De Vincenzo 1968, Atlanta Motor Speedway 1978, Trump 2020?

As we see the issue with President Trump and the fraud over the Presidential Election, I am seeing parallels with two incidents, coincidentally in the State of Georgia, that this election has become.

In 1968, Roberto de Vincenzo lost the Masters on one of the strangest infractions ever seen in the game.  In the late stages of the tournament, the Argentine had par 4 on the 17th and playing partner Tommy Aaron wrote a bogey 5 on the scorecard.  The infraction would cost the reigning Champion Golfer of the Year (Royal Portrush) a playoff with Bob Goalby the next morning.

Ten years later, at the Dixie 500 NASCAR Cup Series event in Hampton (the current Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500), Richard Petty seemingly crossed the finish line first at the late-season race. But upon a review of the scorecards in an era before transponder scoring (used in the early 1990's), Donnie Allison had won after the scorer had missed a few laps Allison made when the car crossed the scoring station but his scorer and backup failed to register it on the pen and paper system where the scorer wrote numbers on the clock every time the car crossed the scoring line.  That infraction was caught by a 16-year old Brian France, the third-generation member of NASCAR's founding family and uncle of current NASCAR official Ben Kennedy.  The France family also successfully mediated a dispute between amateur and professional racers that gave us the national governing body of motorsport, the Automobile

Competition Committee of the United States, after the AAA Contest Board disbanded in the wake of the 24 Heures du Mans disaster in 1955.

They relate to the dispute that our President, Donald John Trump, is fighting over fraudulent votes.  The President is challenging the scorecard, unlike de Vincenzo in 1968,  as if television evidence shows he had made birdie (4) on the 15th and it was scored by his marker as a triple bogey (8), and a par on the 17th (4) was written as a bogey (5), and another par (4) on the 18th was written as a bogey (5).  It would be the equivalent of the 1978 NASCAR case if Biden had been given lap "dumps" where a scorer had pre-filled an entire 10-lap scorecard to make it seem Biden had made ten extra laps when he did not, and the chief scorer did not catch it.

The two hypothetical cases are similar to what actually happened in those years.  But the President, like he does in business, sees fraud at the business, he has to go into the fraud prevention bureau to report the case, then investigate what happened.  And in this case, we have massive fraud being conducted by the Left's choice cities in order to rig elections.  A shrink buster is being attacked by those who are doing the shrinking.  What coincidence do we have with normal business investigations?  We saw it drive down Enron and later take down Ahold (later swallowed by Delhaize).  The President has a country to save from urban elites that want a utopia from a third term of socialist leadership.  And he is doing a better job than de Vincenzo in 1968 to catch the fraud.

PC Police Again, and An Old Movie Reference for a Vintage-Themed Show

T
he PC Police Strikes Again.  Our modern Zinn/Hannah-Jones worldview of history strikes again, and the real Curse of the Bambino roars its ugly head again.

In the early years of the NFL, team nicknames often were influenced by the local baseball team that often shared the ground with the NFL team.  We saw that with the Giants at the Polo Grounds, the Bears at Wrigley Field, the Lions at Briggs Stadium, and the Braves at Braves Field, which became the Redskins when they moved to Fenway.

The real Curse of the Bambino has been the number of men's and women's football and futbol teams, lacrosse teams, and other teams that have called Braves Field, or later after its configuration changed, Nickerson Field, home, were short-lived.  Nickerson was also the original stadium of the Patriots.

The 50-year old Blackfeet Nation-designed logo is being retired at the behest of the PC police, disregarding its post-merger titles won during the Jack Kent Cooke era after the Blackfeet designed their logo.  How have we become a nation that claims history is offensive?  It seems today's leftist crybabies have the floor, and cannot be thrown off it.  We saw it with CrossFit, and now we see it with the entire anti-police movement, the anti-history movement, and even sports teams with names these activists dislike.

If we keep up with this, only the liberal activists will always be right.

Vintage Movies Strike Again.  Radio Television Luxembourg's Press Your Luck 2019 on ABC has done it again.  In the first season, a winner from the 1983-86 revival of Bill Carruthers' flop Second Chance that lasted much longer (only being done in by the antics of Mark Goodson) appeared.  In January (when the shows were filmed), one episode features the one demographic that few would expect to be pushed on television (over 60 years old) playing.  All three contestants on the July 19 episode were champions on the 1983-86 version.

But the episode's name harkens back to Spielberg characters from Poltergeist II: The Other Side, where Carol Anne utters the signature phrase:  "They're back!"  And the reference for the champion of champions episode carries that exact title, celebrating the fact former champions return 35 years later for a "champion of champions" match.  It had me thinking vintage television reigns supreme again when doing revivals of classic game shows for a new generation to play.

