Trayvon Martin
Unless you have just now emerged from a coma (if which I case I refer you to the previous blog) you have heard the name of Trayvon Martin. This is the 17 year old African-American youth shot to death by a neighborhood watch person (Gary Zimmerman) in Sanford, Florida two weeks ago. At first it seemed like Zimmerman was a racist more than willing to use his gun on a kid armed with only tea and skittles. Many were outraged when Zimmerman wasn’t arrested. He still has not been arrested. There is an on-going investigation and the Chief of Police has excused himself from his duties (temporarily) to give the sense of impartiality. Now in charge (temporarily) is an African-American watch commander.
It took almost a week, but now new details have come oozing to the surface like BP crude in the Gulf of Mexico. First of all the picture of the innocent Trayvon shown in most media outlets is the 13 year old Trayvon, not the bigger stronger older looking 17 year old Trayvon. Also, it’s possible Trayvon had more to do with his death than first reported. Zimmerman (through his attorney) has stated that he eventually broke off following Trayvon and had returned to his car when Martin snuck up behind him and hit him in the back of the head. According to Zimmerman, when he went to the ground, it was Trayvon that jumped on him and was striking his head on the curb. Under the circumstances, Zimmerman says he had no other choice but to get his gun out and stand his ground.
Seems there are two eyewitnesses and they are saying exactly opposite things. One says it was Zimmerman that had Trayvon down, and was on top of him just before the gun went off. Another witness said it was Trayvon that had Zimmerman on the ground and was smashing his head on the curb. This much is indisputable, Trayvon ended up with a bullet in his chest, and Zimmerman had a broken nose and the back of his head was slightly injured.
Here is what is known according to reporting agencies:
1. Trayvon had recently been suspended from HS for carrying an ounce of MJ (only relevant to point out that Trayvon wasn’t a perfect angel)
2. Trayvon did go to the convenience store to get skittles and a tea
3. Zimmerman did make a call to the police reporting a suspicious looking person in the neighborhood and said it was an African-American youth
4. Zimmerman had previously made 43 such calls to police over a period of time and in each case it was an Africa-American youth he was reporting.
5. The police told Zimmerman to break off following him and that Zimmerman did not break off, the police repeatedly told him not to pursue him but it seems he continued
6. Zimmerman is heard using the words “fucking coon” over the intercom
7. Yelling for help is repeatedly heard over police intercoms but so far it’s not sure who was doing the yelling, Trayvon or Zimmerman.
8. At issue besides a death is the Florida law that says a person can “stand their ground if threatened”, and whether or not Zimmerman was acting from a racist motivation or self-defense?
This is going to be a mess!! It’s going to take some time to unravel the facts of what happened that night, who the credible storytellers are or which ones are not. I only hope this is not an occasion to bring out the human photo-ops Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. I hope they don’t show up to get camera time (capitalizing on a dead teenager and his grieving parents). Also, I would have thought an independent autopsy on Trayvon would have been essential. It could tell us angle of the bullet(s), how close the gun was to the body etc. Why wasn’t an autopsy done?
For me some bigger issues stand out: What in the hell was a neighborhood watch person doing carrying a loaded gun?
The idea is if you see something suspicious you REPORT it and then stay out of it. It’s called a “watch” not being the “sheriff”. I’m theorizing Zimmerman thought of himself as a bit of a Clint Eastwood out there cleaning up the neighborhood. Did the Neighborhood Watch authorize carrying a weapon or was Zimmerman out there playing “Dirty Harry”? “Go ahead punk, make my day”!
This is yet another example (how many do we need) that carrying guns is a bad idea, that screening people (for basic rationality) is essential when they are going to deal with the public and that this country continues to have an ongoing serious gun/death by gun problem.
As far as it being a racially motivated shooting, we’ll have to see how it all shakes out. Certainly Zimmerman hasn’t helped his cause with his past pattern of behavior; although to be fair in each of the other 43 instances where he called in a suspicious looking African-American youth in the neighborhood he didn’t shoot them. Look, in 2010, according to FBI statistics there were just about 13,000 murders in the U.S. 6,500 of those victims were blacks. Almost all of them were killed by other blacks. That’s nearly 50% of all murders being black on black assaults. Given that African-Americans make up 12.9% of the total population you can see what the scope of violence is in the inner-city. So a black male shooting to death another young black male is far, far more likely to happen than a white person shooting a black male.
Of course, there is a need to get to the bottom of what happened that night in Sanford, Florida but don’t lose sight of the overarching issues: guns, wacky people with guns, overzealous watch programs, potential profiling, and the much bigger issue of African-Americans killing other African-Americans at an average rate of 18 a day.
My worst fear is that this is just a case of two scared, stubborn males in the dark each determined to “stand his ground, because they felt threatened” and one of them had a loaded gun.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
"Obama Care and the Supreme Court"
Obama Care and the Supreme Court
Currently underway is the long anticipated legal battle over the legality under the U.S. Constitution of the Obama Care law. The heart of the dispute is whether or not the Government can demand citizens pay for health care, the so called mandate. Lawyers for Obama Care will say that since everyone uses health care everyone should pay something for it. Opponents will argue that the Government has no right to demand people buy anything. The justices will deliver their decision at the end of June.
One argument made by pro Obama Care proponents is that under the current system, insured people have to pay for those uninsured. They contend that is unfair and also illegal. That the insured pay for the uninsured is a fact. For example: a person with no health insurance and not much money needs medical attention and so off to County General they go. Hospitals and clinics are loath to turn people away because of bad publicity (and their own conscience). What emergency room wants to turn someone out for lack of money or insurance and then have them go ten steps outside the door and drop dead? The uninsured will get served in almost all cases. Plus, those providing the service know they will do one of two things about the costs: If it’s County General (or any variation of that name) they will bill the state and the taxpayers will pick up that tab. If those seeking aid go to a place NOT state supported, the costs will be passed on to insurance companies and the insurance companies will then pass those excessive charges costs to their customers in the form of higher premiums. Once again the tax-payer picks up the bill. How much extra money do the insured pay annually to cover the uninsured? The figure being reported is 1,000 dollars a year per customer. That is the amount rate payers pay extra on their health insurance annually to pay for the uninsured. One way or another, uninsured people are paid for in large part or entirely by those that are insured.
If Obama Care is ruled legal, and a person cannot afford to get insured, what happens? Do they go to jail? No! Do they get health services? Yes! The costs (presumably less) are still passed on to the taxpayer anyway.
There are reasons to be concerned about saying it is okay for the Government to begin mandating what the citizens must do. (Although, isn’t that what income tax is?) Once the Government is given the green light to demand people buy insurance what will the people be mandated to buy next? Once the door opens on the government controlling the people, it will be next to impossible to close it again. Or am I being too paranoid? Did our founding fathers want a society where the Government could tell the people what they have to buy or do? (Well, John Adams maybe yes) Wasn't that one of the reasons we fought a King? To have individual freedoms. I don't like paying for the uninsured unless extreme need is proven but I also don't want the government to tell me I have to buy anything. It’s an interesting dilemma isn’t it?
However, I think there is a bigger issue at work here and it goes to the very heart of what kind of society we will have in the future and that is this:
How much longer and to what degree will the people that work and pay into the system be expected to pay for those that do not?
Currently underway is the long anticipated legal battle over the legality under the U.S. Constitution of the Obama Care law. The heart of the dispute is whether or not the Government can demand citizens pay for health care, the so called mandate. Lawyers for Obama Care will say that since everyone uses health care everyone should pay something for it. Opponents will argue that the Government has no right to demand people buy anything. The justices will deliver their decision at the end of June.
One argument made by pro Obama Care proponents is that under the current system, insured people have to pay for those uninsured. They contend that is unfair and also illegal. That the insured pay for the uninsured is a fact. For example: a person with no health insurance and not much money needs medical attention and so off to County General they go. Hospitals and clinics are loath to turn people away because of bad publicity (and their own conscience). What emergency room wants to turn someone out for lack of money or insurance and then have them go ten steps outside the door and drop dead? The uninsured will get served in almost all cases. Plus, those providing the service know they will do one of two things about the costs: If it’s County General (or any variation of that name) they will bill the state and the taxpayers will pick up that tab. If those seeking aid go to a place NOT state supported, the costs will be passed on to insurance companies and the insurance companies will then pass those excessive charges costs to their customers in the form of higher premiums. Once again the tax-payer picks up the bill. How much extra money do the insured pay annually to cover the uninsured? The figure being reported is 1,000 dollars a year per customer. That is the amount rate payers pay extra on their health insurance annually to pay for the uninsured. One way or another, uninsured people are paid for in large part or entirely by those that are insured.
If Obama Care is ruled legal, and a person cannot afford to get insured, what happens? Do they go to jail? No! Do they get health services? Yes! The costs (presumably less) are still passed on to the taxpayer anyway.
There are reasons to be concerned about saying it is okay for the Government to begin mandating what the citizens must do. (Although, isn’t that what income tax is?) Once the Government is given the green light to demand people buy insurance what will the people be mandated to buy next? Once the door opens on the government controlling the people, it will be next to impossible to close it again. Or am I being too paranoid? Did our founding fathers want a society where the Government could tell the people what they have to buy or do? (Well, John Adams maybe yes) Wasn't that one of the reasons we fought a King? To have individual freedoms. I don't like paying for the uninsured unless extreme need is proven but I also don't want the government to tell me I have to buy anything. It’s an interesting dilemma isn’t it?
