This is about the time in my life in which I thought I would be winding down my career in sports writing. At least, that’s how I had planned it when I first got into the business in the 1980s.
I figured I’d make my chops during my 20s covering everything from age-group tennis tournaments at Pierremont Oaks to the Shreveport Captains to the Dallas Cowboys.
And I did all of that.
Never, ever, thought I’d do anything else. Never wanted to do anything else.
Figured I’d leave home after a few years, move on to another market as a landing spot before hitting the big time. I just knew that big-time opportunity was eventually going to come my way.
Maybe the Boston Globe or the Los Angeles Times or the Chicago Tribune.
Or maybe even the Washington Post.
Sometimes your best dreams are the ones that don’t come true. This week, the Washington Post, the newspaper of sportswriting legends such as Thomas Boswell, Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, announced that it was eliminating its sports department.
When I saw that, I literally had to read it twice because I simply didn’t believe it. Nice timing: the news came as the sports world prepared for two of the biggest events on the planet – the Olympics and the Super Bowl.
Good thing I didn’t put my eggs in that basket.
But it struck me that this is just another example of a sign of the times. Just like these are …
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Former Detroit Tigers’ pitcher Mickey Lolich died earlier this week. Not only did he define “portly lefthander,” he was also the answer to one of my favorite facts.
Lolich was the last starting pitcher to win three games in a World Series. (The Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto did that last season but wasn’t a starter in all three.)
You forget about seeing that again.
But Lolich didn’t even start games 1, 4 and 7, which was the traditional rotational method in days gone by. Lolich started Games 2, 5 and 7 of the 1968 World Series – the last game on two days rest — but hang on because the punch line is still coming.
He pitched complete games in all three.
These days, a manager would get first if he let him go past 100 pitches in the first game, much less all three. Lolich threw 360 pitches in seven days during the ’68 Series.
Baseball is a different sport.
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National Signing Day was held – if call it that anymore – this week. Used to be, the first Wednesday in February was a day of great anticipation for college football fans.
Athletic department staffers waited by the fax machine (kids, ask your parents) for the next letter of intent to coming rolling in. Fans waited breathlessly for the latest bits of news on who (or who didn’t) sign on the dotted line.
LSU once held a drunkfest known as the Bayou Bash for fans to gather and decide who the next Heisman Trophy winner was going to be for the Tigers as player signings came in by the dozens. It may not have been the most meaningful event on the planet, but it sure got the purple-and-gold blood pumping.
You know how many signees were recorded at LSU on Wednesday? One.
Most of the “official signings” take place in December, but the woods are full of future Division I players who are committing to colleges before they even pass sophomore geometry.
College football is a different sport. Duh.
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Serious question: Have you detected a noticeable lack of interest in the Super Bowl? Take away the degenerates who bet the over/under on the length of the national anthem and those who are on the $1,000/square numbers boards and what is there to captivate you?
It’s worth noting that halftime performances and the commercials are more talked about than whether the Seattle defense (that’s one of the teams) can contain New England’s Drake Maye (he’s the quarterback of the other team).
NBC will have a five-hour pregame show, which is longer than the actual game itself. And if you are really sick, the NFL Network’s pre-game show started about 20 minutes ago.
I’d bet that most football-watching Americans haven’t watched a total of five hours of pre-game shows the entire season.
The adage “less is more” has long since disappeared.
Another sign of the times.
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com
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