Twenty-Five Years Later. 0817 CET

Outside the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, outside the Variante Tamburello chicane, is a statue where many flowers and Brazilian flags are placed every year, but none more prevalent day than May 1.  It was 1417 CET (8:17 AM EDT) when it happened, twenty-five years ago today.

Thomas Grønvold's archive of that day:



Autosport:


A review of the site.

Newly inducted Class of 2019 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame inductee Bob Jenkins that afternoon offered a tribute during the broadcast of the Alabama 500 (clip of opening the tribute of silence, which was interrupted by the second Big One). It also includes the Earnhardt interview.


BBC Interview of the booth:

Dan Jenkins, R.I.P.

This story dates back more years than I want to remember. My wife and I were sitting around in the living room one night reading. I don't remember what it was she was looking at, but I had You Gotta Play Hurt, the new novel (at the time) by Dan Jenkins. It was about a sportswriter named Jim Tom Pinch, who bore a suspicious resemblance to Jenkins himself; Pinch was part of Jenkins' wacky universe, having appeared as a supporting character in Jenkins' best-known novel, Semi-Tough, as well as several others. This was a chance for Jim Tom to star in a story of his own.

My wife was telling me something funny from her book, and in retrospect what I should have done was stick a finger in my book and turn all my attention to her. Not that I was not paying attention, mind you (you don't stay happily married for 26 years by doing that), but by letting my eye continue to drift down the page while I listened to her, I was dooming her dooming her story to eternal obscurity.

The end of her story and the end of the paragraph I was reading came more or less simultaneously. As for what happened next—well, the only way to really do justice to it is to say that I completely, utterly, lost it. I had been confronted with a scene that was beyond Jenkins's usual level of absurdity; it was so outrageous, so utterly ridiculous, that there was no possible way I could have reacted otherwise. I suspect it was the reaction Jenkins was hoping for; I like to think that when he'd finished the paragraph, he might have read it over and had a good chuckle himself. I was able to go one better than that, though—perhaps several times better.

Had my wife not known me as well as she does, she might have thought I was suffering from convulsions, or was perhaps about to throw up. As it was, there was nothing she could do but sit there and watch as I spent five minutes, maybe ten, cackling hysterically. Have you ever seen the famous clip of Steve Allen laughing uncontrollably at some blooper he'd committed? If you have, you'll know what I mean. And if you haven't, here it is. The description calls it a "laughing fit," and that's what I suppose it was. I was trying to keep the tears from getting the pages of the book wet, and whenever I tried to tell her what it was I'd found so unaccountably funny, I was only able to get a word or two out before I started all over again. She wasn't offended that I was ignoring her story, I don't think. I'm a serious enough person that I think she's usually just happy to see me laughing. It was, without question, the single funniest thing I have ever read, seen, or heard in my nearly fifty-nine years on this planet. And what was so funny, you might ask?

I'm not going to tell you.

Don't be offended, though; the point of fact is that in the twenty-some years since this happened, I've never told anyone what it was that was so funny. The only person I ever did tell was my wife, when I was eventually, after repeated attempts, able to get it all out in a somewhat coherent form. She agreed that it was, indeed, very funny, although perhaps not quite as funny as I thought. But that was, to this day, the last time I've even read that scene, let alone tried to describe it to anyone else. I suppose I'm afraid I'll find out it wasn't as funny as I originally thought it was, which would not only be disappointing, it would ruin a story I've been able to live off of for nearly thirty years.

I kind of doubt that, though. Maybe I wouldn't react the same way I had that night, but then again maybe I would have. That's the kind of writer Dan Jenkins was, after all. He was, quite simply, the greatest sportswriter ever, and I'm not even going to try and equivocate by adding "one of the greatest," or "arguably," or "possibly," or any other way of trying to hedge my bets. He was the best of all time, period, and he'll continue to be for as long as his writing is in print.

Dan Jenkins died a couple of weeks ago at the age of 90, and he certainly doesn't have to worry about his work being forgotten. I'm not going to attempt to recap his career; I'll leave that to two excellent articles, here and here. And for those of you who say this story has been more about me than about Jenkins, I'd answer that this is perhaps the way it should be. One of the reasons Dan Jenkins was a great sportswriter was that he was also a great storyteller. And what better way to remember a great storyteller than with a story of my own, one that in the end really tells you more about him than it does about me. I'd like to think that he might even have enjoyed my story, although he might also have given me one of those sideway glances that you could almost see, so vividly did he describe them.

I daresay that as long as people read sportswriters (and I mean real sportswriters, which you can still find from time to time, not what passes for writing nowadays), they'll be reading the books and articles and (yes) tweets by Dan Jenkins, and learning, and laughing. What writer could possibly ask for any more of a legacy than that?

Come to think of it, maybe I'll read that story again, after all. My bet is that it will still be just as funny as it was all those years ago All the same, I'd better make sure my wife isn't trying to read to me at the same time.