However, I think there is a bigger issue at work here and it goes to the very heart of what kind of society we will have in the future and that is this:
How much longer and to what degree will the people that work and pay into the system be expected to pay for those that do not?
Saturday, March 24, 2012
"Handicapping the Handicapped"
Mr. and Mrs. America, and all the ships at seas, time to handicap the handicapped. I’ll try and explain who might win the presidential election and who likely will lose. Let’s get started, here is how I see it as of today:
Democrats
Barack Obama will be the candidate. The real question is will Biden stay? Some think Biden has an eye on 2016 and would like to be free to begin his money gathering and glad-handing a.s.a.p. The same goes for Hillary. She might leave her job as well.
Why He Could Win: The President has weathered a huge storm of personal attacks on everything from his name, place of birth, race, religion, education, accomplishments, loyalties and how much he knows in general. He has been under constant scrutiny and criticism and kept his composure. He did get Bin Laden and other highly placed Al Qaeda senior leadership with drone attacks and then that famous Seal Team raid. He has a huge war chest for the campaign that some say is 100 million dollars or more. He speaks well (with a teleprompter) and some people like his “cool” factor. He benefits greatly from a dysfunctional Republican Party.
Why He Could Lose: He promised everyone change but there has been little change in what matters most to Americans, their well-being, having a job. Many think the other changes haven’t benefitted the average American much at all. In fact, there is more infighting and partisanship now in Washington than before Obama started. When he had control of the Congress, he didn’t get much done except obsess over Obama care. Even with a democrat controlled congress it took 2 sweet-heart deals at the last minute (bribe?) with two Congressmen to get their votes. The country was taken to the absolute brink of a shutdown and insolvency. Our international credit rating dropped for the first time in history. Obama’s popularity has dropped from the mid 70’s percent to below 50% and the economy isn’t really as improved as manipulated numbers on a page suggest. Most experts agree his presidency has been troubled at best and he is definitely vulnerable to defeat. “Change” will be an impossible sell to Americans the second time round and he can hardly use “stay the course” when that course appears more and more like a train wreck.
Republicans
Mitt Romney (the left, center and right of the party)
Mitt should get the nomination but he just can’t stop, stopping himself. He has a reputation of saying whatever you want to hear then saying the opposite later on. He is the guy that said if America does something wrong we should say we are sorry but in the same exact sentence said that he would never apologize for America. Huh? He’s told lies about everything from what his real first name is to what organizations he’s belonged to or not. He’s been tripped up so many times. Then just a few days ago his senior advisor on an interview said that when the nomination has been secured Romney will take all his positions and shake them up like an etch- a- sketch and start all over. That means if you voted for him as a nominee, he may not be the nominee you voted for after his next chameleon-like reincarnation. Who is he really? What does he stand for really? He’s governed an Obama-like health plan in Massachusetts that he is proud to say worked but at the next stop on the campaign he talks about how he hates Obama care. He looks good in a suit, speaks articulately (even if what he is saying is suspect) and has a track record in business and government that is pretty good. He could fix this country’s economic problems but what are his foreign policy positions? That’s the problem; no one knows because no one really knows who he is. He has to get stronger and he has to stop trying to schmooze the centrists in the Republican party while at the same time schmooze the Santorum hard core right. When you do that no one trusts you. If he can get out of his own way, and get his aides to stop saying things that support the notion that he is a Gumby, (it’s a big if) then he has a fighting chance to win it all.
Rick Santorum
I can’t figure out what he is up too? Can you? He doesn’t really think that becoming the William Jennings Bryan of his day is going to get him into the White House does he? I mean it’s not even going to get him a nomination. William Jennings Bryan ran for the Presidency 4 times near the end of the 1800’s and early 1900’s. He lost all 4 times primarily because he was such a hard core Christian fundamentalist, a bible toting, bible pounding, moralizing orator that few outside his like-minded bible-belters would vote for him. The point is when you come across as an extremist you only get the extremists to vote for you. Let me put it this way: Billy Graham was one of the most revered evangelical ministers ever, adored by millions, supported by millions BUT he would have never have been elected President of the US. That’s why we got rid of theocracy 300 years ago.
So Santorum’s rants about abortion, homosexuality, same-sex marriages, birth control, premarital sex, pornography and so forth will not get him a nomination. He has to know that, so then what is he up too? Is he angling for a TV show like ex-governor Huckabee did? Is he trying to pump up future sales of a forthcoming book? Rants get you face time on camera but they don’t get you elected. His loss in Pennsylvania by 18% in his last try for reelection to the Senate should have made that clear to him.
Newt Gingrich
Newt reminds me of the guy who has just enough cache left over from the salad days in Washington to make a small run at it. Then one day he looks up and sees the front runners all stumbling, falling and he figures hell, let’s make a run at it. He knows he’s smarter than the field (IQ), and he clearly has the inside the beltway experience but he also knows his ethics violations and personal baggage are lead weights around his ankles. The truth is if he were about 10 years younger and only on the 2nd wife not the 4th, he could probably be a very serious contender. As it is, he’s having a ball scaring the younger dudes, while spending his sugar daddy’s money. It’s long been thought that Newt was just drumming up attention for future book sales. Hey there is no such thing as bad publicity. Still and all he’s had no real chance despite his one flavor of the week, week. He’s won the Southern voters that don’t mind people with some personal baggage (they relate). He’s lost the southern voters that go for Santorum’s fire and brimstone message. Pity the southern voter that doesn’t want to vote for Santorum cuz he’s a Yankee, and doesn’t want to vote for Gingrich because he’s a past sinner. They probably wish they could bring Jefferson Davis back from the dead.
Ron Paul
If you actually listen to him he makes the most sense but as we all know making sense dooms you right from the git go. He says this about the wars, “We marched right in there and we can march right back out again”. He is for a fair tax, for substantially, substantially less government involvement in American lives. He is for sensible regulation of the medical and health insurance industry that would allow for profits but would not gouge the consumer. He is not for Obama care. He was for taking the wasted money from wars, he never thought we should be involved in for so long, and putting that into education and scientific research. He would insist on a balanced budget annually and reducing deficits from 16 years of government overspending. Ron’s biggest drawback is that he has always been labeled a kook. He’s never been able to shake that label. The things he talks about now, he was talking about 12 years ago but of course back then everyone was rolling large ($) and no one wanted to listen to a man talking restraint. That plus he is 70+ years old, and he doesn’t make foolish statements like the others so unfortunately that doesn’t endear him to a media that is always scrounging around for the next sound bite. Sorry Dr. Paul, rationality doesn’t sell newspapers or give radio talk show hosts stuff to blather about.
Who Wins?
If Romney rights his own ship, and focuses on Obama’s failings, he could be the next President. The American people are worn out and frustrated to the max. The American people are looking for a leader that puts the country and their needs first over personal and political agendas. The question is (is) Mitt that guy? You tell me.
If Obama just lays low for a while longer he may not have to do much to win reelection. The Republicans may lose it before Obama even tries to win it. Then again, he has to know it didn’t go well the first term; the people are pissed off, no longer willing to drink the Kool-Aid, and perhaps looking “for change”? Wouldn’t that be an irony?
Wild Card Factor
The two (2) wild cards are:
1. A third party forming that caters to the center of both Republican and Democrats. That could happen and a candidate could be a Colin Powell for example. There is serious talk.
2. Second wild card is Republicans drafting (talk into) a compromise nominee like a Chris Christy.
Democrats
Barack Obama will be the candidate. The real question is will Biden stay? Some think Biden has an eye on 2016 and would like to be free to begin his money gathering and glad-handing a.s.a.p. The same goes for Hillary. She might leave her job as well.
Why He Could Win: The President has weathered a huge storm of personal attacks on everything from his name, place of birth, race, religion, education, accomplishments, loyalties and how much he knows in general. He has been under constant scrutiny and criticism and kept his composure. He did get Bin Laden and other highly placed Al Qaeda senior leadership with drone attacks and then that famous Seal Team raid. He has a huge war chest for the campaign that some say is 100 million dollars or more. He speaks well (with a teleprompter) and some people like his “cool” factor. He benefits greatly from a dysfunctional Republican Party.
Why He Could Lose: He promised everyone change but there has been little change in what matters most to Americans, their well-being, having a job. Many think the other changes haven’t benefitted the average American much at all. In fact, there is more infighting and partisanship now in Washington than before Obama started. When he had control of the Congress, he didn’t get much done except obsess over Obama care. Even with a democrat controlled congress it took 2 sweet-heart deals at the last minute (bribe?) with two Congressmen to get their votes. The country was taken to the absolute brink of a shutdown and insolvency. Our international credit rating dropped for the first time in history. Obama’s popularity has dropped from the mid 70’s percent to below 50% and the economy isn’t really as improved as manipulated numbers on a page suggest. Most experts agree his presidency has been troubled at best and he is definitely vulnerable to defeat. “Change” will be an impossible sell to Americans the second time round and he can hardly use “stay the course” when that course appears more and more like a train wreck.
