Pond at Warner Park, rotated the baseball field 180 degrees to help block the sun and gave the ballpark a $5.5-million facelift.
Now, the plans have changed, however, and the project has been scaled back to halve the price, WISC-TV reported.
Instead of building new facilities, the plans will now renovate existing buildings.
The city will still authorize $800,000 for new bleachers, but will not provide the $1.2 million for other renovations.
Mallards General Manager Vern Stenman said the ballpark will still get its needed improvements.
"A couple weeks ago, we came to the second option and said, 'Man, we can do a little bit scaled back project and accomplish 90-95 percent of what we were hoping to do and spend less than half the amount of money,'" said Stenman. "It just made a lot of sense."
Meanwhile, improvements to Lambeau Field have also been torpedoed by the economy. The Green Bay Press-Gazette reports that even the Packers are pinching pennies these days.
In light of the uncertain economic landscape, the team decided to put off a $25 million expansion of the Lambeau Field Atrium. The plan calls for a plaza that would wrap around the atrium from the Oneida Nation gate on the east to the Miller Brewing Company gate on the north to allow for better movement for fans. It also called for underground parking for players.
Packers President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Murphy attributed the delay to the weakened economy, as well as the team’s desire to incorporate the idea into longer-term development plans.
“Given the size of the investment, we want to make sure it fits into our long-term master plan,” he said. “It made sense to put it on hold for a while. We don’t want to say in a year or two, ‘if only we’d known’ … so we decided the best thing to do is hold off.”
The Packers recently bought a number of properties west of Ridge Road along Lombardi Avenue with an eye on future development.
Plans for the atrium expansion are drawn, but no supplies or contracts were ordered or signed. It was expected to begin after the football season, and Murphy still expects it will go forward at some point. “It would have solved a lot of problems,” he acknowledged. “It’s a timing issue.”
“We’d like to see the project completed,” said Patrick Webb, executive director of the Green Bay-Brown County Professional Football Stadium District. “We think there are safety issues, both for people going to the game and for the players and parking. We’ve been suggesting it for several years.
“But we understand and support the team’s decision. One has to only look at the current financial situation to understand why the team doesn’t want to liquidate investments at this time for the project.”
Until the economy stabilizes, the Packers will remain cautious, Murphy said.
As Manchester United, possibly the world's most valuable sports franchise and arguably the most famous one worldwide, took to its hallowed pitch, its home red shirts (an appropriate color, as it turns out) were emblazoned across the chests with the logo of American International Group, previously the largest insurance company in the U.S. and now a ward of the state.
At the time of its collapse and public rescue, AIG was just midway through a four-year sponsorship deal with Man U that will pay the club upward of $100 million. Not that U.S. taxpayers' money is really going offshore, mind you, since Man U's owner is Malcolm Glazer, a Rochester-born businessman who also happens to own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Hmm, so does that mean that -- as an American taxpayer -- I now own part of Man U?
And what about all those stadium and arena names that are also up for grabs?
Right now, for example, they're trying to figure out what to do with the name of the 76ers' and Flyers' crib, the Arena Formerly Known As Wachovia Center. Do the naming rights Wachovia purchased go to Wells Fargo, which stepped in to try to take over the failing bank late this week, or to Citigroup, which thought it had a deal earlier in the week and so is contesting the Wells Fargo transaction? The same goes for Wachovia's piece of the Charlotte Bobcats. For now, presumably, nothing has changed. And if you committed to memory every last sentimental moment you witnessed at the last game at Yankee Stadium a couple of weeks back, you might recall a straight-faced sign beyond the outfield that reads in retrospect like some fan's idea of a topical joke written on a bedsheet:
AIG: THE STRENGTH TO BE THERE
That's just stuff in plain sight. Never mind the loans out to leagues, franchises and owners, or the books that aren't opened to the media but might contain records the FBI could stumble upon in its search for evidence of criminal activity in New York's financial district.
Whether the House of Representatives signed off on the bailout of Wall Street (it did, early Friday afternoon), whether the Dow Jones Index stabilizes or crashes right down to the Mendoza line, whether the $1.2 trillion in investors' losses in Monday's trading at the NYSE are recovered in whole or in part or will only be compounded, something will change, almost certainly many things.
It won't be business as usual anywhere, sports included.
