This just in, Patti LaBelle can still bring down the house...
The talk of the sports world this morning came from an otherwise meaningless game between the currently hapless San Francisco 49ers and the distinctly mediocre Seattle Seahawks.
According to the Sacramento Bee, the new head coach Mike Singletary spoke a lot today about Vernon Davis. And he spoke a lot of about cancers in the locker room and how they can damage a team. But he was careful to separate the two. "Vernon is not a problem," Singletary said. "Vernon is not a problem guy. Vernon forgets sometimes that the team is more important. ... You have to be able to separate the two. He is not a guy who's a distraction on the team."
Which is not to suggest that Singletary isn't still steamed over Davis' performance yesterday. To recap: Davis was hit with a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty when he flicked the underside of Brian Russell's facemask. Singletary said he saw the whole thing and thought Davis was "kidding when he did it." What seemed to upset Singletary more was Davis' reaction. He tried to talk to Davis as he came off the sideline and Davis was defensive. When he looked behind him a few seconds later, Davis was being demonstrative on the bench.
Singletary said he had a conversation just last week with Davis in which he urged the talented tight end to be a leader on the team. His actions on the sideline were entirely opposed to what the new coach was looking for. "It just hit me the wrong way," Singletary said. He said he hadn't yet spoken with Davis and didn't mention any disciplinary action. He said he was not the type of coach who plays psychological games with players and would not give Davis the silent treatment. "It's not that he's out of my good graces," Singletary said. "Not at all. I don't have a doghouse." Which leads one to believe that Davis won't be subject to any disciplinary action ...
If anyone can get his team ready to play, Mike Singletary will do it after the players hear what he said. And I do mean, as in listenhere! Dan Patrick said on his radio show this morning that Singletary sounded like Samuel L. Jackson in "Pulp Fiction" (remember the Ezekiel speech?) after the 49ers lost to the Seattle Seahawks, 34-13, adding "I don't think Singletary was trying to sound tough. I think he simply is tough."
Said Singletary: "... It will change and it will change ... because they want to be champions. ... Our formula is this: We go out and hit people in the mouth, No. 1. No. 2, we are not a charity. We cannot give them the game. That's No. 2. And No. 3 is we execute, from the very start of the game to the very end of the game. That did not happen ..."
There's an old James Brown song,"Talkin' Loud And Sayin' Nothin" -- and I think, after yesterday's rant, we can safely say that ditty does NOT describe the new 49ers head coach.
Meanwhile, back in Seattle, the ax fell this afternoon for UW coach Ty Willingham. Molly Yanity of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports Willingham and athletic director Scott Woodward made the announcement at a news conference Monday.
Willingham has been under fire for being unable to turn around the Washington program.
Woodward has said he did not want to change coaches during the middle of the season. But he said Monday's announcement ends speculation of what is going to happen with Willingham and lets the team focus on the final five games.
The World Series could come to an end in Philadelphia tonight, but that isn't even the talk of the town and it's not the Eagles,either. As Ed Moran of the Philadelphia Daily News explains...maybe it’s because the World Series is in town, but so far there hasn't been the familiar outcry about the "typical" Philadelphia fans that usually erupts after one of those all too-"typical" Philadelphia sports scenes that become legend and get listed right under "throw snowballs at Santa Claus." In this case it was a flaming smoke bomb thrown onto the ice after a contested goal in overtime in Saturday's 3-2 Flyers win over New Jersey in the Wachovia Center. But can the noise be far behind?
It was an outrageous and dangerous act that covered the ice surface with smoke, chased the Devils' coaching staff from the bench and left the city with another fan-based black eye.
"We were not happy," Comcast-Spectacor president Peter Luukko said yesterday. "That was as good a hockey game as can be played and it didn't need that. After all the talk last year about how tough our fans are to play in front of, we went to Washington in the playoffs and someone throws a beer bottle that hits Jeff Carter and in Montreal someone threw a beer into the penalty box that hit Mike Richards and nothing like that happened here. We were angry last night."
So angry, in fact, that the Flyers are conducting an investigation; there is video from security cameras showing two suspects running from the building.
The description being released is of two males about 6 feet tall. One is described as an African-American wearing a white Flyers jersey and a white male also wearing a Flyers jersey, with his face painted.
"We are working diligently to catch the culprit and hope to prosecute the person," Luukko said. "If we find that the person is a season ticketholder, we will permanently cancel their tickets."
As for the National League champion Phillies, the grizzled veteran columnist Bill Conlon opines...Joe Blanton wasn't supposed to be pitching last night. Not according to the army of bloggers, e-mailers and fantasy-team managers who trampled each other deserting Jamie Moyer's corner. Many exhorted me to demand that Pat Gillick, Charlie Manuel, Rich Dubee and all the Phillies' powers-that-be make sure that Moyer was denied his World Series turn in the wake of a brief and ineffective outing in Game 3 of the NLCS in Dodger Stadium.
Give the ball to Joe Blanton in Game 3, for God sakes. Don't send that old man out there again. Please.
Nor was Pat Burrell supposed to be playing left with his ponderous gait. The Bat had to be the DH against the Tampa Bay Rays' Game 1 starter Scott Kazmir. Against the Rays' righties, Ryan Howard had to wear the DH mantle with Greg Dobbs playing first base.
