Category: Sports
TV Gold to Lift the Spirits
During the pandemic I found two new shows that helped kept my spirits up during the turbulent spring weather that often kept me locked inside. The first I discovered was a special 20th anniversary edition of “Who Wants to be A Millionaire” hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the late night talk show host. Kimmel gleefully asks the questions and jokes with celebrity contestants, with winnings going to the charity of their choice.
I’ve seen two shows with Eric Stonestreet and Nikki Glaser so far – and it reminded me of the original with Regis Philbin, which I used to watch for awhile in California when it originally launched in the mid-90s. It is not scheduled to run much longer, but in a statement Kimmel said Philbin “came to him in a dream” and asked him to do the show with the promise of his own necktie collection. “I had little choice but to say yes,” Kimmel told the media. I’m glad he did. Check ABC for local broadcasts in May.
The second series that lifted my spirits was “The Last Dance,” a documentary on the legendary Chicago Bulls basketball star, Michael Jordan.
The 10-part series was initially scheduled to air in June during the NBA Finals, but ESPN moved up its release after fans begged for it on social media amid the cancellation of the rest of the NBA season because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Those fans, all of them hungry for substantive athlete-focused entertainment and some of them basketball legends themselves, were very satisfied, according to NBC. I was too!
The Network writes that “The Last Dance” is partially a product of film dating back to 1997, when Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf and head coach Phil Jackson agreed to let an NBA Entertainment film crew follow the team for the season. It features archival footage of the entire span of Jordan’s youth and college career, alongside new interviews with his former teammates, high school and college coaches and former President Barack Obama, whose start in politics in Chicago overlapped with Jordan’s time with the Bulls.
For a few years in the ’90s I worked closely with a Chicago news broadcaster who had moved with her husband to California and continued following her hometown team, introducing me to the power of Jordan’s dominance in basketball. I will never forget it – thanks Sydney Weisman and David Hamlin. Check ESPN for future listings on May 10 and 17.
I recommend that lovers of great game shows or historic basketball documentaries tune in to both shows this month – it’s a special treat about to disappear!
Let it snow, let it snow…or not!
I have always loved the Christmas season and was delighted to celebrate it through the years, whether in Michigan, New York or northern California. As a child, I delighted in sliding down hillsides on my sled or skating on Lake Erie with my brothers and cousins.
This year Michigan is expecting a warm Christmas – the warmest perhaps in many years. No snow.
So when I watched part of the classic film White Christmas, one of my holiday favorite films as a youngster, I realized that unlike Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, and their buddies in New England, I was actually happy this year for the heat wave (up to 50 plus some days).
I no longer go skating or sledding — and driving through ice and snow is rarely fun anymore. So I am wishing my family and friends all the joys of the season – and don’t worry snow lovers, I hear that there are predictions of more flurries before New Year’s. Happy holidays to all!
A Tale of American Greatness – and Gender Discrimination on the 4th of July
A record number of Americans found a new source of pride during the July 4th holiday weekend as they
cheered on the U.S. soccer team in the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Women internationally also learned once
again how under-valued they are financially by the world’s major sports organizations.
The showdown took place Sunday on the Fox Network as a record-setting 25.4 million viewers tuned in
(along with 1.3 million viewers on Telemundo) to watch a sizzling American team
face the defending Japanese champions, who beat them in a heartbreaking 2011 championship game and
were again in top form. The Americans last won in 1999. This year’s viewership was the most for any soccer
game, men or women’s, shown on English-language television in America.
The U.S.team initially was focused on defense, thanks to the brilliant performance of goalie Hope Solo, who
shut out four teams in a row and was on a record-breaking streak.
Then the first 16 minutes of the showdown with Japan set a new kind of record: four quick goals against
a shocked Japanese defense – three by midfielder Carli Lloyd. The final winning score was
5-2 for the Americans.
The celebration continued Monday at a rally in Los Angeles as the victors were welcomed back
stateside from Vancouver, Canada and will continue with an unprecedented ticker tape parade in New York
on Friday and a visit to the White House in the future. But the coverage also dramatized how underpaid the
winners were by international organizers FIFA — $2 million for the victors, compared to the $8 million
awarded to men’s soccer teams who lose in the first round. The total payoff for the Women’s World Cup will
be $15 million this year compared to the Men’s World Cup total last year of $576 million, nearly 40 times as
much. Despite earning billions in revenues, FIFA also forced women, but not men, to play on artificial turf,
increasing the risk of injuries and resulting in a gender discrimination lawsuit filed in Canadian court.
FIFA has agreed to let women play on grass in 2019.
For more coverage,
visit http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/carli-lloyds-hat-trick-us-women-victory-japan/story?id=32239037
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The 37 Year Triple Crown Drought Ended by American Pharoah – a “Short” Tale
Last year I cheered on the exciting, but ultimately unsuccessful Triple Crown quest of an improbable thoroughbred champion named California Chrome*– dubbed the “people’s horse” by his Michigan owners in tribute to their working class roots and the horse’s modest breeding tag. On the first Saturday of June this year, I celebrated my birthday with friends by watching a 3 year old, frisky Bay colt named American Pharoah** finally end the 37 year drought in one of sport’s most elite championships by dramatically winning the Belmont. You have to go back to 1978 for the last Triple Crown triumph, when Affirmed beat his archrival Alydar three times to become only the 11th superstar since 1919 in the club that also added Seattle Slew in ’77 and Secretariat in ’73. Secretariat’s win followed Citation in 1948, a 27 year drought.