Retro TV Friday

As most who read the blogs know well, we are huge fans of classical music, whether is the Minnesota Opera, South Carolina Philharmonic, or opera companies from colleges.  Saturday begins the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, with Fox beginning its coverage Sunday with highlights of Saturday's Masters Agility Championship, airing after Daytona 500 Qualifying, which oddly only puts two cars into the field.

A few years ago, when Fox first acquired coverage, they began doing a documentary, NFL Films-style, on the Westminster Dog Show.  This clip of the dog show was entertaining.  Set to Grieg's Peer Gynt, Opus 23, No. IX, the full documentary film features the first dog at a normal pace.  As more dogs go through the course, the music speeds, and at the crescendo of it, you can sense the pressure.  As you might expect, NFL Films-style slow-motion scenes penetrate as the dogs jump through the obstacles.  I don't think pop music could ever be used for this scene of dogs through the course.

Flashback Friday: You have to draw the line somewhere

Originally published September 12, 2014

NFL Cracks Down on Domestic Violence; Affirms Nightclub Brawls, Strip Joint Shootings and Other Random Violence Still OK 

Classic Sports Thursday: In Memoriam, David Gene Pearson

We just received word that Spartanburg NASCAR legend David Gene Pearson has died at 83 Monday.   The 1976 Daytona 500 winner is one of seven drivers to have been recognised as a winner of all four majors.

Here was that 1976 Daytona 500 finish where he defeated Richard Petty by over one lap (under NASCAR rules, Petty's last lap did not count because the crew pushed the car to the finish line).

Paying $30 for the final episode of a season?

In college, we had a group of friends that went to the student centre and organised pay-per-view watch parties for fake fights (aka "Professional Wrestling").  I learned from them that professional wrestling was a femme genre of television, the daytime serial drama, for a male audience, in effect each week's episode was a continuing story as we see with the five-day-a-week dramas that appear in the afternoon aimed at women (and it's proven that way;  Pop TV reairs all Sony dramas in the prime-time access hour).  As I researched the importance of pay-per-view in the fake fighting industry, whether it was WWE, New Japan, AAA, or Sinclair's Ring of Honor, which is the current squabble as Fox affiliates in many markets -- including mine -- air Ring of Honor, as it is owned and operated by the station, I learned that a wrestling pay-per-view is designed as a tie-up to end numerous storylines or keep extending them into another season.  In essence, they are season finales and a new season starts with the first episode after the pay-per-view event.

With that fact, I wondered what would happen if network television shows such as the NCIS franchise had a similar angle.  At the end of the 22 to 25 episode season, the season finale is aired not on network television but on pay-per-view at a cost of $30 for the final episode.  What might viewers think if those season finales, which may be double episodes, are pay-per-view shows after the other 21 to 24 episodes aired on network television?

That is how professional wrestling "seasons" are organised.  While Royal Rumble is a "season finale" for one season, it starts a story arc that will run to two seasons (No Escape* and WrestleMania).  Viewers pay for the pay-per-view that ends the first "season" and again for the end of the second "season" in this story arc.  Just imagine if Dallas had "Who Shot J.R.?" as a pay-per-view and then the opening of the next season on network television began the investigation, and the next pay-per-view episode determined who was the shooter.  That is exactly how professional wrestling works.

Aerosmith - again?

The awful "hair band" called "Aerosmith" is back in the news again.  We remembered how Mr. Tyler did awful National Anthems at major events that caught those of us who sing.

But this time, one of their songs is in the news.

In Los Angeles, at the StubHub Center complex, the women's track cycling UCI World Masters Championship has drawn the ire of many as a college professor -- a man who claims to be a woman -- won the Women's 35-39 group.  

This time, that awful song from Aerosmith, "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)," rings true.  The winner was a "Dude (looks like a lady)," and the real ladies lost.  This is Obergefell's "right to dignity" at its worst again.  Remember Dale Saran's warning in Jonsson v. CrossFit, which the Dude (Looks Like a Lady) won primarily because of Obergefell and the Exxon Mobil Payback.

"The fundamental, ineluctable fact is that a male competitor who has a sex reassignment procedure still has a genetic makeup that confers a physical and physiological advantage over women."

What gives?  Avery Brundage and Dale Saran were right.  How come a few judges reminiscent of that book in the Bible where they do what feels right in their heart have rights nobody else has?

More races on air at the Kentucky Derby

As we looked through our television blog, we noticed how early Derby broadcasts were simply 45 minutes to 90 minutes prior to NBC taking over in 2001.  Whereas the Derby would start around 4:30 PM (see Faulkner's 1955 report) and many times the race would start at 5:30 PM, since NBC took over and Churchill Downs added lights, the start time is creeping closer to primetime hours.

