Sports, Ink




Saturday's Evening Attire Stakes sends five horses onto the winterized inner track at Aqueduct for a purse of $65,000.  The five starters will run 1 1/8 miles in a race named after the old warrior, Evening Attire.  The race was renamed the Evening Attire from the Aqueduct Handicap in 2009, upon the retirement of the gray gelding.
Evening Attire (above) was a fixture on the NYRA circuit and son of 1991 Horse of the Year Black Tie Affair.  His biggest win was the 2002 Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) and he won seven stakes over a career in which he earned more than $2.9 million.  He won a graded stakes race at each of the three NYRA circuit tracks (Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga).
Evening Attire holds the track record at 1 1/2 miles at Philadelphia Park, when as a 10-year-old he bested his foes by 8“ lengths, while breaking a 16-year-old record.  He was the epitome of a closer, often behind the pace, and charging late.
The race has been won by some great horses including former Kentucky Derby winner Cannonade, in addition to Evening Attire, Kelso and Damascus. Let's take a look at this year's challengers and try to figure out who's going to grab the winning laurels (trainer, jockey, morning line odds):
1 -- More Than a Reason (Persaud, Castro, 10-1): Winner of the Grade III Queens County two back at 19-1, the More Than Ready 6-year-old won't sneak up on anyone in this race.  He ran 19 times in 2010 and he's right back at it in 2011.  A closer who can handle the distance, he could be running late to grab a piece.
2 -- Heart Butte (Pletcher, Cohen, 5-2): This 4-year-old son of Empire Maker is perfect in two races at the distance and steps up in class for his first listed stake race. He's lightly raced compared to his elder competition with only eight career starts.  I think his morning line odds are generous and won't bet him at that price facing tougher competition for the first time.  Will wait and see on this one even with the seven pound weight break.
3 -- Alma D'Oro (Pletcher, Jara, 3-1): The Medaglia D'Oro 5-year-old ran a super race in his last, winning a non-graded stake by four lengths and pulling away going a mile.  The pedigree says the distance is just right and he's won 3 of 7 at the 1 1/8 distance.  Jockey Fernando Jara is having a disappointing meet, but Pletcher wins these races at such solid percentages he's tough to ignore.  Second off the layoff, we'll be pushing the win button on this one.
4 -- Goombada Guska (Volk, Valdivia, 5-1): With a dam with the name Goombada Byda Sea, how can you not like this horse?  He ran most of his races this summer by the sea, at Monmouth Park, and picks up a new rider for the Evening Attire in Jose Valdivia.  He ran a decent race in his debut on the inner track in the $60K Cosmic Bob Stakes in December in a four-horse field.  Interesting.
5 -- Arson Squad (Dutrow, Dominguez, 8-5): The 8-year old veteran raced eight times in 2010 at six tracks.  A road warrior makes his second career start at the Big A after being upset as the favorite in the Queen's County by the rail horse, More Than a Reason.  The morning line favorite is the class of the field based on experience, and will enjoy the red-hot Eclipse finalist Ramon Dominguez in the irons.  His workouts say he's fit and is hard to dismiss with Dominguez aboard.

Dodgers/Giants





Most of the moves on this list affected just two cities--the one being left and the one welcoming a new team. When the Dodgers and Giants moved, they changed the course of sports, and the business of sport, in the U.S. for good.
After failing in his attempt to get the city of New York to replace decaying Ebbets Field with a new stadium in Brooklyn, Dodger’s owner Walter O’Malley entered negations with Los Angeles to move his team to California in 1957. LA decided it could only take the Dodgers if a second baseball team would also move to the West Coast. Luckily for O’Malley, the Dodgers’ crosstown rivals were having stadium problems of their own.
Like the Dodgers, the NY Giants were contemplating a move from New York after they were denied their request for a new stadium. As the franchise’s investors deliberated on what action to take, O’Malley interjected and convinced majority owner Horace Stoneham to move the Giants to San Francisco.
With the Giants and Dodgers relocations, the East Coast’s dominance of sports came to an end. The Dodgers flourished in LA behind the likes of Koufax and Drysdale, shifting the media’s focus west of the Mississippi. For the first time, New York, St. Louis and Boston had to share the spotlight.
Fifty years after the Dodgers’ and Giants’ historic moves, America’s sports landscape is spread from coast-to-coast and everywhere in-between. What began as two team’s desire for better accommodations paved the way for cities like San Antonio and Denver, forever reshaping major sports in America.
Written by Ben Leffler, all-star intramural athlete, and Dustin Coates, who still owns Houston Oilers season tickets.

