Sports Commentary October 3, 2005

B & G Imagination Junction



Down the stretch they limp ……………………..



On Tuesday the Major League Baseball post season tournament will begin ending with crowning of the World Series champion by month’s end.

Surely, the end is closer in view now than when the thirty MLB clubs went to spring training in late February. Yet, being clear on who will win the big prize is still not a given though the crème de la crème are rising to the top.

As this column reaches your view there are just two days remaining in the regular season with, still, three of the eight invitations to the post-season yet to be handed out.

MLB begins hyping the latter part of the regular season and the post-season before opening day in April. The media will always have you believe that every team but the Tampa Bay Devil Rays will still be in contention in this final weekend.

Some years there are more races still to be determined than others but since first divisional play was created in 1969 and the wild card added, in 1995, no final weekend has been as crowded as a Los Angeles freeway at rush hour.

Yet, this year will do just fine for excitement in the last few days, five clubs remain in battle for the three remaining slots.

The national media that claim never to promote but only report the news should be as pleased as MLB, which is allowed to promote itself, in that all three of the nation’s top television markets are still in contention. Two of the three top markets are already in the post-season and the rivalry that drives the television ratings is center stage once more.

New York Yankees versus the Boston Red Sox forever. Frankly, I am sick of seeing those two clubs constantly butting heads and being brainwashed that those are the only two clubs that really matter.

Yet, MLB and the television networks that show MLB games cleverly had the two both opening the season against each other and closing the season in a stare down.

The strategy has worked as the series, this weekend, has major meaning for both clubs and one other.

After leading the American League East by at times a large margin the Red Sox lost the lead to the Yankees in the past week but hung right on their tail. So, as the two square off in Boston, the defenders of the World Series still have a chance to win the East from the Bronx Bombers.

Yet, the one that loses this battle might not lose the war as the American League wild card berth is still available but it is no given that it will go to the runner up.

About three hundred miles, to the west, the Cleveland Indians are hosting the Chicago White Sox in another big series. This could have been as big as New York at Boston as the two AL Central rivals had been waging their own war but, on Thursday, Chicago won the Central.

Yet, the Indians entered the weekend tied with Boston for the wild card lead and still can wedge themselves between the two media darlings and keep one of them out of the post-season.

The Indians are an exciting young team that is reminding many of how Cleveland looked a decade ago when they were the best team in the AL yearly but just fell short in two World Series. This group just might be the team to beat, in the American League, for the remainder of this decade.

Yet, their bid this season, took a hit last night as they lost to the White Sox while Boston beat New York. If the Indians had won, all three clubs would have had identical records. The Red Sox and Yankees are now tied both for the East lead and the wild card with the Indians just a game behind—it is big-time drama if somewhat made for television.

At one time the White Sox lead the Indians by fifteen games in the Central—the Indians got very hot, the Sox turned into ice and nearly became a club for the history books but collected themselves just in time to not need to win these games in Cleveland.

In all the media hype, on the east coast, not only the Indians but also the White Sox have flown under the radar all season. Yet, despite its near-collapse, the pale hose will begin the post-season with the best record in the American League and second finest in MLB.

The Chicagoans are not glamour and do not bash the ball as do the other Sox and Yanks but they win and have won more often.

Being a native or Chicago my sexy American League choice, to play in the WS, would be my hommies but someone has been forgot in this discussion and to forget this other team would be a huge mistake and I have not.

The Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim won the West Division fighting back a surge of the Oakland Athletics and are my pick to win it all, as they are the strongest and best-balanced club in the AL right now.

Most of the country has likely not seen these Angels play but the 2002 World Champions are back

What were you doing way back in 1990? Except for the baseball lockout year, of 1994, it was the last time that anyone wearing an Atlanta Braves uniform was spending the first weekend of October booking tee times at the golf course.

For the fourteenth consecutive full National League season the Braves have won a Division title once more being the best in the East.

When not thinking about the Red Sox and Yankees the experts thought, surely, this unprecedented streak would end this year and by all rights should have as the Braves-nightly-trot out a lineup heavy with those that should have been playing at Atlanta’s top minor league affiliate in Richmond, Virginia.

Yet, there they are back at the party. In its thirteen prior trips, the Braves have been in just three World Series being edged by the Minnesota Twins-in the worst to first Series of 1991- edging the Indians in 1995 and losing to the Yankees in 1996.

The Braves likely will not play late into the month again but its remarkable record, in regular season play, is truly something.

What truly is remarkable has been the ineptitude of the NL West in 2005—it was truly the division that no one wanted to win. The San Diego Padres have led the division most of the year because no one else wanted to. The Padres did clinch the honor of representing the NL West, on Thursday, but might end up with a losing record.

Yet, on Tuesday, all eight party goers will be dead even so the Padres still can dream and though it does not seem fair they will be in the post-season while other much better teams will not.
The NL wild card race is as hot still as the AL. Last night the NL wild card leader, the Houston Astros, lost to the Chicago Cubs while the only remaining wild card challenger-the Philadelphia Phillies- beat the Washington Nationals and are now separated by just one game.