The 2018 Derby post time is 6:50 PM EDT, meaning with the loading, the race could finish at 7 PM EDT. NBC's coverage starts at 2 PM for a two-minute event.  The schedule for the NBC broadcast includes five races (all times Eastern):

2:45 PM Churchill Downs Stakes (4 and up, dirt, 7F)
3:37 PM American Turf Stakes (3 and up, turf, 1 1/16 miles)
4:28 PM Pat Day Mile (f/k/a Derby Trial) (3, dirt, 1 mile)
5:25 PM Old Forester Turf Stakes (4 and up, turf, 1 1/16 miles)
6:50 PM Kentucky Derby (3, dirt, 1 1/4 miles)

And for those fans who are still at Churchill Downs, there are two more races to be run with lights, a 1 1/16 mile allowance and a one-mile maiden race that will start at 8:20 PM, which is less than 18 minutes from legal sunset, guaranteeing that lights will be used at Derby Day.  For the record, the Stephen Foster Handicap, an older horse race inaugurated in 1982 and has provided three Breeders' Cup Classic winners, is now run as a night race in June.  The Foster is when the Kentucky Derby winner officially receives his trophy.

How Renée Fleming's "Carousel" and the WWE's "Greatest Royal Rumble" have a common denominator in Richard Rodgers

R
enée Fleming's appearance at a Broadway production of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's Carousel has been in the news recently, but Mr. Rodgers, a legendary composer of musicals, was in my head as news discussed a pay-per-view in the pseudosport of "professional wrestling" with the intercalated Royal Rumble in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, similar to the Olympic Games of 1906.  How fake wrestling associates itself with Richard Rodgers comes through a writing partner of his prior to his association with Mr. Hammerstein, Lorenz Hart.

In the Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms (1937), Billie, a woman who visits the leading male character (Val), sings the song in question, which thanks to the popular music circuit, has lost most of its lyrics and its original intent (yes, Mr. Sinatra is guilty of removing the lyric and reference!).  Billie, played by Mitzi Green when it debuted, is from the coast, and sings what we call the aria in question, "The Lady is a Tramp," which over the years and even a "sanitised" version of the entire musical was produced, which sadly has taken away toe references in the song.  Even Steafani Germanotta's version, like Frank Sinatra's and Ella Fitzgerald's versions, alter the lyrics away from the original (Derek Jeter, who is referenced in the Germanotta and Bennett version, was not even thought when Rodgers and Hart wrote the song!), but there's one part of the song that easily catches the adage "professional wrestling is fake".

The lyric in question of "The Lady is a Tramp" that though written in 1937 could easily refer to professional wrestling and how it is losing the pay-per-view battle to mixed martial arts today states, "I like a prizefight that isn't a fake."  Since a professional wrestling match is predetermined, and the players know who is to win ("go over"), that legally means the match is fixed, and legally it's a fake.  Would Billie want to see a WWE match or a UFC match, if you listen to the song with that lyric?

Here is the song, as it is from a production of "Babes in Arms" that allows us to see the original song (not the Sinatra or Germanotta versions) in its historic New York references.

Golf Channel Redux: What's airing and weather hurry-ups

It caught my attention when an NBC Sports presser appeared regarding coverage of the Séries éliminatoires de la Coupe Stanley regarding the annual flipping around every Comcast channel.  As I noted which channel carried two games on a recent night, an old Brent Bozell column on television was ringing its truth again.

Cable channels such as Discovery, Learning, History, Arts & Entertainment, and Bravo have replaced their entire programming from the themes they were intended to becoming another brand of reality television channels, which Americans seemingly chew up.  The channel once called American Movie Classics has given up on that classic ideal and gone to original TV-MA programming and shows that may not reach that level of "classic" that most believe, movies produced during the Production Code (which TV-MA programming would violate under the classic code).  And of course, Viacom's Paramount Network has its own story that's a disaster that the World of Outlaws despises that channel to this day.

NBC's "air everything on every different NBC Channel" during this round of Coupe Stanley usually means NBC Sports Network, USA, Consumer News and Business Channel.  This year, they've added the one channel you'd least expect the Série éliminatoires to air -- Golf Channel.  What in the world was the Golf Channel being replaced with two Séries éliminatoires de la Coupe Stanley matches "going through" as the scoreboard says before returning to normal programming Thursday morning.

But that's one of two cases of issues over that channel.

The second relates to the controversy when the local newspaper announced the winner of the Royal Bank of Canada Heritage at Hilton Head's Sea Pines Harbor Town.  Because of weather issues, organisers rushed the start to threesomes at 7 AM with the final group starting at 9 AM, hoping to finish before 2 PM to beat the storms expected around 3 PM.  In order to do the hurry-up start, the Golf Channel's final round coverage, and later CBS's coverage of the final hours, went on tape, with the winner already announced on The Island Packet before the CBS part of the broadcast was to begin.  Golf's coverage of Jon Rahm winning the European Tour Open de España ran to noon.  After a one-hour pre-game show, coverage proceeded to taped coverage of the early rounds on Golf, then on CBS.  CBS had only taped coverage of the previous night's Professional Bull Riders 15/15 Bucking Battle airing in the early afternoon.

