Category: Sports

November 30 – each day, all the year

each day, all the year
Oh how I Hate Ohio State
Game Changes Nothing

I was about to start this line with “I am sorry but I like University of Michigan Football.”

I am not sorry.

There is nothing to be sorry about it.

The CEO of GANNETT once said, “33% of the population of the United States are rabid sports fans. 100% of sports fans in the United States think every IN THE United States are rabid sports fans.

I understand that.

And I am not sorry I like Michigan Football.

I am not a ‘Michigan Nut.”

I do not own a pair of MAIZE and BLUE checked golf pants.

I own very few MICHGAN branded items.

I do make sure that my shirts and sweat shirts say just MICHIGAN.

I do make sure that the word is printed on in a straight line.

No arced MICHGAN.

No BIG HOUSE.

No Block M’s.

No fancy lettering.

For me, it’s tradition,

Back when my older brother’s and sister’s went to Michigan, you had a choice of T Shirts.

Blue MICHIGAN on GOLD and Gold MICHIGAN on Blue.

This style is getting rare these days but the wife understands.

And I understand that this isn’t for everyone.

I come by this tradition honestly.

Grandpa Hoffman graduated from Michigan in 1911.

My Dad graduated in 1942.

5 of my brothers and all 3 sisters graduated from Michigan.

I graduated in 1983 from Michigan.

3 Brothers-in-Law and 2 Sisters-in-law graduated from Michigan.

Not sure, but I think 6 or 7 nephews and nieces are now Alumni.

So I make no apology.

I like Michigan Football.

I hate Ohio State.

GO BLUE.

Enough said.

October 27 – Michigan Football

Michigan Football
I know, silly, stupid … but
Beating Notre Dame

Very odd when the trivia question question during the Michigan – Notre Dame game last night asked about the last time Notre Dame came to Ann Arbor as the number 1 ranked team in the nation.

It was 1981.

It was also my first game as a Michigan student in the Michigan student section.

Steve Smith hit Anthony Carter down the sidelines for a touchdown in the student section corner of the end zone.

I screamed so loud and so long that something in my head went SNAP and I had a headache for 3 days.

Michigan went on the win 27-9.

It’s always great to beat Notre Dame.

IT’S GREAT TO BE

A MICHIGAN WOLVERINE.

October 13 – post game interviews

post game interviews
I listen and believe them,
though I know they lie

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose!

Michigan Football Coach after win over Illinois on October 12, 2019.

A lot of guys played extremely well, a lot of guys toughed it up.
I trust and believe in our team, and we saw the evidence today. Very proud of that fact, and of our guys. I think there’s a callous that’s been built there and a toughness that has been born out of that, and that bodes well for our team.
So I thought those guys rose to the challenge today.
We’ll see how we came out of this game. We’ll find out when we find out.

Interview practice from the the movie, Bull Durham:

Crash: “You got something to write with? Good. It’s time to work on your interviews.”
Nuke: “My interviews? What do I got to do?”
Crash: “You’re gonna have to learn your cliches. You’re going to have to study them. You’re going to have to know them. They’re your friends. Write this down. We’ve got to play them one day at a time.”
Nuke: “Got to play … that’s pretty boring, you know?”
Crash: “Of course it’s boring. That’s the point. Write it down!”
Nuke: “One day at a time …”
Crash: “I’m just happy to be here. Hope I can help the ball club. I know. Write it down. I just want to give it my best shot, and the good Lord willing, things will work out.”
Nuke: “Good Lord willing …”
Crash: “Things will work out.”

Sonnet 138: When my love swears that she is made of truth

When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her, though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutored youth,
Unlearnèd in the world’s false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue:
On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed.
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
Oh, love’s best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told.
Therefore I lie with her and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flattered be.

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

October 10 – 10 run 1st inning?

10 run 1st inning?
grand slam in the 10th? You choose …
zugzwang at the park!

Atlanta fans for once did not wake to the news that, once again, their team did not go down in flames. (Just what did Sherman start here?)

Because the Braves played at 4:30PM and it was all over by 5PM and Atlanta fans went to bed knowing what had happened to yet another pretty good baseball team.

Later that night, the Los Angeles Dodgers lost in the 10th inning on a grand slam home run.

Atlanta Braves brains considering zugzwang of Oct 9th

10 runs in the first inning or a grand slam in the 10th.

Nice symmetry of the number 10 and it is October 10th today.

This was also the 10th consecutive playoff series loss for the Braves.

Recently I have been made aware of the chess term, zugzwang.

A situation in which the obligation to make a move in one’s turn is a serious, often decisive, disadvantage.

In other words, you have to make a move but all moves are bad and most likely make the situation worse.

So many times in life fit in with zugzwang.

Almost of all sports is.

Tony La Russa once said, “There isn’t much I can do to win a ball game but there are a lot of things I can do to lose a ballgame.”

Or as one writer put it (it may have been Roger Angell), “Go to a bullpen filled with convicted arsonists?”

Zugzwang.

So to the original question.

10 runs in the 1st?

4 runs in the 10th?

Both win or go home games.

Would you rather have it be over almost before it started?

Or snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?

Give up 10 runs in the 1st?

Are you kidding?

On five hits?

Is that even possible?

Who does that?

Who can do that?

Well, besides any Atlanta team.

My Dad often said he liked his team to get a big lead and steadily pull away.

Or a grand slam in the 10th after being up 3 to 1 earlier in the game.

That seems to have happened more often.

The 10 runs in the 1st was a new record.

A record one team wants no part of.

That’s what nightmares are made of.

A grand slam in the 10th.

That’s what dreams are made of.