Republicans
Mitt Romney (the left, center and right of the party)
Mitt should get the nomination but he just can’t stop, stopping himself. He has a reputation of saying whatever you want to hear then saying the opposite later on. He is the guy that said if America does something wrong we should say we are sorry but in the same exact sentence said that he would never apologize for America. Huh? He’s told lies about everything from what his real first name is to what organizations he’s belonged to or not. He’s been tripped up so many times. Then just a few days ago his senior advisor on an interview said that when the nomination has been secured Romney will take all his positions and shake them up like an etch- a- sketch and start all over. That means if you voted for him as a nominee, he may not be the nominee you voted for after his next chameleon-like reincarnation. Who is he really? What does he stand for really? He’s governed an Obama-like health plan in Massachusetts that he is proud to say worked but at the next stop on the campaign he talks about how he hates Obama care. He looks good in a suit, speaks articulately (even if what he is saying is suspect) and has a track record in business and government that is pretty good. He could fix this country’s economic problems but what are his foreign policy positions? That’s the problem; no one knows because no one really knows who he is. He has to get stronger and he has to stop trying to schmooze the centrists in the Republican party while at the same time schmooze the Santorum hard core right. When you do that no one trusts you. If he can get out of his own way, and get his aides to stop saying things that support the notion that he is a Gumby, (it’s a big if) then he has a fighting chance to win it all.
Rick Santorum
I can’t figure out what he is up too? Can you? He doesn’t really think that becoming the William Jennings Bryan of his day is going to get him into the White House does he? I mean it’s not even going to get him a nomination. William Jennings Bryan ran for the Presidency 4 times near the end of the 1800’s and early 1900’s. He lost all 4 times primarily because he was such a hard core Christian fundamentalist, a bible toting, bible pounding, moralizing orator that few outside his like-minded bible-belters would vote for him. The point is when you come across as an extremist you only get the extremists to vote for you. Let me put it this way: Billy Graham was one of the most revered evangelical ministers ever, adored by millions, supported by millions BUT he would have never have been elected President of the US. That’s why we got rid of theocracy 300 years ago.
So Santorum’s rants about abortion, homosexuality, same-sex marriages, birth control, premarital sex, pornography and so forth will not get him a nomination. He has to know that, so then what is he up too? Is he angling for a TV show like ex-governor Huckabee did? Is he trying to pump up future sales of a forthcoming book? Rants get you face time on camera but they don’t get you elected. His loss in Pennsylvania by 18% in his last try for reelection to the Senate should have made that clear to him.
Newt Gingrich
Newt reminds me of the guy who has just enough cache left over from the salad days in Washington to make a small run at it. Then one day he looks up and sees the front runners all stumbling, falling and he figures hell, let’s make a run at it. He knows he’s smarter than the field (IQ), and he clearly has the inside the beltway experience but he also knows his ethics violations and personal baggage are lead weights around his ankles. The truth is if he were about 10 years younger and only on the 2nd wife not the 4th, he could probably be a very serious contender. As it is, he’s having a ball scaring the younger dudes, while spending his sugar daddy’s money. It’s long been thought that Newt was just drumming up attention for future book sales. Hey there is no such thing as bad publicity. Still and all he’s had no real chance despite his one flavor of the week, week. He’s won the Southern voters that don’t mind people with some personal baggage (they relate). He’s lost the southern voters that go for Santorum’s fire and brimstone message. Pity the southern voter that doesn’t want to vote for Santorum cuz he’s a Yankee, and doesn’t want to vote for Gingrich because he’s a past sinner. They probably wish they could bring Jefferson Davis back from the dead.
Ron Paul
If you actually listen to him he makes the most sense but as we all know making sense dooms you right from the git go. He says this about the wars, “We marched right in there and we can march right back out again”. He is for a fair tax, for substantially, substantially less government involvement in American lives. He is for sensible regulation of the medical and health insurance industry that would allow for profits but would not gouge the consumer. He is not for Obama care. He was for taking the wasted money from wars, he never thought we should be involved in for so long, and putting that into education and scientific research. He would insist on a balanced budget annually and reducing deficits from 16 years of government overspending. Ron’s biggest drawback is that he has always been labeled a kook. He’s never been able to shake that label. The things he talks about now, he was talking about 12 years ago but of course back then everyone was rolling large ($) and no one wanted to listen to a man talking restraint. That plus he is 70+ years old, and he doesn’t make foolish statements like the others so unfortunately that doesn’t endear him to a media that is always scrounging around for the next sound bite. Sorry Dr. Paul, rationality doesn’t sell newspapers or give radio talk show hosts stuff to blather about.
Who Wins?
If Romney rights his own ship, and focuses on Obama’s failings, he could be the next President. The American people are worn out and frustrated to the max. The American people are looking for a leader that puts the country and their needs first over personal and political agendas. The question is (is) Mitt that guy? You tell me.
If Obama just lays low for a while longer he may not have to do much to win reelection. The Republicans may lose it before Obama even tries to win it. Then again, he has to know it didn’t go well the first term; the people are pissed off, no longer willing to drink the Kool-Aid, and perhaps looking “for change”? Wouldn’t that be an irony?
Wild Card Factor
The two (2) wild cards are:
1. A third party forming that caters to the center of both Republican and Democrats. That could happen and a candidate could be a Colin Powell for example. There is serious talk.
2. Second wild card is Republicans drafting (talk into) a compromise nominee like a Chris Christy.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
"Fire Them All" (Saints)
“Fire them all” is what the newspaper in New Orleans said today. “Them” is the coaching staff of the New Orleans Saints professional football team. Why would a local newspaper want the coaching staff dumped? Maybe you haven’t heard but the National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell laid down some harsh punishments to the Saints team: (loss of draft picks and fines), head coach Sean Payton (suspended for a year with total loss of pay, estimated to be 7+ million dollars), former defensive coordinator coach Greg Williams (suspended indefinitely) and assistant coach Joe Vitte (6 games or 40% of a year’s pay), and the General Manager Mickey Loomis (8 games, who knows how much money that represents). Player fines and suspensions are soon to be forthcoming. This is the harshest set of penalties meted out in the NFL ever.
Of course fan reaction is mixed. In Louisiana, most fans feel like they are one of Custer’s men at The Little Big Horn. Boy do they howl and complain about being excessively picked on and abused. I wonder if the victims the Saints defensive players maimed feel picked on and abused. Ya think? Other fans have views like, I don’t think the punishment fits the crime, and what about “spy gate”? To them football is a violent sport; a Darwinian exercise of survival of the meanest. Some fans are just as outraged on the other side of the argument. They don’t understand why the General Manager wasn't summarily fired and lifetime suspensions meted for the coaches. The debate continues.
One thing there is no debate about is what happened. I say this because Greg Williams, Joe Vitte, and Mickey Loomis all admitted guilt. Williams and Vitte and made public apologies. These 2 coaches, with the approval of their head coach and general manager, had a “bounty” system. In this game within a game, defensive players that took opposing players out of a game got bonus money. Career ending injuries to opposing players paid more. Helped off the field didn’t pay as much because the player might return. Saint players bragged about maiming other players. They put Arizona Cardinal QB Kurt Warner out of the league. They significantly contributed to the ending of the playing career of Brett Favre (not even father time it seemed could do that). How many other players were hospitalized, some never to return to the game during the three years the bounty system was in place?
The point is: this intent to injure program went on for 3 years that the league knows of. The league got wind of what was going on after about 1 ½ seasons and told the Saints owner and General Manager to “clean it up”, to stop it. Loomis (GM) told the NFL that he had stopped "it" but of course not only did they not stop it but the same Mr. Loomis encouraged it to continue. Continue it did and these dumb-asses didn’t even realize that all the time they thought they were getting away with it; the league was compiling videotape of their hits, talking to people, investigating. To show you the level of hubris the head coach Sean Payton had, he flew to New York just last week, last week for God’s sake and lied to the Commissioner saying he knew nothing about what had happened. Imagine the look on this arrogant coach's face when the Commissioner confronted him with the facts that yes he did.
So here is the deal, the Saints defensive staff led by former head coach of the Buffalo Bills (they should check the footage of that team while he was coach there) Greg Williams creates a bounty system, with the approval of the head Coach and GM, to pay Saint defensive players bonus cash for injuring opposing players enough to get them out of a game, hospitalized or have career ending injuries. The players were offered hundreds and in some cases thousands of dollars to maim other players. The players are caught on tape bragging about their “hits”. Bragging about ruining other players, teaming up to destroy ligaments, break bones, sprain necks, and god only knows what else. Sean Payton knew about it, condoned it and for all we know contributed money to the pot. Greg Williams ran the “pay for maim plan” and Joe Vitte also contributed, and encouraged it. Mickey Loomis, the General Manager, also knew and in fact when told to put an end to it lied to the League office about it. Now why in the world would a team do such a thing? Here is why:
The New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl in the second year of the bounty program and were in the playoffs the year before winning the bowl and the year after. Winning is why these players went well beyond the already violent sport. To win at all costs. Of course it wasn’t their costs! It was Kurt Warner’s cost (hospitalized for months and walks with a limp today). It’s many other players "costs". Adulation, restoring pride to New Orleans, huge payouts for playoff wins and so forth is what the Saint’s players and staff received. While the Saints were holding up the Super Bowl trophy their victims were holding up x-rays, and looking at MRI’s.
To the victor go the spoils, if you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying, winner take all, all or nothing, king on the mountain are just some of the outward expressions of competition at its worst. This kind of play isn’t competition; it’s a train-wreck.
Some would point out “spy gate”, another scandal in the NFL. Cheating by the New England Patriots or you can point to: Danny Almonte winning the Little League World Series by being too old to pitch at that level, the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, Bobby Thompson being tipped as to what pitch was coming in his historic 1951 “shot heard round the world”. All these and a gazillion more examples of cheating, lying and subterfuge have always been in sports, and when found out the perpetrators should be punished. Vacate championships, ban players from playing and fine players, coaches and management if you have to BUT what the Saints did is substantially different.
