Archive for the 'Sports Links' Category
My brief answer: yes, but forgiveness doesn’t mean the elimination of consequences.
Douthat’s point is that we should be careful in saying that we won’t forgive McGwire, because we may have to discount every hero from that era of baseball.
Ross Douthat:
As Joe Posnanski notes, nobody seems much inclined to do it. And you can understand why. McGwire’s extended mea culpa comes years after it became clear that he took steroids, years after he stammered his way through a Congressional hearing, years after a public expression of contrition would have counted as brave and morally impressive. He’s been beaten to the admission-and-apology punch by everyone from Alex Rodriguez to Jason Grimsley. And he still doesn’t want to acknowledge, for understandable reasons, that the steroids made all his home runs possible, even though saying that they kept him healthy so that he could hit home runs is basically the same thing anyway.
But here’s the thing: If McGwire shouldn’t be forgiven, then I’m not sure anybody can be forgiven from here on out.
Read more here.
Hume: “You speak the name Jesus Christ, and I don’t mean to make a pun here, but all hell breaks loose. . . it is explosive. . . it triggers a very powerful reaction in people who do not share the faith, always has.”
God bless Brit Hume.
See also this post.
HT: Denny Burk
HT: About 10 different blogs
I pray Tiger hears this and responds.
There’s never been a day in my long sojourn on this earth when I could wake up with Iowa undefeated in November. We’ve got Indiana in Iowa City today. Sure, it’s not Florida-Alabama, but we’ll be pumped never the less.
I need to get into the mood, and what better way than recalling Hayden (“Scratch where it itches”) Frye’s Hawkeye victory over Michigan in 1985.
This along with saying the words, “Toledo,” or “Appalachian State,” will bring tears all over Michigan.
If nothing else, Todd and Brian will appreciate this one.
HT: Amy Scott
Even if you aren’t a baseball fan, you’ll appreciate these lines. Here’s what you need to know. Rickey was a tremendous baseball player who didn’t lack for confidence and often talked to himself in the third person.
(The collection is not original to this blog – - see below).
1) Rickey… on referring to himself in the third person:
“Listen, people are always saying, ‘Rickey says Rickey.’ But it’s been blown way out of proportion. People might catch me, when they know I’m ticked off, saying, ‘Rickey, what the heck are you doing, Rickey?’ They say, ‘Darn, Rickey, what are you saying Rickey for? Why don’t you just say, ‘I?’ But I never did. I always said, ‘Rickey,’ and it became something for people to joke about.”
2) In the early 1980s, the Oakland A’s accounting department was freaking out. The books were off $1 million. After an investigation, it was determined Rickey was the reason why. The GM asked him about a $1 million bonus he had received and Rickey said instead of cashing it, he framed it and hung it on a wall at his house.
3) In 1996, Henderson’s first season with San Diego, he boarded the team bus and was looking for a seat. Steve Finley said, “You have tenure, sit wherever you want.” Henderson looked at Finley and said, “Ten years? Ricky’s been playing at least 16, 17 years.”
4) This one might be my second favorite. This wasn’t too long ago, I think it was the year he ended up playing with the Red Sox. Anyway, he called San Diego GM Kevin Towers and left the following message: “This is Rickey calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball.”
5) This one happened in Seattle. Rickey struck out and as the next batter was walking past him, he heard Henderson say, “Don’t worry, Rickey, you’re still the best.”
6) Rickey once asked a teammate how long it would take him to drive to the Dominican Republic.
7) Moments after breaking Lou Brock’s stolen base record, Henderson told the crowd – with Brock mere feet next to him – “Lou Brock was a great base stealer, but today, I am the greatest of all-time.”
Henderson once fell asleep on an ice pack and got frostbite – which forced him to miss three games — in mid-August.
9) A reporter asked Henderson if Ken Caminiti’s estimate that 50 percent of Major League players were taking steroids was accurate. His response was, “Well, Rickey’s not one of them, so that’s 49 percent right there.”
10) Henderson broke Ty Cobb’s career record for runs scored with a home run. After taking his usual 45 seconds or so around the bases, Rickey slid into home plate.
11) On being Nolan Ryan’s 5,000th career strikeout: “It gave me no chance. He (Ryan) just blew it by me. But it’s an honor. I’ll have another paragraph in all the baseball books. I’m already in the books three or four times.”
12) San Diego GM Kevin Towers was trying to contact Rickey at a nearby hotel. He knew Henderson always used fake names to avoid the press, fans, etc. He was trying to think like Rickey and after several attempts; he was able to get Henderson on the phone.
Rickey had checked in under Richard Pryor.
13) I didn’t believe this one at first. However, I emailed a few contacts within the Sox organization and they claim it actually happened. This is priceless, it really is.
The morning after the Sox finished off the sweep against St. Louis last October, Henderson called someone in the organization looking for tickets to Game 6 at Fenway Park.
14) The Mets were staying in a hotel less than a mile from Cinergy Field in Cincinnati. While some players walked, most took the team bus. A few minutes after they arrived — again it was less than a mile – the last players off the bus noticed a stretched limo that had just pulled up.
Of course, Rickey emerged from the back seat.
15) A reporter once asked Rickey if he talked to himself, “Do I talk to myself? No, I just remind myself of what I’m trying to do. You know, I never answer myself so how can I be talking to myself?”
16) OK, I know everyone has been waiting for it. Alas, according to both parties involved, it’s not true. I wish it were. Heck, both Rickey Henderson and John Olerud have said they wish it were true. But it just didn’t happen.
