Monthly Archives: October 2012

Day of Yore, October 23

by bhubbell | 1 Comment

Talk about a game changer. It was today in 2001 that Apple introduced the i-Pod. It was probably the death knell for many things: record stores, albums, independent radio and on and on. Nobody misses cds or buying an entire album for one song you loved, but everyone misses hanging out in record stores. At least a little, right?

Today in 1970 a man named Gary Gabelich drove a car called, The Blue Flame, 622 miles per hour, setting a land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The car ran on natural gas, was rocket powered and always looked very bad ass near the front of, “The Guinness Book of World Records.”

In terms of going fast, not a lot did it better than Dale Earnhardt, who tied Richard Petty’s mark of 7 Nascar season titles today in 1994. It would be the last title for, “The Intimidator,” but he would finally win his Daytona 500 in 1998.

“Dumbo” hit screens today in 1941. Disney made the movie to make up for huge losses from “Fantasia,” and it worked, Dumbo was a huge hit and along with “Snow White,” was the only pre-1943 Disney film to turn a profit. “Dumbo ” was slated to be on the cover of TIME in early December, but was knocked off when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

Speaking of Dumbo, it was today in 2004 when Ashlee Simpson walked off the stage at Saturday Night Live when the wrong voice track started playing behind her.

1992 saw two very different movies come out today. George Strait starred in his one and only movie as Dusty Chandler in, “Pure Country,” which is one of those movies that people who love it, LOVE it. If nothing else it was the big  screen debut of Kyle Chandler.

“Let me tell you what ‘Like a Virgin’ is about. It’s all about a girl who digs a guy with a big dick. The entire song. It’s a metaphor for big dicks.”

Right from that opening line on, it was clear that “Reservoir Dogs” was going to be something completely different. Few writer/directors have shot to stardom as fast as Quentin Tarantino did with the release of this slick, fast talking heist flick that’s been borrowed from a million times since its release.

About as far away as you can get from “Reservoir Dogs” was a movie that came out today in 1998. “Life Is Beautiful” has been beaten up by some cold-hearted folks over the years, but like “Reservoir Dogs,” it stands as an all-time classic. Roberto Benigni won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of a young Italian man who falls in love, gets married and has a son and then does his best to shield his wife and child from terrors of Nazi Germany.

Joe Carter become just the second player to end the World Series with a home run today in 1993.

— Bill Hubbell

 

 

IT’S ALL HAPPENING: 10/23, the “I Couldn’t Have Done It Without Myself” edition

by John Walters | Leave a comment

Starting Five


1. Hunter, gatherer of bizarre hits. Houston Astro Philadelphia Phillie San Francisco Giant Hunter Pence hit a routine one-hopper base-clearing double to propel El Gigantos past the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7 of the NLCS. Pence’s hit was not only a double, but as the replay showed, a double hit. The fans at AT&T Park appeared blithely uninterested, as if they were at a Yankee game.

Two Pence

2. Suh-mething Wicked This Way Comes: Ndamukong Suh, who probably should have won the Heisman Trophy in 2009, remains the scariest Halloween costume if you are Chicago Bear quarterback Jay Cutler. Suh’s sack of Cutler last night inspired the Sports Center staff to create a montage of bad-ass Suh assaults tackles of Cutler, none of which we thought were dirty. Suh’s just the classic example of a player who arrives at the QB in a very, very bad mood. If this were the Seventies, Lite Beer would already be crafting a TV commercial starring Cutler and Suh.

You’d love to know what Cutler is saying here, but then again, you can probably guess.

2. “Horses and bayonets?” “We have these things called aircraft carriers?” “The 1980s called and it would like its foreign policy back?” Was this the third presidential debate or a Saturday Night Live cold open? President Snippy Pants may have won the debate, but he appeared to be auditioning for a guest-hosting spot on SNL.

We all saw this coming…

4. Lynn Jennings rocks! The former three-time World Cross Country champion has traded strides for strokes (very nice, John. Why, thank you). Last Saturday Jennings, who won a bronze in the 10,000 meters at the Barcelona Olympics, won her age group (50-plus) at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston. In fact Jennings, 52, set a new age-group record in the 3.2-mile race (20:54).