It wasn’t cheating; they didn’t steal signs or plays, nudge the ball forward, or play with one too many men on the field. NO! They systematically got together and agreed to hurt people, maim people, put people in the hospital and end grown men’s livelihoods. They became hit squads, assassins, thugs disguised as “saints”. Who is to say someone couldn’t have become a quadriplegic from one of their blindside hits, or even died on the field? This stupid thinking isn’t new world it’s old world as old as it gets. Loomis, Payton, Williams, Vitte, and the 22-28 players got off or will get off lucky. They can thank their lucky stars Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis isn’t still alive and a Commissioner. If he were the NFL Commissioner, these managers, coaches and players would be plying their trade in the semi-pro ranks for the rest of their lives.
Shoeless Joe Jackson has the 3rd highest lifetime batting average in over 100 years of professional baseball and Mountain Landis tossed him out of professional baseball as quickly as flipping off a light switch. If he were the NFL Commissioner today, instead of Goodell, he would have “fired them all”.
Of course fan reaction is mixed. In Louisiana, most fans feel like they are one of Custer’s men at The Little Big Horn. Boy do they howl and complain about being excessively picked on and abused. I wonder if the victims the Saints defensive players maimed feel picked on and abused. Ya think? Other fans have views like, I don’t think the punishment fits the crime, and what about “spy gate”? To them football is a violent sport; a Darwinian exercise of survival of the meanest. Some fans are just as outraged on the other side of the argument. They don’t understand why the General Manager wasn't summarily fired and lifetime suspensions meted for the coaches. The debate continues.
One thing there is no debate about is what happened. I say this because Greg Williams, Joe Vitte, and Mickey Loomis all admitted guilt. Williams and Vitte and made public apologies. These 2 coaches, with the approval of their head coach and general manager, had a “bounty” system. In this game within a game, defensive players that took opposing players out of a game got bonus money. Career ending injuries to opposing players paid more. Helped off the field didn’t pay as much because the player might return. Saint players bragged about maiming other players. They put Arizona Cardinal QB Kurt Warner out of the league. They significantly contributed to the ending of the playing career of Brett Favre (not even father time it seemed could do that). How many other players were hospitalized, some never to return to the game during the three years the bounty system was in place?
The point is: this intent to injure program went on for 3 years that the league knows of. The league got wind of what was going on after about 1 ½ seasons and told the Saints owner and General Manager to “clean it up”, to stop it. Loomis (GM) told the NFL that he had stopped "it" but of course not only did they not stop it but the same Mr. Loomis encouraged it to continue. Continue it did and these dumb-asses didn’t even realize that all the time they thought they were getting away with it; the league was compiling videotape of their hits, talking to people, investigating. To show you the level of hubris the head coach Sean Payton had, he flew to New York just last week, last week for God’s sake and lied to the Commissioner saying he knew nothing about what had happened. Imagine the look on this arrogant coach's face when the Commissioner confronted him with the facts that yes he did.
So here is the deal, the Saints defensive staff led by former head coach of the Buffalo Bills (they should check the footage of that team while he was coach there) Greg Williams creates a bounty system, with the approval of the head Coach and GM, to pay Saint defensive players bonus cash for injuring opposing players enough to get them out of a game, hospitalized or have career ending injuries. The players were offered hundreds and in some cases thousands of dollars to maim other players. The players are caught on tape bragging about their “hits”. Bragging about ruining other players, teaming up to destroy ligaments, break bones, sprain necks, and god only knows what else. Sean Payton knew about it, condoned it and for all we know contributed money to the pot. Greg Williams ran the “pay for maim plan” and Joe Vitte also contributed, and encouraged it. Mickey Loomis, the General Manager, also knew and in fact when told to put an end to it lied to the League office about it. Now why in the world would a team do such a thing? Here is why:
The New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl in the second year of the bounty program and were in the playoffs the year before winning the bowl and the year after. Winning is why these players went well beyond the already violent sport. To win at all costs. Of course it wasn’t their costs! It was Kurt Warner’s cost (hospitalized for months and walks with a limp today). It’s many other players "costs". Adulation, restoring pride to New Orleans, huge payouts for playoff wins and so forth is what the Saint’s players and staff received. While the Saints were holding up the Super Bowl trophy their victims were holding up x-rays, and looking at MRI’s.
To the victor go the spoils, if you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying, winner take all, all or nothing, king on the mountain are just some of the outward expressions of competition at its worst. This kind of play isn’t competition; it’s a train-wreck.
Some would point out “spy gate”, another scandal in the NFL. Cheating by the New England Patriots or you can point to: Danny Almonte winning the Little League World Series by being too old to pitch at that level, the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, Bobby Thompson being tipped as to what pitch was coming in his historic 1951 “shot heard round the world”. All these and a gazillion more examples of cheating, lying and subterfuge have always been in sports, and when found out the perpetrators should be punished. Vacate championships, ban players from playing and fine players, coaches and management if you have to BUT what the Saints did is substantially different.
It wasn’t cheating; they didn’t steal signs or plays, nudge the ball forward, or play with one too many men on the field. NO! They systematically got together and agreed to hurt people, maim people, put people in the hospital and end grown men’s livelihoods. They became hit squads, assassins, thugs disguised as “saints”. Who is to say someone couldn’t have become a quadriplegic from one of their blindside hits, or even died on the field? This stupid thinking isn’t new world it’s old world as old as it gets. Loomis, Payton, Williams, Vitte, and the 22-28 players got off or will get off lucky. They can thank their lucky stars Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis isn’t still alive and a Commissioner. If he were the NFL Commissioner, these managers, coaches and players would be plying their trade in the semi-pro ranks for the rest of their lives.
Shoeless Joe Jackson has the 3rd highest lifetime batting average in over 100 years of professional baseball and Mountain Landis tossed him out of professional baseball as quickly as flipping off a light switch. If he were the NFL Commissioner today, instead of Goodell, he would have “fired them all”.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
"Death of a Salesman"
I read with interest two recent reviews of the Broadway (NYC) opening of Arthur Miller’s 1954 play Death of a Salesman. The revival of this play is being produced on Broadway by the legendary Mike Nichols. You remember him for the movie The Graduate among others. His new "Salesman" has an all-star cast including Phillip Seymour Hoffman, John Glover and Arthur Garfield. Both reviewers (Time and New York magazines) give the play (now in previews) high marks.
The main thrust of their reviews centered on how oddly relevant the play has become, again, in these crazy times. The fifties were a period of unprecedented growth and optimism in the United States and it was at this time that Miller presented a play about despair that questioned the American Dream. His play seemed like an relic of the hopeless thirties not indicative of the happy fifties. Still and all human tragedy is never old.
Willy Loman, the main character, sells women’s stockings in New England. He claims to be “big” in Providence; he says he “slaughtered em in Boston”. The truth is he is totally out of his element. He is not a salesman despite all his efforts to look and act like a salesman. In his best year he was average and he doesn’t even like selling stockings. Often he tells people how much he would like to work using his hands. He would have been a good carpenter, but America is about selling. "Everybody sells y’ know"! Resumes, interviews, college admission essays, speed-dating, internships and more are all examples of people selling. We sell ourselves every day we wake up. So of course to a man like Willy who is all-in on the American Dream of working hard, owning a home, having 2.5 normal kids with a loving wife and with a good retirement at the end, selling would be what he would think shows the successful man of action. Willy's greatest hope is to die a loved, admired, respected man with hundreds at his funeral. "Be liked and you'll never want he tells his boys". He wants to die the death of a salesman.
What happens when the perfect dream becomes a nightmare and you end up worth more dead than alive? Such is the stuff this play is made of. Willy believes every slogan and sales pitch that comes his way. So do millions of Americans. Why do you think the color of the tie matters in a presidential debate? Why do candidates parade their wives and kids out onto the platform? Slogans, promises, jingles, and political ads are all just a part of the sales pitch. You're not selling the bacon, you're selling the sizzle.
Sad to say Willy couldn’t sell mustard to a hot dog except for 2 people, his two sons. Biff and Happy buy every word their father tells them about how he sold thousands and is the biggest man in New England. They think he walks on water and when they realize he’s an empty bag of hot air, so pathetic that his son, Happy, pretends to not know him at one point, well the tragedy that is the Loman Family just deepens.
I have a personal connection to this play. In 1980 I directed a high school production of Death of a Salesman. I had been searching around trying to come up with a play that would challenge students to think and I asked my department members if they had any ideas. One obnoxious teacher said, “The only thing kids will come see are comedies and musicals, so whatever you do don’t do “Salesman”. She didn’t know me well or she wouldn’t have said that because that is exactly the play I decided to do. I had my hands full, the main character, Willy, is 58 years old, his wife nearly as old and his boys both older and in flashback scenes younger. Not to mention the dialogue is 1950’s, the clothes etc.
Look, older actors can play younger because they remember being younger. Younger actors struggle to play older because they have no first-hand knowledge of being old. I cast Ron Hoffman, a senior, as Willy. I took him to retirement places to hang out with older people to get a feel for why they walk the way they do, are deliberate with their movements etc. Heck just showing the fatigue of life, disappointments, and frustrations. He really got it and with the help of makeup and the right clothes, when he walked on that stage with heavy suitcases he looked like a beaten down 58 year old Willy Loman. I cast the other parts carefully as well and spent long hours talking with them about why their characters are the way they are. Why is the youngest son such a shit? Why is the oldest son so resentful of his father and so forth? It’s less about what your character says and more about how it’s said.