Mark Champion,


Catching Up With Mark Champion

Mark Champion, the current radio play-by-play announcer for the Detroit Pistons, is fondly-remembered locally as the radio voice of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1979-1988. Since leaving Tampa in 1989, Champion has served in the same capacity for the Detroit Lions from 1989-2004, the Detroit Pistons from 1992-1996, then rejoined the Pistons in 2001. He recently took some time prior to a Pistons-Magic game in Orlando to reflect on his time in Tampa and the special relationship he formed with Buccaneer head coach John McKay.

Q. How did you end up getting the job with the Bucs?
A. For the first two years, they had the former announcer for the Green Bay Packers, a guy named Ray Scott, who was legendary. In 1978, Dick Crippen did it for half the season, and I don't know exactly what happened. The guy who owned the broadcast rights -- Jim Gollogly -- did the other half of the season. The next year, CBS got the rights and they hired me.
I had actually auditioned for the job in 1978, but did not get it. For my audition tape, I went up to a spare booth in Tampa Stadium during a pre-season game. A buddy of mine helped me out because I didn't have any football tapes at that point. So that's what I used to get the job. By 1979, they knew who I was and had a good relationship Bob Best and Rick Odioso in the media relations department. That's kind of how I got it.
Q. So you got the job just in time for the most exciting season in team history to that point.
A. Yeah, unbelievable. First season out I thought, "Wow. This is pretty good." Of course, Doug Williams was our quarterback. We knocked off Philadelphia to get to the NFC championship game. It was exciting and a lot of fun.
Q. Did you know early on that the Bucs were going to have a season like that?
A. No, I don't think going into the season anyone really knew. Doug came to us in 1978, and we knew he was a good athlete, but we didn't know if he could lead the team. If you look at his stats, he only completed about 47% of his passes, but he made big plays, huge plays to win games. And the defense, we had the number one defense in the league that year. I don't think anybody realized how good our defense was, and that's really how we got to the championship. That particular team was pretty awesome.
Q. What is your fondest memory from that season?
A. Well that Kansas City game was the one that was just a monsoon. I remember the rain cascading down the steps of the old Sombrero. We could have played eight quarters and nobody would have scored a touchdown in that game. I just remember big plays that Doug made that season.
There was one he made a few years later, though, that really stands out. We were playing the Chicago Bears at home during the last week of the '82 season. We had the ball around the Chicago 10-yard line. Doug got sacked and fumbled the ball. Steve McMichael, a defensive lineman for the Bears, picked it up and he had such a head start -- I swear it must have been a 50-yard head start -- and Doug Williams caught up with him and tackled him before he could score. They did not get a touchdown, had to settle for a field goal, and we ended up winning that game by three points. That kind of play stands out when I think about Doug's athleticism.
Q. What kind of relationship did you have with John McKay?
A. We got to be really close. In fact, my best buddy all the years I lived there was his son-in-law, a guy named Bob Florio. I did a TV show in 1979 with McKay, got to know the family, and it got to a point where my family would go over to his house there on Bayshore around Christmas time or for the Gasparilla parade. I loved John. I know he had a rough edge to him with the media, but if you really knew him he was one of the funniest guys. If you were loyal to him, he was loyal to you. We got along great. Now he's gone, his wife Corky is gone, and she was such a great person, and I remember when Richie was just a snotty-nosed high school quarterback at Jesuit. It's amazing how time flies.
Q. Is there a personal or professional story you'd like to relate about John McKay?
A. Off the top of my head, there was a period of time where he really got into it with Tom McEwen. I don't remember what the issue was, but I was over at his house one night after a game. He was talking about the whole thing with McEwen, and he came to me and said, "Marky, I need your help. Are you with me?"
I said, "Coach, I'm always with you, but you can't win that battle. He's always got the last word on you." That was the kind of open and honest relationship we had.
Q. Going back to Doug Williams for a minute, when you look back on how the team's fortunes changed after he left, do you think it all goes back to that move or where there other factors that contributed to the slide?
A. Well, I think it had a lot to do with it. He was our guy, and when he left, it was like cutting the heart out of the team. You know, back then the league was a little bit different. Today, teams spend their money and are all fairly competitive. Back then it was kind of different, plus you had the USFL coming along. Whatever the issue, I know Coach McKay definitely didn't want Doug to go, but it was a thing between Doug and Mr. Culverhouse that didn't work out. That just ruined the team.
Then after McKay left, Leeman Bennett came in and we had back-to-back 2-14 seasons that were just horrific. No question when Doug left it cut the heart out of the team, and Dougie was such a great guy, too.
Q. How was your relationship with McKay's successors, Bennett and Ray Perkins?
A. Good, good. Leeman was a terrific, really nice guy. He had been out of football running an RV dealership in Atlanta or something, and Mr. C. just kind of talked him back into coaching. You could just see it -- and I hate to say it -- but he had a terrible coaching staff. The team had no identity. It was just a bad situation, but it's kind of interesting because at quarterback we had Steve Young.
I felt bad for Steve. We went up and played Green Bay in 1985 and it was just awful. The worst weather I'd ever seen. In fact, it was that game where they ended up using footage for that Alka-Seltzer commercial. We had like 60 yards of offense that day, Steve got drilled play after play, and Lynn Dickey threw for over 300 yards in a blizzard for Green Bay.
I was only with Ray for two years. He could be ... his personality was a little different than Leeman's, let's put it that way. I got along with him fine for what I had to do though.
Q. What led to you leave Tampa in 1989 for a job with the Detroit Lions?
A. The Lions had been on WJR, which at the time was the top station in Detroit. They lost the rights to CBS, and the guy who had been doing the games did not want to leave WJR. He had a very good financial situation that they could not match at WWJ. So they were looking for somebody. I had moved over to Q105 for the 1987 and 1988 seasons, and prior to that I had been at WSUN, a CBS station. The general manager put in a good word for me up there.

