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Random notes from cocktail napkins -- July 20, 2010
 Posted
7/20/2010 2:32:00 PM
Remember that Dana Carvey grumpy-old-man skit on "Saturday Night Live" back in the 90's? How he'd say, "back in my time, we didn't have antibiotics, so if you got a cut it would get infected and then your finger would turn green and eventually it fell off, and we liked it that way" ... that's the way I feel about almost everything in sports these days. Our current generation of jocks act more like chicks. The guys were just mentally and physically tougher back in the day.
A guy throws at somebody and gets a four-game suspension? Good for Jonny Venters for throwing back-to-back beanballs at that big tub of goo Prince Fielder, even if he wasn't hotdogging with his home run swing follow-through. A guy hits a home run; put him on his ass the next at bat. That's what Don Larsen and Bob Gibson used to do ... back in the day, the hitter knew it was coming, took his base, no jawing and talking nonsense to the pitcher with no intent of backing it up.
Guys in the NBA are soft. End of story. They're all buddy-buddy and play grab-ass. You think I'm full of crap, listen to the comments this week from the greatest player of all time, Michael Jordan. His take on LeBron's decision -- not how he would've done it; he wanted to beat up the competition, not join it. The right move, aside from staying in Cleveland, would've been for LeBron to make new history with the Bulls. He should be the lead dog, the Alpha male, "not go to Dwayne Wade's team" as Charles Barkley said on Miami radio.
With all of the media's focus on LeBron and "The Decision" this summer, good ol' No. 4 must be feeling neglected. What, only two camera crews in Hattiesburg to get some video of Favre throwing to those high school kids? C'mon ... he's comfortable in Wrangler jeans, just a regular guy. Nobody can debate his toughness on the football field. So how can he be such a diva off of it? In what's become an annual rite of summer, Vikings coach Brad Childress had to fly down to Mississippi to kiss Brett's ass. I could just see Bill Walsh driving to Joe Montana's house to see if he was interested in playing some football every season. Hell Montana, the greatest quarterback of all-time had to battle Steve Young for his job the last few years he was a 49er. How about Vince Lombardi hopping in a plane to kiss Bart Starr's ass about returning to Green Bay? I wonder if Brett's tough-as-nails Dad was still alive, would Brett be pulling all this drama? At The Espy's, he talked about team and commitment ... what a load of crap.
I've always thought Bobby Cox is one of the most overrated managers in history. All those meaningless division pennants over the likes of the expansion Marlins, hapless Mets and Expos ring a little hollow when you can't get out of the first round of the playoffs. I think that some other franchises would've tried a different skipper after the '97 season, but that's not the Braves way. Give me every Cy Young award winner in the 90's and see how many pennants I can win. Well, despite all of Cox's postseason short comings, all that can be wiped away and his Cooperstown credentials validated with a second World Series win. The Braves have the largest division lead in baseball right now plus great pitching and a solid closer. All indications are that this just might be the magical ending to a storied career, but don't worry -- he'll screw it up.
I'm probably the only guy who watched the entire final round of the British Open. I was pulling for Louis Oosthuizen with his Shrek-like grill and monster drives. While all of the big names and top-5 ranked golfers took a powder, Oosty just kept on bombing it right down the middle. I just love the shots of St. Andrews from the helicopter and the the smooth and easy to listen to comments from Peter Allis on loan from the BBC for a few hours. None of that nonsense we hear from American announcers who go out of their way to sound all erudite and British with phrases like "the wind is freshening."
I just saw Inception last night. Wow ... what a trippy movie. I was never a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio but ever since Blood Diamond, I'm liking his work. Inception is like The Matrix meets a James Bond movie -- that's the best description I can offer. Worth the 20 bucks to see now and not wait for the rental.
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Mike Bell
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