Less is always more in acting, you have to be Willy not be a kid playing Willy. I had to help Ron become an angry, self-loathing guilt riddled man of 58 every night. He did such a good job. With the exception of his young voice, he was Willy Loman. Linda, Willy’s wife, is an especially tricky role because the actor that plays this part has to portray three things equally: that she loves Willy and will defend him at all costs but she also aids in his self-destruction as a classic enabler. Then she is the person that tries to smooth everything over and never face any truths. She is so complicated that half the audience typically sympathizes with her and half the audience hates her and blames her for much of the trouble.
Students came to the play which ran for 5 nights over 2 weekends. We didn’t get the huge turnout that musicals and comedies get but the students that did come to see it had favorable things to say. It got good reviews. I was as proud of that play as any I directed. I have always believed we underestimate smart kids. There are teens that want to know what life is about, the good, bad and ugly. They aren't afraid.
One of my students went to see the play and the next day in class I asked him what he thought about the play. What he said reaffirmed for me that he understood the play and that it was worth doing. He said, “Well, I know I don’t want to end up like any of those people in the Loman family”. Perfect. If you ever get the chance to see this play, on Broadway or at the local high school I encourage you to do so. There is also an excellent version on DVD with Dustin Hoffman that you can rent or stream.
The main thrust of their reviews centered on how oddly relevant the play has become, again, in these crazy times. The fifties were a period of unprecedented growth and optimism in the United States and it was at this time that Miller presented a play about despair that questioned the American Dream. His play seemed like an relic of the hopeless thirties not indicative of the happy fifties. Still and all human tragedy is never old.
Willy Loman, the main character, sells women’s stockings in New England. He claims to be “big” in Providence; he says he “slaughtered em in Boston”. The truth is he is totally out of his element. He is not a salesman despite all his efforts to look and act like a salesman. In his best year he was average and he doesn’t even like selling stockings. Often he tells people how much he would like to work using his hands. He would have been a good carpenter, but America is about selling. "Everybody sells y’ know"! Resumes, interviews, college admission essays, speed-dating, internships and more are all examples of people selling. We sell ourselves every day we wake up. So of course to a man like Willy who is all-in on the American Dream of working hard, owning a home, having 2.5 normal kids with a loving wife and with a good retirement at the end, selling would be what he would think shows the successful man of action. Willy's greatest hope is to die a loved, admired, respected man with hundreds at his funeral. "Be liked and you'll never want he tells his boys". He wants to die the death of a salesman.
What happens when the perfect dream becomes a nightmare and you end up worth more dead than alive? Such is the stuff this play is made of. Willy believes every slogan and sales pitch that comes his way. So do millions of Americans. Why do you think the color of the tie matters in a presidential debate? Why do candidates parade their wives and kids out onto the platform? Slogans, promises, jingles, and political ads are all just a part of the sales pitch. You're not selling the bacon, you're selling the sizzle.
Sad to say Willy couldn’t sell mustard to a hot dog except for 2 people, his two sons. Biff and Happy buy every word their father tells them about how he sold thousands and is the biggest man in New England. They think he walks on water and when they realize he’s an empty bag of hot air, so pathetic that his son, Happy, pretends to not know him at one point, well the tragedy that is the Loman Family just deepens.
I have a personal connection to this play. In 1980 I directed a high school production of Death of a Salesman. I had been searching around trying to come up with a play that would challenge students to think and I asked my department members if they had any ideas. One obnoxious teacher said, “The only thing kids will come see are comedies and musicals, so whatever you do don’t do “Salesman”. She didn’t know me well or she wouldn’t have said that because that is exactly the play I decided to do. I had my hands full, the main character, Willy, is 58 years old, his wife nearly as old and his boys both older and in flashback scenes younger. Not to mention the dialogue is 1950’s, the clothes etc.
Look, older actors can play younger because they remember being younger. Younger actors struggle to play older because they have no first-hand knowledge of being old. I cast Ron Hoffman, a senior, as Willy. I took him to retirement places to hang out with older people to get a feel for why they walk the way they do, are deliberate with their movements etc. Heck just showing the fatigue of life, disappointments, and frustrations. He really got it and with the help of makeup and the right clothes, when he walked on that stage with heavy suitcases he looked like a beaten down 58 year old Willy Loman. I cast the other parts carefully as well and spent long hours talking with them about why their characters are the way they are. Why is the youngest son such a shit? Why is the oldest son so resentful of his father and so forth? It’s less about what your character says and more about how it’s said.
Less is always more in acting, you have to be Willy not be a kid playing Willy. I had to help Ron become an angry, self-loathing guilt riddled man of 58 every night. He did such a good job. With the exception of his young voice, he was Willy Loman. Linda, Willy’s wife, is an especially tricky role because the actor that plays this part has to portray three things equally: that she loves Willy and will defend him at all costs but she also aids in his self-destruction as a classic enabler. Then she is the person that tries to smooth everything over and never face any truths. She is so complicated that half the audience typically sympathizes with her and half the audience hates her and blames her for much of the trouble.
Students came to the play which ran for 5 nights over 2 weekends. We didn’t get the huge turnout that musicals and comedies get but the students that did come to see it had favorable things to say. It got good reviews. I was as proud of that play as any I directed. I have always believed we underestimate smart kids. There are teens that want to know what life is about, the good, bad and ugly. They aren't afraid.
One of my students went to see the play and the next day in class I asked him what he thought about the play. What he said reaffirmed for me that he understood the play and that it was worth doing. He said, “Well, I know I don’t want to end up like any of those people in the Loman family”. Perfect. If you ever get the chance to see this play, on Broadway or at the local high school I encourage you to do so. There is also an excellent version on DVD with Dustin Hoffman that you can rent or stream.
Monday, March 12, 2012
"I'll Make it"
The character Jimmie Chitwood says to his coach Norman Dale, “I’ll make it ”. Coach Dale says, “All right, Merle, get the ball to Jimmie at the top of the key”. If you saw the 1986 classic sports film Hoosiers you know that Jimmie the enigmatic kid with a pure jump shot holds the ball for about 7 agonizing seconds and then makes his move. He hits a 14 footer as time expires and the Hickory Hoosiers beat the South Bend Central High School Bears 42-40. Jimmie Chitwood was right, he could make it and he did.
I finished watching the film Hoosiers for maybe the 20th time and I still love almost everything about it. Many sports/film critics say it is the best sports movie ever made. In a USA Today poll it was rated the best inspirational movie of all time and AFI lists it 4th best sports movie ever made. The late George Steinbrenner (owner of the NY Yankees) once told reporters he’d seen the movie 250 times. Of course, George was never one to understate anything. The movie Field of Dreams has its admirers along with The Natural, The Pride of the Yankees, and let’s not forget Bang the Drum Slowly (one of Robert de Niro’s first films). I love every movie on this list but I have to tell you why Hoosiers is my all-time favorite.
Let’s start with the fact that the movie is based on a true (David and Goliath) event. The 1954 Milan (pronounced with a long I) Indians with a school enrollment of 150, won the Indiana State Basketball title by beating the powerful Muncie Central HS team. Muncie Central had an enrollment of over 2,000. At the time, this was the smallest school to ever win a basketball state title in US History. (Ironically one of the teams Milan defeated in the regionals was Montezuma HS with an enrollment of 79 total students. Milan’s win was by all accounts the most incredulous upset since a horse actually named “Upset” defeated the legendary Man-o-War in 1919. “Upset” was the only horse to ever defeat Man-o-War. Hence an upset is, well, an upset and Milan winning was one major upset.
Milan had reached the semifinal game the year before and many thought they could get to the semis again or maybe even the final game but no one thought they could consistently keep beating much larger schools. They did however, finishing 28-2 in 1954. In the final game, their star player Bobby Plump held the ball until he took a last second 14 foot jumper that won the game. That shot ensured Milan’s everlasting fame and fame for Bobby Plump. Today 56 years later Bobby runs a restaurant/bar in Indianapolis called “Plump’s Last Shot”.
The movie was essentially a mix of two seasons 1952-53 and 1953-54. For example in real life, Milan defeated South Bend in 52-53 and Muncie in 53-54 but in the movie they play South Bend in 53-54. The coach of Milan had only recently been hired (just like the movies Hoosier coach Norman Dale played by Gene Hackman) and he did have some unusual coaching techniques that caused the townspeople to wonder who this guy was. The Milan coach ran the 4 corner game (stall) which he called “Cat and Mouse”. That’s one of the reasons why the final game score (real one) ended up 32-30. Bobby Plump at one time held the ball for 4 minutes straight with no defenders. In the movie the Hickory team wins 42-40. I have no idea why they bumped up the score by 10 points except I don’t think they wanted to show a stall game in non-progress.
Four of the players on the real team had the same names as on the fictional Hoosier team. The final game in the movie was shot at the famed Butler University Fieldhouse (Now called Hinkle Fieldhouse) where Butler U. still plays. Essentially, the movie did what all movies “based on a true event” do and that is change a few things, have invented characters for dramatic effect (In the case of Hoosiers, the school teacher/love interest of Coach Dale, Myra Fleener, played well by Barbara Hershey and “shooter fly” Fludge played by Dennis Hopper) but after all is said and altered the basics of the true event are there. The Hoosiers win in the movie and Milan won in real life.
