Jackie

"Did you see Jackie Robinson hit that ball?
It went zoom in cross the left field wall
Yeah boy, yes, yes
Jackie hit that ball"
--Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball, Woodrow Johnson

Every once in awhile, while on assignment for something from work, I'm able to step back and appreciate the magnitude of what I have the fortune of witnessing in person. It's rare that these moments have any sort of historical significance (Hooters girls? Playboy mansion?), so it's awesome when those occasions do arise. One such occurence took place in Chicago in January (photo here), though with nowhere near the significance of this past Sunday.
As a Padre fan, I was obviously excited to be producing a shoot at Sunday's Dodgers-Padres game (especially on the heels of Jake Peavy's dominant performance Saturday night), spending a couple of hours on the field before the game, talking to players and coaches and veterans about the impact of Jackie Robinson, who was honored across Major League baseball all day. This was the featured game, nationally-broadcast, and the last game of the day, so all of baseball's eyes were upon it.
Some of the highlights included meeting Peter Gammons (the BEST baseball writer ever, no question), to whom I could listen for hours on end; chatting with ESPN soccer sideline reporter Allen Hopkins for awhile (and realizing how much I need to find a way to mix some soccer into my work); interacting with Don Newcombe (another guy I could listen to forever--stories about having dinner with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Martin telling him how important he and Jackie's work was before he could even try to do what he did), Dave Winfield (Padre hat in the hall of fame, by the way, not Yankee), Mike Cameron (he and Dibble evidently rode the "Jordan bus" together in Birmingham back in the day, and Nomar (a fellow South Bay-er); standing behind home plate for the entire ceremony, and literally being moved to tears at the end of the national anthem, when fireworks went off and Don Newcombe saluted directly in front of me--all the weight of the day, the trials guys like Jackie and Newcombe went through, the work they did to make baseball such an international, interracial game, and the impact they had on America and the world, not just MLB, all hit me at once, and I was overcome.
There was a great episode of SportsNight in which Casey McCall telephoned his son, sleeping at the time, and woke him up to watch a runner about to break a world record (there was a back story about his struggles to get to that point), and it spoke of the rare moments when sports can be so much bigger than just a ball and a bat (or just a ball), and this was definitely one of those times. I was fortunate just to be in attendance, a witness to a great tribute to a great man.
And oh by the way, I was also fortunate to head up to the Shuppers' suite after the pre-game festivities, enjoying a few Dodger Dogs (and assorted other edibles) in the company of Bill, Nick, Joel & Kristi, and Bob McGlashan. Good times.
Final non-Jackie-related note: I've found myself becoming more and more obsessed with the Premiership as the season has gone on, not just Newcastle and Manchester United. I found it sad (but kind of cool) that I could accurately give the name of every Premier League manager when looking at the list of club names. Just finished watching Manchester City-Arsenal live on FSC (and I'm TiVo-ing Man U-Sheffield U at home right now), watched two or three matches over the weekend, and the fixtures are coming fast and furious now, with games almost every day of the week (all the matches that were rescheduled for the FA Cup or Champions League schedule are being forced into midweek action now). Here's what we could be headed for as the season winds down: Chelsea and Man U both won their FA Cup semifinals over the weekend, so they'll face off in the FA Cup Final (at the new Wembley Stadium) on May 19. They're also both in the Champions League semis, so if they win (the Red Devils over AC Milan and the Blues over Liverpool), they'll match up in that final as well. And finally, only three points currently separate the two squads atop the Prem, which makes their May 9 date a HUGE one. I can only wish more people I know were as into this stuff as I am.

Mejor del Mundo

"I'm that star up in the sky
I'm that mountain peak up high
Hey I made it
Mmm..I'm the world's greatest"
--The World's Greatest, R.Kelly