The Astros were last year’s wild card and my pick to win the ML but fell just a game short of facing the Red Sox. The Phillies are back in contention for the first time in many years.

This year has been much as last, for the Astros, as a terrible first half has been followed by a strong second half. If they can figure out how to finish off the Cubs watch out for them again.

Yet the best has been saved for the last, as the eighth playoff team might just be the finest of them all. Seemingly the St. Louis Cardinals clinched the NL Central in July—it was, actually, in September but the defending NL champ has never been seriously challenged.

The Cardinals are so deep in talent they still had the best record in baseball despite injuries, at various times, to nearly every one of its stars and they have many.
The Cardinals fell apart against Boston, in last year’s World Series, as they were swept in four games.

As written about, in this column a few weeks ago, this is the last year for the Cardinals Busch Stadium home as-in 2006-they will move next door into a new state of the art nest.

With the memory of last year’s WS sweep and closing the old barn the Cardinals are my choice to win it all and defeat the Angels.

Except for my two final picks every other team either already in or still in contention have been limping into this last weekend.

Hype gets TV ratings, sells cars and beer but titles are won on the field. Last year the Red Sox lived up to the hype and maybe they or their media-darling partner Yankees might do it once more but while most look to the Eastern seaboard I look farther west.

Ah, but as each three-hour plus marathon of TV commercials and plugs for hot Fox shows unfolds it will be the usual fun and drama.

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Sports Commentary September 26, 2005

B & G Imagination Junction


Still Searching ……………………..



Last Sunday-at North Loudon, New Hampshire the first of the ten playoff races to determine the 2005 NASCAR racing champion took place.

The New Hampshire International Speedway hosts two events during the major leagues of stock cars season—this was the second of the current campaign.

NHIS is a favorite stop for most in the NASCAR nation as it is a modern, demanding but fair circuit that is known for the hospitality showed by the track’s owners and people of the area. Throw in the beauty of New England and most need not force themselves to shows up at North Loudon.

New Hampshire is a state of small population—the two NASCAR events are, annually, the state’s largest big time athletic events.

NHIS has been a cursed track, as well, for racing deaths including that of Adam Petty five years ago. Adam was the grandson of NASCAR legend Richard Petty and son of veteran driver Kyle Petty.

Understandably, thus, this is not a favored track for Petty Enterprises—Kyle runs the races there but does not arrive until race day. Another driver qualifies his car.

Yet, all else look forward to the northern most stop on the thirty-six week tour.

NHIS opened in the 1980’s as one of NASCAR’s attempts to expand beyond its Southeastern United States fan base. Part of the boom of NASCAR into the incredible athletic and business success story that it has become, in the past fifteen years, had its roots in New England.

In a 2002 column I expounded on the incredible rise to power of NASCAR and how it moved from a strictly regional sport to become one of the top sports leagues in the country.

The rise was meteoric but I questioned whether NASCAR truly had a grip on, exactly, what it envisioned itself to be for the long-term as clearly there were signs of its past clashing with its present—image is everything but NASCAR was still searching for what it thought that its true image should be.

After last Sunday’s race, at North Loudon, this question must be visited once more.

The outcome, of the race, almost was secondary to the shenanigans and tomfoolery that occurred during the event.

That is a pity as Ryan Newman edged Tony Stewart in a terrific stretch run dual. Stewart, the race for the chase regular season champion still leads the points race. Newman, who just barely made the playoffs at number ten, jumped to third in the points.

Stewart, the 2002 series champion, has been known as one of NASCAR’s bad boys for past on and off track behavior—Newman has had his naughty on track moments especially lately after a Bristol, Tennessee two-step with another veteran driver Dale Jarrett.

Yet, last Sunday, both Stewart and Newman displayed choirboy manners and great racing.

The same could not be said for others.
In one incident Robbie Gordon, he of the big mouth and very short temper, felt that Michael Waltrip intentionally ran him off the road so he sought retaliation instead wrecking his own car and taking him out of the race.

During the caution period, to clean up the wreck, Gordon walked into passing vehicular traffic and threw his helmet at Waltrip’s car as it passed by.
After returning, to the infield, Gordon dropped the dreaded F bomb word in a live television interview.
Later, young Kasey Kahne felt that defending series champion Kurt Busch intentionally ran into his car so-during another caution period-he purposely veered into Busch’s car. Kahne is not eligible for this year’s championship but Busch is so this hurt the defender’s chances.

“Boys will be boys,” you say? In these two cases hardly because they occurred during caution periods. Cautions occur because of on-track accidents—rescue workers who, often, must be on foot to clean up the mess clear up these accidents.