5. No dream is too far-fetched (in fact most are too near-fetched). A Seattle man waged a two-year campaign to have sneer-rocker Billy Idol play his birthday party, and last night Idol complied. I would’ve requested some of Idol’s earlier, true punk stuff from Generation X (so, no, Douglas Coupland, you did not coin the term).

Reserves

UPDATE: Reuben Foster, if you don’t know him, is a five-star linebacker who decommitted from Alabama to Auburn last summer in most interesting fashion. Foster played his junior season at Troup High in Georgia under highly successful second-year coach (and Troup alumnus) Charles Flowers. Last winter Flowers was sacked by the school district, inciting a walkout among his players, some of whom, such as Foster, transferred.

Today Flowers’ attorney, Atlanta-based Ruth Woodling, filed suit against the school district. This promises to become messy and racially charged. It’s a real-life John Grisham novel.

Former Troup coach Charles Flowers

In retrospect, do you find this Lance Armstrong Nike ad funny, sad, or some other adjective?

We have to ask: If Game 7 were deadlocked in the 9th inning last night instead of 9-0, would the umpires have ordered the grounds crew to pull out the tarps? Raining? The last time we saw a deluge like that Andy Dufresne busted out of Shawshank…

Wet and wild…

Country music artist David Allen Coe once wrote a song titled “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” in which he states that a perfect country & western song must include something about “mama, or trains, or trucks, or prison, or getting drunk.” In similar fashion, the perfect college football moment should have at least one of the following: WAC-era defensive fundamentals, an over-the-top broadcaster, a crazy or ballsy play call, a player with a hilarious surname, an unlikely hero, a wild finish, and an unintentionally hilarious post-game quote. Thanks to the geniuses at Smart Football, we have located such a clip. Thank you, San Diego State backup quarterback Adam Dingwell, for providing us with the quote of the year and perhaps the mantra for this very site (Messrs. Hubbell and Oak, included, of course).

“I couldn’t have done it without myself”, from the Gospel According to Dingwell…

 

Coulter-geist: Ann Coulter refers to POTUS as a “retard.” Is now slated to star in Simple Jack II. 

You mmmmu-mmmuu-mmmu-make me happy

Taylor Swift shut down Times Square this morning to perform “Love Story” on Good Morning, America (this remains our favorite performance of that song). I’ll wait until Josh Elliot DMs me to confirm that the two are officially dating.

You’ve probably heard or read the term “Fantasy Slut League” in the past few days. What we found most intriguing is that this Bay Area high school, Piedmont, is the very same bastion of education that annually used to send its best students to perform bird calls on the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. It was terrific humor, and about the only time all year our parents would allow us to stay up to watch Carson. (David Letterman later resurrected the routine). Piedmont, you need to return to emphasizing bird calls as opposed to mating calls (and, yes, we realize that most bird calls are mating calls).

 

Hey, Piedmont: More flocking and less….

Wild turkey(s): A Bay Area cyclist is in critical condition after pedaling into a flock of wild turkeys. Laugh now, birds. We will have our revenge in five weeks.

Oklahoma-Notre Dame: The story of “Play Like A Champion”  by Berry Tramel and the story of “Play Like A Champion Today” by yours truly.

This looks like one of those stories that will soon blossom into a bigger story. We sent our own Jeremy Schaap to investigate (even though it’s taking place in Wright Thompson’s backyard)

Speaking of cyclists, one of our very favorite columnists, Jason Gay of the WSJ, lands an exclusive interview with the newly crowned seven-time champ of the Tour de France.

Best wishes for a swift recovery to one of my closest friends in or out of the business, Mark Beech.

Day of Yore, October 22

by bhubbell | Leave a comment

“Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity 
To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?
Yo”

There’s crossing over and then there’s whatever Eminem did on this day ten years ago when “Lose Yourself” dropped on the world. He’d already grabbed an audience that went far beyond rap and hip-hop fans and when “Lose Yourself” hit the radio and television commercials for “8Mile,” he grabbed everybody else. I’d link to it, but it’s already on your I-pod. It’s hard to argue with anyone who says it’s a top 10 song of the ’00’s.