By the time viewers were watching the golfers on the front nine in the early half coverage on Golf, 小平智応援団 was battling 김시우 for the plaid jacket in sudden death (it was 2 PM).  小平智応援団 defeated 김시우 around 2:30 PM, when the news was released -- and the Golf coverage had not reached the turn for the leaders (Poulter and 김시우).  By the time CBS coverage began, it was over.  This was the second time in four years (2015) that the same situation had happened where a rushed start meant taped coverage for the Hilton head stop.

Should the PGA Tour work with NBC (Golf Channel) and CBS to adopt NASCAR's 2017 rule change for television?  During the 2017 season, NASCAR made a rule change stating if weather forces the issue, they reserve the right to start a race up to one hour (from 2 PM to 1 PM, for example) earlier than the scheduled time.  If the PGA Tour, NBC, and CBS agree (remember the U.S. Open, on Fox, the Masters, on CBS, and The Open, on NBC, are not PGA Tour sanctioned events), then the networks should be available to swap blocks so network golf coverage can start at 12 Noon to 3 PM if necessary on the network where live coverage of the final 6-8 holes can be done on network television instead of being pushed to tape on both sides?  In this case, Golf would move early coverage to USA or CNBC from 9 to noon, and then the CBS or NBC coverage starts at noon only if there is active play.  The Premier League used to be on CNBC often when NBCSN had Formula One, but when Formula One moved to Sky Sports F1 (which despite it being commercial-free, viewers are noticing Friday practice is no longer broadcast on television), that opened up NBCSN to having Premier League coverage on just the one channel.  Golf overrun for either the PGA Tour or European and Asian Tours can easily be used in a beat the weather situation.  The PGA Tour and its broadcast partners need to be able to move golf coverage starting with the Florida swing to have that flexibility to beat the weather just like NASCAR has done to allow the networks to use 12-3 ET instead of 3-6 ET in weather situations.

Throwback Thursday: A unique way to get ejected from a match...

This, I kid you not, is not from The Onion, although it reads like it. (I would have been very proud to have written this for one of our "This Just In" pieces.) From The Guardian:

A Swedish footballer has hit out after being sent off for breaking wind during a match – with the referee accusing him of “deliberate provocation” and “unsportsmanlike behaviour”.

Adam Lindin Ljungkvist, who was playing at left-back in the match between Järna SK’s reserve team and Pershagen SK, was shown a second yellow card late on in what local media called “bizarre circumstances”.

“I had a bad stomach, so I simply let go,” the 25-year-old told Länstidningen Södertälje. “Then I received two yellow cards and then red. Yes, I was shocked, it’s the strangest thing I have ever experienced in football.

“I asked the referee, ‘What, am I not allowed to break wind a little?’ ‘No,’ he replied … I don’t get it but maybe he thought I farted in my hand and threw the fart at him. But I did not.”

Opposition striker Kristoffer Linde told the paper: “I was standing a good distance away but I heard the fart loud and clear. It’s the strangest thing I’ve seen on a pitch, and I’ve been playing football since I was eight years old.”

The referee, Dany Kako, confirmed that Ljungkvist had received the second yellow card for breaking wind, explaining: “I perceived it as deliberate provocation. He did it on purpose and it was inappropriate. Therefore, he received a yellow card.”

Ljungkvist told Aftonbladet: “To provoke anyone with a fart is not particularly smart or normal. It’s nonsense – I just broke wind and got a red card. I spoke to the referee afterwards, I was annoyed, but there were no bad words. I just said he was a buffoon.”

Kako said he had experienced similar incidents before. “Once there was a player who stood and peed next to the pitch. I showed him a yellow card, too.”

This is a good example of why satire gets harder to do every day - I mean, if you can't count on this being a spoof, what can you depend on anymore?

Originally published June 27, 2016

Flashback Friday: The trials and tribulations of being a fan

I'm not entirely sure how one conveys the experience of being an Arsenal fan if you’re not a follower of the English Premier League, or soccer in general. To compare the experience to that of being a Chicago Cubs fan is too extreme; Arsenal’s had nothing like 110 years of futility. There’s a similarity to it, though, the sense that no matter how well things might be going at a given time, the Gunners are going to find a way to screw things up. For the last decade or so, Arsenal has been the dictionary definition of “good enough,” a team which has gone a dozen seasons without winning the championship* but always manages to finish in the league’s top four, which qualifies them for the lucrative Champions League.

*Virtually no one expects them to prevent this from becoming season number 13.