I think that means "best in the world" or something roughly equivalent (for a great example of loose translation, see Ichiro's quote from yesterday before facing Dice-K: "I hope he arouses the fire that's dormant in the innermost recesses of my soul. I plan to face him with the zeal of a challenger."). It's on the occasion of watching my Padres win another one last night (4-0 over the TERRIBLE Giants) that I've decided to generate a list of some of the greatest things in the world, in their respective categories.
World's Greatest...
- Bullpen: The Padres. The reason for this post. Of course I'm probably jinxing them now, but Linebrink tossed a scoreless seventh and Brocail tossed a scoreless ninth (up four, no need for Trevor Time), running the pen's streak to 28 1/3 scoreless innings to start the season (club record is 32, should be eclipsed by the time I make it out to Dodger Stadium for Sunday's series finale)...
- Footballer: Cristiano Ronaldo. Two goals in Man U's 7-1 thrashing of AS Roma on Wednesday, and countless pressure-inducing runs, back-heels, stepovers and other acts of brilliance. He's 22, the source of a $107 million rumor (Real Madrid wants him badly), and has been the most dominant player on the best club in Europe this season. If United manage to capture the European Cup (they're in the semis against AC Milan), the FA Cup (they're in the semis against Watford) and the Premiership (they've got a three-point lead over Chelsea with six matches left), this will go down as one of the great team and individual performances in European football history...
- Pitcher: Could it really be Felix Hernandez? Watched most of his outing last night and he was ridiculous. I had heard last year that he had the stuff to be the best in the game, but wasn't all there mentally (and physically--he evidently dropped a bunch of weight in the off-season). He's been lights-out to start the season, so we'll see if it keeps going. According to Buster Olney, "seven of the 58 batters he's faced this year have hit the ball to the outfield -- and only one has mustered an extra-base hit, for an .075 batting average." Wow...
- Idiot: Don Imus. Enough has been said about him that I don't need to pile on, but after reading a list of some of the crap this guy has said in the past, it's about time that something went down. My only two cents on this: if this leads to misogynistic videos leaving the airwaves (read a good post on that from SI guy Roy S. Johnson here) and hyper-awareness about offensive (racist, sexist, whatever) behavior from people like Imus, then it's one of those good-that-comes-from-bad things that God's so good at...
- Music video: This one...
- Weekend: 3/30-4/2 (the exact days vary from year to year, and I'm including Friday and Monday, which might be technically stretching the concept a bit, but bear with me). It should be pretty obvious, but here's why: NCAA semifinals (even if UCLA did lose) and finals. MLB opening day (even if the Padre haters in the league office don't let us open the season until Tuesday, two days after the freaking Cardinals). Premier League in full swing (even if Newcastle United lost), nearing the end of the season (nice 4-1 win for Man U over Blackburn, poor Brad Friedel; Chelsea sneak out a late win over Watford, poor Jay DeMerit). You know, now that I look at it, even if the sports action was great, my squads were either losers or neglected, so maybe I won't make such a grand assertion...
- Video game: Still this one, after all these years. Thank goodness for emulators.
- Computer game: Still this one.
- Basketball commercial: This one is a close second (and was the inspiration behind a certain Top 50 show open, but I've always loved C-Webb at the barbershop. If you want a few more (including KG's fooseball game with Brandi Chastain, which probably would be third on my list), look here...
- Job: Mine. And I have to do it now...

Mad Props

For the record, about 90 minutes before game time, I'm going to record some bets I will (not) be making tonight with (fake) money. I don't often (ever) gamble, so this is just an experiment to see how I'd do if in fact I did place small amounts of money on various prop bets for tonight's championship game. Here goes...

Spread: Ohio State +5 - $100
Largest Lead of Game Either Team Under 13.5 (110) - $110
Made Free Throws M Conley Jr Over 2.5 (-150) - $600
Points & Rebs by A Horford Over 23.5 (-120) - $240
Points & Rebs by C Brewer Over 18.5 (-125) - $250
Points Scored by Florida Over 72.5 (-130) - $390
Points Scored by L Humphrey Over 10.5 (-140) - $140

That's all for now...
[4/2/07 4:31 p.m.]

Okay, now to see how I would have done...
1) lost $100
2) won $210
3) won $1000
4) won $440
5) won $450
6) won $690
7) won $240
Wow, I should try this more often...I "wagered" $1830 and ended up with $2930, an overall profit of $1100. A few more days like that and I might end up able to buy a house in Manhattan Beach after all. All those props really did seem easy (though I obviously missed the game pick), but I'm sure that's not always the case. I'm going to extend this experiment over a few more sporting events before opening a betonsports.com account...

[4/3/07 9:28 a.m.]