Dad Daughter Sports
Thursday, December 26, 2024
Three and Ouch
Pity the poor Bears. Really. They face the Seahawks today, for their third game in eleven days. If there’s any consolation, they’re not alone.
Yesterday, four teams—Chiefs, Ravens, Steelers, Texans—did likewise in order to satisfy the “need” for NFL Christmas-Day programming. That’s five teams subjecting their players to a whole bunch of punishment with minimum time to recover. The Seahawks, who play the Munsters at Soldier Field tonight, will be playing for the third time in twelve days. I’m guessing what a difference an extra day won’t make for accumulated aches and pains.
The NFL is a ravenous beast. Network broadcast deals aren’t enough anymore to satisfy owners. Now, they’re going after streaming revenue, as evidenced by Netflix doing yesterday’s games and Amazon Prime tonight’s contest. Bears’ and Seahawks’ fans will be able to watch the gam the old-fashioned way, on free TV. How generous of the overlords.
That the NFL Players Association agreed to this schedule highlights the union’s weakness vis-à-vis the owners. From what I can tell, players are also going into “Macho” mold—we’re football player, dammit, we can take it.
Get back to me in twenty years, guys.
Wednesday, December 25, 2024
A Gift to Myself
I couldn’t just have Michele buy me a White Sox team autographed team ball for Christmas, so I bought one, too. A hearty welcome to the 85-77 1962 Sox.
There are three HOFers—Luis Aparacio, Nellie Fox and Early Wynn. As for Floyd Robinson, I can’t get over how small and legible he wrote his name. Plus a shoutout to Dom Zanni and Dean Stone. Charlie Maxwell, I think that’s your autograph. As to the name directly below Turk Lown’s, I haven’t a clue. It could be Eddie Fisher, or Al Weiss.
No, check that. I’m going with Sherm Lollar. Yes, we have a match and a Merry Christmas.
Tuesday, December 24, 2024
Old-school
Who’d have thought it, me claiming to be just like my late father-in-law? In many way, especially sports, Bob was very old-school.
It was a factor of time and place, the Chicago Public League in the 1940s. Bob played football and basketball, two “bladder” sports, as he put it. Playing the line or starting at forward, it was all the same to him. You kept your head down, plowed through the opposition and did your best to win the game. You did not showboat, which may or may not have been a term he used.
Old-school Bob sat and watched college sports, less with envy for a chance he never had—running up and down hills in Korea with a bull’s eye on his back got in the way—than irritation with the constant celebrating. I can only imagine what he would’ve made of the end zone spectacles that have become a staple in college and the NFL.
The danger is to turn this into a racial thing, to point out the Bears’ Tyrique Stevenson to the exclusion of everyone else for being unaware of the adage about laughing last and best. But I got tired long ago of Cole Kmet, the pride of Notre Dame, swinging for the fences after every touchdown he catches. You’re still stuck on a crappy team, Cole.
Head down, plow ahead, do your best to win. It worked for Bob, it works for me.
Monday, December 23, 2024
Crickets
Another game, another loss, and I don’t mean for the Sad Sox. Lions 34 Bears 17.
In these parts, athletics is politics. I’m willing to bet that early in the year the McCaskey war room fashioned a plan for pressuring the General Assembly into opening up the purse strings to help pay for a new mega stadium. It hinged on drafting Caleb Williams. From there, the propaganda machine took off.
I just did a quick Google search for “Kevin Warren lakefront stadium.” My, the Bears’ president and CEO was very chatty between March and October, from when fan interest was building behind the team, which happened to have the first selection in the draft, to when the Munsters had themselves a 4-2 record. Now, at 4-11, it’s crickets.
I wonder why.
Saturday, December 21, 2024
He's Back
From all indications, Sammy Sosa and the Cubs have kissed and made up. On Thursday, Sosa issued a statement in which he admitted, “I made mistakes,” when “There were times I did whatever I could to recover from injuries in an effort to keep my strength up to perform over 162 games.” His former team responded by inviting Sam-a-la to the 2025 Cubs Convention. Whatever.
I root for the other team in town and should be the last one to throw stones given the condition of the glass house I call home. What gets me, though, are those local sports’ people who think Sosa needs to get on his hands and knees; beg for forgiveness; and detail what PEDs he used, when, and from whom. To those Sosa critics who reported on him back in the day, allow me to ask a question or two.
Why didn’t you call him out at the time? What, you didn’t notice anything along the lines of a science experiment? In which case, shame on you.
Friday, December 20, 2024
Perchance...
Here’s something that you don’t see every day—the Bulls beating the reigning champions Celtics on the road. But that’s what happened last night for the first time in three years as the visitors scored a 117-108 upset in Beantown.
The win moved coach Billy Donovan’s kids to 13-15, which would be good enough to put them in the NBA playoffs. What’s interesting is the team features a bunch of young players plus three “old” guys—Lonzo Ball (27); Zach LaVine (29); and Nikola Vucevic (34). LaVine and Vucevic have been playing lights out while Ball playing at all on his surgically repaired left knee pretty much qualifies as a medical miracle. All three are considered trade bait.
There should be no rush to move anyone quite yet. Let’s say by some miracle the Bulls win their next two games, a rematch with the Celtics tomorrow at home followed by a visit Monday from Giannis Antetokuounmpo and the Bucks. In which case, why mess with a good thing? We’ll see.
Did I mention that Donovan was nominated to the basketball HOF?
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Playing with Fire
You reach a certain age, and the past becomes a potential problem. A person can confuse then with now, never a good thing. So, best to tread lightly in yesteryear.
That said, I’m treading, in the form of a family tree that looks for all the world to consist of White Sox team autographed balls. The idea is to get balls from the year my parents married (1939) and my in-laws (1953); the year of my birth (1952) and my wife’s (which I won’t divulge here); Clare’s (1991); Chris’s (1990); the grandchildren and so on.
Along those lines, I just got a ball with autographs that include Chico Carrasquel and Virgil Trucks; if you gotta ask, you don’t the Sox past. At some point, I want to include balls from the years my sisters Barb and Betty were born, 1942 and ’46, respectively. Hello, Mike Tresh and Dairo Lodigiani.
Plus I have a sister-in-law and brother-in-law and….
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