Imagine an automobile accident in your neighborhood with the ambulance and its crew on the scene then passing motorists decides to act out road rage as they pass by the scene.
NASCAR fined Gordon $35,000 and took away fifty championship points while Kahne was lighter $25,000 and twenty-five points—neither driver was suspended.

All week racing fans have been debating whether the penalties went far enough but I, rather, see the New Hampshire melt downs as the biggest recent challenge to the dilemma of whatever NASCAR is trying to be.

Stock car racing began on dirt roads between less than sophisticated types that were racing not so much for the money but manhood—it was the eight-cylinder Hatfield and McCoy saga.

The fancy types of American auto racing were the open wheel and sports cars—all the others were Friday and Saturday nights at small and dimly lighted half mile ovals with earthy down to earth types both on the track and in the grandstands.

Then this culture went Madison Avenue and the five hundred pound gorilla was born.

Yet the basic character of most of the drivers and fans, of NASCAR, still is the same as those myriad dusty tracks that still dot the country.

NASCAR has the huge television contract and the biggest corporations trip over themselves to throw its money into sponsorships.
NASCAR promotes family entertainment and a God Bless America opening to every race with military aircraft flyovers, invocations and apple pie renditions of the national anthem.

Yet there are the movie stars, politicians, military heroes and CEO’s that jockey for photo shoots.

At each track the rich and famous sit in luxury suites but the infield and not as cheap as before seats are still populated by beer-guzzling fans that made the sport.

Down and dirty free-enterprise fuels the gorilla but its lifeline are still those southern rednecks.

I heard NASCAR sarcastically called this past week, by columnist Ed Hinton, as the National Association of Squeaky Clean Racing. Of course Hinton had his tongue in his cheek as he pointed out that even the best of families fight with each other and even drop the F bomb once in a while.
The race, at North Loudon last Sunday, was great theater and so much like we know stock car racing to be—yet, the bigwigs of NASCAR were not amused.

The penalties handed out were not as harsh as many would say that they could or should have been. Why is this, because NASCAR still is torn between where it has been and what it wants to be in the future.

Each week it seems that the major league of racing in America wrestles with these clashes of culture and desire. Each year we think that they will finally figure it out yet they still have not.

Very little of real life is squeaky clean and surely drivers running into each other at one hundred ninety miles per hour will never be as well.
The invocation is the last pious moment of Sunday in a Cup race so why be pretentious? The answer is because of all that corporate and television money floating about.

The golden goose is far from being on life support but please NASCAR do make up your collective minds what type of show do you really want to offer us.

If NASCAR president Mike Helton keeps pleading with the race teams to behave define good behavior then put teeth into the words. If it is every fire suit to itself then say that as well.

If you want your races to be Grey Poupon back it up—if it is still just plain mustard, a burger, a six-pack and Willie Nelson then let it be just that.

Is Robbie Gordon a plaque on the house or a delightful rogue?

I love you NASCAR but whether squeaky clean or down and dirty fess up or all of us fans might need to spend time with a corporate shrink at $500 an hour and frankly I would rather be at the track.

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Sports Commentary September 19, 2005

B & G Imagination Junction


Roger Is It And It’s Not Even Close ……………………..



This year we have been following the exploits of cyclist Lance Armstrong with many anointing him the best current individual sport athlete in the world.

Except in France there are many that will say that Armstrong is the best athlete in the world at this moment. True, Lance just retired but had briefly left the door open to returning-for the Tour De France-in 2006. So, the paint is not dry on Armstrong’s career quite yet perhaps.

Saying that anyone is the best in anything is purely subjective and numerous others could be placed in front of Armstrong in such a race though I would say that Lance still beats them all with the intangible traits that must go with the physical.

We will not even dignify the argument, of whether cycling is really a sport, with discussion but others will look in other directions for the best athlete.

Because each sport is so different the question should be who is the most accomplished current athlete, in an individual sport, in the world? So, if not Armstrong, who?

A list need not be made, as the winner should be a young man from that emerging world athletic power nation of Switzerland. Switzerland? Well, the tiny land-locked country still, incredibly, holds the America’s Cup of yachting so why not?

If you continue to think that improbable there is nothing improbable about tennis player Roger Federer—clearly-at the tender age of twenty-four-he is already the best tennis player in the world, is well on his way to being the best tennis player ever and just might be our finest of all current non-team sport athletes.

Last Sunday, Federer beat the amazing Andre Agassi to win his second consecutive United States Open tennis championship and the sixth major title of a still-young career.

Just last year this column debated the best tennis player of all time—the finalists were Rod Laver, of Australia and American Pete Sampras. I decided on Laver but added that this, probably, was only until Federer completed his tour.

Sampras holds the open-era record of fourteen major titles. With Federer’s New York moment he pulls even with Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg while just one short of John McEnroe and Mats Wilander for open-era Grand Slam crowns—the kid is walking in tall timber.