Beyond the facts, I love other angles this movie has taken.
The character Wilbur “shooter fly” Fludge, played by Dennis Hopper is the town drunk and n’eer do well but why? Turns out he played for Hickory in 1931 and whatever his overall accomplishments were that year (we never find out) he took the final shot in the Sectional’s final game. His shot was in his words “in and out”. He says he was fouled but the refs didn’t call it and Hickory didn’t win the game. That led to his 23 year run as a self-loathing town drunk. He embarrasses his son who coincidently is on the current team. He is tormented by his failure by missing that shot. Do I have to remind you of the South American goalie that committed suicide because he accidently knocked in a goal for the other team that cost his team a victory in an important match? In real life the cost of not” making it” in a crucial moment is evident many times over. In a gut wrenching scene near the end of the movie, he tells Coach Dale that he is sorry. Sorry that he has embarrassed the Coach and his son but if you hear the way he says it, he is really saying he is sorry about missing that shot 23 years ago.
“I’m sorry I let you down coach”, “basketball meant so much to me”, “and I know how much it meant to this town”. He’s apologizing for missing that shot 23 years ago. The cruel irony is NO ONE in town even talks about it; they don’t even think about him that way at all. His drinking and loner(ism) was totally unnecessary. We are left hopeful he is finally going to forgive himself and sober up. After all the coach Norman Dale said it’s all right. He forgave him in a sense.
Now, for the “here it comes” moment: There is a short player on Hickory’s team, Ollie. Apparently, in the past he never even suited up let alone plays even a minute. According to Ollie “I ain’t no good, I suit up to be a body”. “Equipment manager is my trade”. Coach Dale suits him up anyway and he is prepared to play him. Why? It’s because to coach Dale every member of the team counts. All five players on the floor functioning as a single unit he tells them is a team that is hard to beat. Ollie works hard in practice, so Ollie suits up.
Well the best part is in a playoff game; Ollie is called upon to play in the game’s closing minutes. Ollie is stressed to no end but he really tries and sure enough, guess what happens? Yep, he takes the last shot and it goes in and out. Exactly what happened to Shooter Fly 23 years before EXCEPT that this time Ollie gets the call from the referee and he goes to the free throw line. Ollie, at least, has his fate in his own hands. Make them and you are a hero. He does make them and for Ollie, the next 23 years he’ll be the town hero. How capricious life is, how capricious the game is. Your fortunes can and often do turn on blind luck or right place at the right time. Get the call, you can be a hero, don’t get the call and you drink for the next 23 years. However, it’s not that simple. The message is it’s a game not curing cancer. Wilbur Fludge has to have a better self-esteem than he does. We all have to keep our victories and losses in perspective. There is no room for self-pity if you are to win at life.
Dennis Hoppers acting was so good. He is Wilbur “shooter-fly” Fludge. At no time in the movie did I find myself thinking its Dennis Hopper playing a part. Here is the interesting back-story: Hopper had long been considered one of Hollywood’s true great actors but years of drug abuse, run-ins with the law (he was the Charlie Sheen of his time) got him essentially blackballed from the industry. He didn’t work for many years. But he cleaned up, grew up, and wanted to make a comeback. This was his comeback movie and he nailed it. I saw him in this movie and even if the movie hadn’t been good, I would have been happy knowing Dennis Hopper was back and others would get to see his work.
There are tons more things I can talk about like the school teacher Myra that protects Jimmie Chitwood from those that would exploit him. Initially she hates basketball but eventually becomes (because of her love for the Coach) one that loves basketball and cheers as hard as anyone in the final game. There is the long time great (under 40 and you won’t know him) Sheb Wooley as the Principal and his performance is right on.
The costumes and location of the movie is spot-on accurate. The car caravans to away games (which they do still), the fall scenes, the old schoolhouse wood floors and the chalk boards take you back in time. But that aside, it’s the actual basketball scenes that are as authentic as you can get without just showing footage of a real game. The boys they hired to be players really could play. It’s refreshing to see real athletes playing the parts of athletes.
The movie Hoosiers is a good watch. The story is inspirational, the acting first rate and the atmosphere a trip back to a time when athletics was fun and not compromised.
One last ironic note is the character Jimmie Chitwood. This shy kid that could “shoot them buckets” was played by an unknown local Indiana boy named Maris Valainas. Maris was a shy kid attending Butler University when he wandered onto the set while they were auditioning kids to be players. A director liked his looks and asked him to shoot some shots. Turns out Maris Valainas had a picture perfect shot and he got the part. As for the shy part, his character Jimmie has only 6 spoken lines in the movie. Talk about type casting. Here’s the weird part, this 6’3” kids had been cut by his HS team 3 years in a row. It’s hard to believe.
He made the last shot in the movie on the first try. Gene Hackman was so impressed with his work that he encouraged Maris to go to Hollywood and be an actor, and he did. He was in 2 other films in small roles and then he walked away from acting just like the enigma Jimmie, in the movie, walks away from playing basketball. Maris ended up going into construction and has lived in Southern California since 1987. He has played for years in men’s leagues and the word on the street is that he still has that picture perfect shot.
I finished watching the film Hoosiers for maybe the 20th time and I still love almost everything about it. Many sports/film critics say it is the best sports movie ever made. In a USA Today poll it was rated the best inspirational movie of all time and AFI lists it 4th best sports movie ever made. The late George Steinbrenner (owner of the NY Yankees) once told reporters he’d seen the movie 250 times. Of course, George was never one to understate anything. The movie Field of Dreams has its admirers along with The Natural, The Pride of the Yankees, and let’s not forget Bang the Drum Slowly (one of Robert de Niro’s first films). I love every movie on this list but I have to tell you why Hoosiers is my all-time favorite.
Let’s start with the fact that the movie is based on a true (David and Goliath) event. The 1954 Milan (pronounced with a long I) Indians with a school enrollment of 150, won the Indiana State Basketball title by beating the powerful Muncie Central HS team. Muncie Central had an enrollment of over 2,000. At the time, this was the smallest school to ever win a basketball state title in US History. (Ironically one of the teams Milan defeated in the regionals was Montezuma HS with an enrollment of 79 total students. Milan’s win was by all accounts the most incredulous upset since a horse actually named “Upset” defeated the legendary Man-o-War in 1919. “Upset” was the only horse to ever defeat Man-o-War. Hence an upset is, well, an upset and Milan winning was one major upset.
Milan had reached the semifinal game the year before and many thought they could get to the semis again or maybe even the final game but no one thought they could consistently keep beating much larger schools. They did however, finishing 28-2 in 1954. In the final game, their star player Bobby Plump held the ball until he took a last second 14 foot jumper that won the game. That shot ensured Milan’s everlasting fame and fame for Bobby Plump. Today 56 years later Bobby runs a restaurant/bar in Indianapolis called “Plump’s Last Shot”.
The movie was essentially a mix of two seasons 1952-53 and 1953-54. For example in real life, Milan defeated South Bend in 52-53 and Muncie in 53-54 but in the movie they play South Bend in 53-54. The coach of Milan had only recently been hired (just like the movies Hoosier coach Norman Dale played by Gene Hackman) and he did have some unusual coaching techniques that caused the townspeople to wonder who this guy was. The Milan coach ran the 4 corner game (stall) which he called “Cat and Mouse”. That’s one of the reasons why the final game score (real one) ended up 32-30. Bobby Plump at one time held the ball for 4 minutes straight with no defenders. In the movie the Hickory team wins 42-40. I have no idea why they bumped up the score by 10 points except I don’t think they wanted to show a stall game in non-progress.
Four of the players on the real team had the same names as on the fictional Hoosier team. The final game in the movie was shot at the famed Butler University Fieldhouse (Now called Hinkle Fieldhouse) where Butler U. still plays. Essentially, the movie did what all movies “based on a true event” do and that is change a few things, have invented characters for dramatic effect (In the case of Hoosiers, the school teacher/love interest of Coach Dale, Myra Fleener, played well by Barbara Hershey and “shooter fly” Fludge played by Dennis Hopper) but after all is said and altered the basics of the true event are there. The Hoosiers win in the movie and Milan won in real life.
Beyond the facts, I love other angles this movie has taken.
The character Wilbur “shooter fly” Fludge, played by Dennis Hopper is the town drunk and n’eer do well but why? Turns out he played for Hickory in 1931 and whatever his overall accomplishments were that year (we never find out) he took the final shot in the Sectional’s final game. His shot was in his words “in and out”. He says he was fouled but the refs didn’t call it and Hickory didn’t win the game. That led to his 23 year run as a self-loathing town drunk. He embarrasses his son who coincidently is on the current team. He is tormented by his failure by missing that shot. Do I have to remind you of the South American goalie that committed suicide because he accidently knocked in a goal for the other team that cost his team a victory in an important match? In real life the cost of not” making it” in a crucial moment is evident many times over. In a gut wrenching scene near the end of the movie, he tells Coach Dale that he is sorry. Sorry that he has embarrassed the Coach and his son but if you hear the way he says it, he is really saying he is sorry about missing that shot 23 years ago.
“I’m sorry I let you down coach”, “basketball meant so much to me”, “and I know how much it meant to this town”. He’s apologizing for missing that shot 23 years ago. The cruel irony is NO ONE in town even talks about it; they don’t even think about him that way at all. His drinking and loner(ism) was totally unnecessary. We are left hopeful he is finally going to forgive himself and sober up. After all the coach Norman Dale said it’s all right. He forgave him in a sense.