And remember the success Manuel had with the flip-flop of Jayson Werth to No. 6 and Shane Victorino to No. 2 in Game 2 of the Division Series wipeout of CC Sabathia and the Brewers? Shane set the Money Pit ablaze with an epic grand slam. Well, time for the old fliperoo once again, right, Chuck, with the engine room flooded and the Phillies taking more strikes than an Akron bowling alley and abandoning more guys in scoring position than a payday raid on a mining town brothel.
And while you're at it, Cholly, let's stick Burrell in between Utley and Howard to split that inviting left-left arrangement Rays manager Joe Maddon seemed to exploit by using rookie lefthander David Price for an extended Game 2 save. Yep, Manuel said, he had given that some thought when he looked out there and the gifted No. 1 pick in the 2007 draft was going through his lineup a second time.
Just don't expect to see your Honorary Managers Diplomas in the mail anytime soon. You all flunked Double Switch 101, Lineup Chemistry 202 and Hunch-Playing 303.
Jamie Moyer hauled his 45-year-old bones from the cocoon of a 90-minute rain delay and made the latest-ending World Series game in history one of the most memorable. He was amazing, mesmerizing, magicianly, baffling and masterful. The Phillies won an amazingly tense, flawed and quintessentially entertaining Game 3 with a ninth inning that called for a redefining of the word "bizarre."
Joe Blanton pitched on his Game 4 night and authored personal and World Series history. Haystack Joe is reputedly a "contact pitcher." In a 10-2 destruction of the Rays that moved the Phillies into the wind shadow of their second World Series title, Blanton fired seven strikeouts in six-plus electric innings.
But that's not all . . . With two outs in the fifth, Joe put a righthanded version of the Matt Stairs buggywhip stroke on an Edwin Jackson heater and sent a screaming tracer into the leftfield seats. Blanton dragged some impressive records with him running out the first World Series homer by a pitcher since Kenny Holtzman hit one for Oakland in 1974.
Oh, yeah . . . Charlie has played Burrell in left and Howard at first throughout. And when Werth smoked a double and then two-run homer last night, he was batting No. 2 because that's the way Charlie Manuel had it set up, in the thinking he has done since this incredible postseason began. And, once more, Utley and Howard hit back-to-back and the Big Man inside-outed a three-run homer to left and a monster shot, two-run exclamation point, to right off lefthander Trever Miller in the eighth.
A Cleveland writer asked Manuel before the Phillies went 10-3 in the postseason if he is a different manager than he was when leading an Indians team loaded with All-Stars. And has he improved as a manager?
"The same old Charlie," he said. "I'm the same manager I was when I managed in Triple A or Double A, or A ball. I'm the same manager. Just when you win you're better [laughter], and that comes from having better players."
Now, don`cha hate it when you have to explain your jokes? It's never funny afterwards, and yet this column is jam-packed on an everyday basis with allusions and pop culture references. Therefore, I was trying to make a funny when I suggested last Friday that Marlo Thomas would have made a better VP pick than Sarah Palin.
The column was called, I Don't Want THAT Girl. Again from wikipedia...That Girl is an American television situation comedy that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971. It starred Marlo Thomas as the title character, Ann Marie, an aspiring (but only sporadically employed) actress, who had moved from her hometown of Brewster, New York to make it big in New York City. Ann had to take a number of offbeat "temp" jobs to support herself in between her various auditions and bit parts, though she nonetheless was able to afford a spacious Manhattan apartment as well as an extensive wardrobe of mod fashions.
So, I was imagining the next SNL skit for Tina Fey and thought of a parody of the show's beginning, where some talent scout would see her in a crowd and explain, "I want that girl!"
Still, I'd argue that Marlo Thomas would STILL be a better candidate than Palin as evidenced by her exhaustive charity work. One more time from the wiki-folks...
Lastly, I think we can all agree that Patti LaBelle still has some pipes. She sang a stirring,stunning version of the National Anthem before Game 4 of the World Series Sunday night.
It's one thing to interpret the National Anthem by injecting new beats and notes -- it's a pregame tradition that has rewarded such superstars as Jimi Hendrix, Marvin ####e and Whitney Houston with career highlights. But LaBelle took it to the next level with editorial enhancements to the words written by Francis Scott Key.
"Did she just say 'the skylights' last gleaming'?" I said to Mrs. TV Barn as I reached for the remote. Yes, upon further review, it turns out she did sing that very lyric. And "the perilous flight." And "from the clouds we watched" (WTD?). All lyrics, no doubt, that were meant to be overlooked in the course of her soaring unaccompanied vocals, which were, I will admit, impressive.
And after all, everyone can relate to a gleaming skylight and taking a perilous flight and looking down from the clouds, so you can't say Ms. LaBelle didn't make the lyrics more relevant to our modern sensibilities.
But something tells me she didn't do it on purpose.
I admit, she took great liberties and an awful long time, but I'd gladly take that over hackneyed versions of "God Bless The USA" and "God Bless America" at my ballgames any day.
I mean, can't we simply enjoy our freedoms, start the games and leave the big guy out of it? This land is my land too, you know.
At my age, it takes an awful lot to shock me, but something I heard on Mike and Mike In The Morning (yes, THAT show again) shook me to the core. Frequent visitor (and arguably the best football analyst on TV today) Mark "Stink" Schlereth, when asked how many knee surgeries he'd had, matter-of-factly replied, "twenty."