Agassi has been around for so long that he has faced everyone listed above except for Laver so who better to ask where Roger rates.
Andre says, “He’s the best I ever played against. Pete was great. No question. But there was a place to get to with Pete. You knew what you had to do. If you do it, it could be on your terms. There’s no such place like that with Roger.

“He plays the game in a very special way that I haven’t seen before.”

Federer is not falsely modest admitting that he is the best current player but says it is way too early for the big picture. He is right in that he has five to six years more of prime time tennis remaining on his racket.

Just as Tiger Woods should surpass Jack Nicklaus, in major golf titles, so should the young Swiss hit a passing shot on Sampras’ mark and might go after all existing tennis records even from before 1968 when the open era began.

Federer is that good.

Statistics and a litany of facts can be better than warm milk as a sleeping pill but slurp up this one fact: Federer has six Grand Slam titles while playing in only six Grand Slam final matches—yep, the kid is batting 1.000 when the big money is on the line.
It has been babbled that there is no excitement or glamour in men’s tennis these days—all the best tennis players are female. Men’s tennis is thought dead, in these parts, because no American is on top.

Well, Andy Roddick still has time to make his mark and we are just discovering James Blake. As for the ladies I will confess that Maria Sharapova, Lindsey Davenport, this year’s US Open champ Kim Kjlester and the Williams sisters Venus and Serena are tremendous court talents and all better looking than Roger.

Yet, Federer now must be thought the gold standard of this sport and perhaps the top athlete playing an individual sport today.

In writing about Armstrong I said that we should all feel fortunate that we have been able to watch him in the present tense and not just on grainy film or video—so it is with Roger Federer.

Is Roger better than Pete or the Rocket? Perhaps, it is not for me to say but Andre knows and that is not such a shabby source.

And he is from that athletic superpower. So, let us not quibble and just enjoy a once in a lifetime figure.

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If you would like the commentary to arrive in your email inbox every week, please email to subscribe@bgimagination.com

Remember that no purchase from B&G is necessary to receive these inspired thoughts of mine.

Still, though, do tell all that have eyes about our website.

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Sports Commentary September 12, 2005

B & G Imagination Junction


Stretch Runs And Take Offs ……………………..



September’s song, in the sports world, is a time of coming and going—just as one season, of the year, changes to the next so do the season’s on the fields of sporting competitions.

There are campaigns soon to end with others on the horizon of beginning. Early September, for some, is a time to call the opponent’s hand and see what they have.

I like this time of year-athletically speaking=because those in a manner say, “Put up or shut up.”

There is but one month remaining in the regular season of Major League Baseball before the playoffs begin. In my way too many years to admit and try to snow you that I am still young the September pennant runs might carry more drama than the playoffs or the World Series itself as if you cannot produce now you will not get to produce in October.

There are six MLB divisions with eight teams qualifying for the post-season with the division winners and the best second place teams, in each league, moving on.

At this juncture, there are only two clubs that are virtual locks to get in, a couple more that look fairly comfortable and a whole bunch that are having many a sleepless night. More than likely, a number of berths might not be determined until the final outs are recorded on October 2.

The two almost certain qualifiers are the defending National League Champion St. Louis Cardinals, well ahead in the NL Central division, along the Chicago White Sox running away with the American League Central.

The defending MLB Champion Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves are not well ahead, in the AL and NL East, but should hang on.

The Los Angeles Angels have led the AL West most of 2005—they briefly were supplanted but are back in control.

Then there is the NL West, the division that no one wants to win. The San Diego Padres have led, for most of the year, only because the other four members are worse. The Padres just reached the break-even mark and it is still a possibility that division could be won with a losing record.

The best second place finishers, in each league, are called the wild cards and here is where the real drama of September baseball seems to occur. In most years, the divisional races are settled by the final week but the wild cards go right down to the wire.

If today were the last day the New York Yankees and Houston Astros would be your wild cards but uneasy lies the crowns of both as both races are still full of contenders.

In the AL are the young and exciting Cleveland Indians and Oakland Athletics. The Athletics were the team that briefly caught the Angels but have fallen back but have come a long way from a dreadful start to the season. The Indians never challenged the runaway White Sox but have progressively improved to where they can now beat any foe in the AL.

The Yankees pitching will be its downfall if, indeed, they fall. The Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays are outside possibilities but now true long shots.

In the NL, after the Central division Astros, all of the other contenders are the remaining East division foes chasing the Braves.

Though the Braves seem in control, of the East, it is still baseball’s tightest race as even the last place New York Mets still have a chance to win the division. Yet-along with Houston-the NL wild card will likely come from the Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals or Florida Marlins.

The hunt for October is always fun to watch in September.

The hunt for the chase starts its engines in September. Tonight Richmond, Virginia is the site for the twenty-sixth NASCAR Nextel Cup stock car race of 2005 and the final race of its regular season. After tonight the top ten, in points accumulated throughout the year, qualify to compete for the championship through the final ten events of the season.