Yes, we got spoiled in the ‘70s. That trio of superstars made those of us lucky enough to see one or more of them win believe we would keep seeing more coronations in the “80s. I was new to horseracing and handicapping in those years and lucky enough to be hanging out with college friends Alan and Peggy Fisk at the New York tracks. We had all started our journalism careers in Detroit, but it wasn’t until we met up again in New York that they convinced me to occasionally join them on summer weekends handicapping America’s best thoroughbreds .
As the years passed without a winner, we were reminded that the Triple Crown combines a grueling pace – three races in five weeks – with a final painful distance of one-and-a-half miles as the final test. The Triple Crown begins with the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in early May, followed in a few weeks by the Preakness at Baltimore’s Pimlico Racetrack, capped by the Belmont in early June in New York. The team behind American Pharoah needed to get seasoned by first taking a few talented racehorses part of the way. In fact, 13 horses since 1978 have won two races before failing to win the Belmont. Over the past 36 years, Bob Baffert –the Hall of Fame trainer of American Pharoah– has had five thoroughbreds win two of the three major races, most recently War Emblem in 2002. For American Pharoah’s Jockey , Victor Espinoza, it was his third Triple Crown attempt – the first was on Baffert’s War Emblem and last year he rode California Chrome to a heartbreaking third place finish in the Belmont for trainer Art Sherman.
American Pharoah’s owner, Egyptian-American businessman Ahmed Zayat, was confident that his horse had the right bloodlines to go the distance – his only flaw was a short “tail” bitten in an encounter with another horse. This year, the Belmont yielded a spectacular win for Zayat’s horse, by 5-1/2 lengths, in a time only beaten by Secretariat. Yes, for some members of the American Pharoah team, the victory came after a few very painful failures. Ultimately that’s a good lesson for all of us on staying the course –and don’t forget American Pharoah’s own “painful” encounter on the road to victory.
* Despite losing the Belmont, California Chrome went on last year to win more stakes races and was crowned Horse of the Year for 2014.
**The misspelling of the word pharaoh occurred during a contest and was not caught until after it was officially submitted to the Jockey Club.
Lessons in Leadership from a retiring New York Yankee
In my last years in New York, I really grew to appreciate the greatness of the soft spoken captain of the Yankees, Derek Jeter. I smiled as I read how his last few games before his retirement in September grew into a maddening love fest that reverberated nationwide. But for those who wondered how quiet Number 2 drew all this respect and emotion in a town that often prefers flash and sass, it was all about consistency and courage. Derek Jeter always showed up with his best effort. And he gave his teammates a great role model.
Jeter’s numbers weren’t world shattering, but they were pretty spectacular year after year. He delivered when it counted, including in those last two games – his final appearance at Yankee Stadium and then in arch rival city Boston. The ovations were almost as strong in both locations and the final performances were top grade as well.
I wanted to share some links that tell the story of this amazing finale – and also a new beginning. Jeter is becoming a publisher in order to let other players tell their stories. A leader to the end.
http://www.people.com/article/derek-jeter-last-game-yankees-red-sox
California Chrome: A West Coast racehorse “for the people”
This year’s Triple Crown chase is a parable about humble roots, hard work and beating the odds. At the age of 77, Art Sherman became the oldest trainer to win the May 3rd Kentucky Derby, the world’s most famous race. He didn’t do it the usual way, with a blue blood Kentucky-bred stallion. Instead, California Chrome came to Sherman from the one-horse racing stable of Steve Coburn and Perry Martin. The California friends named their operation Dumb Ass Partners because that’s what they overheard someone say after they purchased the eventual Derby winner’s dam, Love the Case, for $8,000. The owners then bred the mare to a stallion named Lucky Pulpit for a $2,500 stud fee and that humble union produced a handsome chestnut colt with white trim.
After putting suggested names into a hat, Coburn and Martin let a restaurant waitress pull out the winner: California Chrome. After they chose Sherman as the colt’s trainer, he relocated his operation from Hollywood Park to Los Alamitos, a low-rent quarter-horse track near Long Beach.
In a sport known for upper class breeding, powerhouse racing stables and multi-millionaire trainers and owners, the team behind this year’s Triple Crown contender is proud of its working class roots and readily proclaims California Chrome “a horse for the people.” Martin tells how his father, Charlie Martin, a hard-working blue collar guy from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, taught him and his brother to go out there and earn it if you wanted something. After college, Perry Martin went to California and started working at a laboratory. Using his father’s formula, he kept working long hours and now he owns the lab, which tests polymers, metals and other materials. Coburn runs a small company that makes magnetic strips for things like credit cards and hotel keys.
Trainer Sherman’s stunning victory at Churchill Downs came after 60 years of hard work in the Sport of Kings, starting as a jockey. Now the team, including jockey Victor Espinoza, have their sights set on the Preakness on May 17th in Baltimore, Maryland. California Chrome is the 3-2 favorite. The odds are in the California horse’s favor to win again – but if he does, the ultimate challenge still comes at the Belmont Stakes, which has eluded Triple Crown seekers since Affirmed won in 1978. If California Chrome wins the Preakness on Saturday, there will be a lot of hard-working dreamers out there cheering him on to become only the 12th Triple Crown winner since Sir Barton won all three races in 1919. The Belmont Stakes will take place on June 7th in New York. For more information on this improbable team, read Detroit Free Press columnist Jeff Seidel’s touching portrait at http://www.freep.com/article/20140515/COL38/305150035/california-chrome-triple-crown-horse-racing-upper-peninsula
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