TWENTY?! Yes, of the 29 procedures...wait a minute, TWENTY-NINE times under the knife?! Well, if that doesn't tell you something about the price people pay to play professional football, then WTF does?
Something else Schlereth said rang true to the bone, too. I'm paraphrasing here, but he added something to the effect of "when it's you on the operating table, there's no such thing as minor surgery."
Don't I know it? This year, I was struck by a hit-and-run driver -- on my bike, no less -- and literally broke my face. It required three plates to reattach the pieces together and I'm still rather antsy whenever anything gets remotely near my head.
So, when I read that Arizona Cardinals' WR Anquan Boldin was going to return to the football field -- just weeks after surgery for his own fractured face -- I just about #### the morning coffee out of my rebuilt nose.
Football? You're gonna play FOOTBALL?! Are you freakin INSANE?!
Yet, in a conference call with Arizona reporters on Wednesday, Carolina Panthers QB Jake Delhomme said, I would be 100 percent shocked if I don't see Anquan Boldin on the field Sunday."
As the Arizona Republic's Kent Somers reports, Boldin suffered facial injuries and a concussion from a severe hit against the Jets on Sept. 28. He underwent surgery on Oct. 2 to fix the damage and cleared a concussion test last week.
On Tuesday, he had wires removed from his mouth and he's eager to sink his teeth into a steak from Ruth's Chris Steak House. He can't eat it yet because he has some numbness in his mouth.
Boldin went through a portion of practice Wednesday and went out of his way to head butt a couple of teammates, including fellow receiver Steve Breaston. "He asked me what I was doing," Boldin said. "I just said I was trying to get a feel for it."
Now, of course, I'm not a football player, but the thought of Boldin playing this Sunday makes my own head hurt all over again.
Still, Mike Tulumello, of the East Valley Tribune adds that Boldin practiced on Wednesday, then said, “I’m going to take it one day at a time.
“Hopefully, everything plays out to my liking. … Everything felt good. I kind of head-butted some guys to see how it feels. I didn’t feel any pressure from it.”
Boldin knows he could get hit in the same place after he takes the field.
“My feeling is, if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. I can’t go the whole game worrying about it. … Then you haven’t played to your full potential.”
In making the decision on whether to play, in concert with the Cardinals’ medical staff and coaches, “You have to listen to your body,” Boldin said. “That’s the best indictor.
“The body lets you know if you can go. It also lets you know if you can’t.”
Boldin said wires were removed from his mouth Tuesday, but metal plates that were implanted are to stay in permanently.
Yeah, I'm walking around with plates in my head too. Yup, me, Anquan and Don Zimmer.
Now, the surgeons assured me that I'd have no trouble walking through airport security, but I haven't tested this theory as yet. Another loyal reader, GS, suggested that I should maybe visit the City-County building here in Madison to see if the plates make the machine go WHOOP, WHOOP, WHOOP, WHOOP...
Surgeries were the topic of discussion on Mike and Mike In The Morning as many are buzzing about the news that New England QB Tom Brady may need a "do-over" on his own knee surgery.
In fact, Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald reveals that "doctors are so concerned about containing the infection in Tom Brady’s left knee they have performed three procedures in an attempt to eradicate it, according to a source familiar with the quarterback’s travails on the West Coast.
While Brady acknowledged on his Web site that he had one arthroscopic procedure done to “clean and to test the wound” last Wednesday, the Herald has learned there have been two additional procedures performed since that time, with the same goal in mind.
According to the source, the fear is the patellar tendon graft used to replace Brady’s anterior cruciate ligament is in danger of becoming compromised. Should that occur, the entire ACL reconstruction would have to be removed and redone from scratch.
All of which would push back the possible timetable for his return to the Patriots' lineup.
Meanwhile, that's not the only problem in the NFL this morning. Accoring to John Harris of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Ray Anderson, NFL executive vice president for football operations, says the league is investigating a bounty made against Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward by Baltimore Ravens linebacker/defensive end Terrell Suggs, who appeared on the "2 Live Stews" show on Sporting News Radio.
"We certainly are looking into it," Anderson said. "That bounty notion is completely against the rules. We will look into it aggressively."
Of course, Suggs reversed field Wednesday and told Baltimore reporters that there's no bounty on Ward. Don't you just love these people who say stupid things and then claim to be misquoted?
Uh, dude, you were RECORDED SAYING IT!
In the same interview, Suggs also added that a similar bounty had been placed on rookie running back Rashard Mendenhall and it was widely reported that Ravens' LB Ray Lewis danced over the stricken body of Mendenhall, exclaimed, "HE"S DONE."
Still, the thuggish Lewis also tried to feign some remorse. When asked on Dan Patrick's radio show, if he feels sympathy for opposing players he's injured on the field, "Yeah, I do. Sympathy goes a long way," Lewis said. "Most of the time, as soon as I see somebody seriously hurt, I go into prayer. I don't stop until that person starts to move.
"The last thing you want is to ever injure somebody where there limping the rest of their eyes. ... Nobody should go out there to hurt anybody. If you do, you're in the wrong sport. You may as well go into UFC."
Yes, sirree...never a dull moment while covering the Baltimore Ravens.
Game 1 of the World Series has come and gone. So, what did we learn last night?Let MLB.com's Mark Newman count the ways.