It’s not that Arsenal lacks good players, or the money to buy more. It’s that their players often fail to rise to the level required for a championship side, and the team’s management seems intent on bargain shopping, passing up the chance to acquire top talent not because they can’t afford it – like every other team in the Premier League, they have plenty of money thanks to the League’s new television contract – but because they can’t justify to themselves that the cost is worth it. They’re like the old lady who’s lived in squalor for as long as anyone can remember, only when she dies it’s discovered she had two million dollars stuffed in her mattress, and another million or so in bonds hidden in a cookie jar. They may be quite right in judging that Paul Pogba, for example, isn’t worth anything like $116 million, but as long as their competitors are willing to pay that amount, then Pogba’s objective value is meaningless; it’s his subjective worth, that of being a player who can bring the title to Manchester United, that is the only thing that matters.

Last year was perhaps a defining stage in Arsenal fandom, at least from this fan’s point of view. For the first time in years Arsenal was actually favored to finish in first, and even the team’s followers seemed ready to put all doubts aside, particularly since the League’s traditional powerhouses – Manchester United, Manchester City, and Chelsea – were all struggling. If ever there was an opportunity, this was it.

And yet, we all know how that turned out – 5,000:1 shot Leicester City pulled off the upset of all time and won the title; Arsenal finished second, its highest finish in years. But even when Arsenal threatened, shortly after the first of the year, it was difficult to cheer them on; Leicester had already captured the hearts of soccer fans worldwide with their Cinderella run, and it seemed somehow more compelling, more important, to root for the Foxes than to waste the energy on an Arsenal title bid that would likely end in failure anyway. The fact that Arsenal’s 2-1 victory over Leicester on February 14* was actually somewhat disappointing seemed to confirm the Arsenal fan experience – or lack thereof.

*Leicester’s third and final loss of the season, which explains why they won the title; Arsenal, by contrast, lost seven. At three points per victory, the four extra defeats amounts to 12 lost points. For a team that finished 10 points behind in the final standings, that makes all the difference.

Arsenal’s majority owner is the American Stan Kroenke, who also owns the Los Angeles Rams. This article, although it pertains to the Rams and doesn’t once mention Arsenal, goes a long way toward explaining how a once-powerful side could wind up mired in mediocrity for so long, and how hard it is to root for a side owned by, to be blunt about it, a creep. These two articles, on how long-time manager Arsene Wegner has failed to adapt to the times (so much so that his name has become a noun in the Urban Dictionary for being unwilling to spend money), shows how why he’s become the perfect Kroenke manager, just as Arsenal has become the perfect Kroenke team. When “good enough” means making the Champions League every season and turning a profit, rather than spending the additional money required to win the League Championship, when a soccer team evolves from a fan’s passion to a sober businessman’s profit-and-loss statement, then it becomes time to assess what it means to be an Arsenal fan.

It doesn’t mean selling the jersey or burning the scarf, it doesn’t mean casting aside years of support, even though that support has been destined from the outset to end in disappointment. It does, however, call for a break, a hiatus – a sabbatical, if you will – in that fandom. If that means rooting for Leicester City to make lightning strike twice or seeking out another Cinderella team’s bandwagon to jump on, if it means finding another team with an attractive style and dynamic manager (Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp),  even if it means identifying the most hated team – Manchester United, in other words – and pulling for whoever can stop them from the title (Manchester City, in all likelihood), so be it.

Eventually, Arsenal supporters, who already pay the highest ticket prices in Europe, will find that the only effective weapon they have is their wallet, and they will make their displeasure known. Eventually, Stan Kroenke will find Arsenal’s resale value to have peaked, and will unload his shares before their value can sink, probably to some Asian or Middle East potentate willing to spend whatever’s needed to regain past glories. Eventually (likely after this season), Arsene Wenger will step down, leaving an illustrious legacy nonetheless tarnished by the last decade-plus, and a new manager looking to create his own legacy.

When that happens, the Arsenal fan will find that the red-and-white colors on the jersey and scarf have not faded for having been in the closet for a few seasons. And then it will be time to break them out and let them show once again; after all, the colors we currently see on the pitch week after week have faded enough as it is. By then, it will be nice to have something fresh to look forward to.

Originally published on August 24, 2016. Things have only gotten worse for Arsenal since then. But thanks to some new acquisitions during the Transfer Window, maybe we have a future worth looking forward to!

AN UNFILTERED SHOT OF DARKNESS ENVELOPING THE FARMERS INSURANCE OPEN

The LaRoche and Beyond Era began 16 years ago this coming Saturday when I walked into the School of Music practice hall room 012 to begin my first formal voice lesson, changed the way I saw music, with classical becoming a genre I appreciate most now where I attend Philharmonic concerts and have met von Stade (2011) and Fleming (2017, twice) and attending operas.

