1) I don’t usually venture into the world of sports, but I have a few items here that I need to address from that department.
George Vescey of the New York Times had what I thought was a good column today on Billy Payne, the “grand poobah” of the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, GA, which began play today. It seems that Payne just can’t stop himself when it comes to piling on with sanctimony about a certain African American golfer (uh, not many on the PGA tour, I should point out) who has recently experienced marital difficulties.
Which to me begs the question; would Payne and others who believe they hold any influence in professional golf (including Tom Watson) say the same things if we were talking about, say, Jack Nicklaus?
Also, Vescey noted this weird new Nike ad in his column where the voice of Tiger Woods’ father is supposed to be telling Tiger how he let everyone down, or something...WHAAAAA?????
Is this what we’ve come to in this country? The supposed voice of moral authority is a corporation that employs sweatshop workers in Vietnam, China and Indonesia who make only $1.60, $1.75 and $2.46 per day, respectively (approved by Nike CEO Philip Knight, who once lamented what he believed to be the high wages of US shoe industry workers, as noted here)?
Also, the supposed controversy about how Woods would be treated at Augusta is a total joke. It would be wrong for Woods to be heckled anyway, but does anyone SERIOUSLY believe that Payne and others would allow that to happen? As one of my senior correspondents informed me, CBS golf analyst Gary McCord once made a remark about the ball skidding as if the greens of Augusta had been “bikini waxed” and a group of large mounds on one hole reminded him of body bags, and McCord was escorted off the premises soon afterwards.
2) Also, I have news for NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman; there’s really no need for the Washington Capitals and the Boston Bruins to play any more games, since Repug U.S. Senator John Thune of South Dakota believes the teams will play each other in Landover, MD in an opening round of The Stanley Cup Playoffs next Thursday.
I mean, Thune must believe that since, as noted here, those two teams appeared in the notice about Thune’s fundraiser on 4/15.
Well, for now, Thune is correct; at the moment, the NHL standings show the Flyers in 7th place in their conference with 86 points (they would play New Jersey if the season were over), and the Bruins are 8th with 85.
However, the New York Rangers are barely out of it in the ninth spot (only eight teams qualify) with 84 points.
And here are the remaining schedules for all three teams: Boston hosts Buffalo and Carolina before they play Washington this Sunday in Maryland, and the Flyers and the Rangers each have two remaining games with each other (fortuitous for the NHL), tomorrow in New York and Sunday in Philadelphia.
We’ll see if Thune turns out to be right (and by the way, I think it’s kind of odd for Thune to be holding this type of a fundraiser in D.C., since Caps’ owner Ted Leonsis is usually a reliable donator to Democrats – good business to play “both sides of the rink,” I suppose).
Update: I forgot about the Montreal Canadiens, who are in the mix also.
3) And staying in the state of Maryland, this post from The Hill voiced some disapproval of the Washington Redskins’ recent trade with the Philadelphia Eagles, in which the ‘Skins acquired former Eagles’ QB Donavan McNabb, lamenting the fact that Washington gave up draft picks for a player whose best days are behind him.
I can basically agree with that (I’d put off saying anything about this until now).
To be fair to McNabb, he rebounded well from injuries and managed to put up some pretty good career numbers for the Eagles. And I think it’s not a coincidence that the only time the team reached the Super Bowl was the year that they had a bona fide running back threat in Brian Westbrook and a receiving threat in Terrell Owens (yes, T.O. was a head case, but there was never anything wrong with his effort on the field, even playing the Patriots in the big game five years ago with a broken foot).
In short, let’s see how McNabb does with a team that, with all its imperfections, pays attention to the running game better than the Eagles have under Andy Reid, and probably ever will.