In an oddity, unique to NASCAR, though only ten drivers will remain eligible for the championship all regular drivers will continue to race.

When the green flag waves, tonight, seven of the ten spots have already been determined but oh what a war looms for those last three spots. Mathematically, eight drivers are still eligible but, reasonably, only six have a real chance.

The seven-already in-are Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Kurt Busch and Jeremy Mayfield. If you will note that the sport’s two biggest names, Dale Earnhardt Junior and Jeff Gordon are missing. Gordon is still in the hunt for the final three places but Junior has had his worst year since coming to the Cup series level in 1998.

Along with Gordon-a four time series champion-are Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Jaime McMurray, Ryan Newman and Elliott Sadler.

Much as getting into the baseball post season can be more dramatic than the playoffs so is this new creation, of NASCAR, in just its second year. The fenders should be flying in Richmond tonight.

The National Football League season began on Thursday night as the defenders, the New England Patriots, began this season as last season ended in Jacksonville, Florida—the Pats defeated the Oakland Raiders.

As all the other clubs get going tomorrow and Monday, of course, the question is which two will don the pads in the fortieth Super Bowl in early February? We shall see.

Oh all right, as long as you insist, the Indianapolis Colts and the St. Louis Rams will make it to Detroit. Now, are not you sorry that now that you know watching all those NFL games-on your satellite dish, will seem a waste of time?

College football is now in full swing from coast to Hawaii.

The Women’s National Basketball Association playoffs are in the conference finals and the United States Open Tennis Tournament concludes tomorrow.

Earlier this week, the US clinched a berth in next summer’s World Cup of soccer and Mexico got in as well.

So, as the leaves begin to change color so do the seasons on the field.

No, the Gulf coast has not been forgot but the healing has begun and as always sports helps to close the wounds.

So, let us enjoy the excitement of athletics.

To every season turn, turn turn.

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Remember that no purchase from B&G is necessary to receive these inspired thoughts of mine.

Still, though, do tell all that have eyes about our website.

These thoughts are B’s and are not necessarily shared by G

Sports Commentary September 5, 2005

B & G Imagination Junction



Again A Reminder Of What Is Real ……………………..


Monday is the American holiday of Labor Day.

Labor Day and the first week of September represent a number of things from year to year in this country.

For this reporter the thought of the beginning of the school year on Tuesday can never be wiped out from the memory bank—as one, that was never a whiz in the classroom, I dreaded Labor Day for such a forbearing reason.

Though not officially, for all intents, Labor Day marks the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.

The Labor Day weekend, in America, means the annual telethon hosted by comedian Jerry Lewis to raise money to eradicate muscular dystrophy.
In sports, September’s dawn marks the beginning of baseball’s regular season sunset as this final month will decide which clubs get to battle to reach the World Series in October.

Hockey teams begin training camp heading for an October opening—a tradition renewed this year after a one-season hiatus.

Finally, September’s arrival marks the start of both the collegiate and professional football seasons.

This week, in the routine proper order of things, would be this column’s preview of the pigskin madness to come and an opinion offered whether the University of Southern California and the Hew England Patriots would extend its dynasties another campaign.

So, yes, in the proper order of things the birth of September is many things but though all of the above are happening once more the pigskin preview shall be placed on hold because-in 2005-the proper order has been cruelly broken.

School days, ball games, telethons, changing seasons and football seem not to matter as-once more-the stark darkness of reality has blown away the fantasies and romanticism of our ideals.

On Monday a devastating hurricane-named Katrina-roared through the Gulf of Mexico then battered the coastline of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana with winds up to one-hundred forty five miles per hour.

Even for a region well used to enduring hurricanes Katrina was too much to bear—New Orleans, the largest city in the affected area, was virtually destroyed.

With literally thousands of lives feared lost, from the flooding, Katrina is already thought the single worst natural disaster in American history.

We have been down this road before and it was not all that long ago. Earlier this year the tsunami ate up a number of national shorelines in the South Pacific and Indian Oceans. We wept for the terrible devastation of mainly poor underdeveloped countries but smugly thought, “But this can’t happen to us.”

Well, Mother Nature is the most democratic of all forces as she cares not how high or low you sit on the society’s totem pole. A lack of advance warning was blamed for the high death toll of the tsunami yet a high death toll is mounting along the Gulf coast among victims that knew of the coming of Katrina a week or more before arrival.

Many did evacuate the area in time—there are the stories of ten people in a hotel room in Houston and a shelter set up at the massive Louisiana Superdome.

Yet, for those able to escape, there will be the return to homes and towns destroyed. Those, in the mighty New Orleans sports stadium, are now at the Houston Astrodome as Katrina blew off a portion of the Superdome’s roof making one of the biggest buildings in the world unsafe for habitation.

Those were the lucky folks.

All the rest were either too stubborn or just not able to run. The result is people perishing in floods or desperately seeking rescue from rooftops.