That appreciation has allowed me to ignore pop music as a whole, and the Grammys, because of the excessive junk being sold to both the church and to the general public.  The excessive attacks on the President elected by more than two-thirds of states by the few cities that want a rule of elite cities over all this year continued a long tradition of leftist propaganda based on their feelings.  One I remember too well was one group sang their sexual perversion propaganda hit while a marriage ceremony that flashed back to those of a cult minister referenced in the 1980 pop hit "Oh Buddha," with some couples of the same gender in violation of California's own Constitution (the event was held in California) that a Kamala the Bay Area Giant felt must be erased against the will of the people, repeating the tactics of King George III that led to the Declaration of Independence, as part of promoting the perversion agenda by singing their song pushing it.

But this year, I had finally seen something from those awards shows that infuriated me, and considering the 50th anniversary of a famous event in television, CBS was guilty.

The Farmers Insurance Open had been given the "Heidi" treatment.

Imagine turning on the television Sunday night, and seeing Jim Nantz, a longtime CBS stalwart, and the broadcast bug had the NBC Peacock on the bottom right corner and not the CBS Eye with "PGA TOUR" next to it.  Nantz was covering on NBC Sports the conclusion of the Farmers Insurance Open, as CBS had decided to give the first PGA Tour event on network television for the season the shaft.  It was on an NBC Sports cable channel, but the graphics were CBS, down to the CBS Sports banner on the 18th tower at Torrey Pines.  The three-man sudden death tournament aired for roughly two hours on the NBC Sports Group, with one player eliminated first, but for five holes, there was no winner.

(The tournament concluded Monday morning again on the NBC channel, with Nantz, Sir Nick Faldo, and Peter Kostis, carrying CBS flags, not NBC flags, though the broadcast bug said "LIVE PLAYOFF" with the Peacock logo.)

Both the paying spectators and CBS affiliates were given the Heidi Game treatment.  The conclusion of the Farmers Open was aired on an NBC Sports Group station Monday morning at 8 AM PT, and the spectators who had tickets had no refunds, and were not admitted to the conclusion of the final round.

The Grammys gave the tournament once known as the Andy Williams the "Heidi" treatment.  Oh the sad irony.

Is Netflix falling into the ESPN model?

The criticism of ESPN is it pays excessive amounts for content, and has the highest per-subscriber rate for a non-premium television channel ($7.50).  That has led to its decline in pay-television, as people switch to streaming services which are lower in rates but offer primarily X-rated television.  However, a recent report regarding Netflix's 2018 plans should raise an alarm.  Will they fall into the same trap as ESPN, but worse?

ESPN, for example, pays $1.9 billion for NFL rights that is split among its ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ABC (primary market affiliates only; under an NFL policy, ABC airs the first round and Pro Bowl game in order to alleviate a problem that could have happened during ESPN's first-ever playoff coverage where a market that did not receive a Monday Night game during the season could be playing in the first-round playoff game ESPN airs since it would be impossible for a syndication package to be prepared six days in advance, and ABC affiliates that accept the first option would have to change programming within the same time frame, so the NFL made the mandate that ABC airs the Pro Bowl and ESPN Playoff game), then spends much on the NBA ($1.73B), MLB ($800M), College Football Playoff ($470M including part ownership).  (Other events do not have hefty rights fees.)

The Big Three of CBS, NBC, and Fox pay no more than $1.23 billion each for their NFL packages, and other sports packages are not even close to a billion dollars in rights fees.

Meanwhile, Netflix, one of television's New Big Four, has declared they intend to spend $8 billion for original programming, plus marketing.  Amazon intends to spend at least $4.5 billion (and probably more in 2018) on original programming, most of which is X-rated.

Consider Netflix's plan for $8 billion even surpasses ESPN's $7.3 billion, NBC at $4.3 billion, CBS at $4 billion, among others.  When Amazon and Netflix are now spending more on original scripted series, while NBC and CBS budgets include the billion-dollar NFL rights fees, the question will come for business analysis.  Will Netflix fall into the same trap as ESPN where they overspend to the point they have to drastically increase the price of their service?  I see Netflix and Amazon Prime both being over $50 per month in the next few years and maybe $100 per month within a decade if their spending habits for X-rated programming continue to grow (it was $6 billion a year ago, now $8 billion, you wonder if $10 billion is coming next).  Unlike ESPN's budget that is limited by a per-subscriber fee and civic governments' right to restrict subscription television prices, the New Big Four need not worry.  And this big budget will likely grow while the broadcast networks need not worry about the cost of NFL programming into the 2022-23 season since the networks' deals are set until Super Bowl LVII.

While Netflix is praised by the content, we must wonder if the continuing push to anti-life shows, especially in this month where we mourn the 60 million killed via Roe and millions other dying in euthanasia pushed by others, and other raunchy regietheater by the New Big Four is coming to a critical mass when the rights fees result in massive cost hikes.  Many have canned regular television over ESPN.  Will they do the same to the New Big Four when they overspend and decide to charge more?  Those with a Biblical worldview, along with parents, should be alarmed.  The New Big Four's spending habits will lead to a crash very soon.