1. The Phillies are in this event, too. Many Americans have adopted the Rays. There is no denying it. New York is particularly teeming with Tampa Bay backers right now, and the frenzy has spread in a country that loves a great underdog story. But the Phillies won Game 1, 3-2.
2. It is cool to shave all the hair on your head except for a thick racing stripe down the middle, which you spray-paint blue. Rayhawks are everywhere here, and you see them on the strangest of pates. If you have a shiny pate, then a blue boa affixed to the noggin' makes for a nice Rayhawk just the same.
3. It is not cool to get out of the way when the opposing team's first baseman is lunging into the crowd to catch a foul ball. Score it E-fans, in Game 1 at Tropicana Field. This isn't the first time that poor foul-ball-catching etiquette was displayed in a postseason game, of course (hint: Wrigley Field). Jimmy Rollins was talking about how they cleared room for Ryan Howard in that situation, and he was asked what would happen if Carlos Pena tried to make a foul catch just like that back in Philadelphia: "Would he come out alive? Yeah," Rollins said. "Bruised? Maybe."
4. Be careful what you ask for when you put the shift on for Chase Utley. During the same at-bat in which he tried to bunt for a hit down the unoccupied space at third base, Utley turned on an inside 92-mph fastball from Scott Kazmir and blasted it for a two-run homer in the first inning to set the tone.
"He's different than most left-handed hitters," Kazmir said. "I would say more of a long swing, they don't really know how to get to an inside fastball too well to a lefty. But him, you can just tell he loves to keep his hands in and he likes that short and quick swing. But I knew just from watching video and games here and there he likes a pitch in. He just gets his hands through the zone."
Said Utley: "I guess it turned out pretty well. The third baseman was playing shortstop, I figured with a guy on first and one out, I'd try to create something at that point. It was foul, but it ended up to turn out pretty good for us."
5. The NL can play with the AL.
6. Cole Hamels is starting to remind you of a young Bret Saberhagen in the 1985 postseason for Kansas City and a young Josh Beckett in the 2003 postseason for Florida. You are wondering if soon you will be seeing postgame notes comparing his 2008 postseason to people like those, listing birthdates and such. He seems unbeatable this month.
7. The running game is alive and well in this series, even though both teams come in with reputations for massive power displays. "There will be running this series," Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz said.
"For us 0-1, it's like being down 0-1 in the count if you're the batter," Rays reliever J.P. Howell said. "You're not too worried, but at the same time you saw what they have. You've got to prepare and adjust. They're very aggressive on the basepaths. That's something I didn't know about them. And those guys, they battle, it's a different league. Their approaches are just different. It's a feel thing."
8. The in-game music is different here, seemingly younger than many places. Early in the game, it had a club feel. You can tell it's a young team, just by the vibe that permeates into the crowd. There was rapper Too Short, country singer Trace Atkins, an industrial band called Ministry, Aussie band Midnight Oil rings out when Aussie reliever Grant Balfour enters the game, there was the national anthem from the Backstreet Boys -- the only thing missing was New Kids On The Block. By the way, NKOTB drew the largest crowd in the stadium's history. It's not your grandfather's ballpark.
9. Both U.S. presidential candidates know exactly how important baseball is to everyone.
10. You really can win a World Series opener after a long layoff.
11. But don't count on winning often when you are 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position.
12. Tropicana Field is a fun place to watch the Fall Classic. In the fifth inning, they were having a great time inside the Centerfield Brewhouse, while down the concourse a boy was wailing on baseballs in the Extreme Zone Batting Cage -- a junkyard motif with a clunker car bearing a sign that reads: "RUNS GOOD".
13. Looking ahead is OK as long as you aren't a player. Even though you don't know which of these teams is going to win the World Series, you already can order that team's clubhouse championship gear.
15. Brad Lidge can do pretty much whatever he wants right now. He remains perfect in save situations in 2008. This time it was thanks to his tight slider. In Game 2? "They're gonna go home and watch video, and tomorrow I might face them again, and they might be on my slider better," he said. "So you have to make adjustments. It's mostly the situation of the game that dictates what's going on. I haven't seen 'em, they haven't seen me. Tonight it's sliders, tomorrow it's fastballs if it requires fastballs."
Finally, I have some terrible news to share with you all. Shocking, ugly, evil, DISGUSTING news that will shake you deeply.
The esteemed Mr. Easterbrook has his own loyal readers and one of them, Nicole Zavradinos, was among many to report that WMNV-FM in St. Louis has already switched to an all-Christmas-music format. She heard "Little Drummer Boy" on the radio while driving to work. ARRGHH!
Yet another reader, Ryan Lindhurst of Mount Clemens, Mich., reports, "You might have noticed at your local grocery stores that Pepsi has begun selling Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash. It is advertised as a 'holiday drink' and for the last two years has been available from late October until New Year's. This year it hit the shelves shortly after Labor Day." Click Cranberry Splash on the Sierra Mist home pageand you will be offered Christmas wallpaper plus Christmas songs containing the word "cranberry."
After reading Easterbrook's column, I saw a display of Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash and shuddered visibly. And yes, it's been siting there since freakin Labor Day at Apollo Liquor too.
Still, Xmas music before Halloween is just plain wrong. Having given up on the holiday several years ago, I can't stand Xmas music EVER!!
