Comment Archives: Stories: Sports: From My Seat
Re: “Can You Win the NBA Title Without a Superstar?”
Agree on your last paragraph.
To me, you have to make Durant beat you. As crazy as that sounds, he can't completely carry his team. If you keep Martin, Fisher, and the supporting cast from being able to mount anything, Durant has to be better than Superman (and I don't mean Dwight Howard).
As I said on Herrington's article, I like our chances in this series if Lionel can figure out the best match ups and line ups. If he can figure those out, I don't know that OKC will have a way to respond other than hoping Durant can be superhuman.
Re: “Golf is a Great Game — For You”
My 12 year old daughter and I have been playing golf together since she was 5 years old. It's been a wonderful past time for us to share. Not sure how much I'd play if not for her..
Re: “RIP Stan Musial (1920-2013)”
A very nice article, Mr. Murtaugh. My fahter lived in St. Louis from 1927 - 1958, and got to see Musial play many times. He was there the day Musial hit 5 home runs in a doubleheader in 1954. In my dad's opinion, Musial was the best player he saw in all those years, and that included Williams, DiMaggio, Gehrig, Ruth, Foxx, Kiner, Greenberg and many others, as St. Louis had both the Cardinals and the Browns until 1954. I had the pleasure of getting to meet Musial once, in 1967 thanks to my dad who took us to St. Louis often for games and Musial was walking across the parking lot after a Cardinal game. Stan was very gracious and I was in awe of him, having heard so many stories from my father. We are fortunate that he lived such a rich, long life. There will never be another like him. B. Fleming
Re: “RIP Stan Musial (1920-2013)”
My favorite lifetime celebrity hero since 1950. A little more about Mr. Musial:
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ber…
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/pr…
http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2012/11/m…
http://interact.stltoday.com/forums/viewto…
Stats: How did 23 people not vote for Stan? 317/340 ballots
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/…
http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/2142e2e5
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/pr…
http://stltoday.mycapture.com/mycapture/fo…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOjr6ib1PbE
O' Diz and Harry: Stan's last AB. A HIT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-MkfzSy4p8
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/pr…
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/car…
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/…
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/st-louis-na…
http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/stl/fan_f…
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/sports/b…
Re: “RIP Stan Musial (1920-2013)”
I met my favorite athlete, Stan Musial in '64 when I was 10. He spent the time talking to my friends and myself about us, our activities, and what we wanted to be. He encouraged us to find our own style of play, to be ourselves.
Not only was he the greatest athlete, he was the example of what a public man should be for children and I suppose by extension, all people.
What a wonderful life.
Re: “RIP Stan Musial (1920-2013)”
What a terrible loss. He was looked up to by millions. He was one of my favorites as a kid. And he did everything without doping.
Re: “The Baseball Hall of Fame on Steroids?”
Rueben Kyle
I agree with you on that one.
You see, those players plus Lance Armstrong have already been rewarded. The humongest amout of money they made, plus the acolades and ceromonies that they attended. Once you have been so honered, they can take the trophy, but they can't take the money, the feeling that those players had at the time.
It is jus like sentencing Martha Stewart to prison, wher she spent nine months, and while there, she make over 100 million dollars. What a joke!
Re: “The Baseball Hall of Fame on Steroids?”
Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, Roger Clements, and, probably, some of the others players of the steroid period deserve to be in the Hall because of their on-field performance. But, we don't have to honor them while they are alive. Let them take to their graves the knowledge that at some point their names and records will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame but we don't have to salute them in person.
As to the different periods of baseball history, and there have been many, in my view it is fruitless to make comparisons between them. The point is to compare players with their peers and to consider their peers judgments of their skills.
Re: “The Baseball Hall of Fame on Steroids?”
I will not care about how the steroids are voted in, or not. If one is voted in, all should be eligible for consideration on record. Not discrimination.
There should be a change on those who are now voting. Add in stronger value for votes by players and managers. Lessen and remove some of the writers. Get better voters.
I think that it would be good to go over the plaques and make short additions, like in the article. Steroids and dead ball era. Wartime.
Pete Rose should be the only player not allowed for consideration while he is alive. His records are in. In my opinion, he gambled on Reds games, even in the dugout, when he had influence on the game. It was known. Also, when he was responsible for backing the sign to the team in every change house "No Gambling". He agreed on the ban because he was guilty. He had influence on the games and other gamblers bets on the games.
For big events he comes and is outside taking attention from the players being honored to sell his autographs, etc. After he dies, then I don't care if they choose to vote him in vote.
