STARTING FIVE

1. Old Soldiers…

Louis Zamperini passed away at the age of 97 last night. If you don’t already know his story, he ran track at USC and  in the 1936 Olympics –and briefly met Hitler– and then was a bombardier in the Pacific theater in World War II. His plane was shot down and he and two fellow soldiers spent 47 days on a raft before they were “rescued” by the Japanese (one of the two died during the voyage). Then he spent two years in a Japanese POW camp with a camp director who recognized him and singled him out for torture.

Author Laura Hillenbrand penned “Unbroken”, which is an apt title, to tell the unforgettable story of Zamperini’s life. Yesterday  the final chapter was completed. The movie on Zamperini’s life, directed by Angelina Jolie, will be released this Christmas. I’m guessing they showed him a rough cut at some point.

Zamperini died on July 2nd, the date that the Continental Congress adopted a resolution to sever ties with Great Britain, i.e. the Declaration of Independence. They needed two more days for Thomas Jefferson to add a little panache to the document. In a sense, July 2 is America’s birthday, and is there anyone more American than Zamperini: Olympian, war hero, and the epitome of someone who never gave up?

2. Jurgen

I don’t care if the coach of the USMNT soccer team is named after a Swedish Chef ad-lib (or one of the first four words from Def Leppard’s “Rock of Ages”). I like his style. Yesterday in a press conference he noted that he told Chris Wondolowski that if he’d hit that ball cleanly the U.S. “would have advanced to the next round.”

“Not to be too harsh (no, not at all),” said Klinsmann, “but when you have a bad performance someone should tell you.”

Amen.

3. Nick Knackered

If you happen to be a 19 year-old playing in your first Wimbledon and you knock off Rafael Nadal, that’s kind of a big deal. Unfortunately, it’s not a bigger deal because Nick Kyrgios of Australia lost his subsequent match, earlier today, to Milos Raonic. Milos? No, c’mon. “Another game for Milos!”  <— Looking at that video now, I realize that Serena Williams was simply paying tribute to Jerry Seinfeld with her doubles performance the other day.

Kyrgios is six-foot-five and had won 12 straight matches before Raonic–hopefully clad in a sweat suit– defeated him today. The New York Times thinks he’s the real deal, but you know the NYT. As Ann Coulter reminds me, they prefer foreigners.

4. The First Woman Seinfeld Dumped

Was she a close talker? Low talker? Man hands? What?

Saturday will mark the 25th anniversary of the first episode of “Seinfeld”, or as it was then known, “The Seinfeld Chronicles.” Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) does not appear in the pilot episode, but a waitress named Claire (Lee Garlington) does. The restaurant is not Monk’s, either, but rather Pete’s Luncheonette.

Anyway, Garlington was supposed to be a series regular, but according to Jason Alexander (Costanza), she made “unwelcome suggestions” to Larry David and her role was dropped. Somehow, you had to know that Larry was in the middle of a bad person-to-person interaction. Garlington has gone on to several small roles (she was in “Field of Dreams”, for example), but oh, the coin she might have earned. Garlington discussed her career, including the “Seinfeld” misfire, in this article last year.

While I am loathe to include a Rolling Stone list after that Garth Brooks slight, the mag does a good job here of compiling “10 Episodes You Forgot You Loved.” Everyone mentions “The Contest” and “Soup Nazi”, but I think “Marine Biologist”, “Bubble Boy” and the one with Tony (“Step off, George”) are three of the very, very best.

Three thoughts: 1) Did any sitcom ever have more scenes per episode? 2) Part of the brilliance is how many plots fit into one episode. You forget two plots you loved were in the same one –“Schmoopie”, for instance, was part of the “SoupNazi” episode. 3) Most catch-phrases begin as inspired and then turn into being contrived (“Up your nose with a rubber hose”), but never on Seinfeld. Rarely did a catch-phrase last more than one episode, but they were so perfect (“”They’re real, and they’re spectacular!”) that they’ve lived on for decades.

