9.8.2024 – I kinda feel bad

I kinda feel bad
I kinda feel good there are
other fans who feel worse

The last time the University of Michigan football team lost a game was back in 2022.

Until yesterday.

They lost and lost badly to the University of Texas at Austin.

The lost so badly that I felt bad – not bad bad, but downish in a goofy for what it’s all about way, bad.

Back when I was in college one of my roommates was from Ann Arbor and his folks would invite us over to their house for lunch and watch the game on Saturdays when Michigan had an away game.

After a game that saw Michigan lose to Illinois, my roommate’s Mom looked out the window and said that now she wouldn’t be able to read the Sunday Morning papers because they would all, somehow, work the score of the game into any story.

She also said she wasn’t looking forward to church as she knew their Pastor would work the score into his sermon.

She hated losing.

She wasn’t particularly fond of people who ‘lost games’ for Michigan.

I remember watching a game at their house once and Michigan was lining up for a field goal attempt and I said, “I wonder what Bryan Virgil is doing now?”

Mr. Virgil had had a fairly good multi year career for Michigan as a placekicker, except for having a game winning attempt against Notre Dame blocked back in 1979.

There were those who point out that a Notre Dame player jumped up on someone’s back to block the kick (a move that resulted in a new rule the next year) and there were those who claimed Mr. Virgil took too long to get the kick off.

When I wondered out loud what Mr. Virgil was now doing, my roommate’s Mom fired back, “I don’t know, but what ever it is, he is taking 5 steps to do it.”

When Michigan lost yesterday I thought of my roommates Mom.

I thought I don’t want to watch any more football today.

I don’t want to read the papers tomorrow.

And I know that in Church, even here in the low country of South Carolina, where the Pastor is actually a Michigan Fan (a west Michigan native), I will most likely hear about the game from the pulpit.

I puttered around most of the rest of Saturday afternoon.

My wife and I went out to investigate a new used bookstore we had heard about and picked up 4 novels from the Four-for-a-Dollar bin.

We call these beach books as I am reluctant to bring my devices to the beach.

Also I find it refreshing for my eyes to read a printed novel from time to time.

Back home, being Saturday and my day in the kitchen, still feeling a bit blue, I got the out tools and ingredients for the evening hamburgers and fries.

I then turned on the TV.

And I heard, “It’s a stunning loss for Notre Dame and a stunning victory for NIU!”

And I smiled.

I laughed out loud.

I felt good.

Sure Michigan lost to a top 5 team.

But ND was a top 5 team and lost.

Lost to a team from the Mid American Conference.

Not a slam on NIU , just saying.

I felt good that there were football fans who felt worse than I did.

I felt good that Michigan’s loss was not THE college football story for this weekend.

Then for a second, I felt bad.

I felt bad that I felt good that other fans felt worse than I did.

Than I remembered I was thinking about Notre Dame.

And I didn’t feel that bad at all.

Gotta got get ready for church.

8.15.2024 – what a brutal stretch …

what a brutal stretch …
they responded, just hope it’s
not one of those years

The team arrived for training camp, and during an otherwise nondescript seven-on-seven rep, promising young cornerback Mekhi Blackmon crumbled to the turf with a torn ACL. The next day, Shaq Griffin, whom the Vikings signed as a veteran corner and locker room voice, tripped while deflecting a pass. Griffin’s injury was less severe, but the cornerback has yet to return to practice.

Shortly thereafter, I was chatting with a longtime Vikings staffer one day before practice and said, “What a brutal stretch.”

“I know,” they responded. “You just hope it’s not one of those years.”

All seasons are different. But in 2010, the Vikings dealt with an onslaught of mayhem: Sidney Rice’s hip injury required surgery, Brett Favre was investigated for allegations that he sent inappropriate messages to a former Jets employee, Randy Moss was acquired and subsequently released amid an outburst and the freaking Metrodome roof collapsed.

You just hope it’s not one of those years.

From the article, J.J. McCarthy is done for the season, and the Vikings are left to pick up the pieces by Alec Lewis in the New York Times.

Mr. Lewis writes, “J.J. McCarthy, the symbol of a brand new organizational future, would miss the entire 2024 season. A surgical procedure, performed early Wednesday morning, indicated McCarthy’s meniscus needed a full repair. “

“Yeah, there’s been some things that, as I’ve said before, test your culture and foundation and locker room and building,” O’Connell said. “It really didn’t just begin this summer.”

6.22.2024 – his uniform fit

his uniform fit
better than everybody
else’s uniform

“You would stay on the bench during batting practice simply to watch him — and just watching him walk, even that was special,” said Cleon Jones, who grew up in Alabama idolizing Mays and ended up sharing the outfield with him when the Giants traded Mays to the Mets in 1972.

“I’m telling you, even his uniform seemed to fit better than everybody else’s uniform,” Jones said. “The players held him with a reverence that felt almost spiritual.”

From the article, Remembering Willie Mays as Both Untouchable and Human by Kurt Streeter.

Not much to say but I think of Jim Harrison in his book The Road Home when his lead character meets Sioux Lakota warriors, veterans of the wars with Custer.

Mr. Harrison writes, ” … warriors with a lineage that owed nothing to the white man. We did not live upon the same earth that they did and we flatter ourselves when we think we understand them. To pity these men is to pity the gods.”