The problem is that in our secular America -- and I'm a secular American, so I'm not knocking that -- you can't play the baby Jesus songs, so it means suffering through an entire month of those blankety-blank chestnuts and rocking around that #### Xmas tree. Now, you're telling me that a radio station in St. Louis is playing this #### in October?!
Look, my friends, THIS and not Bill Ayers or Rev. Wright or Sarah Palin's clothes budget or any number of silly meaningless so-called issues..THIS is what we should asking our candidates about.
"Senator Obama, if elected, would you consider a FCC ban on radio stations playing Xmas music before December?"
Only 12 more days before the election...and only 62 more to stock up on the Cranberry Splash!
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.
Like many sports fans, I wake up each day with ESPN's Mike and Mike In The Morning. The show, on ESPN Radio and simulcast on ESPN 2, features Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic along with the top names in sports and entertainment.
The combination of the effete, preppy Greeny and the jockish, more rotund Golic usually gives fans a chance to agree with one or the other on a variety of issues in the sports world and beyond. Then again, on those rarer mornings when the two actually take the same viewpoint, the listener can concur that they're both -- um, how do I say this intellectually? -- a couple of big ####yheads!
The World Series begins tomorrow night in Tampa Bay, an American League city, so Game 1 will include the Designated Hitter. All of which gives the DH-haters yet another opportunity to spew their contempt and displeasure.
To a goodly number of baseball fans -- and, I'd argue, a lot more people who don't give a rat's #### about the game, but simply want something to #### about -- the DH should follow the Soviet Union, mood rings and MC Hammer off into the deep dark recesses of time
Typical of this mindset is Joe Holleman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, as he writes..the designated hitter is an abomination. I will gladly add this to his list of things to do in the first 100 days of [my] administration.
Everyone who loves baseball knows that the nine guys who take the field are the nine guys who get to bat. Everybody plays the field, everybody steps to the plate. But since the greedy owners love the extra run production, and the greedy union likes the extra roster spots, this crime against nature continues. And the DH is precisely why managers in the American League deserve less respect than their National League counterparts. And it is yet another reason that the AL is known as the "junior circuit."
To paraphrase the immortal Dan Aykroyd, Joe, you ignorant ####!
The AL is called the junior circuit because it came into being in 1901, after the formation of the NL. And yes, I can agree -- to an extent -- that managing in the NL is more dificult because you have to factor in the pitcher's spot in the batting order.
Still, when both Mike and Mike claimed that baseball would be better without the DH, I wanted to throw something at my TV. NO!
What these revisionists fail to understand is the DH actually helps the game more than they can comprehend. The DH actually adds something to the game and disposing of it would give baseball a boring sameness.
Look, we get to argue this every year -- the AL is better, no the NL is better. Do we have this in the NFL? Does anybody care about which conference is better in professional football? Nope.
Since everybody plays the same game and the same rules, there is practically no difference in the games of each Super Bowl participant. If you're old enough, you can raise a cheer for a traditional NFC team or wave a pennant for one of the old AFL franchises. Other than that, who cares?
In fact, I'd argue further that the only people who don't care for the DH are all over the age of 40. There is an entire generation -- really, almost two generations -- that have grown up with the DH and if they've played the game on any level, have played with the DH in their game. Except for these old farts and NL supremacists, nobody else cares.
Greenberg insists that since baseball has changed over the years, we can look forward to the eventual demise of the DH. He suggests that once upon a time the very notion of interleague play, wild cards and instant replay were unthinkable, but all have been introduced to Major League Baseball and to the betterment of the game.
But those were steps forward, Greeny. Eliminating the DL is a big step backward. No DH means that one less functional hitter gets to bat and one less spot on the roster.
Again, I'd argue loudly that I don't want both leagues to play the same game. I think our status quo -- DH in the AL, no DH in the NL -- is the best of both worlds. And without the yearly argument, there'd be a boring sameness between the World Series teams.
And what's so bad about getting a few more seasons on the end of our favorite players' careers? If the DH had been inacted a decade earlier -- so the careers of say, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial and Ted Williams would have been extended -- I doubt that we'd even be having this argument in the first place.
For this and other reasons, I feel that I would make a MUCH better MLB Commissioner than Mike Greenberg, the only self-professed candidate for the job. With that in mind, I am announcing my own candidacy to be your next MLB Commissioner. Therefore, I am challenging the esteemed Mr. Greenberg to a debate on the DH and the other issues facing the game.
Any time, any place, Greeny. You can stack the questioners full of your ESPN comrades -- Peter Gammons, Buster Olney, Jayson Stark et al. Have them all ask both of us questions and see which one of us truly has a better grasp on the game of baseball.
In the spirit of this current toxic political season, I have concocted my own negative ad slogan: Can we really trust the judgment of a failed game show host to be our next MLB Commissioner? I think not.
Oh, it doesn't mean anything about our budding campaign or the DH kerfluffle, but you had to enjoy Mike Ditka (on ESPN's Mike and Mike, no less) calling the AL Champs, the "Tampa Ray Bays."
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, word came out yesterday in San Francisco that the 49ers would be firing one of their own Mikes, head coach Mike Nolan, after this Sunday's game.
Of course, Nolan did what we would do if we heard such a rumor at work about our job security -- he walked into his boss's office and asked point blank, what gives? And like our own lives, the guy behind the desk said something like, "um, we were gonna tell you, but..."
