At The End Of The Day

Overcoming The Odds

Today, October 30, marks 35 years since Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, the "Rumble in the Jungle." While it's a sports note, it is also a landmark in Ali's rise to become a global figure, using sports to find a worldwide following.

It is also a lesson in belief. In your own skills and overcoming others expectations. Everyone expected Foreman to win easily, except Ali.

Do You Believe In...Well, Not Quite Yet

Sports is not the normal subject for this blog. However, we must give recognition to the Boston Red Sox, for pulling of one of the greatest comebacks since...well, since 2004. There are few in sports history to match last night.

What about those poor suckers who left early? The stands looked full at the end of the game. Did they somehow get back in? Or did some freeloaders sneak in and fill those seats? Good for them if they did. Has anything come close to last night in sports?

An Olympic Thought

The Mayor of London needs a tailor. 

  I'm sure when he won, he thought, "Yes! I get a free trip to China!"

How About A Fresca?

An article in today's NY Times talks about bad golf course habits.  Nothing new there.  But, in the comments section, asking people to add to the list of bad habits, came my favorite:

I'm going to put it right on the line. There's been a lot of complaints already. Fooling around on the course, bad language, smoking grass, poor caddying. If you guys want to get fired. If you want to be replaced by golf carts, just keep it up.

The poster's name?  Danny Noonan of course.

Where It Began...

I absolutely love seeing the reincarnation of an old, semi-popular song. Currently, Rick Astley’s, “Never Gonna Give You Up”, is that new hot piece of 80’s to get dusted off.

The NY Daily News New York Mets blog reports, “The Mets will have a runoff to determine their new eighth-inning sing-along tune."

The Mets received 5 million votes on its Web site after inviting fans to choose from among 10 selections to potentially replace Sweet Caroline. An issue arose, however, when FARK.com readers bombarded the Mets with gag votes for a write-in candidate: Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up.

Astley actually won.

The Mets are really missing a golden opportunity. Why not try it for a year?

I’m a Sox fan, and I love belting it out, but is Sweet Caroline really that much better of a song? Here’s a list of the things comparing what Rick Astley won’t do, and how Neil describes being with Caroline:

Rick will never...
Give you up
Let you down
Run around and hurt you
Make you cry
Say goodbye
Tell a lie and hurt you

However, Neil...
Doesn’t know when it began
Feels hurt
Didn’t think she’d come along

And then makes the song about himself, so it should really be called Sweet Neil and Caroline.

So, how long before we see Rick Astley crooning in an ad? My guess is before the leaves start to fall.

Jack Myers in Dreamland

Jack Myers media report has a story about his vision of the Yankees as a new reality show.  Along with my take on it.

Besides Myers being in total denial about Joe Torre ever coming back to the Yankees, does anyone really want to observe the Yankees as reality? Perhaps it would be better than the recent The Bronx is Burning series on ESPN.

I think the series could work though.  Imagine the Yankees self-destructing under the guidance of Hank and Hal Steingrabber, while the nation, except for the bandwagon-jumping, fair-weather hordes of Yankee fans, watches and laughs.

I know one casting lock. Nicolas Cage as Brian Cashman.

Fair Comment?

http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1201929146

Have you seen this video?  Oklahoma State University football coach Mike Gundy lashes into a reporter for writing a column about one of his players.

The coach criticizes the reporter for the negative piece, and "suggests" the writer wouldn't think that way if she had children of her own and considered how their feelings would be wounded.  I suggest you look as well at the coach's body language as he makes his statements, pointing his finger and moving out from behind the podium.  Do you think he would have acted the same way if the reporter were a male?  I don't. 

Sportswriters are defending the column because of journalistic principles.  However, it is the approach the coach took to attack the columnist with which I take issue.  I see this as one of those, "you were never a player so you can never know what we do," things. 

That's a specious argument and always has been.  Most people who report on politics aren't politcians.  Nor should they be.  People who report on sports don't have to, nor should they always, be ex-athletes. That feeling by athletes that only they can accurately report on their sport is a reflection of the coddling culture America has unfortunately created around sports.

When I was at Syracuse University, we used to get on basketball player Danny Schayes all the time because he was rather klutzy back then.  Coach Jim Boeheim used to get furious at the student section for that.  But, if you're going to play a big-time sport at a big-time university, you're going to come under scrutiny, from fans or the media.  It's part of the atmosphere and part of the training, frankly, if you ever hope to play pro sports.  Schayes ended up spending 18 seasons in the NBA.  Did I have a part in that?

The king watches from his throne

Yesterday's NY Times says that Sunday's U.S. Open winner, Angel Cabrera, watched the final holes from "the scorer's area of the clubhouse."

I watched the final holes of the open from the comfort of my living room. From where I was sitting, it looked like Cabrera was watching in a bathroom.

Comments welcome.

CDW needs a mulligan

The print edition of Thursday's USA Today has an ad at the bottom of the front page of the sports section from CDW. CDW provides IT consulting and support.

I have no idea if CDW's service is good. But the ad sucks.

It shows a silhouette of a golf swing, and suggests that CDW become the equivalent of your swing coach when it comes to IT. One problem: The swing in the ad is among the worst I've seen. I mean it's awful technique. The player is constantly in a weak position, unbalanced and looks like close to a triple-digit handicapper. Big Boy has a better swing than that.

Anyway, if you want to say you're a coach, recognize that when it comes to matters you don't know about...consult a coach .

A super superstition

Baseball players are notorious for being superstitious. Take Wade Boggs.

Boggs was known for his superstitions as much as his hitting. He ate chicken before every game (Jim Rice once called Boggs "chicken man"), woke up at the same time every day, took exactly 150 ground balls in practice, took batting practice at 5:17 and ran sprints at 7:17. His route to and from his position in the field beat a path to the home dugout. He drew the Hebrew word "Chai", meaning "life", in the batter's box before each at-bat, though he is not Jewish.

Now we have Red Sox relief pitcher, Jonathan Papelbon. When he enters the game, Papelbon "knuckles up" with Boston police officer Billy Dunn.

It's a touching story about two men comfortably touching each other.