I don't have the writing gene. Never have. Term papers in school were always a struggle. These daily blogs are not natural for me. But I do enjoy the fruits of those who can put ink to paper with meaning. You may have heard that Frank Deford died over the weekend. For those who didn't read sports over the last 55 years that name may not ring a bell…unless you heard his hundreds of commentaries from PBS' Morning Edition. But for me, it was his work in Sports Illustrated , which I've been reading since 1964, that made Deford a must-read anytime you saw his name under the headline. And the writing was glorious. He once told long-time SI basketball writer Jack McCallum to not use so many direct quotes “you're a writer, not a stenographer” and he took his own advice. His pieces were both deep and accessible and they almost always found an angle on the subject that we didn't know about before. He always maintained that writing about sports was serious…not the “toy department” like many of his news colleagues maintained. He dove into his subjects with vigor and as one editor put it “he'd hang bells throughout a story and at the end go back and ring every one”. He later would start a national sports newspaper called “The National” that gathered together the best sportswriters around and it was great idea that didn't work, folding after 18 months. But the SI work and the PBS commentaries will be Deford's legacy. You can find many of them on-line these days and if you haven't read them you should. His stories on Bobby Knight, Howard Cosell, Bill Russell, Jimmy Conners and Kirby Puckett stand out but there are many other examples of his deft touch…at tying sports to society in general and the grand scheme of life.
“To see glory in sport, where somebody comes from behind and does something, sinks a shot in the last second or throws a touchdown pass or hits a home run, there is beauty in that, and at the end of the day, that's why we love sports more than anything else”. Frank Deford
“She glances at the photo, and the pilot light of memory flickers in her eyes” Frank Deford
“You can tell all you need to about a society from how it treats animals and beaches” Frank Deford
It was the longest streak in any NCAA sport. The University of Miami baseball team had made the NCAA tournament for 44 straight years…until this year. The field was announced over the weekend and the Hurricaines are not in for the first time since 1972.
Softball sectionals and baseball regionals today in high school sports. The schedule is located in the local sports section of this website.
At least three Americans were murdered by white supremacists last week. I expect that number will continue to grow as some of our leaders continue to marginalize those who look or dress differently. As much as he will deny it, Trump courted the white supremacist voters in the election, and they heard his dog whistle rhetoric. I said well before election day “wouldnt you choose the candidate that wasn”t endorsed by the neo-nazi's and KKK? It would seem to be an easy choice but yet…..
Elections have consequences…The President returns to Washington after a disastrous overseas trip. His boorish and sometimes bizarre behavior insulted our allies and embarrassed the country in ways to numerous to mention. The right wing squawk machine and the Trump apologists will try to spin this in another direction but anyone with a lick of sense has to come to the conclusion that this person is a clear and present danger to us everyday he remains in office. He can't even go to Arlington Cemetary on Memorial Day without acting the fool. He's being advised by people who should be busy defending themselves (it probably will still happen). As one CIA agent put it…” If i did what Kushner did, I'd be up on treason charges”….he wandered away from his meeting with Netanyahu like your grandpa who's suffering from Alzheimers…his lack of stamina was noticeable which is ironic since he spent a good deal of his campaign criticizing Hilary Clinton for the same thing….now he's tweeting again too including this beauty over the weekend “I suggest we add more dollars to Healthcare and make it the best anywhere. Obamacare is dead-the Republicans will do much better”. Since the Republican bill cuts 1.1 trillion dollars from the health care budget the open question for Trump remains…is he just clueless and delusional or a complete bullshitter. Either answer is not acceptable…..The lawsuit against Hilary Clinton over Benghazi deaths and e-mails was dismissed and Congressman Trey Gowdy who led the Benghazi charge was embarrased again last week in his questioning of former CIA chief John Brennan…maybe he should just go away now like Chaffetz is….compare Trump's behavior at the G-7 with that of Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron. For a newby, Macron has been impressive, including calling out Putin and the Russian propaganda machines that interfered in the French elections while the Russian leader was standing next to him on the podium…..The Trump inner circle has set up a war-room to fight against the different investigations into Russian interference into the election process and possible collusion with the Trump campaign in said interference. How in the world can that be labeled anything but 'obstruction of justice”.? Hopefully not everything has gone into the shredder yet.
Songs Of The Day…as we say goodbye to Gregg Allman at the age of 69
