Sunday, May 27, 2012

What NASCAR fans would write about today

Years ago, my parents got a magazine called NASCAR Scene, until they realized I read it more than they did, so they transferred the subscription to me until the magazine shut down a couple years ago, a victim of the lousy economy.

I used to read it cover to cover (Jeff Gluck, who I still follow, was one of the staff members), but the most entertaining part by far was the letters. Even my wife, who isn't a NASCAR fan, used to read them.

I'll be kind and say that many of the letter-writers weren't completely comfortable with things being different. My wife's and my favorite was the person who wrote, after NASCAR started providing funding to Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, that NASCAR already had enough diversity. To which my wife responded, "What, because not all their drivers are Southern?"

Yeah, pretty much.

Most of the letters fell into one of the following categories:
1. National anthem singers/drivers not properly respecting the anthem.
2. Toyota being the worst thing ever.
3. NASCAR having the nerve to race somewhere other than the South.
4. The number of commercials during races.
5. "Fox should cover the whole season!" (in spite of all the helpful editor's notes that Fox doesn't pursue the whole season because of NFL commitments).
6. The merits/lack thereof of Dale Earnhardt Jr.
7. "Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt did not win seven 'Nextel Cup' championships! It was Winston Cup then!"

If the magazine still existed, there's no doubt in my mind what else would be on that list, quite possibly the top of it.

Danica Patrick.

And it wouldn't be pretty -- she wasn't that good in Indy Car/doesn't belong in NASCAR/gets too much attention since she's not that good/has a ride that someone else deserves ... etc., etc.

The thing is, there's truth to some of it. She was a pretty good Indy Car driver, but not a great one, and she has a ton of work to do to get good in NASCAR. And she does a lot of attention because she's famous for her looks and her advertisements. (Go ahead and look. I don't mind. Just come back.)

But then again, no one gets more attention than Dale Earnhardt Jr. ... a guy who is going on four years without a win (I'm writing as the Coca Cola 600 is in progress, and I hope he wins) and has maybe seriously contended for a championship once.

Yet even if some of the criticism of Danica is valid, there seems to be a vitriol about it, that people seem to find her an affront. I can't imagine why.

I couldn't be ... could it? No....



Friday, May 11, 2012

This Red Sox disaster isn't just about the losing

Strange as this may seem coming from a Yankees fan, but I have a respect ... albeit highly grudging respect ... for what the Red Sox have done over the past several years.

Their biggest rival plays in a metropolitan area of 19 million people, while theirs is a little under 4.6 million, but ownership has tried to play at on something resembling the same financial field as the Yankees. Even during this time of caterwauling that the Red Sox owners are spending money on Liverpool and not the baseball team, they have the third-highest payroll in baseball. They've wasted a lot of it (see Crawford, Carl; Lackey, John; Matsuzaka, Daisuke), but they are spending it.

They've been able to do it by leveraging their fans, both the hardcore fans and the ones who have been lifelong fans since 2004 (or 2007), into paying high ticket prices at Fenway Park every night and watching on NESN. But with that, there has always been another half of the bargain.
The team must always be right.
Unlike the Yankees, there aren't enough people in the Boston area to justify losing fans, not if they want to keep pace with New York. Therefore, anytime something happens, particularly when players leave, the Sox and their friendly media need to make sure that it's not their fault. That's what leads to Johnny Damon being a Judas who can't throw, Jason Bay strikes out too much, Pedro Martinez's arm is going to fall off ... and of course the biggest of all ... Nomar Garciaparra is a cancer.

So after last September happened, the Red Sox needed to make sure the fans didn't turn on them, so they fired Terry Francona, even though they weren't going to have any "scapegoats." The only problem, they would have had you believe, was that Francona lost the clubhouse, but a new manager (who turned out to be Bobby Valentine) was going to make it all better.

Except it hasn't worked.

Of course, playing crappy hasn't helped, including losing the 100th anniversary game (where that "a-hole" Garciaparra got a huge hand, as I knew he would) and then blowing a 9-0 lead the next day.

And now we have the latest in "As Josh Beckett Turns."