They had just hired Wayne Fontes as the head coach, and we were close friends from the time he spent on John's staff. I'd gotten to know their media relations staff over the years as well, so it was a combination of all those things that led to a better job opportunity. Not just financially, but within a year or two I was also doing Pistons basketball.
Q. It so happened that 1989 was the rookie year for Barry Sanders.
A. Yeah, we came to Detroit at the same time. I was fortunate enough to call every run he ever made, which was just amazing. It's neat to know that you've done that with someone like Barry, a Hall-of-Famer, and I really feel the same way about Lee Roy Selmon. I didn't call all of his games, but I called a majority of them. It's kind of special to know you broadcast games for Hall of Fame players, and Lee Roy was such a great guy. Just a prince of a guy.
Q. You're also well-known for being the voice-over in the post-Super Bowl Disney World commercials. How did that role come about for you?
A. Phil Lengyel, who was the head of marketing for Disney in the mid-1980s, went to school with me at Ball State University. He called me up, said we have this marketing idea, and would I be interested in voicing it. I said, "Absolutely." That's how it started. The first one we did was with Phil Simms after Super Bowl XXI. In fact, I just talked to my guy at Disney because we have the 25th anniversary coming up, so they're going to be doing something special for it

Tuesday, Decembe

In 1985, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers seemed condemned to failure right from the very beginning. Few teams ever rebound from a 0-9 start, and the Bucs proved to be no exception.
Even their first victory – a 16-0 triumph at home over the St. Louis Cardinals, and only the second-ever shutout in team history – could not be enjoyed for more than a few days. The next week on the road in the Meadowlands, the Jets handed the Buccaneers one of the worst defeats in franchise history, a 62-28 spanking in which, remarkably, Tampa Bay at one point actually held a 14-0 lead.
Quarterback Steve Young provided a glimmer of hope by winning his first start the following week against the Detroit Lions, a 19-16 overtime victory. Unfortunately, the good times would not last and the Buccaneers dropped their next three games to fall to 2-12 on the season.
On December 15, the smallest crowd to ever see a Buccaneer home game – 25,577 – watched Tampa Bay fall to the almost equally dreadful Indianapolis Colts, 31-23. This set the stage for the season-finale at Tampa Stadium against the Green Bay Packers, in a game that had a considerable amount of importance for the future of the franchise.
By virtue of a league-worst 2-13 record, Tampa Bay had been guaranteed at least the second-overall pick in the 1986 draft. Their Buffalo Bills, with an identical 2-13 record, were out of the running because they had traded their first round pick in 1986 to Cleveland. Win or lose, the Buccaneers needed only a victory by the Atlanta Falcons to ensure the top pick. This meant having first-crack at the Heisman Trophy-winner from Auburn University, running back Bo Jackson.
Despite the big-picture prize that the team could earn with a loss, none of the players wearing orange and white looked at losing as an accomplishment. Jobs were at stake, after all, since few players on the team could consider their job safe going into the following season.
“You either play or you don’t have a job,” Tampa Bay head coach Leeman Bennett said prior to the game. “We want to look presentable. We are all professionals and certainly we want to play our best. It is a matter of pride to finish with a little sweeter taste than on a losing note. One win isn’t going to make everything right, but at least there will be a sweeter taste.”