So, the old Mike is being replaced by the new Mike, former Super Bowl Shuffling Mike Singletary. And it's not like Nolan left many friends in the Bay Area to defend him. Gwen Knapp of the SF Chronicle made the following parting shot, ridiculing the dapper Nolan for being "ill-suited" to the job.
On the surface, Nolan seemed very different from his employers, the York branch of the DeBartolo family. He is full of swagger and vanity, a man of many words, most of them empty. The Yorks are sensible-shoes people, deathly allergic to microphones.
But both sides, the owners and their erstwhile head coach, care very, very much, almost desperately, about the opinions of others. They want to do the right thing. They just can't figure out on their own what that might be. So they'd listen and listen and listen, and the result was a lot of voices in their head and no clear vision about the football team.
Some of that could change under Mike Singletary, who has a strong sense of self reinforced by a bronze bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Chosen as Nolan's replacement, he is unlikely to copy his predecessor and request permission to wear a suit on the sideline. Singletary's idea of a fashion statement is a faded nylon pullover with the lettering nearly erased and a wooden cross around his neck.
He does cut a surprisingly sleek figure these days, no longer built like a bulldog of a linebacker. But ask Singletary about his fitness regime, and he won't preen at all. He'll humbly admit that he failed a physical for a non-football job after he left the Chicago Bears. The doctor told him he was a prime candidate for diabetes and heart disease, and he cleaned up his diet.
But does that mean Singletary can reshape the 49ers' culture, once among the best in sports, now fighting the Clippers and Raiders for the aisle seats in purgatory? The Yorks would have to get the kind of luck that is not the residue of design.
Moreover, the new Mike has another holdover Mike, Mr Martz, the offensive coordinator. Can the two join forces and turn the Niners around? San Jose Mercury-News columnist Mark Purdy isn't convinced.
History proves that dumping a coach in October almost always accomplishes squat. NFL teams have changed coaches during the season more than 80 times since 1930. But only three times — and not since 1961 — has it resulted in a team making the playoffs. Only four other times has it resulted in a winning season.
Singletary, in other words, is fighting enormous odds. It did not have to be this way. Management had a chance to reboot the team after last season's dismal 5-11 record, Nolan's third straight losing season. In early January, I called Nolan "the luckiest coach in football" to be returning. No previous 49ers coach had been allowed to stay on after three sub-.500 seasons.
Of course, should Singletary and Martz fail, yet another Mike looms in the distance. Mike Holmgren, former Super Bowl winner in Green Bay and about to retire at season's end in Seattle, started out as a Niner assistant coach.
In an ideal scenario, the 49ers play this season out under Singletary, show progress and gain momentum for a fresh start in 2009 under different leadership. Ideally, they bring in Mike Holmgren to either coach or oversee the football operations (a la Bill Parcells' role with the Miami Dolphins). General manager Scot McCloughan worked with Holmgren in Seattle, so presumably there's an amicable relationship that could help them ferret out a new coach if Holmgren doesn't want that exact job.
Other candidates surely will surface. There might be a desire to return to the West Coast-offense roots with a former 49ers coordinator, such as Greg Knapp (now with the Raiders) or Marty Mornhinweg (Eagles). Maybe they'd get a hotshot NFL assistant (e.g. New England's Josh McDaniels) or dare to venture into the college ranks, a path that led the Yorks to the disappointing Dennis Erickson era.
But they probably won't fork over the massive salary it would take to lure a Bill Cowher or Pete Carroll, especially not if Holmgren is paid big money to serve as the new chief who'd pick the coach like Parcells did in Miami.
(One last Holmgren note: The New York Giants' game program Sunday listed Holmgren as the 49ers coach, a typo likely explained by the fact that Holmgren's Seahawks were the previous visitors to Giants Stadium on Oct. 5.)
Finally, it's been a bad week so far for technology. Once upon a time, we grew so jaded of space travel that we took it for granted and barely considered the dangers involved. The Challenger and Columbia disasters kicked those complacent feelings to the curb.
[I digress as usual, but I once saw a former space capsule at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. I took one look and was flabbergasted? They took this THING out into space and came BACK? I wouldn't ride that contraption to Kenosha and back.]
Anyway, we've all gotten used to having the world provided to us on our TV sets nightly from all over the world. Witness the dismay and disbelief that followed this weekend. In the space of roughly 24 hours, viewers suffered through the loss of the signal from both Game 6 of the ALCS Saturday night and the San Diego-Buffalo game on Sunday afternoon.
Baseball fans tuning into TBS for the game were treated to the comic stylings of Steve Harvey and not the Red Sox-Rays game. Who in the world made that decision? Not back to the studio for an explanation? Not more pre-game fluff before getting back to the game? And this was compounded by the umpires' decision to start the game anyway, so viewers missed a first inning home run.
Meanwhile, CBS has been broadcasting the NFL forever, but they kept losing the feed from the Chargers-Bills game. At least, they had the good sense to provide an actual alternate NFL game in its place.
The highly paid media professional who decided that Steve Harvey was a perfectly good choice for filling air space during Game 6 of the ALCS should join Mike Nolan on the umemployment line.
"To anybody who's a soul music fan, this is like royalty dying," ...
Admittedly, it was awfully tough to watch the deciding Game 7 of the American League Championship Series last night. A big reason was my constant flicking back to watch Mad Men on AMC, THE essential MUST watch television program in my life at the moment.