The natives are getting restless, and it's more than just the booing. It has the potential to start hitting the team in the pocketbook, and soon, especially since we now know that the team has a sellout streak mainly because ... well, it says it does.

If attendance drops to the point where not even freebies will make a difference, that's a lot of money, and the difference between New York and Boston starts getting a lot bigger.

Friday, May 4, 2012

It's time to stop whining about safety

So it looks like we're going to find out what kind of brain injuries Junior Seau may have had, if any, and, as Dave Zirin puts it, the NFL "holds its breath" about the results, it's more than just the league hierarchy that needs to take a long, hard look at itself.

It would be nice if players like James Harrison who insist that hitting with their heads or hitting guys in the head is just the way they play the game could give it another thought now that one of their heroes is dead.

But if would also be nice if fans quit bellyaching over how the NFL has gone "soft" if it tries to actually, you know, keep players safe. Will Bunch wrote a terrific article the other day about the toll football takes on the body and the mind, and it contained this paragraph about the attitude among fans that needs to be overcome.
"Some folks say that these players knew what they were getting into, that they understood they were risking their future health for glory and riches in the present, and that there's nothing that can be done about this problem short of closing down the National Football League."
Which is easy for people like Jobe Morrison to say when they're commenting on stories like the Harrison one above. After all, it's not their lives.
"Harrison is grown up. It's the NFL that needs to grow up and understand fans want smashmouth football. Not pansy football. Not flag football. Football as we kno (sic) it is becoming too soft."

"players and the nfl need to UNDERSTAND this.... Once you sign the contract to step onto the field and play, you UNDERSTAND the consequences. You can't protect players from injuries, it is GOING to happen....... it's your risk. Don't like it? no one wants you around. LEAVE."
But some of the guys whose lives have been affected by the game understand what's at stake.
"Those who are saying the game is changing for the worse, well, they don't have a father who can't remember his name because of the game. I'm pretty sure if everybody had to wake with their dad not knowing his name, not knowing his kids' name, not being able to function at a normal rate after football, they would understand that the game needs to change. If it doesn't there are going to be more players, more great players, being affected by the things that we know of and aren't changing. That's not right."
Who was it who said those words?

One Junior Seau.







Wednesday, May 2, 2012

No, not Junior Seau

If you think a Yankee fan in Boston is rare, try be a San Diego Chargers fan anywhere on the East Coast.

Trust me. I'm both.

I was in Los Angeles in 2008 when the Chargers played the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game, and I loved that when I wore my jersey, people gave me the thumbs-up and talked to me like I was one of them, not some weirdo.

But it was nothing compared to when I went to San Diego last year, especially after I learned that Junior Seau's restaurant was a couple miles from our hotel. And the food was great. I walked out of there hoping that one would open in the Boston area.






And then came today, when one of my co-workers yelled over, "Hey guys, did you hear Junior Seau committed suicide?" As I sat there with my mouth open, it took a minute to sink in. My favorite player, a guy whose replica powder-blue jersey hangs in my closet, was dead ... 43 years old.

I wasn't exactly sad on a personal level. After all, I never met the man. I was just a fan, but he was part of my life ... the guy you couldn't take your eye off of, who gave you a reason to watch the Chargers whether they were good, bad or average.

Then the people in my office started buzzing over the news, but they all kept taking about him as a Patriots player. I wanted to yell, "NO! HE WASN'T A PATRIOTS PLAYER! YES, HE PLAYED FOR THEM, BUT HE WAS A CHARGER! HE'S ONE OF THE GREATEST CHARGERS EVER, AND HE WAS MY FAVORITE PLAYER BECAUSE OF IT!"

But I didn't, and eventually another thought came to mind, one I couldn't get rid of.
Junior Seau's not supposed to be dead at 43 years old.
Actually, no one's supposed to die at 43, but especially Junior Seau. He's supposed to count his money, surf, prepare his Canton speech and be the king of San Diego.

Instead, he's dead. There's lot of time to speculate about what led to his death, and we'll eventually find out something, but it's still hard to fathom.
Junior Seau is dead.