There’s college kids doing dumb things and then there’s McGill University student J. Gordon Whitehead, who sucker punched Harry Houdini several times in the stomach on this day in 1926. Whitehead had gone backstage at a theatre in Montreal after a show and asked if it was true that Houdini could stand any punch to the stomach. Houdini said yes and before he could ready himself Whitehead began pummeling away at Houdini’s stomach as Houdini was laying on a couch. Floyd Mayweather Jr. might think there’s nothing wrong with that, but everybody else does. Houdini would die nine days later of a ruptured appendix at just 52 years old.

Speaking of “pretty boy,” the original, Charles Arthur, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, was shot and killed by the FBI today in 1934. Floyd was 30.

While on the subject of punching and shooting and whatnot, it’s worth mentioning that today in 2000, Roger Clemens had one of the more famous public displays of ‘roid rage ever. In the Subway World Series, Clemens fielded a part of Mike Piazza’s broken bat and threw it at Piazza who was four or five steps on his way to first base. Clemens had hit Piazza in the head with a pitch when the teams played in July.

 

If you’re ever in an argument where you’re forced to compare and contrast the differences between Kanye West and Jean-Paul Sarte, you can note that today in 1964, Sarte was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and turned it down. Sarte didn’t believe in awards and said,  “a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution.” I’m going to side with Kanye here.

“We weren’t in love oh no far from it 
We weren’t searching for some pie in the sky summit 
We were just young and restless and bored 
Living by the sword 
And we’d steal away every chance we could 
To the backroom, the alley, the trusty woods 
I used her she used me 
But neither one cared 
We were getting our share”

Your write a song like that and you’re bound for the big time. “Night Moves“ was Bob Seger’s ninth album, but his first with the Silver Bullet Band and it launched him to superstardom. The song went to #4 on the charts and the album climbed to #8. “Mainstreet” and “Rock and Roll Never Forgets” also charted as singles.

Bob Seger is good music to drink to and a good movie to drink to is “Sideways,” which came out today in 2004. It was nominated for five Oscars, won for best adapted screenplay and made visiting the wine country a lot more fun than anybody thought.

It was today in 1974 that the “next Willie Mays” was traded for “the next Mickey Mantle”. Both were great players, neither one of them came close to the comparison. You just don’t see trades like that anymore.

 

Today in 1975 the Cincinnati Reds finished off the Boston Red Sox in game seven of the World Series. The Red Sox rode the momentum of Carlton Fisk’s game winning homer in game six to jump to a 3-0, but couldn’t hold on. Tony Perez pounded a “Spaceball” (an Eephus pich) from Bill Lee over the Green Monster for a 2-run homer in the 6th and the Reds would add runs in the 7th and 9th innings to win one of the best World Series’ ever played.

Happy birthdays to both Ichiro and Robbie Cano, I wonder what they’ll wish for?

— Bill Hubbell

 

 

Posted in: 365 |

IT’S ALL HAPPENING! 10/22

by John Walters | 1 Comment

Starting Five

1. Pariah: The UCI (which does not stand for “University of California, Irvine” but rather Union Cycliste Internationale) has agreed to strip Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles and to ban him from cycling for life. This is not the same as “demonizing” him.

2. Which Blair Project? Paranormal Activity 4, which is not the story of a man paralyzed by polio who hires a sex surrogate to strip him of his virginity, tops the box office in its opening weekend.

The opposite of planking

3. Game Seven: The St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants meet tonight at AT&T Park to determine who will represent the National League in the World Series. This will be the sixth elimination game El Gigantos have played this month. Kyle Lohse (16-3, 2.86 ERA) faces Matt Cain of the Giants (16-5, 2.79 ERA, one perfect game). 

4. Pats top Jets in OT. The New York tabloids were all set to run their “Folk Hero” headlines after kicker Nick Folk struck two late-game 47-yard field goals for the J-E-T-S, but New England survived to win 29-26 in overtime.