(Note to AMC) Hey, bring Don Draper back to New York already! Don't pull a Desparate Housewives and get all goofy in only your second season and lose your faithful fan base!)
The main reason, though, that many other Americans couldn't bear to watch the baseball game last night was the sickening feeling that the plucky Tampa Bay Rays were about to be gutted by the fates and the Evil Empire 2.0 -- otherwise known as the Boston Red Sox -- were about to pull yet another metaphorical rabbit out of their caps to win yet another American League pennant.
I'll touch on the Evil Empire 2.0 in a moment, but consider the karma surrounding the game for Tampa Bay and their fans last night. They'd been seven runs up and seven outs away from winning it last Thursday night and now it was down to one single game -- after a whole season of defying expectations -- of finally falling just short of the World Series.
Even though they'd won the AL East, these Rays and their fans were in danger of being just another lovable loser, just another Bartman moment, just another speedbump as the Evil Empire 2.0 skipped right past them.
Could this miracle of a baseball season be consigned to the dungeon of great postseason collapses? Could the '08 Rays go from being the '69 Mets to the '03 Cubs in 72 hours flat?
It would be like those '69 Mets blowing a 3-1 World Series lead to the Orioles. It would be like the Soviets scoring two late goals to beat the U.S. Olympic hockey team at Lake Placid in 1980. It would be like Mike Tyson getting back up to knock out Buster Douglas.
It would be a shame if this season was judged by how it ended.
Flaming wreckage is no way to end this. No way at all.
Instead, it happened and nothing will ever be the same. This was big. This was Charlie Brown finally getting to kick that football big.
Now there is a mourning Red Sox Nation that is in total denial. They don't understand that their beloved team has become the NEW New York Yankees -- the NEW best-team-money-can-buy and therefore, the team America now roots AGAINST!
So how are we going to explain why, when it looked as if the Amazin' Rays would buckle under the pressure of a seventh game, they refused to buckle? How are we going to explain exactly why, when it looked as if the Red Sox would make the Rays another notch in their remarkable postseason belt, that it was the defending world champions who would melt?
All we can tell you is that it happened. All we can tell you is the Rays, the latter-day cousins of the '69 Amazin' Mets, beat the Red Sox 3-1 before 40,473 fans and at least that many cowbells at Tropicana Field to win the seventh game of the 2008 ALCS. All we can tell you is a team that had finished in last place nine of the 10 years of its existence answered a 96-loss season with 97 wins, a division title and its first World Series appearance.
"I hate to disappoint the hard-liners, but I really can step back [and enjoy this as a fan]," Rays` manager Joe Maddon said before the start of Sunday's game. "I actually was taking my bike ride today, and you just look out over the water and you think about Game 7. When you're a kid in the playground or in the backyard playing, you're always playing Game 7. Well, here it is."
Maddon said he never lost a Game 7 in his backyard growing up in Hazleton, Pa. Well, this isn't Hazleton. This is the big leagues. To be fair, Maddon was the bench coach when the Angels beat the Giants in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series. But those were the Giants. These are the Red Sox, and they steal dreams.
Last pitch: 11:40 p.m. Tampa Bay went nuts in celebration at 11:41. Within 10 minutes, the Rays were circling the field, spraying fans with champagne, jumping up and high-fiving them. And who could blame them? The Rays may have been too young and dumb to realize they were supposed to choke this series away, but they sure are special.
"I know our guys will be down for a little while, but they have no reason to hang their heads," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said of a season filled with injuries and transition. And he's right.
If you're a Red Sox fan, you hate that your team lost. But if you're any kind of baseball fan, you can't hate the Rays for winning.
Locally, there was some baseball news of note. The Milwaukee Brewers announced that they'd signed General Manager Doug Melvin to a contract extension, would make a solid contract offer to free agent pitcher CC Sabathia and would NOT consider Dale Sveum for the field manager's job next season.
Sveum, of course, is crushed. He played for the Brewers, he pulled the team from the brink of elimination to make the playoffs and believed that he'd get a fair shot at managing on a full-time basis.
Melvin insists that he wants someone with previous managing success and the list of possibles includes many of the usual subjects. Still, this columnist's prediction -- a month ago, I might add -- is still Bob Brenly.
Brenly, the former Arizona manager now broadcasting Chicago Cubs games for WGN, certainly has seen the Brewers and other National League Central clubs many times in that role, and he fits the “previous success” qualification by leading the Diamondbacks to the 2001 World Series title.
Moreover, after watching both teams over the last few years, Brenly should have tremendous insight into what the Brewers need to do to overtake the Cubbies in the NL Central.
Curb your enthusiasm, but the Wisconsin Badgers are projected to go to the Motor City Bowl. (Yeah, baby, Detroit in December sure beats Florida on New Year's Day, ainna hey!)
Admittedly, Darst isn't sold on Wisconsin, and even said (after taking a longer look at UW): "wow, I'm looking at the schedule, not sure they can make it."
Darst is thinking UW will end up at 6-6 - but might need a three-game winning streak to close the season to get there. More of his reasoning: "But yes, out of 11 teams, 2 to the BCS, Indiana and Purdue out, Wisconsin is projected as the last team to get in -- Motor City bowl."
