Bull Market
Tag: Sports
Refusing the Silver Medal
Kenny Davis and his teammates will never accept the basketball silver medal after corruption marred the Olympic gold-medal game. Read more from Louisville’s Courier-Journal below and in my book Three Seconds in Munich. https://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/2021/07/23/kenny-davis-still-refuses-silver-medal-from-1972-olympics/8004177002/
The Knicks Were Hopeless — in 2007
Amid all of the end-of-the-decade rumblings about the NBA, everyone talks about how bad the New York Knicks were from 2010-2019. Well, let me take you back to a previous decade, where things may have even been worse.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/22207474/ns/business-sports_biz/t/mismanagement-once-mighty-knicks/#.XgtZB0dKiF4
Baseball Goes Nets
The expansion of baseball netting, though full of good intentions, is getting out of hand, as I argue in my first piece for Medium.
Three Seconds in Munich
My second book will be published Sept. 1. What’s it about? The most controversial finish in the history of sports.
The U.S. basketball team had won 63 games in a row in the Olympics. In 1972, against its Cold War rival, the Soviet Union, the United States won the gold medal game two times. But each time the head of international basketball defied the rules and ordered that 3 seconds be put on the clock to give the Soviets a chance.
The U.S. lost by a point on the final play, and the players became the only Olympic athletes ever to reject their medals – and they have continued to reject them nearly 50 years later.
E-mail me at dafsweet@aol.com if you would like a signed copy shipped to you. Or you can order a copy here:
https://lnkd.in/epqY5AB
The Quinquagenarian Traveler: A Whirlwind L.A. Sports Marathon
Thirty-six hours. Two NHL games. A college football rivalry battle. Two boys dressed in shorts. One convertible.
Thanksgiving weekend was a sports feast for the males in our family (excluding the dogs). The three of us flew in from Chicago to watch the Blackhawks prevail in Anaheim before falling by a goal in Los Angeles. In between, my alma mater USC and stalwart Adoree’ Jackson dismantled Notre Dame before our eyes.
Standout memories include:
— Watching the Blackhawks pre-game practice from the second row in the Honda Center, surrounded by hundreds of like-minded fans. Ducks backers were as hard to spot as the team’s retired jerseys (grand total: one).
Blackhawks fans (two fresh out of a convertible) swarmed the plexiglass at Honda Center.
— Sitting not only in a section but a row that actually won a prize announced at a major sports event (chocolate popcorn at the Staples Center).
— Why it’s important to be prepared for potentially bad weather (see: ignore L.A. rain forecasts for events at the uncovered Coliseum at your peril).
When the sun shone, we splashed around the pentagon-shaped pool filled to the brim at the Marina Del Rey Hotel. The three-story white structure, renovated to perfection a year ago, featured patios connecting to artificial grass where the boys played shinny. At the restaurant Salt, kid-friendly menus included awesome hamburgers for dinner, and sitting outside let us watch sailboats rock nearby while the stars danced above. .
On the flight home, live NFL games appeared on our Virgin America TV. We didn’t need the NFL in L.A. (and the NFL didn’t need L.A. for decades), but it was the perfect way to end a whirlwind sports marathon.
Making a Long Cubs’ Story Short
Pick your adjective: jarring, exciting, eye-opening. Dozens of others also apply when considering the Chicago Cubs are playing in the World Series.
Much has already been written about this phenomena, but three items truly stand out among the overload of World Series information, emphasizing how long it has been since the Cubs and the World Series were a pair in 1945:
1) Major League Baseball was still segregated.
2) The World Series had never been broadcast on television.
3) Vin Scully had yet to call a Dodgers game in Brooklyn or Los Angeles.
And here’s a bonus item: Since the Cubs last won the World Series (in 1908), the New York Yankees have appeared in 40 World Series.
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