 5. Timberrrr: Oregon falls. In a week in which the Ducks went up 43-7 in the game’s first 20 minutes, against a 5-1 opponent on the road, they still managed to drop one spot, from 3rd to 4th, in the BCS standings. It won’t matter, though, as the season continues. Especially not if neighbor Oregon State, which is 6-0 for the first time since Theodore Roosevelt was president, remains undefeated. 

Reserves

Oklahoma State quarterback J.W. Walsh is out for the season with a knee injury. We always have been huge fans of his work, especially in “A Few Good Men” and “Sling Blade.”

Katy Perry teams up with an autistic child, Jody DiPiazza, to perform “Firework” on the “Night of Too Many Stars” telethon from the Beacon Theater in my neighborhood New York City.

The live audience was treated to an encore performance of Aldous Snow’s “Inside of You”

The NFL had a nice PSA yesterday about what they are doing to promote player safety. The ad starred Tom Brady and a mother expressing concern about the welfare of her son, who loves playing football. In the closing reveal, we learn that the son is Baltimore Raven linebacker Ray Lewis… who last Sunday suffered a season-ending torn triceps injury. LULZ. 

In case you missed it, Saturday Night Live’s cold open, with a cameo appearance by that incorrigible F-bomber, Tom Hanks (or, as we like to refer to him, T.Hanks). 

Unfortunately, if you Google “Ohio and flatulence and teen dead”, you will come up with a plethora of hits. Ohio, it’s the Rust Belt Florida. 

A real-life Baywatch moment, as 284 wannabe lifeguards complete a 1,000-meter ocean swim just to pass the first of four stages of the Los Angeles County lifeguard test. Of those 284, only 120 moved on to Stage 2 (in-person interviews), although three of them are swimmers at Pepperdine University. 

The most pivotal game of the 2012 college football season? It may be the one that was canceled two years ago. No. 3 Kansas State was scheduled to meet No. 4 Oregon (BCS standings) last month, but Wildcat coach Bill Snyder called off the series in 2010. We don’t need a playoff. What we do need is 8-game conference schedules, max, and a mandate that FBS schools never 1) play FCS schools and 2) renege on scheduled contests. 

Speaking of ocean swims from last weekend that we were remiss in noting, the Ironman World Championships from Kona, Hawaii, were staged on October 13. Pete Jacobs of Australia won the men’s division (8:18:37)  while Leanda Cave of Great Britain (9:15:54) was the first female to finish the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run. Unofficially, an ironman is No. 2 behind skydiving as the most popular “bucket list” item.

 And speaking of triathlons, you do realize that Lance Armstrong had already won two lesser-distance Ironmans in his nascent pro triathlon career? We may  be off here, but we think being banned from competing in such events in the future weighs more heavily on Mr. Livestrong than being stripped of his titles. After all, no one can erase the memories — but they can take away his future goals. 

The Indiana Fever won the WNBA title.

We admit, we were completely wrong on Vontaze Burfict. Then again, so were all 32 NFL teams that did not draft him. The former Sun Devil linebacker made plenty of plays for the Cincinnati Bengals in last night’s 24-17 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Our favorite moment, though, was when Cris Collinsworth quipped, “Burfict was undrafted out of Arizona State, just like you, Al.” Michaels, by the way, noted that in his day there was a different draft (Vietman) to be concerned about. We are wondering how come Al Michaels wasn’t drafted. 

We may be wrong, here, but we believe the last time Notre Dame met Oklahoma in Norman was 1966, a year in which a coach in his third season in South Bend led the Irish to a national championship (pipe down, Sparty). The Irish beat the Sooners 38-0 that day. Of course, the far better-known battle betweent these two in Norman took place nine years earlier, when an unheralded Irish squad ended the nation’s longest win streak, 47 games, with a 7-0 victory. We’d be surprised if the Irish won this Saturday and shocked, despite their having the nation’s No. 2 scoring defense, if they were to hold the Sooners scoreless. In fact, we guarantee that won’t happen.