5. KO

The eponymous host of “Olbermann” is upset with me, and to a degree, rightfully so. Last summer at about this time he did me a solid, even if the producers of his show somewhat dropped the ball. Note to people in positions of hiring others: If you actually interview a candidate, take 10 seconds and write a “Sorry, we’re not hiring you” email. You don’t even have to reply when the inevitable, “Why NOT!?!” email comes. People interviewing for jobs are basing their entire futures on the outcome of your decision. Pay them that courtesy. 

Anyway, I took exception to this opener he did last week, mainly because I think he’s way too good for this flippancy (I also think he’s way too good for the off-camera chuckling that happens most every night). If you’re going to allow a dissenting opinion on your program, don’t limit it to tweets, tweets that your producer can hand-pick so that you get to make the dissenters look like knuckleheads because their grammar on a tweet is faulty. Keith is a highly intelligent man; I think he could handle himself in a mano-a-mano face-to-face debate on a topic –in his studio–with someone who respectfully disagrees with his opinion.

The opinion that Olbermann put forward last week was that the country’s torrid summer fling with the World Cup was a case of, his words, the “Emperor’s New Clothes.” Then he had a delightful time playing Tim Howard to hand-picked tweets that dared to suggest that was not the case.

On Monday Olbermann opened with this more sober, more thoughtful essay, which another highly intelligent and tall ESPN personality, Jay Bilas, called “brilliant.” I’ll dare to respectfully disagree. While I get where Keith is coming from –we’ve all had friends who did a semester in Europe and returned more unctuous than ever– I don’t think soccer needs to become “more American” to be a thing here (it’s already a thing here). I don’t know if this analogy works for you, but for me it’s like Chinese food– nothing about Chinese food makes it less appealing if I use chopsticks to eat it. If anything, it opens up horizons.

I also strenuously object (hello, Lt. Galloway) to Noah Koslov playing the role of Ugly American here and telling Jason  McIntyre that the best American players need to play in the MLS –watch how Jason sets him straight.

Does soccer need to become “more American” (the “New York Soccer Yankees?”)? I don’t think so. The world’s top footballers, many of whom are not English, play in the English Premier League in England or La Liga in Spain (Neither Messi or Ronaldo or Spanish, for example). The world’s top baseball players and basketball players, many of whom are not American, play in the MLB and NBA. Same difference. There’s no reason that America has to import every sport to its shores and it may do the xenophobes –and I’m not saying Keith is that by any measure– a bit of good to learn about another country. Tim Howard’s Everton team, for example, is based in Liverpool (as is Liverpool’s other team, Liverpool), which gave us The Beatles (and The La’s).

Finally, last night Keith brought on frequent guest Sarah Spain (she’s not a fan…of mine) and they discussed the World Cup even more. KO mentioned the “Soccer, sport of the future” line and that it had been found in a 1987 Los Angeles Times column. He treated it like a discovery, but that’s kind of like someone just discovering that someone said, “It gets late early out there” in Yankee Stadium’s outfield.” That “line” is older than Sepp Blatter’s off-shore account in the Caymans.

You have to credit “Olbermann” for being that rare show that engages in intelligent discourse on anything, and it certainly has devoted a lot of segments to the World Cup in the past week. Even more credit to the show since the parent network, ESPN, is airing and heavily promoting the World Cup. I doubt Keith will read this, but I hope he knows that I admire his work and I am grateful for the hand he reached out last summer. A lot of people have had the chance to do so, and really just he, Michael Weisman (one of the all-time best people I’ve ever met in or out of this business), Bob Roe at Newsweek and a couple of college football scribe friends who know who they are, have done so. Keith is a true mensch. I hope that he takes his show to the next level by inviting guests who will not only challenge him intellectually (as Tony Bruno does) but who also challenge his positions.

And that is all I have to say about that…

Where in the World

Tuesday: The Preikestolen, Norway