I also want to point out that Mr. Mays did not play in the Major Leagues until he was 20 years old.

Al Kaline and Robin Yount both started when there were 18.

I think of the record book with two more seasons added to it.

Mr. Streeter writes, “How great was he?

Six hundred sixty. That is how many home runs bolted off Mays’s bat during his career. When the Say Hey Kid retired at the end of the 1973 season, only Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron had more.

Mays ended 23 major league seasons with a total of 3,293 hits and held a .301 lifetime batting average, eye-popping for a player with such power. Twenty-four times, he was named to the All-Star team. Twelve times, he won the Gold Glove Award. Ten times, he drove in more than 100 runs.

He was named the National League’s most valuable player twice. If it were not for a need to spread the award among players, some experts say, he could have been the M.V.P. seven more times.

Numbers and accolades tell only part of his story. For it was how Mays played — the way he bent the confines of baseball to his will with his smarts, his speed, his style and his power — that set him apart as the most deeply beloved of stars.”

Mr. Mays also missed a season due to having to fulfill his military service.

And it should be pointed out I guess that Jackie Robinson was rookie of the year, his first year, …when he was 28.

The New York Times closes its Obituary with:

When he was selected for the Hall of Fame, Mays was asked to name the best ballplayer he had ever seen.

“I think I was the best ballplayer I’ve ever seen,” he replied. “I feel nobody in the world could do what I could do on a baseball field.”

Not too many could argue.

I mean, to quote Cleon Jones once more, “I’m telling you, even his uniform seemed to fit better than everybody else’s uniform.”

5.4.2024 – intention was right

intention was right
but the execution was …
wrong — and they know that

Adapted from the article, in the Athletic, Nike, MLB announce uniform adjustments after player, fan criticism By Stephen J. Nesbitt May 3, 2024.

All the all important topic of the new uniforms in Major League Baseball, Mr. Nesbitt writes, “The intention was right,” Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson, a Nike-sponsored player who was critical of the new uniforms in spring training, said this week. “At the end of the day, the execution was wrong — and they know that. They’re obviously doing what they can to correct what they feel like needs to be corrected.”

Baseball is a game with a lot of traditions, some good, some bad, some very bad but there it is.

Of late, uniforms and how to modernize them for today’s players and fans have been in the news.

Seems that the latest batch of uniforms don’t measure up.

I am not saying we should go back to the all wool uniforms of the 1934 Gas House Gang but I just have to ask, wasn’t the look, most likely known as classic … well, classic?

Was because they pictures we have of that era are black and white that those uniforms look … well to me … perfect.

Remember when Bill Veeck came up with the un-tucked look for the Chicago White Sox?

I remember reading how Chet Lemon was traded from the Sox to the Tigers and walked into the clubhouse and said something like, HEY REAL UNIFORMS!

All this talk and the answer seems to be staring Major League Baseball right in the face.

As Mr. Swanson of the Chicago Cubs said:

At the end of the day, the execution was wrong — and they know that.

They’re obviously doing what they can to correct what they feel like needs to be corrected.

Why am I not confident they are doing what they can?

Or that I am confident in what they feel like needs needs to be corrected?

As the great Ted Williams said, “If you don’t think so good … don’t think so much.”

3.3.2024 – appreciate both

appreciate both
there’re flowers to go around
just leave it at that

In an article about LeBron James, As LeBron James hits 40,000-point threshold, the age-old GOAT debate has shifted by Sam Amick (The Athletic, Mar 2, 2024), Mr. Amick writes:

What’s more, the GOAT construct is tired and flawed in ways that do a disservice to them both. Contrary to popular belief, it’s OK to appreciate Picasso and Da Vinci at the same time and just leave it at that. There are enough flowers to go around.

GOAT meaning Greatest of All Time.

Which I usually translate to “The Greatest of All Time … This Week.”

It is Joe DiMaggio who is credited with saying he played hard … “Because there’s always some fan who may be seeing me for the first time. I owe him my best.”

That too me sums up the outlook of a GOAT.

I will pass over that Marylin Monroe left Mr. Dimaggio for University of Michigan Alum, Arthur Miller.

What do I think?

I think a lot of things, especially when talking about the greatest of all time.

But off all the things you could ask, think, require or want, I think Mr. Amick sums it up pretty good when he wrote, “… it’s OK to appreciate Picasso and Da Vinci at the same time and just leave it at that.

There are enough flowers to go around.

Just leave it at that.“

And I will say this.

Think of all the discussions of this topic in any given field and the discussions go on to the end of time because you know why?

I’ll tell you why.

Because there is NO SPONSOR or COMPETITION that is recognized as the accepted last word on the subject.

With no one to say this is that and that is so, the discussions can be endless.

And rightfully so.

There was time in College Football were there was no ‘truly’ recognized body to say which team and which team was not the best in any given season.

The result?

The real result?

The discussions were endless.

This past year, Michigan won, end of story, end of discussion, on to next year.

For me, the National Champion construct is tired and flawed in ways that do a disservice to them both.

There were a lot of good teams last.

There were enough flowers to around.

And the story, the discussions, would have gone on forever.

Just leave it at that.

Would this have been a bad thing?

The paths of glory lead but to the grave anyway.