Now, for the “here it comes” moment: There is a short player on Hickory’s team, Ollie. Apparently, in the past he never even suited up let alone plays even a minute. According to Ollie “I ain’t no good, I suit up to be a body”. “Equipment manager is my trade”. Coach Dale suits him up anyway and he is prepared to play him. Why? It’s because to coach Dale every member of the team counts. All five players on the floor functioning as a single unit he tells them is a team that is hard to beat. Ollie works hard in practice, so Ollie suits up.
Well the best part is in a playoff game; Ollie is called upon to play in the game’s closing minutes. Ollie is stressed to no end but he really tries and sure enough, guess what happens? Yep, he takes the last shot and it goes in and out. Exactly what happened to Shooter Fly 23 years before EXCEPT that this time Ollie gets the call from the referee and he goes to the free throw line. Ollie, at least, has his fate in his own hands. Make them and you are a hero. He does make them and for Ollie, the next 23 years he’ll be the town hero. How capricious life is, how capricious the game is. Your fortunes can and often do turn on blind luck or right place at the right time. Get the call, you can be a hero, don’t get the call and you drink for the next 23 years. However, it’s not that simple. The message is it’s a game not curing cancer. Wilbur Fludge has to have a better self-esteem than he does. We all have to keep our victories and losses in perspective. There is no room for self-pity if you are to win at life.
Dennis Hoppers acting was so good. He is Wilbur “shooter-fly” Fludge. At no time in the movie did I find myself thinking its Dennis Hopper playing a part. Here is the interesting back-story: Hopper had long been considered one of Hollywood’s true great actors but years of drug abuse, run-ins with the law (he was the Charlie Sheen of his time) got him essentially blackballed from the industry. He didn’t work for many years. But he cleaned up, grew up, and wanted to make a comeback. This was his comeback movie and he nailed it. I saw him in this movie and even if the movie hadn’t been good, I would have been happy knowing Dennis Hopper was back and others would get to see his work.
There are tons more things I can talk about like the school teacher Myra that protects Jimmie Chitwood from those that would exploit him. Initially she hates basketball but eventually becomes (because of her love for the Coach) one that loves basketball and cheers as hard as anyone in the final game. There is the long time great (under 40 and you won’t know him) Sheb Wooley as the Principal and his performance is right on.
The costumes and location of the movie is spot-on accurate. The car caravans to away games (which they do still), the fall scenes, the old schoolhouse wood floors and the chalk boards take you back in time. But that aside, it’s the actual basketball scenes that are as authentic as you can get without just showing footage of a real game. The boys they hired to be players really could play. It’s refreshing to see real athletes playing the parts of athletes.
The movie Hoosiers is a good watch. The story is inspirational, the acting first rate and the atmosphere a trip back to a time when athletics was fun and not compromised.
One last ironic note is the character Jimmie Chitwood. This shy kid that could “shoot them buckets” was played by an unknown local Indiana boy named Maris Valainas. Maris was a shy kid attending Butler University when he wandered onto the set while they were auditioning kids to be players. A director liked his looks and asked him to shoot some shots. Turns out Maris Valainas had a picture perfect shot and he got the part. As for the shy part, his character Jimmie has only 6 spoken lines in the movie. Talk about type casting. Here’s the weird part, this 6’3” kids had been cut by his HS team 3 years in a row. It’s hard to believe.
He made the last shot in the movie on the first try. Gene Hackman was so impressed with his work that he encouraged Maris to go to Hollywood and be an actor, and he did. He was in 2 other films in small roles and then he walked away from acting just like the enigma Jimmie, in the movie, walks away from playing basketball. Maris ended up going into construction and has lived in Southern California since 1987. He has played for years in men’s leagues and the word on the street is that he still has that picture perfect shot.
Monday, March 5, 2012
"Too Big to Fail"
I recently saw the HBO movie “Too Big to Fail” about the bailout money given to the 10 largest banks in America. This was the TARP money you heard bandied about so much in recent years. It starred William Hurt as Hank Paulson (Secretary of the Treasury), Paul Giamatti as Ben Bernanke (Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board) and Billy Crudup as Tim Geithner (Chairman of the New York Reserve Board). It attempted to explain the banking industry melt-down in 2008 that left Lehman Bros. folding and both AIG and Merrill Lynch coming within a whisker of going down as well. It goes on to say that had the Federal Government not forced ten US banks to take 125 billion in Federal dollars, the entire economy would have gone up in flames.
I don’t disagree with the substantive facts that the movie portrays. Lehman Brothers, like Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, AIG, and others had engaged in giving bad home mortgage loans, and then took out insurance policies on the bad loans. That way if the “border-line” borrower paid the loans they made money and if they defaulted the lenders also made money by collecting the insurance. Knowing they had it coming in one way or another, they just continued to give out increasingly more and more “toxic” loans. Money was made hand over fist. Borrowers enticed to take introductory low interest rates got into deals that were going to in time implode on them in the way of very high interest rates or balloon payments. It didn’t matter to the lenders because by the time the shit hit the fan they would have made their money off the loans no matter what. Executive compensation was at its highest levels in the history of this country, bonuses for landing crap loan mortgages were astronomical.
Then when the American consumer said no more, I refuse to pay a million dollars for a track home that is 15 years old, when consumers finally reach a point they simply couldn’t or wouldn’t borrow more the bottom fell out. Then the stock market fell as people sensed a massive down turn. The panic selling created the massive down turn they feared and away it went. Next thing you know the Federal Government saves Bear Stearns and then bailed out AIG. They also got Bank of America to buy Goldman Sachs thus averting their melt down. Paulson and Geithner also had a bank ready for Lehman Brothers (Barclay Bank of London) but the London Bank regulator demanded 30 days to review the transaction and Lehman couldn’t meet its obligations until even the next Monday so down it went.
Then later the 10 largest American banks are forced to take 125 billion federal dollars (tax payer money) and told to use it to make loans to borrowers. WHY? Well, these large banks (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citicorp etc.) had lay off employees and essentially shut down all lending. As the movie correctly portrayed when loans aren’t made people don’t buy, when they don’t buy you have the foundation of a depression.
All this is factually correct BUT the reason the movie pissed me off was because it made Hank Paulson, Timothy Geithner, and Ben Bernanke look like heroes as they frantically make deals to save banks, and force banks to get the economy moving again. Time and again Hank Paulson is seen wide awake at night worried sick over the plight of Americans, lamenting to his wife how troubling all this was. Poor, poor Hank Paulson the rat-bastard that blocked every attempt to regulate the banking and home loan industry going all the way back to Bill Clinton’s, and even George Bush I days. Time and again efforts to regulate the industry were attempted through congressional legislation and Paulson blocked and talked Presidents into using influence to block any regulation. Paulson used to be the head of Goldman Sachs and his saving AIG is called into question; since AIG’s biggest client was….you guessed it Goldman Sachs.
Geithner was Paulson’s lackey and he also never wanted any regulation. The kind of regulation that would have made it next to impossible to make toxic loans, and for damn sure not make the loan and then take out insurance policy protecting themselves from the result. At one point in the movie an aide of Paulson’s asked him, “Wouldn’t have regulating the industry have been easier”? Paulson (William Hurt) sighs and says, “Nobody wanted regulation, they were making too much money”. He and that weasel YODA Ben Bernanke (Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board) both knew that what was going on was WRONG. They are college educated economists and they knew it was WRONG but they stood fast with the money changers. They could have done something or at least led the way to reform. They are not heroes; they are morally bankrupted money grubbers.
At the end of the movie Paulson, Geithner, and Bernanke get the Bank Presidents in a room and tell them they are going to take Federal Dollars. Imagine forcing someone to take 25 billion dollars at a very, very low interest rate, my God the humanity. The ten agree to take the money (hey 10 billion doesn’t hurt right) but with the stipulation that NO regulations (beyond a couple of cosmetic paperwork/forms issues) would come with the money. Imagine that, because of no government regulations these lenders and others ruined the financial sector, get bailed out and then their punishment is they are given 125 Billion more and asked to use it to make loans to the American people (their customers) BUT are not required to.
YOU know what happened, they did not loan the money to customers (remember no regulations in place to compel them to do that) but instead bought land, other investments that made them even more money. Executive compensations and bonuses were higher than before the meltdown and after using taxpayer money to make money they gave the principle back. Americans still find it hard to get credit (4 years later), the unemployment is high, and banks are sitting on obscenely large cash reserves. How dare they portray Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner as heroes that saved the American economy!? There is Hank Paulson looking out the window in the last scene of the movie muttering to him, “they will lend the money to the people won’t they”? This hardened, hard-scrabble modern day Henry F. Potter (It’s a Wonderful Life) didn’t get to be in charge of the US Treasury with that kind of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington wistful hoping. Such nonsense and I am surprised HBO (which did the movie in 2011) would stoop to that muck-raking level.
When you ask a den of wolves to guard the chicken coop and later find out there are no more chickens and in fact there are a few missing rabbits too, the prudent question to ask is who put the wolves in charge? Their names are Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and Tim Geithner. Heroes my ass.