Still, though, despite the courageous efforts and three-hundred-yards-plus passing games, there were plenty of times that McNabb would go into an inexplicable funk where his throwing aim was so bad that he couldn’t toss the ball into the ocean if you spotted him the water. I can recall a game against Cincinnati in ’08-’09 where the Birds ended up tying against an awful Bengals team, to the point where McNabb was benched the next week and new starting QB Kevin Kolb was sent out as basically a human sacrifice against the Baltimore Ravens the following week; McNabb returned to the starting lineup and played well the rest of the year, and as far as I knew, he wasn’t hurt…and I found myself wondering “why was that necessary?”
Oh, and there were more than a few instances of McNabb copping an attitude with the Philly sports press (which deserves it at times I admit) over some perceived slight or another, and I found myself thinking, “boy, this guy sure is high and mighty considering that he’s barely won anything in the post-season.”
So, that having been said, I wish McNabb luck against everyone except the Eagles, who are prized boneheads for trading McNabb to a team within the division, by the way (and don’t get me started on that comment Flush Limbore made about him – consider the source).
Update: And now, for another point of view, admittedly a caustic one (here).4) Finally, on a matter totally unrelated to sports, I came across this item from actress Janine Turner at the Fix Noise opinion site (your first clue)…
We the People need to turn around and look back at our Constitution and the Federalist Papers for guidance on how to move our nation forward in this time of crisis. We must join together in a unifying mission to become aware of what is in these great documents. Let's get cracking and do 90 readings in 90 days.
Funny how Fix Noise and their brethren have no problem ridiculing Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn or Richard Gere if they make speeches about their political opinion, but they provide a forum for their “fellow travelers” in the entertainment biz (yes I know, “water wet, sky blue”…).
It gets better (she’s driving her pickup truck in Texas, see, while Turner conjures up these literary flourishes)…
…maybe a better metaphor is better represented as the driver of a car moving forward toward the results of a horrendous earthquake – an earthquake that has left a deep, uneven division on the land. Thrust upon the divide are the clumps of dry parched land left to bake in the sun – the American Republic, the America loved and cherished by many patriots of yesterday and today.
Gee, you don’t suppose this “horrendous earthquake” was caused by some wealth-redistributing Kenyan Marxist president who can’t produce his Hawaiian birth certificate, do you? ZOMG!!! And the answer is yes; Turner is plugging her web site here, in case you were wondering.
The only reason I’m even paying attention to this at all is because Turner tells us to read “The Federalist Papers,” including Paper #10 which, contrary to what Turner tells us, was in fact written by James Madison (here).
Also, she seems to be a fan of Alexander Hamilton, our country’s first Treasury Secretary who also served with distinction in the Continental Army and was a skilled administrator as well.
And for the longest time, I thought that was pretty much all there was about him, until I read “John Adams” by David McCullough, which tells a very different story about Hamilton, who wanted desperately to follow in the footsteps of George Washington, who, in addition to being our first president, headed the Federalist Party (sort of an early version of the Democrats, favoring a strong central government). Hamilton and John Adams were Federalists also, and Hamilton constantly sought to undermine Adams, both in the presidential election of 1796 (Hamilton failed) and in 1800 (he succeeded, paving the way for Thomas Jefferson, who was a Republican, though I can’t imagine him sharing an allegiance with the party as it is now constituted). However, by splitting the Federalist Party in the 1800 election, Hamilton forever ruined his own chances to be president also.
Another thing – John Adams wisely prevented our country going to war with France in 1798, which Hamilton devoutly wished, even forming and training an army in Trenton, NJ. Adams’ avoidance of another war angered Hamilton further, even though McCullough makes the case that, by keeping us out of another war so soon after the Revolution, it ended up letting France extend itself too far militarily against only Great Britain to the point where it was easier for President Jefferson to acquire France’s territory in North America through the Louisiana Purchase (McCullough can explain it much better than I can; I recommend reading the book for all the details).
To sum up, if you’re looking for a role model of political and patriotic wisdom, I am not at all sure that you should be looking at Alexander Hamilton.
However, I guess commentary like this from Turner is what you can expect from someone who starred in a TV show where the actors were upstaged by a moose.
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