Still, the Badgers weren't even the biggest disappointment in the country last Saturday, not even the biggest flop in the Big Ten. That dubious honor goes to Michigan State, which laid a big fat egg on network TV in losing BIG to Ohio State.
The Detroit Free Press' Mitch Albom (yes, he still actually writes a column like the rest of us ink stained wretches) gives Sparty the big thumbs-down.
The weather was perfect, the stadium was packed and the whole town was pounding with green-and-white optimism.
And then the game started.
And Ohio State pulled the Spartans’ pants down.
Not ready. Not yet. The records suggested that Michigan State was an elite team, but records are just numbers. The field tells the tale. And on the field, there were the Big Boys and there were the Wannabes. Before this game was 15 minutes old, it told an age-old story about one team that has done it and one team that is still dreaming about it.
“What’s the one thing you did well today?” someone asked MSU defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi, after the 45-7 drubbing.
“I thought we did a good job in warm-ups,” he said.
Unfortunately, you missed those. What you saw was one team, on the road, that was more than ready for the big stage, and one team, at home, that was still in make-up.
And now the Spartans have must guard against their dreaded second-half-of-the-seasonitis. Plenty of MSU teams start out hot, and by November have cooled to mediocre. Should the Green and White lose next weekend to arch-rival Michigan, not only will the polish have come off this team, it will need a paint job.
Oh, the Badgers limp back home from their debacle at Iowa to face an Illinois team that crushed Indiana last Saturday, 55-13.
And you can expect a healthy number of Illini fans in town for Homecoming. In their Sunday Travel section, the Chicago Sun-Times obliged the Oskee Wow Wow faithful with suggestions on where to go and what to do --claiming Mad City Offers More Than Football.
No trip to Wisconsin would be complete without carting home cheese. Get your dairy fill at Fromagination, an artisan cheese shop at 12 S. Carroll St., on Capitol Square; www.fromagination. com, (608) 255-2430.
Almost as famous as Wisconsin's cheese is its bratwurst. Try State Street Brats, 603 State St., for its sports bar scene, burgers, chicken wings and of course, the brats; www.statestreetbrats.com, (608) 255-5544.
Speaking of food, the Dane County Farmers Market boasts more than 300 vendors and completely encircles the Capitol. It runs from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays. All the produce and products on sale -- ranging from veggies to honey to meats -- were raised by the folks selling them; www.dcfm.org/wandw.asp.
For a special treat, make a dinner reservation at the widely acclaimed L'Etoile Restaurant, 25 N. Pinckney St. Named Sante Magazine's Culinary Hospitality Restaurant of the Year for 2008, L'Etoile's seasonal menus are based on ingredients from small Midwestern farms prepared with French flare; www.letoile-restaurant.com, (608) 251-0500.
Next door to L'Etolie is a traditional Wisconsin supper club, Old Fashioned, 23 N. Pinckney St. Dig into the beer-battered cheese curds, 16-ounce ribeye steak and rainbow trout; www.theoldfashioned.com, (608) 310-4545.
So, apparently, these cheese-seeking FIB's can't be expected to waddle any farther than State Street and Capitol Square. Hey, while you're at it, check out some Illinoise cuisine at the FIB's cart on the other end of State Street -- on the Library Mall. And by the way, it's Mad Town, NOT Mad City.
Finally, we lost somebody special this weekend. Perhaps the greatest voice in American soul music history was stilled on Friday as Levi Stubbs Jr. passed away.
That voice -- rough, raw, intense -- remains a fixture on the American music landscape, unmistakable on such evergreen Four Tops hits as "Reach Out I'll Be There," "Bernadette," "Standing in the Shadows of Love" and "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)."
Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. paid homage in a statement: "Levi was the greatest interpreter of songs I've ever heard. ... I remember when we heard their first Motown release, 'Baby I Need Your Loving.' Levi's voice exploded in the room and went straight for our hearts. We all knew it was a hit, hands down."
Unlike Marvin ####e, who used his voice to caress, or Smokey Robinson, whose silky croon sparkled, Stubbs headed straight for the guts of his notes, summoning a distinctive grit and fire. For most vocalists, the perky melody in the lines "sugar pie, honey bunch" was an invitation to go sunny and sweet. For Stubbs, it was a chance to insist -- to plead, cajole, declare, demand.
Ann Arbor's Chris Rizik, who runs the popular music site SoulTracks.com and calls Stubbs his all-time favorite vocalist, said Friday's news prompted an outpouring of tributes and reminiscing from fans around the world.
"The larger population might not even know the name. But to anybody who's a soul music fan, this is like royalty dying," said Rizik. "People are going to be talking about this for a long time. In the deep soul community, this will resonate just as much as Marvin ####e's death."
Do yourself a favor and rent the Motown 25 Anniversary special. In it, witness a recreation of one of the greatest moments and most vivid experiences in American soul music history.
Levi Stubbs' Four Tops would face often off in a mock duel with fellow Motowners, the Temptations and Stubbs would invariably steal the show. The Tops would sing a clip of one of their hits and the Temps would retaliate with one of theirs.
Watch the scene in Motown 25, when suddenly in the midst of "I Know I'm Losing You," Stubbs cuts in front of Dennis Edwards to scream...
"...it's all over your face, someone's taken your place, oooooh, baby, am I losin you..."
As for me, I've had the same verse going again and again in the back of my brain.
"...it's the same old song...but it's a different meaning since you've gone..."
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."
