A Medium Happy 65th to Pete Carroll…
Starting Five
As a Matter of Fat
I guess this is the week where the candidates and media talk about their relative healths to distract us, while Donald Trump surrogates sincerely argue that gesticulating wildly while speaking is adequate exercise in between taco bowls and buckets of KFC. Both Hillary Clinton (68) and Trump (70) are overweight and have never appeared, at least since entering public life, to care all that much about exercise (golf is only exercise if you don’t use a cart).
At least Carter (39, for his presidential number) could finish a 5K (if not this time)
Trump would be the oldest president to take office, Hillary the third-oldest (in between the two of them? St. Reagan, whom we all know played football at Notre Dame before succumbing to a fatal bout of…pneumonia!). Looking for a physically fit president? Try Barack Obama. Or George W. Bush (or his dad). Or even Reagan. Jimmy Carter ran 5Ks, even though that wasn’t always the wisest idea. Gerald Ford played football at Michigan. They were ALL fitter than either of these two.
We feel you, Little Miss Flint. We feel you.
Here’s Charles Pierce with a terrific read on how even if Trump does not win, he’s “paved the way for the next American tyrant.” Yup. White nationalists/supremacists who “want their country back” are basically insecure little children who are afraid to confront their own inferiority, so they just blame it on people who don’t look or worship like them. You know who that sounds a lot like? ISIS.
2. Gubrud Or Go Home
Gubrud has already beaten Wazzu in Pullman and took five-time defending national champ North Dakota State to overtime in Fargo
So SI.com/MMQB has a story up this a.m. about “the next Carson Wentz,” a 6’7″ QB from the University of Montana named Brady Gustafson. Right collegiate level (FCS), right area of the country, but maybe the wrong dude.
Meet Gage Gubrud of Eastern Washington. A sophomore in his first season as a starter, Gubrud leads all FCS (and FBS) passers with 924 yards (462 per game) in two games. He has completed 75% of his passes (60 of 80) and thrown 9 TDs.
What’s most impressive is that Gubrud, a McMinnville, Ore., native, has yet to play a home game. He led the Eagles to a win at FBS/Power 5 conference member Washington State in the season opener and then took the five-time defending national champion North Dakota State Bison to overtime last Saturday on their turf. Keep an eye on him. And how long until he’s taking snaps for the Ducks?
3. Monmouth County’s Finest
Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce!!!!
The man, the legend, the icon, the American poet, Bruce Springsteen, turns 67 one week from Friday. If you’re a sports blogger throwing snark his way, you’re just showing off your own ignorance. Keep doing it. Here’s a tremendous piece on Freehold’s finest (now residing in Rumson but hitting the gym in Tinton Falls), who is actually embarking on a BOOK tour later this month (I’m picturing four-hour signings) before heading back out with the band to Australia and New Zealand for the winter (Bruce is nobody’s fool).
4. Getting Back To Even
If San Fran makes the postseason, it still has a 1-2 punch of sub-3.00 ERA hurlers in Johnny Cueto and Madison Bumgarner
San Francisco entered the All-Star break with a 57-33 record, 24 games over .500 and with a healthy lead in the National League West. The Giants are now 77-68, giving them a 20-35 record in the second half of the season.
As you are likely aware, the capricious Bay Area ball club has a thing about even-numbered years. In 2010, 2012 and 2014 the Giants won the World Series, despite never having the National League’s best record in any of those seasons. In 2011, 2013 and 2015, Bruce Bochy’s ball club failed to advance to the postseason.
Brandon has belted 15 HRs this season, a team-high
This is 2016 (I thought that was information worth sharing). If the season ended today, the Giants would earn a wildcard spot, but the Mets and Cards are both within a game of them, so one of those three will be left out. The Dodgers are five games ahead of them. In other words, it sounds like another magical October at AT&T Park.
Curious stat: SF’s leading home run hitter, Brandon Belt, only has 15 all year. Remember when the Giants had a dude who hit 73 in one season?
5. Grate Expectations
Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell.
This moment, from the comedy The Seven-Year Itch, was shot 62 years ago today at the corner of Lexington and East 52nd Street. Willem Dafoe was nowhere near at the time.
Music 101
Out In The Street
“Whoa-Oh! Whoa-Oh! Whoa-OH-Ohhh-Ohhhhhhh-O!” This was considered a good song off The River when it was released in 1980, but it has since become Bruce’s most anticipated song in concert. If you think of a Springsteen show as a Catholic mass, this is the Prayer of the Faithful. You can see that in this 1980 version in Tempe, Arizona, Bruce has yet to incorporate the call backs to the fans that have turned this song into the religious experience that it is. About that 1980 show at Arizona State University: I had a backstage pass courtesy of my sister, a student and usher at the time, but a higher power in our family put the kibosh on it because it was a school night (No, I’m not bitter; not at all!)
Remote Patrol
The Blair Witch Project
SyFy 9 p.m.
Few, if any, horror films ever did a better job of subscribing to the credo “Less is more.” I saw this film in the afternoon in the summer of ’99 (with a few SI friends) and was still freaked out that night. I honestly don’t think I slept. I later interviewed the cast member who went on the Cal Ripken, Jr., rant for SI and he told me that was completely improvised. He was a big Orioles fan.
Bizarre trivia note: After seeing this film at the Angelika (I think), we walked over to the JFK, Jr., shrine outside his apartment. He had died a few days earlier and people were still assembling outside. Crazy times.
Pete Carroll is 65? Sixty five? As in 15 years after his 50th birthday? He could pass off as a man in his 40’s, I’d say.
It just hit me – Lochte was trying to look like Pete Carroll in Rio!
I don’t think HRC is that overweight & in fact looks good for her age (except for the dreaded but ‘hereditary & nuthin’ she can do about it’ cankles).
And sorry Jacob, I don’t think PC could pass as a man in his 40s. But, jdubs could. 😉
Aww come on jdubs, I’m teasing. You could pass for 35ish easy. And you know I think you & T-Swift would make a cute couple. 🙂
Yeah, perhaps 40s is too generous. But, for a coach to look like that at that age…He has coached/lived in either the west or east coast since 1990. I bet he likes seafood.