Re: “The Baseball Hall of Fame on Steroids?”
Erik, your post is pretty good, even if it is not actually right.
Let us take two players, one hits for 250 with 25 home runs per year, the other hits for 305 with 35 home runs per year. Let both of them take the same kind of steroids, same dosage. Result, the one with the natural averages will still beat out the one with the lower batting average.
So, hell, just let them all take the junk!
Re: “The Baseball Hall of Fame on Steroids?”
Great points Erik. Totally agree.
Re: “The Baseball Hall of Fame on Steroids?”
Ugh. I dislike the idea of comparing the 'dead ball' era to the steroid era for a number of reasons related to intent and harm. The dead ball era 'hit' every player (hitter and pitcher) the same, and it was not cheating. The 'roid era, by contrast, was defined by a sizeable group of renegade players who decided that their performance outweighed their sacred trust with The Game and the fans.
The players on steroids cheated...so like the Tour de France simply refused to award any winner for the years Lance 'won'...baseball is under no obligation to recognize (much less reward) the men who turned their backs on all of us in the pursuit of selfish, illegal and unethical goals. The 'roid era itself? Sure, that should be in the HOF, right next to the Chicago Black Sox exhibit.
Erik Nelson
Re: “Stiff-Arming the Heisman Trophy”
Well, Johnny Football deserves SOME kind of award for his performance against Alabama!
Re: “Stiff-Arming the Heisman Trophy”
Manning went 0-1 against Florida in 1997 (Heisman given for a single year, as you note, LWC). Even "way back" in '97, the SEC was superior to the Big 10. Tennessee won at Arkansas, at Alabama, and, of course, beat Auburn in the SEC championship game. Won at UCLA early in the season.
3,819 yards, 36 TDs (11 ints) . . . touched the ball on every snap.
Woodson's trophy was a gift from us media types who hyped his dynamic punt return (and interceptions). Best college player in 1997, offense or defense, was Peyton Manning.
Real shame in Woodson getting honor is that it somehow places him among history's very best defensive players . . . because Heisman voting is ridiculously weighted toward offensive stars. From Hugh Green to Lawrence Taylor, from Warren Sapp to Jarvis Jones, there have been some great, great defensive players in college football that shouldn't be considered a different category from Mr. Woodson.
Re: “Stiff-Arming the Heisman Trophy”
Not this Manning garbage again. Really, Frank? Manning may be a sure-fire lock for Canton, but let's remember that his Vols went 0-4 against Florida, backed into the SEC title his senior year and they had to wait for him to leave before they could win a National Championship.
Whereas the Heisman trophy (given to the best PLAYER, not just the best OFFENSIVE player) was rightfully awarded to Woodson, who played both offense AND defense and put Michigan on his back as they beat Michigan State, Penn State and Ohio State on the way to a National Championship.
The Heisman is not a lifetime achievement award, it's how you do THAT year. And, as I continually have to remind people, Manning did NOT deserve it. Get a grip.
Re: “If I Were the President … of All Sports”
As your vice president, I will use my power as president of the Sports Senate to bring up a bill creating a relegation system to all major league sports franchises. The bottom three teams would be relegated to minor league status, and the top three college teams would be promoted to the majors.
That's right, SEC fans, pretty soon half the SEC would be playing in the NFL, while our beloved Tigers might get a chance to sack Tony Romo at homecoming.
Re: “Heat vs. Lakers in the NBA Finals? Boring.”
It's boring right now at this point in the season, but when the season starts and teams start to develop and have a personality for 2012/2013 season, then the boredom of a predictable season is a moot point. All you can do is focus on your team's chances of making that magical run of possibly winning it all, even if it's more of a fantasy than a reality.
Re: “Heat vs. Lakers in the NBA Finals? Boring.”
Maybe we'll have a better record than Miami (Griz are 2-1 against Miami's 'Big Three') and headline will say "Memphis Grizzlies hosts Miami Heat in Game 1 of 2013 NBA Finals"
Re: “National Baseball Day”
Every day is national baseball day for me!
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Re: “Grizzlies, Grizzlies Everywhere in Downtown Memphis”
I can remember a couple of unique doubleheaders in the day. In late March 1985 the Texas Rangers played the Kansas City Royals at McCarver Stadium in an early afternoon game and that night, right next door was the Jacksonville Bulls - Memphis Showboats USFL game. At the time, I thought that was living the high life. Memphis has really come a long way sportswise.