NO TRIPLE CROWN WINNER THIS YEAR; COSTAS RELATES TO JOCKEYS BY HEIGHT

Horse Racing, aka “the sport of kings”, was on center stage on Saturday with the second leg of the famed Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, being run at Pimlico Racetrack in Baltimore.


Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver just didn’t have it, while the Derby favorite two weeks ago, Lookin’ At Lucky, rebounded at the Belmont to win by two heads. The most significant note coming out of this race is the fact that for the 33rd straight year there will not be a Triple Crown winner. For those of us old enough to remember (yes, I do), the last super horse to sweep all three races was Affirmed in 1978.

Aside from the exciting, highly competitive horse race which was run in ideal conditions in Baltimore, another note became apparent to me. It was during the lead up to post-time, when NBC was running several different feature stories and interviews. In the area near the jockeys’ quarters NBC’s Bob Costas was interviewing jockey Kent Desormeaux. Jockeys are not big people. In fact, they are rather diminutive. I really like Bob Costas and have always enjoyed his work. I also know that he isn’t a man of large physical stature. But, unless jockey Desormeaux was wearing lifts in his riding boots, or 1970’s disco platform-style shoes, he and Costas were looking at each other eye to eye. You could have balanced a 2 x 4 level across their heads. I couldn’t believe it!

All 12 Belmont Stakes jockeys weighed in around 126 pounds. Not that Costas is heavy, by any means, and even though he may have jockey height, he doesn’t appear to tip the scales as low as 126. So, Bob will have to stick to announcing, which he does exceptionally well, and for which he is very well-compensated. But, he doesn't get to wear those cool, colorful silky jockey uniforms.

Is Father Time Catching Up With The Yankee Captain?

The New York Yankees' captain, Derek Jeter, is looking his age. Turning age 36 in June, he is looking like all of that and maybe more.  Just 34 games into the 2010 season Jeter has seen his performance slide in the month of May.  He finished April hitting a healthy .330 and was leading the team in RBI.  Now, after a brutally quiet four-game series in Detroit, where New York was hardly the Bronx Bombers while being shutout twice, Jeter's average stood at a pedestrian .269.  There is no greater representative for who and what the Yankee pinstripes are all about.  But, it's obvious Jeter is slipping. Despite a rigid, disciplined off-season training regiment and Jeter possessing the mental focus and will to be the best he can be, Father Time just might be closing in on the Captain.

Patriots' Brady Telling It Like It Is, Players Need to Listen to Belichick

In the first half of the new decade of the 2000s, the New England Patriots were the kings of the NFL.  With Bill Belichick captaining the ship and all-pro QB Tom Brady at the controls the Patriots won three of four Super Bowls from 2001- 2004.

In 2007 they rattled off 16 straight regular season wins, then added a pair of play-off wins, but were eventually upset in their quest for another Lombardi Trophy by the surging New York Giants as they finished the season 18-1.

The last two years have not been, as we have come to expect, very Patriot-like.  2008 brought a bit of history, albeit negative.  New England became the first 11-win team to not make the play-offs.  They sat at home as Miami won the automatic post-season bid as the AFC East champs, and the Pats were eliminated from a possible wild card berth by a confusing league formula which determines such things.  Last year New England posted another double-digit win season, 10-6 (going 8-0 at home, but just 2-6 on the road). Unfortunately, the home field comfort of Gillette Stadium ran out in the first round of the play-offs as the Baltimore Ravens jumped out to a 24-0 lead and never looked back on their way to a 33-14 victory.

Narrowly missing the play-offs two years ago, and then being bounced in the first round while playing in their own building last year, brings some interesting quotes from Brady.  In an article published on Sporting News’ , “The Trenches”, Brady is quoted as saying, "We've got to start listening more to coach Belichick," Brady told Sports Illustrated. "We've got young kids who are good players. We've got the best football coach of all time. He's got the answers. We as a team have to take the teaching and the coaching we're being given.

"Teams change in this league every year, and ours is no exception. Last year was pretty disappointing in a lot of ways, obviously. Losing to Baltimore the way we lost in the playoffs, losing leads late, losing on the road. Every year is so different, and the way we approach this year will be extremely important. We need to see the toughness. We need to see the commitment. Can we take the coaching?"

There is a lot to ponder when reviewing Brady’s quotes.  When the Pats were rolling along so merrily they had a great blend of veterans who set the proper example, as well as expectations, and they were at the top of their game.  The Pats also had young guys who would learn from these vets. New England also had a good amount of continuity in their coaching and front office staffs.  But, the great success of their organization spawned new opportunities for some of these staff members to leave for more responsibility elsewhere.  That’s natural.  They held the blue-print for New England’s success.  The veteran players who helped carry the Patriots through their hay-day began getting a little long in the tooth.  Some remained and were less productive than what they were before, while others were dealt for new acquisitions.

The nugget I mined when reading into Brady’s quotes is that this roster of players might be talented, but they may not be ready and willing to do what it takes. They may not have the intrinsic values, the make-up, that those ultimate winners had. It starts with belief and trust in the coaching staff and the offensive, defensive and special teams systems they have in place.  Even at the NFL level players need coaching; they need reminding and they need motivation.  They aren’t robots who can just go out and play at a high level play after play, game after game.  Just as soon as they think they know it all, have seen it all, and they stop listening to coaches, they run the risk of getting exposed and embarrassed.