The story went that a few weeks into Henderson’s stint with the Mariners, he walked up to Olerud at the batting cage and asked him why he wore a batting helmet in the field. Olerud explained that he had an aneurysm at nine years old and he wore the helmet for protection. Legend goes that Henderson said, “Yeah, I used to play with a guy that had the same thing.”
Legend also goes that Olerud said, “That was me, Rickey.”
Henderson played with Olerud on the Blue Jays and the Mets.
17) Rickey was asked if he had the Garth Brooks album with Friends in Low Places and Henderson said, “Rickey doesn’t have albums. Rickey has CDs.”
18) During a contract holdout with Oakland in the early 1990s, Henderson said, “If they want to pay me like Mike Gallego, I’ll play like Gallego.”
19) In the late 1980s, the Yankees sent Henderson a six-figure bonus check. After a few months passed, an internal audit revealed the check had not been cashed. Current Yankees GM Brian Cashman – then a low-level nobody with the organization – called Rickey and asked if there was a problem with the check. Henderson said, “I’m just waiting for the money market rates to go up.”
20) In June 1999, when Henderson was playing with the Mets, he saw reporters running around the clubhouse before a game. He asked a teammate what was going on and he was told that Tom Robson, the team’s hitting coach, had just been fired. Henderson said, “Who’s he?”
21) This is my all-time favorite. Rickey was pulled over by a San Diego police officer for speeding. As the officer was approaching Rickey’s car, the window went down a few inches and a folded $100 bill emerged. The officer let Rickey and his money head home without a ticket.
22) When he was on the Yankees in the mid-1980s, Henderson told teammates that his condo had such a great view that he could see, “The Entire State Building.”
23) During one of his stays with Oakland, Henderson’s locker was next to Billy Beane’s. After making the team out of spring training, Beane was sent to the minors after a few months. Upon his return, about six weeks later, Henderson looked at Beane and said, “Hey, man, where have you been? Haven’t seen you in awhile.”
24) To this day and dating back 25 years, before every game he plays, Henderson stands completely naked in front of a full length locker room mirror and says, “Ricky’s the best,” for several minutes.
25) In the last week of his lone season with the Red Sox, Chairman Tom Werner asked Henderson what he would like for his ‘going-away’ gift. Henderson said he wasn’t going anywhere, but he would like owner John Henry’s Mercedes. Werner said it would be tough to get the same make and model in less than a week and Henderson said, “No, I want his car.” Turns out the Sox got Henderson a Red Thunderbird and when he saw it on the field before the last game of the season, Rickey said, “Whose ugly car is on the field?”
HT: This collection is not original to me. It appears multiple places on the Internet and was unclear where it originated. Of course, some of it may be apocryphal – - but, it is entertaining none the less.
Reading this, I like how it turned out (even though I wanted one for the old guys).
Stewart Cink isn’t the sort to believe in good luck charms.
Yet he says it’s hardly a coincidence his good friend Zach Johnson won the 2007 Masters Tournament a year after his appearance at the Augusta Golf Breakfast.
"I thought every golfer would be lined up here to speak," the 13-year veteran of the PGA Tour joked early this morning at Warren Baptist Church.
It was Mr. Cink’s second visit to the Washington Road congregation, which sponsors the annual breakfast alongside The Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Both events drew 600 to 700 fans, who lobbied for autographs before and after Mr. Cink shared his thoughts on the big three "G’s" — Georgia, Golf, and God.
Though he lives in Duluth these days, Mr. Cink was born in Alabama to two golf-loving parents.
"I was always at the golf course," Mr. Cink said. "I never took a lot of lessons growing up. I just played. I let the golf course and my scorecard be my teacher."
The better he became at golf, the less he says he cared about God.
"I don’t think I saw the church doors for three or four years," Mr. Cink said. "I took a detour. It wasn’t a Christ detour."
A friend at Georgia Tech changed that. "He asked me, "If you died today, would you go to heaven?"
Mr. Cink thought he had the answer. "I had a list in my pocket, figuratively, of course," he said.
Are you a good person? "Check."
Are you nice to people? "Check," Mr. Cink said. "I had a checklist that would go on for hours and I, of course, had checked all the right boxes. I had to take a look at the man in the mirror."
Six years ago, he accepted "the gift of grace."
"Augusta National knocks you down more than it picks you up," Mr. Cink said.
Life, too, he says. "We all need the faith."
HT: Andrew Ford
George Daz of the Orlando Sentinel:
Dear Tom: I promise to stumble out of bed Sunday morning, get out of my flannel jammies, drink my Metamucil and cheer like crazy for you to win the British Open today.
And so should anyone else who still prefers vinyl over MP3s, the feel of getting the news from a Sunday paper instead of a computer keyboard, and the original lemon-lime Gatorade instead of Strawberry Kiwi Rain, the choice of wimpy metrosexuals no doubt.
Rise and shine, old schoolers. This is our day. And Tom Watson is our guy.
He’s on a blinding track to become the poster boy of the AARP generation, but not in the stereotypical context. Watson doesn’t need no ’stinkin’ dinner discounts. As someone who always defiantly throws away those mailers urging me to join the club, I couldn’t be prouder.
Watson is 18 holes from winning a major golf championship. The historical context is maddening. A few months short of 60, Watson is the oldest man to lead a major golf championship after three rounds since officials started keeping such records dating back to World War II.
Click here for the whole thing.