Technically, New Orleans has always been under water as it is considered ten feet below sea level with the dangerous Gulf and the mouth of the Mississippi River. Just a few years ago came dire predictions that within fifty years the city of New Orleans would sink—the future arrived early.

Two other cities, east of New Orleans, Mobile and Biloxi are very hard hit as well but ancient and inadequate levees-around New Orleans-made the damage there the worst.

It cannot happen in America but it did.

Of course it did not happen in all of America and not in the most heavily concentrated areas, of the East Coast, so while we all weep life is proceeding unlike the days after September of 2001.

Americans and the world were swift to help the affected areas of the tsunami and now are being generous with the recovery after Katrina.

I have been through flooding, a major hurricane and for a short while resided near New Orleans so know some of the pain felt there right now.
I never, though, had my home destroyed or clung to a rooftop awaiting a helicopter to pull me to safety. I was never close to being struck by a falling tree or flying debris. I was never in fear of drowning in my own house. So, I do not really know what is going on in the Bayou and in Dixie.

More than likely none of you have been through such horrors either so maybe this explains why we are so wanting to assist but cannot halt our lives, for a few days, as we somehow did in 2001.
I am not one to always yell, “Stop the world I want to get off” but sometimes we need to if only for a short time.

I promise that I will not get political but, at this moment, war seems very trivial. There is a new war and it is on our soil and seemingly more important. Katrina was the terrorist but now the enemies, in New Orleans, are the looters and rioters of the streets that have taken over the abandoned city.

The situation is so severe that the mayor and governor are saying that priority needs to be given to rescue efforts and not stopping the violence.

Even the mighty are so vulnerable—this is not a third world nation but America and though just a relatively small portion of America it should make us all feel some of what we felt four years ago--two completely different situations? Yes and not really.

The affected region will rebuild but it will take years as no town or home can be rebuilt in a day.

There is a spirit in New Orleans perhaps unlike anywhere else in America—that spirit will not be lost. Southern Mississippi and Alabama have rebuilt so often they know the drill.
The rest of America and the world do care and will help—even my relatively small city of Yuma have rescue personnel on call to head for the area if needed. Marines just returned, to our local base, that were in Iraq are being deployed to New Orleans.

My questions are what can we learn from the tragedy that is Hurricane Katrina and what can the answers do for us in the future?

We all became somewhat introspective four years ago and then earlier this year so, maybe, it is time to go to that mirror again and take stock.

I will not trivialize the full spectrum of life and can understand our lives not being completely put on hold this week. Yet, after we give thanks that this time it was not we, are we as caring for those that did not luck out?

Let us hope that the survivors can return to some semblance of the normalcy that we enjoy as soon as possible.

For them let us hope that the day comes soon that telethons, Major League Baseball, college football and the National Football League can be of interest to them.

This past week they had enough reality.

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If you would like the commentary to arrive in your email inbox every week, please email to subscribe@bgimagination.com

Remember that no purchase from B&G is necessary to receive these inspired thoughts of mine.

Still, though, do tell all that have eyes about our website.

These thoughts are B’s and are not necessarily shared by G

Sports Commentary August 29, 2005

B & G Imagination Junction


The Sensitivity Of Fighting An Indian War ……………………..




It is so easy to be insulting while so hard to be politically correct.

One of our flaws, as human beings, is to mock—in fact we are quite good at it. We will mock anything or anybody on the slightest whim. There seems to be a gene in each of us that allows us to make fun of as easily as we breathe.

Why people make fun of others is one of those deep complex psychological study questions that are for the research experts to unravel. To attempt to cut to the core I would offer fear as a reason but maybe I am too simplistic.
No matter, since time began, insults have flown and mockery has been routine.

Yet, nothing is forever and succeeding generations have realized some of the errors of their ways and attempted to correct them.

Common words of past generations are taboo today. I need not list the forbidden as you could probably think of, at least, a half dozen or more words or phrases perhaps ordinarily spewed just twenty years ago that one would not dare utter today.

Though insults, mockery and hate always will seem to be around as a species-in some ways-we have grown up if only a little bit.

The cliché can be that we have come far but still have far to go as, after all, mockery seems to still be second nature.

The questions of what is insulting and what is not might seem simple but, sometimes, is as complex as why we mock at all.

In our country a prime example are Indians……I am sorry, Native Americans. See how quickly I seemed to insult and how swiftly I tried to repair the damage and be politically correct?
It was not that long ago that uttering the word Indians raised no eyebrows or ruined no ones dinner. From the time that Europeans began settling the North American continent Indians was the normal way to address those that were here before the white man—no longer. In more recent times Native Americans is more appropriate.

Seemingly everything is symbolic and though it is more accurate to use the latter term it is, also, more respectful as the white man’s treatment of those that lived here long before us has seldom been anything but respectful.
For one, having lived in Arizona the past ten years has made me more respecting of the Native American culture as it exists all about me here and seemingly, in the Western United States, is treated better than elsewhere if hardly far from perfectly.

