Inside sports fans of all ages, there exists the little kid who first fell in love with the sport. So the athletes they rabidly rooted for back then will always hold a special place in their hearts. It’s been a tough month for my inner sports child, because The Snake and The American Dream are gone.
I grew up in Arkansas, which has no professional teams. So I could pick and choose my favorites without any geographic constraints. Back in the Dark Ages when I was a wee lad, the Oakland Raiders were actually good. (Hard to believe now, I know.) And leading the Silver & Black attack was Kenny “The Snake” Stabler. A soft-throwing, hard-partying southpaw who fit the Raider renegade mode perfectly.
“I was head coach of the Raiders the entire time Kenny was there, and he led us to a whole bunch of victories, including one in Super Bowl XI,” former Raiders coach John Madden said in the team release. “I’ve often said, if I had one drive to win a game to this day, and I had a quarterback to pick, I would pick Kenny. Snake was a lot cooler than I was. He was a perfect quarterback and a perfect Raider.”
Ken Stabler with another boyhood hero, James “Rockford” Garner
Of course, in addition to real sports, I also followed the fake sport of professional wrestling. I’d get up every Saturday morning to watch the antics of greats like Andre The Giant, Ernie “Cat” Ladd, Dick Murdoch, and “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes. I knew it was theater, and I still loved it. Dusty Rhodes was great in the ring, but even better outside it with a microphone in his hand. He wasn’t the most athletic wrestler, but he was easily the most loquacious. Dude could talk a great game. His forehead was filled with crosshatched scars, because back in those days the rasslers would surreptitiously use a razor to cut themselves during a match, adding a bit of blood to the drama. Dusty paved the way for the Rowdy Roddy Pipers of the world. Now my sons watch WWE, and I can see Dusty’s fingerprints all over it. I’m sure he’s having fun in the squared circle in the sky.
Permed hair, permanent place the hearts of rasslin’ fans. Woo!
Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips may have lost a step at age 34, but he can still pick it in the field better than any other 2B around. Check out this gem from a couple nights ago.
As Reds fans know, he makes plays like that every week. Better still, Brandon has a childlike joy for the game that is contagious. And he’s great with the fans. I’ve taken my kids down to the Reds stadium many, many times over the years, and BP is out there smiling and signing autographs before every game. I wish other players would follow his example – those five minutes a day can create a new generation of lifelong fans, and baseball needs the help.
It’s Opening Day for baseball in Cincinnati, which is an unofficial civic holiday around here – a parade, kids playing hooky from school, day-drinking… and tonight is the NCAA men’s basketball finals. A feast for the sports fanatic.
The Cincinnati Reds are picked to finish last in their division this year, mainly because they fared poorly last year and lost two starters from that team via trade, while not really picking up much, other than Marlon Byrd to play left field. I think they’ll do better than the prognosticators say… or at least I hope so. There was an interesting article in the Cincinnati Enquirer recently about the diametrically opposite batting approaches favored by two of the Reds biggest stars, Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips. Joey is new school all the way, a Sabermetrics dream come true. He’d rather walk than swing at a bad pitch. Which is fine if the folks behind you in the lineup have some pop, but that’s not the case for the Reds. I prefer the Brandon Phillips approach – if there’s a dude on 3rd with less than 2 outs, your job is to get him home… and a walk isn’t going to do that. So if you’re counting votes, put me down for Team Brandon.
Now on to hoops. Turns out Kentucky was beatable after all. Sorry Ashley Judd.
I know some college basketball fans wanted to see a perfect season, but I wasn’t one of them, mainly because of the insufferable better-than-thou attitude of many in Big Blue Nation. Halfway through the season, I was watching a UK game on TV and saw a UK fan in the stands wearing this shirt:
That sort of hubris deserves a comeuppance, and that’s exactly what Frank the Tank and the Wisconsin Badgers delivered. Now they just need to knock off Duke, or else we’ll have another set of insufferable fans to deal with.
My Xavier Musketeers have made the Sweet 16 for the 5th time since 2008, which is great. But Scott Gleeson of USA Todayranked the 16 teams left according to their chances to cut down the nets in Indianapolis, and Xavier finished dead last. 16th out of 16. When pigs fly. Snowball’s chance in hell.
Here’s what I say to you, Mr. Scott Gleeson of USA Today:
I’m a Xavier University alum and have season tickets for their men’s basketball team, so I was thrilled that they beat Georgia State yesterday to get to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament. (It’s their 5th Sweet 16 since 2008.) But I think members of the media and casual fans of the tourney were disappointed because it ended a great story line about the Georgia State coach, Ron Hunter. While celebrating his team’s win in their conference tournament finals, he blew out his Achilles tendon…
…so he had to coach in the NCAAs while wearing a boot and sitting on a rolling chair that looked like it was straight out of the Staples catalog. When his son R.J. Hunter, a junior guard on the team, hit an amazing game-winning shot in their first round upset of Baylor, he was so excited that he fell out of his chair.
As fate would have it, another Georgia State player is Kevin Ware, who suffered a gruesome broken leg in the NCAA tourney while playing for Louisville two years ago.
And this is not the first time Ron Hunter has drawn attention to his feet. In 2008 he coached a game barefoot to encourage shoe donations and raise awareness for a charity called Samaritan’s Feet that provides shoes to poor children around the world.
Georgia State’s run was a great story. It wasn’t just about the injury but also about the joy of a father coaching his son, and both of them experiencing success together. Ron gave his son a big, teary-eyed hug when he came out of the game in the waning seconds yesterday.
And Coach Hunter had a heartwarming perspective about his team’s magical run in his post-game press conference:
What a class act! Now I almost feel bad that my beloved Musketeers beat them. Almost.
Kevin Sullivan on War… why? And now what?: “I read your post Damian and I like it very much. As we move from a Saturday morning headline of…” Mar 3, 09:22
Damian on Smartphones are making us dumb.: “Thanks for (not) reading the post, Kevin. And thanks for mentioning several other formats (article, essay, poem) that can train…” Feb 23, 19:55
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