Rosie Ruiz redux

"And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully." -- 2 Timothy 2:5 (KJV)

Other Bible paraphrases (as I've learned they are, especially the two HarperCollins versions) use a runner's analogy.  For those of us who have crossed a finish line after 42,195 metres of running (and even walking when our running legs give up), being honest and making a legal path across the course is mandatory, crossing all timing mats, before you reach 42,195 metres and finish.  I learned the hard way in an October half marathon when being tardy and not knowing the changed course resulted in an instant disqualification that I was not informed until hours after I crossed the finish line that my time had been nullified.  (For reference, the infraction involved the baseball stadium as I made a wrong turn at the start, being late because of poor logistics.  I did not make the loop properly and a timing official disqualified me as soon as I made the incorrect entrance, my second DQ in a half marathon.)  Those who follow the rules are the ones who earned their right as a marathoner.  There are others who have decided the "Rosie Ruiz" fraud in Hopkinton 1980 is worth it.  They are the absurd ones such as the one in St. Louis where one runner was caught doing a Ruiz twice in different years, both on the podium and both disqualified.

Now this report came in Arizona regarding the latest type of cheating runner.  Around Christmastide, Arizona's Camelback Ranch holds the Across the Years race of four distances, either 24, 48, 72, or 144 hours (one, two, three, or six days).  The race course is a simple 1.0498 mile out and back, and the object is to make as many laps as possible in the amount of time listed, they can walk, stop, eat, sleep, leave the course , but the clock continues to run.  One fraud runner pulled off the latest Ruiz-type maneuver by running across the finish line, then resting in a restroom, watching the clock, and when he returns to the pace he would normally run, he loops back round the restrooms, then crosses the line, and skipped an entire 1.0498 mile loop while registering another lap.  That was cheating, and he was later found to have made this ruse numerous times.  When discovered, the organisers disqualified the runner from numerous past races.  It is unknown if the real winners will have their winning ceremonies recast, as was the case 25 years after the Ruiz incident.

Oh what a tangled web of deceit in running!

Oh, my! Non-sport memories of Dick Enberg

The sad news from Boston that Nicole Vaz told the AP her father, Dick Enberg, died while packing his bags for a family vacation to the area lastweek was another sign of how our legendary figures of our youth are dying.

Mr. Enberg, 82, and wife Barbara were headed to Boston and the wife arrived, only to learn he never made it out of his La Jolla home, waiting to be transported to the airport.

But as much as we know him from sport, he did television game shows, none of which lasted but a year or two.  We found a few clips from game shows he hosted as a tribute to Enberg the quizmaster – something that started as a gofer at a radio station in college never expected we'd see, let alone a distinguished broadcasting career.

Three For the Money




Baffle


Perfect Match

Golf with your Thanksgiving Dinner?

With the many football protests as a result of Kaepernick's antics last year spread out by inept leadership, it's very interesting how this week NBC will have a Thanksgiving alternative to football with an American superstar playing.

Golf.

Though the US PGA Tour's 2017 calendar year ended last week in Georgia, the world of golf will close the year with major overseas tournaments.  The European Tour will not have a tournament in Europe until April, as every tournament is in Africa, Asia, or the Middle East, but points will start counting starting this weekend's tournament in China, the UBS Hong Kong Open where Masters champion Sergio Garcia and top European stars are playing (that airs on tape).  In Australia, with two more tournaments left in their calendar year, Wednesday night starts the Golf Channel's coverage of this weekend's Emirates Australian Open, where Jordan Spieth will aim to gobble his third Stonehaven Cup on Saturday night.  The past three years he has spent his Thanksgiving Down Under and has been on the podium, and he is the biggest international star playing.

So Jordan Spieth and his fans can enjoy golf with their Thanksgiving dinner with second-round coverage on Thanksgiving night, thanks to the time difference.

Throwback Thursday: The dangers of social media

If you're a fugitive from justice, best to keep a low profile:

The fugitive, who has been at large since violating probation, made a post on his Facebook page inviting friends to join him for batting practice at a specific location. The police, who had been on the lookout for Patterson, immediately alerted the Caldwell police officers who showed up at the softball field where Patterson was and arrested him on the spot.

This reminds me of a story about, I think, Spencer Haywood, the former professional basketball player.  During the contract wars between the NBA and ABA, Haywood was in Seattle to sign a contract with the SuperSonics.  He was instructed to keep a low profile and avoid publicity, yet he was amazed that no matter where he went, people knew who he was.  A friend told him, "Spencer, if you want to remain anonymous, it's probably not a good idea, as a 6'8" black man in Seattle, to walk around in a warmup outfit with your name written on the back."  If it wasn't Haywood, it was someone similar - that's the way the ABA was.

It also reminds me of Slick Watts, the guard who played, coincidentally, with the SuperSonics many years later.  Told that coach Bill Russell was "incommunicado.", Watts responded, "Then let's go there and find him."


Originally published March 13, 2015