I must trot forth another overused cliché as a means to insert Native Americans into my normal area of discussion: Sports is a metaphor for life.

Though not in large numbers Native Americans have made their mark, in North American athletics, for over a century. In fact there was sports integration of Native Americans, into the mainstream, before black Americans or Hispanics.

In the lore, of American sports history, the name Jim Thorpe is as well-known as any other—there are still those that would argue that Thorpe is still the greatest of all American athletes ever to come along.

Another commonly accepted tradition has been the naming of athletic teams with Native American references both at the professional and amateur levels of competition.

For nearly one hundred years this was not thought at all degrading or insulting—or, at least, it was not by white Americans.

Yet, as the civil rights movement opened our eyes to how we have acted badly, it was brought to the surface that this practice of calling your favorite team Indians, Braves, Redskins or the like was not such a good thing--we were told this by Native Americans as they flexed their political muscle in a more enlightened time.

It is not just a nickname, that insults the Native Americans, but the mascots used along with the name as embarrassing mockery is mixed with insult with grossly distorted depictions.

Thus, in the past twenty years or so, many colleges and high schools that used any sort of Native American athletic team nickname have dropped them in favor of other less abrasive identities.

At the professional level no club has changed its team name though each, that still use Native American related team monikers, are a bit more sensitive to how the name is portrayed.

So, is it now all peaches and cream between the Native American tribes and sports? Hardly. Efforts are ongoing to get the professional clubs, which use such team names, to change and there are still eighteen major universities that continue with Native American nicknames and mascots.

If one had thought that this political storm had blown out to sea received a shock just a few weeks ago. The governing body of most of America’s collegiate athletics, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, announced that no school that uses a Native American nickname would be allowed to use that nickname or display its mascots in post-season competition in any sport.

Whoa has the fur flied over this one.

Mostly, the howls are loudest at the two largest remaining schools that use such nicknames, The University of Illinois and Florida State University.

FSU has screamed the loudest because they are the mightiest on the totem pole. FSU’s athletic teams are known as the Seminoles, which is a Native American tribe, located both in Florida and Oklahoma.

At home football games the Seminoles have a pre-game ritual that is quite impressive to us white folks but quite insulting to Native Americans.

After the team comes onto the field a student, dressed as a Native American warrior, rides onto the field aboard a beautiful appaloosa horse. The warrior is carrying a flaming spear.

When he and the horse, named War Paint, arrive at the center of the field the warrior thrusts the spear into the turf—even if not an FSU fan it is quite a stunning performance.

This type tradition will not be changed, during the regular season, but nothing of the sort was declared allowable in football bowl games or playoff games in other sports.

In FSU’s case, for example, no television or radio announcer could refer to the team as the Seminoles.

The edict has been made and for now, apparently, will still go into effect with all the affected schools….except one.

The NCAA should have known better than to mess with politics in Florida. FSU brought legal action against the NCAA and have already won—FSU will be exempt from the nickname ban.

For the record, the Seminole tribes in both Florida and Oklahoma are fine with the school continuing to use the nickname and the white kid playing the warrior. A cynic was heard to suggest that a few football tickets, on the fifty-yard line, made everything politically correct.

So, the NCAA is stuck with a decree that has already been dismissed by its strongest affected member yet will still apply to the others—is this fair?

Some Native Americans are not as bent out of shape over athletic teams degrading them as perhaps we are led to believe—in fact, I am guessing that with the myriad other daily problems affecting tribes throughout the country whether the Cleveland Indians or FSU Seminoles pretending that they are one of them does not get discussed at the dinner table.

This twenty-year old campaign, to rid sports of Native American references, does not seem to be a rank and file movement.

Yet, is it a tempest in a teapot? Yes and no might be an accurate reply. Yes because there are so many worse injustices, to Native Americans, than the names of sports teams. No because sports is so high profile and symbolic of life in general.

In the category of they should have left well enough alone the NCAA has opened both a Pandora’s box and a messy can of worms.

As so often happens, by trying to do the right thing something went quite wrong.

I am expecting this new post-season no talking about Native American nicknames or showing mascots and logos to be rescinded within a year if not sooner. FSU has already taken the edict down a few notches and Illinois is yet to step up yet but likely will.

We, as a people, have come as long way and the sensitivity-in principle-is a good one—yet, using sports is not necessarily the means to the end as the do-gooders must realize.

Am I wrong and am I unfeeling because even though I am not an FSU fan I get a rush when I see that spear stuck in the ground? I hope not and I do not think so.

It is not easy to be politically correct sometimes when what is and is not is not clear.

I do not think that I will be more enlightened if next spring I do not hear the word Fighting Illini when watching Illinois in the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

We do want to get it right but, this time, the NCAA did not.

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Sports Commentary August 22, 2005

B & G Imagination Junction


Memories Of A Soon To Be Extinct Busch ……………………..