IT’S ALL HAPPENING: THE WEAKENED EDITION, 10-20/21

by John Walters | Leave a comment

Starting Five

1. The latest in fall fashion is the Collin Klein collection from Kansas State. Klein completed 19 of 21 passes for a career-high 323 yards, threw three touchdown passes and ran for four more in a 55-14 rout of West Virginia. Klein must now be considered your Heisman Red Grange Award frontrunner, while the Human Geno Project must be considered on life support.

2. Former U.S. senator, 1972 Democratic presidential candidate, and All-Aptly-Named Team all-timer George McGovern dies at the age of 90.

McGovern

McLovin

 

 

3. Florida pummels the OBC (Ol’ Ball Coach) and South Carolina, 44-11. In the last two weeks, the Gamecocks and Mountaineers have free-fallen into irrelevance while the Gators and Oklahoma have taken the greatest strides in the BCS. The Sooners have a chance to climb even higher with unbeaten, No. 5 Notre Dame visiting Norman next Saturday.

4. Justin Timberlake weds Jessica Biel in Anthony Fasano, Italy. We just want to 1.) see what guest Andy Samberg gave the couple as a wedding gift and 2) inquire if Rev. Eric Camden performed the service.

5. Ohio State wins a Purdoozie to remain undefeated, further underlining a point we made last year (in a video for The Daily) that the Buckeyes should’ve taken their bowl ban lumps last season.

Reserves

Best news we’ll hear all day? Probably this, that our beloved UWS neighbor Louis C.K. will host Saturday Night Live on November 3.

Sorry, Rece, but we may have to DVR College Football Final in two weeks

It was truly a bad weekend for the Human Geno Project. His Mountaineers were trounced for the second straight week, he threw his first two interceptions of the season, and Louisiana Tech’s Colby Cameron passed him on the list of Most Passes without an Interception, running his streak to 275 (this season) in a 70-28 win against Idaho.

Colby Cameron has a very “Johnny Football” look to him, wouldn’t you say?

The return of Stephon…

“An abandoned whitefish factory in Little Israel…”

…and this sack by Stephon.

“South Bend’s hottest new nightclub is…”

West Virginia beat Baylor 70-63, West Virginia beat Texas 48-45, and Texas beat Baylor 56-50. Average score of this trio’s three meetings: 58-52. 

Shoppers: Beware of falling tuna cans. Retailers: beware of hyper-litigious octagenarian shoppers.

 If you have yet to see Washington high school senior Austin Rehkow’s 67-yard field goal, here it is. In the same game, which Rehkow’s Central Valley High School squad won in overtime, 62-55 (Rehkow’s boot tied the game at the end of regulation), opposing quarterback Brett Rypien of Shadle Park High School threw for a state-record 577 yards. Rypien’s dad is Mark Rypien, who led the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXVI, a game in which he was named MVP.

 Mississippi State has won all seven games it has played this season and lost all seven pre-game coin tosses. The Bulldogs visit Tuscaloosa next Saturday. How come we get the feeling they are going to win the coin toss? 

Florida alum Ryan Lochte, asked for his celebrity pick between LSU and Texas A&M on “College Gameday”, chooses “Auburn.” We told you they should’ve gone with Andy Staples. 

By the way, Stanford and Cal play “The Big Game” yesterday (Cardinal cruise, 21-3), but it is the Tigers and Aggies who pay homage to the 30th anniversary year of “The Play” by reenacting it on the their contest’s final snap (we are still searching for the video, but it is good humor).

 Farewell to our favorite surname of the past few seasons: LUTZENKIRCHEN! Auburn tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen suffers a season-ending injury, while his coach, Gene Chizik, now owns college football’s hottest seat after the Tigers dropped to 1-6.
After Notre Dame edged BYU 17-14, CBS Sports’ Doug Gottlieb tweeted that “If you really think Notre Dame is the fifth-best team in the country, I think you don’t know football.” We’d agree that the Irish may not be the fifth-best team in the country, but they do deserve that ranking. Notre Dame is undefeated, after all, against a better schedule than any other unbeaten with the exception of Florida.