Category Archives: Sports

I kind of knew him, too.

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Twenty years ago, Tim Richmond died. Maybe you don’t know who he was (especially if you didn’t follow NASCAR back then, or if, like some of you, you weren’t alive in the eighties), but he put Ashland, Ohio on the motor sports map.

Fellow RtB poster Michael was his neighbor. I’d totally forgotten about that…

A tragic story, to be sure, that of Tim Richmond. I remember serving him drinks at the Country Club where I worked for that one summer, when he got his racing start. He’d have a group of his friends (and his parents) around him, all yelling, laughing, smoking, getting crazy…and he was the life of the party. One time, I was invited to sit down with all of them at the end of my shift. He was really interesting, and seemingly lots of fun. We laughed a lot that night.

I also remember a couple of years later when he got Rookie of the Year or something at the Indy 500 race. I heard it on the radio and thought, “Wow, I know him.”

If you’ve seen the movie Stroker Ace with Burt Reynolds, you’ve seen Richmond. He had a bit part at the beginning of that film, as I recall.

tr1Then he got sick. Then he was dead. The cause was complications from AIDS, which, back then, was still a horrifyingly mysterious death curse, surrounded by ignorance, supposition and hysteria. According to what I’ve gathered, Richmond’s efforts to get back into racing after his diagnosis were met with considerable opposition. A guy named Tommy Thompson wrote a rather nice tribute to him here. Wikipedia also has some good information.

However, the overriding opinion is that Richmond was a victim of a witch hunt, and that he didn’t stand a chance in the good-old-boy system of NASCAR cronyism.

In 2005, David Poole wrote a bio about him. I think I might buy it.

I came across Tim’s name yesterday as I was looking at a list of well-known graduates of my alma mater (Ashland University). Although Tim only went one year and then dropped out, he was still on the list.

So was Madalyn Murray O’Hair. Yikes. I had no earthly idea. No surprise I didn’t know, though, with AU being a good Brethren Church school & all. I imagine they didn’t mind sweeping that one under the carpet.

RF, off to another weird Wednesday.

Photo credit: Sports Publishing, LLC

Shyeah right

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Mm-hmm. Yyyyyeah. And I got this plot of land in the Everglades…

So Michael Irvin survives an attempted car-jacking by simply “being Michael Irvin.” According to his tale, a pair of fully armed ruffians in a pickup truck pulled up next to Mike’s Range Rover, intent on robbing or car-jacking him, or just plain blowing his head off for kicks and giggles. He said that he saw the gun and he “knew what time it was.”

Knew what time it was??? (Ever wanna just slap somebody? I mean, honestly.)

Anyway, having instantly recognized him, the would-be killers instead retracted their automatic weapons and nattered on good-naturedly with Mr. ESPN about Cowboys football. Whew. Good thing Irvin’s a Dallas fan, eh?

Shyeah right. I’m more inclined to believe the assumptions flying around that it was a drug deal that almost went bad. (But I’m just a Mean Girl this morning, so pay me no nevermind.)

Even more hilarious were the reader comments I saw after checking the story on several different websites. Some gems at ESPN.com:

Why couldn’t this happen to one of the meaner Cowboys, like Pacman or T.O.? Why did it have to happen to a great person like Michael Irvin, who never did coke in his entire life, never cheated on his wife with multiple prostitutes, and never had a crackpipe in his car while he was a commentator at ESPN?

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Post: Too bad [the criminals] weren’t 49ers fans.

Reply: 49ers have fans?

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[Putting away the guns] was a professional courtesy on the men’s part in the truck.

HAaaAAA — I rarely laugh out loud while reading reaction comments, but some of these were priceless.

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On a more serious note, I was sad to read last night that Ricardo Montalban died. :-(

Yeesh, another snow day today. Now I have no choice but to bury myself at this box and get that practice essay written. Joy. Please send me some email or comment luv. I’m going to need a diversion.

Fink out (of excuses to procrastinate). OK, just this one more:

Here was my drive home yesterday. That’s snow covering ice. Delightful.

Image credit: Some poor unlucky deputy stuck photographing His “High-ness” at the Dallas County Jail, most likely — although, considering the “Coke Machine”‘s lengthy rap sheet, it could have been elsewhere.

As the prophets foretold…

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…Phil and Romeo are gone.

Crennel and Savage get the bum's rushIf you root for a consistently losing team, you know the feeling. The only term I can think of for it is “hopeful unease.” Now that Bill Cowher is apparently out of the running to replace Romeo as the head coach of the Browns, I fear that owner Randy Lerner and the Berea Boys will do what they’ve always done: just find whoever is available and offer him a contract.

~

Of course, every Browns fan with a shred of loyalty will still hope against hope that whoever they do hire will change things around and start winning.

But if history is any indicator, we’re screwed there, too.

I mean, the Browns had Bill Belichick when he sucked as a head coach. They fired Marty Schottenheimer because we didn’t make the Super Bowl (was it bad coaching that caused “The Fumble” and “The Drive?” I think not). The Browns were sold off — lock, stock and barrel — by Art Modell. At least we got to keep the name, colors, mascot and archives. But lately, it seems that’s all we have left.

Still, hope springs eternal in the hearts of those accustomed to saying, “Wait till next year.” In my 30-year tenure as a Browns fan, and 20-some years rooting for the Indians, I can tell you that although it does get old (the constant disappointment), it never really gets old enough to make me throw the teams out the window. I still love them. Say what you want about how college ball is “more exciting” or “done for reasons other than money” (although I could argue that point and win) — I still love pro sports, and I am an unequivocal, shameful contributor to the outrageous salaries its players pull down. Meh. It is what it is.

Hey, I get to see Jakey in exactly one hour. I better get a move on into the showers. Yay!

Go Browns. Go get someone decent this time. Sheesh, Randy.

Image credit: Cleveland Plain Dealer

Unbelievable, but true

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I’m not sure it’s so unbelievable anymore. The money just keeps rolling in for these guys. I guess I’m just jealous. Money can’t buy me love, right? I know. But I’d sure like to see what else it could buy me. Anyway, I digress.

Former Cleveland Indians pitcher C. C. “Baby Huey” Sabathia is going to be given $9.5 million — not for pitching for the New York Yankees, mind, but for simply saying “yes” to pitching for them.

On top of that, he gets a $14 million salary in 2009 and $23 million in each of the final six seasons of the deal. He wins the prize (for today, at least) for the largest contract ever for a major league pitcher. Nice.

Hand it to him, though. He did admit that “with the economy being the way it is … the huge amount of money, it was, you know, pretty crazy. But that’s our game, I guess.”

Well at least he was properly humble.

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Van Halen, yikes. David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen don’t look anything like they used to. But who among us does, right? *sigh*

Still doesn’t change the fact that they look like accountants playing Rock Band on Saturday night.

I remember a story my boss told me years ago, when I worked in the student activities office at a local university, where I was in charge of processing the contracts for the big-name acts the college booked. He said that Van Halen had a rider in their contract that demanded a large bowl of M & Ms be provided for the band backstage — but with all brown ones removed.

I always thought that was funny. I mean, they were definitely bad boys — bigtime party horses. But was someone in the band so paranoid about the color brown that concert organizers would need to go to such lengths? I didn’t believe it. But…turns out it’s true — sorta.

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Finally, PK sent me this link yesterday and I laughed. I think we can categorize this one as just “unbelievable.” Especially when you read the “testimonials.” HA

Hey, you have a nice Sunday. What are you up to today? For me: studying, maybe a little choreography, and watching the Browns and Bengals play for what little pride they have left. Yeesh. At least the Cavs are winning, for now.

Fink out.