The question of the moment might be why do us homosapiens get so emotional about the buildings and stadiums, which athletic teams play within?

Actually to ask this question is to revisit old ground as it has been asked and discussed in a prior column.

In brief and in review the answer is that sports stadiums are symbols of who we are, civic pride, local shame, where we have been and who we wish to be.

A stadium can impact us much as our own home dwelling as far as telling part of our life story and surely that of the athletic clubs and its individuals. We might put a disproportionate importance on these structures but there are worse personality traits, which we carry about, so this one seems excusable.

Obviously, such subject matter would not be broached unless a confession be made of my guilt of such flaws. Yes, I can become as teary-eyed as the next chap when pontificating on sports stadiums and arenas.

Because we have been down this path before, generalization of the whole is unnecessary—for purposes, of this week’s edition, the spotlight shall shine on but one of these edifices soon to take its final bow.

Busch Stadium, in St. Louis, is in its final year before a new sporting palace debuts in April of next year—the new structure, also to be called Busch Stadium, is currently still being built next door to the old one.

Busch is the home of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball club. This automatically puts whatever stadium on a higher plateau, as the Redbirds are one of baseball’s elite organizations. The Cardinals are currently the defending National League champions, have the best record in all of baseball this season and historically the most successful of National League franchises.

Until baseball sent the Dodgers and Giants from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco, in 1958, St. Louis was the western most major league city—thus the Cardinals were the franchise close to the hearts not only in the Midwest but nearly all points beyond the gateway.

This Busch Stadium is actually Busch Stadium II as the prior structure was rechristened as such when the beer-brewing giant, Anheiser Busch, bought the club in the 1950’s.

Busch Stadium I was known as Sportsman’s Park, before that, seeing plenty of history of its own.

Until 1954 Busch I housed both the Cardinals and Browns, of the American League, until the Browns left in 1954 to become the Baltimore Orioles.

Though the Cardinals were highly successful the Browns were in the World Series just once…in 1944 against the Cardinals—it was the only World Series where every game was played in the same stadium.

Busch II was part of the 1960’s building boom opening a month into the 1966 season with a 4-3 win over the Atlanta Braves.

When the explosives implode Busch II, next spring, only one of the so-called “cookie-cutter” fully circular 60’s outdoor stadiums will remain, Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. The Astrodome in Houston still stands though the Astros now play at a new stadium but the Astrodome, though it is round, was never cookie-cutter.

This reporter was in the current Busch Stadium once in 1967—it was my first time in a new major league edifice. Up to then, I had only attended big league games in three of MLB’s oldest arenas Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Comiskey Park and Detroit’s Tiger Stadium.
To walk into Busch was quite the thrill—because the building boom was still in its early stages my September evening, at the new ball yard, was like visiting a futuristic exhibition.

New history was already being created, in the new stadium in ’67, as I saw a young New York Mets pitcher named Tom Seaver beat the team that just a month later would defeat the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.

Busch II was the home of Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, the latter part of Roger Maris’ career, the Whitey Herzog Cardinals of the 1980’s and now the Tony La Russa Cards of a new century.

It was where, in 1998, Mark McGuire first tied then broke Maris’ single season home run record on consecutive nights.

It is the stadium of the sea of red as most fans attend home games dressed in the appropriate hue—such sophomoric habits would be corny to the hilt elsewhere but plays just right in St. Louis.

Busch is that Chamber of Commerce dream of seeing the Gateway Arch peering over the upper deck roof.

Both Busch I and II housed football, as well, with the pigskin Cardinals from 1960-1992 when they left for Arizona. As reported, last week, the football Cardinals were generally terrible except for the mid-1970’s when the Don Coryell led Big Red made Busch II a fun place for football as well.
Ownership has spruced up Busch, in recent years, to where it has looked as spiffy in its old age as it did as a youngster.

Co hosting the World Series, in each of its final two seasons, would be the grandest of ways for the old yard to go out.

Except for its years of the playing surface being artificial turf and a malfunctioning underground storage flap for the tarpaulin eating up Willie McGhee, knocking him out of the 1985 World Series, Busch has been hallowed ground for those treading upon it.

Busch III looks to be a jewel of a stadium—it will have all the modern amenities, an unobstructed view of the arch and unlike most of the other new stadiums one pretty successful tenant right from the start.

In 2006 new memories will be made on the banks of the Mississippi River. Yet, the soon to be no more Busch has had plenty of its own and will be missed not just by Cardinal fans but those beyond.
I never got to many of the now gone historical sports palaces but, at least once, I was inside this one so will be sorry to see it go.

I am not really a Cardinal fan but if they win the World Series I would be fine with it as a wonderful going away present for a wonderful stadium.

Yes, we homosapiens get funny about odd things but allow me this one as Busch Stadium says its farewell.

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Remember that no purchase from B&G is necessary to receive these inspired thoughts of mine.

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These thoughts are B’s and are not necessarily shared by G