There’s a lot that goes into winning.  Talent is one key ingredient.  Great character is another. As Brady pointed out, toughness and commitment are critical. In reading Brady’s quotes it sounds like the Pats of not so long ago, the ones who won Super Bowls three out of four straight years, and then went 18-1 in 2007, had the stuff of which winners were made.  It sounds like the most recent rosters may have the necessary physical talent, but it’s what is in their mind and in their heart that will determine their true fate.  Football is a complicated game.  Over the course of a 16-game regular season every player on the 53-man active roster has to be on the same page and pulling together in the same direction—as a lot of coaches often say, “…playing with one heartbeat.” Let’s see if Brady’s comments are taken to heart by teammates as they begin their preparation for the 2010 campaign and where it might lead by season’s end.

Baseball World Suffers Loss of Two Hall of Famers

Baseball lost two Hall of Famers this past week with the passing of legendary radio announcer Ernie Harwell and the dominant pitcher of the early 50’s, Robin Roberts.  Harwell was 92 and Roberts 83.

Harwell was the only non-player to ever be part of a baseball trade when in 1948 Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey engineered a deal involving a Dodger catcher going to the minor league Atlanta Crackers for Harwell.   At the microphone he had a soothing, folksy, down-home type of delivery and he made everyone feel like they were a part of his game.  Like so many other legendary broadcasters of the “pre-baseball on TV era” Harwell could paint the word picture and make you feel like you were at the ballpark seeing , feeling and smelling everything he was experiencing.  As voice of the Tigers for 42 of his 55 years in the business, one of the many great characteristics of Harwell’s play-by-play was him congratulating fans in Tiger Stadium when they came up with a foul ball.  “Hey, that’s a great catch down their along the right field line. I think that's Bill from Dearborn.  Way to go.”  Of course, it wasn’t Bill from Dearborn—just Harwell’s way of making the game more personal and connecting with his legion of loyal listeners.  He was ushered into baseball’s hall in 1981 as winner of the Ford C. Frick Award.

Roberts, inducted into Cooperstown in 1976, strung together six consecutive 20+ winning seasons in the early-mid 50’s for the Phillies.  On his way to 286 career wins he was the ultimate workhorse.  The most astounding statistic, which points special attention to how the game has changed today with specialty relief pitchers and lack of strong starting pitching, is Roberts’ complete games numbers.  He started 609 games and finished 305.  In fact, Roberts had more complete games in his entire career than the Phillies organization has had in the last 25 years! Roberts was a control freak.  Hurling huge numbers of innings as he did, Roberts issued an average of just 1.3 walks per game over his 19-year career.  Incredible.

This did come back to bite him a bit.  Because he was always around the plate, and the fact he was on the mound eating up innings like an Over-eaters Anonymous member on a binge, Roberts yielded an all-time record 505 career home runs.  Ironically, current Phillie Jamie Moyer, 47 years young, is next in line when it comes to career gopher balls.  He is less than 10 behind.

It was just a few years ago that former NBC newsman Tom Brokaw authored a best-selling biography about "The Greatest Generation."  If you took the sports version of that same era in American history you'd find Ernie Harwell and Robin Roberts.

HOW ABOUT A LITTLE CHIN MUSIC?

Here’s an item that pretty much flew under the radar recently. Last Thursday night as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated Oakland, their catcher John Buck, as his manager Cito Gaston said, “… had a night that you can only dream of as a kid: three home runs in a ballgame.”


For someone with Bucks’ career numbers, Gaston’s comment could easily be called a gross understatement. Buck is a prime example that catching, like a lot of other specialty assignments (i.e. left-handed relief pitching), is always looking for good help.  He is 6’3, 210 playing in his seventh season in the big leagues, but has always been just a guy, nothing special—decent defensively, probably below average offensively. 


Prior to joining Toronto this year Buck toiled in Kansas City.  Over the course of six previous seasons his best home run output was 18 in 2007.  For his career to this point he only averages one home run every 26.67 times at bat.  A threat to any kind of home run record he is not.


When I first heard of this outstanding feat by Buck, three homers in one game, my first questions was, “How about a little chin music?”  The oddity is that Buck hit his round-trippers off of three different pitchers!  Maybe I am a little old-school in thinking, but if I am the third pitcher coming into the game and this career .234 avg. hitter, who only hits a home run every 27 at the plate has already hit two home runs, I’m thinking about buzzing the tower, providing a little chin music, or brushing him back off the plate (insert your favorite choice here).  There’s no way John Buck gets to settle into the batter’s box and be so comfortable that he has even the slimmest of chances to smack his third home run in this game.


It’s 2010 and the game of baseball has not changed terribly much from how we all knew it was played decades ago.  But, to some degree it is a kinder, gentler game—as evidenced by Oakland letting John Buck have a shot at his third home run in one game.  Buck’s batting average after that game, by virtue of a 3-4 night, rose to a “lofty” .194 and his season’s HR total from 1 to 4.