I don’t disagree with the substantive facts that the movie portrays. Lehman Brothers, like Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, AIG, and others had engaged in giving bad home mortgage loans, and then took out insurance policies on the bad loans. That way if the “border-line” borrower paid the loans they made money and if they defaulted the lenders also made money by collecting the insurance. Knowing they had it coming in one way or another, they just continued to give out increasingly more and more “toxic” loans. Money was made hand over fist. Borrowers enticed to take introductory low interest rates got into deals that were going to in time implode on them in the way of very high interest rates or balloon payments. It didn’t matter to the lenders because by the time the shit hit the fan they would have made their money off the loans no matter what. Executive compensation was at its highest levels in the history of this country, bonuses for landing crap loan mortgages were astronomical.
Then when the American consumer said no more, I refuse to pay a million dollars for a track home that is 15 years old, when consumers finally reach a point they simply couldn’t or wouldn’t borrow more the bottom fell out. Then the stock market fell as people sensed a massive down turn. The panic selling created the massive down turn they feared and away it went. Next thing you know the Federal Government saves Bear Stearns and then bailed out AIG. They also got Bank of America to buy Goldman Sachs thus averting their melt down. Paulson and Geithner also had a bank ready for Lehman Brothers (Barclay Bank of London) but the London Bank regulator demanded 30 days to review the transaction and Lehman couldn’t meet its obligations until even the next Monday so down it went.
Then later the 10 largest American banks are forced to take 125 billion federal dollars (tax payer money) and told to use it to make loans to borrowers. WHY? Well, these large banks (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citicorp etc.) had lay off employees and essentially shut down all lending. As the movie correctly portrayed when loans aren’t made people don’t buy, when they don’t buy you have the foundation of a depression.
All this is factually correct BUT the reason the movie pissed me off was because it made Hank Paulson, Timothy Geithner, and Ben Bernanke look like heroes as they frantically make deals to save banks, and force banks to get the economy moving again. Time and again Hank Paulson is seen wide awake at night worried sick over the plight of Americans, lamenting to his wife how troubling all this was. Poor, poor Hank Paulson the rat-bastard that blocked every attempt to regulate the banking and home loan industry going all the way back to Bill Clinton’s, and even George Bush I days. Time and again efforts to regulate the industry were attempted through congressional legislation and Paulson blocked and talked Presidents into using influence to block any regulation. Paulson used to be the head of Goldman Sachs and his saving AIG is called into question; since AIG’s biggest client was….you guessed it Goldman Sachs.
Geithner was Paulson’s lackey and he also never wanted any regulation. The kind of regulation that would have made it next to impossible to make toxic loans, and for damn sure not make the loan and then take out insurance policy protecting themselves from the result. At one point in the movie an aide of Paulson’s asked him, “Wouldn’t have regulating the industry have been easier”? Paulson (William Hurt) sighs and says, “Nobody wanted regulation, they were making too much money”. He and that weasel YODA Ben Bernanke (Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board) both knew that what was going on was WRONG. They are college educated economists and they knew it was WRONG but they stood fast with the money changers. They could have done something or at least led the way to reform. They are not heroes; they are morally bankrupted money grubbers.
At the end of the movie Paulson, Geithner, and Bernanke get the Bank Presidents in a room and tell them they are going to take Federal Dollars. Imagine forcing someone to take 25 billion dollars at a very, very low interest rate, my God the humanity. The ten agree to take the money (hey 10 billion doesn’t hurt right) but with the stipulation that NO regulations (beyond a couple of cosmetic paperwork/forms issues) would come with the money. Imagine that, because of no government regulations these lenders and others ruined the financial sector, get bailed out and then their punishment is they are given 125 Billion more and asked to use it to make loans to the American people (their customers) BUT are not required to.
YOU know what happened, they did not loan the money to customers (remember no regulations in place to compel them to do that) but instead bought land, other investments that made them even more money. Executive compensations and bonuses were higher than before the meltdown and after using taxpayer money to make money they gave the principle back. Americans still find it hard to get credit (4 years later), the unemployment is high, and banks are sitting on obscenely large cash reserves. How dare they portray Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner as heroes that saved the American economy!? There is Hank Paulson looking out the window in the last scene of the movie muttering to him, “they will lend the money to the people won’t they”? This hardened, hard-scrabble modern day Henry F. Potter (It’s a Wonderful Life) didn’t get to be in charge of the US Treasury with that kind of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington wistful hoping. Such nonsense and I am surprised HBO (which did the movie in 2011) would stoop to that muck-raking level.
When you ask a den of wolves to guard the chicken coop and later find out there are no more chickens and in fact there are a few missing rabbits too, the prudent question to ask is who put the wolves in charge? Their names are Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and Tim Geithner. Heroes my ass.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
"5 Awful Sports Cliches"
Here are 5 awful sports clichés and why:
1. “We’re going to take them one at a time” AKA: Take em one at a time.
Of course you are. What else would you do, play two or three teams at once? You have no choice but to play them one at a time. However, I once saw a woman’s softball team attempt to play em 2 at a time when they allowed the other 2 teams to put 18 players on the field at once. There were two pitchers throwing balls in alternate fashion. The end result was the 2 teams beat the team trying to play em 2 at a time 41-0. The team playing em 2 at a time had four players carted off the field from exhaustion and rumors were that catcher Carol Quigley was so distraught over the public humiliation she sought therapy for the next 3 years. The next time you hear a player or coach say we are going to take them one at a time, just think what I always think: that’s the most retarded thing I ever heard of.
2. “If you aren't cheating, you aren't trying" AKA: The Weasel's Mantra"
The original concept of competition was the camaraderie, the esprit de ’corps, the honor of competition. Cheating is not funny, it’s not cute, and it’s not even cutesy folklore. It’s winning at all costs that includes your pride, dignity and honor. There are countless cases, a gazillion cases of cheating from over aged little leaguers to razor blades imbedded in hand wraps in football. It’s an athlete’s lowest moment. To illustrate: I once saw a senior Olympics event in which people were amazed to see Ike Cranfield, aged 77, clear 15 feet in the men’s pole vault. People were suspicious however because it’s a well-known fact that most men aged 77 can barely raise anything let alone a long heavy pole. It turned out Ike Cranfield was really Bobby Cranfield his grandson. It came about that when “Ike” hit the bar on his third and final attempt he shouted “fuck” and everyone knew that Ike had never even heard of that word.
3. “that’s why we play the game” AKA: Huh?
Who really knows why anyone plays a particular game? Is there a crystal ball that reveals why a game is being played? Has Harry Houdini come back to reveal the long lost secret of “why they play the game”? I always thought games were played for one of these reasons: money, fame, pride, something to do, too much stored-up energy or my favorite “just for the hell of it”.
If you are wondering why you are playing the game maybe it’s better to not play the game. Ya think?
But to be fair: I once witnessed a wicked tidally-wink match between East Berlin, Pennsylvania’s Twig Light and his worthy competitor from Brooklyn, NY Guido Galella. After several heated games, the match stood at 2 tidally’s apiece. I turned to the man on my left and said what does the winner get? He said, “I don’t really know but it must be something”!
I thought, hmmm, I guess that’s why we play the game”!
4. “It only takes one” AKA: Lightening in a bottle
NO it doesn’t!
When people say this they are referring to: one hit, one goal, one basket, one free throw, one tackle, one pommel horse routine, one dive, one strike out, heck even one pitch BUT that goal, pitch, hit etc. depends on all the other ones in a game. It’s tied 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth inning and the bases are loaded and the count is 3-2 on the hitter. One ball, one strike, one base hit makes a difference but only because you did many other things right to be in that position. It never only takes one. If that were the case we would have one pitcher, one batter and throw one pitch. Strike the pitcher’s team wins, ball and the batter’s team wins. Then it really would be "it only takes one".
I did see a case of it only takes one, once. Curly Gleason of the Cucamonga Soccer All Star’s wouldn’t stop staring at Ricki Ricardo’s (his teammate) wife Ermine in the stands. He also winked at her when he thought Ricki was engaged kicking the ball or an opponent’s leg. For her part, Ermine was encouraging the attention but neither Ermine nor Curly realized Ricki had a 3 digit IQ and saw the winks and ogling. After the match, when others weren’t looking, Ricki punched Curly into next Tuesday. “It only takes one”
5. “Take one for the team” AKA: “I'm the low self-esteem guy”
It’s a noble thought, sacrificing you for others and occasionally we see that in real life when Congressional Medal of Honor medallions are awarded, but in sports?
Taking one for the team could mean, I didn’t want to take the last shot or I screwed up but I’ll say I did it on purpose. If you do it for martyr type reasons; it rarely turns out well for you. WHY? Because ninety-nine times out of a hundred the team doesn’t give a shit and there wasn’t any other person on that team that would have taken one for the team. You are a dumb ass. You are the dumb-ass teams like to keep around in case they need someone to reduce their self-worth for someone else’s self-worth. Let me illustrate:
Walter Hunsaker had never played a down for his local football team the Hanover Hellcats. That was humiliation enough since Hanover only played with 10 men in an 11 man football league. Walter had logged many miles over the 9 game season, trekking up and down the sidelines carrying his unused helmet, mumblings things to himself. In the last game, the Hellcat starting tackle Gruntz Moran came up lame and while he could still play there was that playoff game against Sewage the following week to consider. It was the start of the 4th quarter and so the coach summoned Walter.
At 175lbs Walter was in trouble. He was pummeled so hard in that last quarter he spent the next 3 months in the hospital. No one came to visit him except his runny-nosed sister Lulu. Meantime Gruntz returned to action and played well at Sewage.
Walter had taken many more than one for the team and months later everyone on the team swore it was merely an oversight that he had been left out of the team photo.
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