More like a familiar taste. For the fourteenth time in 1986, the Buccaneers would go home a loser. As always, however, they made it interesting to the very end.
On December 22, a Tampa Stadium crowd of 33,992 came out to see the last chapter of the 1985 season. It started out well enough, with Donald Igwebuike kicking a 33-yard field goal in the first quarter to give Tampa Bay an early 3-0 lead.
The Packers went ahead later in the quarter on a 30-yard touchdown run by wide receiver Phillip Epps that came on a reverse. James Wilder got Tampa Bay back on top in the second quarter, however, scoring on a one-yard touchdown run to give the Bucs a 10-7 lead.
An Al Del Greco 24-yard field goal with just 16 seconds left in the second quarter tied the game 10-10 going into the half.
To their credit, however, the Buccaneers played hard on a day when many could understand if they’d rather be across the street doing their Christmas shopping at the Tampa Bay Center.

Trailing 13-10 going into the third quarter following another Del Greco field goal, the Buccaneers put together their best drive of the day. Quarterback Steve Young engineered a 10-play, 74-yard drive that culminated with a 3-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jimmie Giles. Tampa Bay took 17-13 lead, but their defense would once again let them down when it mattered most.
Randy Wright, Green Bay’s third-string quarterback, answered Tampa Bay’s best offensive drive with their best of the day as well. Wright put together a 13-play, 73-yard drive that took 6:13 off the clock. The immortal Jessie Clark scored on a 6-yard run to regain the lead for Green Bay, 20-17.
Igwebuike, who on his second extra point of the game set Tampa Bay’s single-season scoring mark with 96 points, had a chance in the fourth quarter to even up the game. Instead, he pushed a 48-yard attempt wide right late in the fourth quarter – his second miss from 40+ yards on the day -- and the game would end with Tampa Bay three points short of taking the game to overtime.
On the bright side, Steve Young had his best statistical game of the season, completing 21 of 37 passes for 277 yards and one touchdown. Despite their record, Young felt optimistic about the team’s future.
“I want to be here,” Young said. “I want to have a career here. I want to help this team fill up this stadium again. James Wilder came up to me after the game and I talked to Jimmie Giles, too, and we are convinced we can do it.”
With Young at quarterback, Wilder at his familiar spot in the backfield, and Giles making big catches for Tampa Bay, Buccaneer fans could only wonder how much better the team might be with the addition of Bo Jackson through the upcoming draft. Yes, the future never looked so bright in Tampa Bay.

Monday, December 20,

On November 2, 1980, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers sported a record of 4-4-1 with seven games remaining. A season which had seen the Bucs sandwich a five-game winless streak between two separate two-game winning streaks could still be salvaged with a strong finish.

At the same point the previous season, the Buccaneers were 7-2 and on their way to winning the NFC Central Division. Although that team would endure a mini-slump en route to clinching the division, the 1980 edition of the Buccaneers shared few similarities with their previous edition.
The defense, which had been such a strength in 1979, failed to dominate opponents or even hold leads. Many wondered if these in fact were the real Buccaneers who had simply over-achieved in 1979.
It began to look that way when Tampa Bay lost five of their next six games to drop to 5-9-1 and completely out of the playoff picture. All that remained was a final home contest against the Chicago Bears to close out the disappointing campaign.
Although they had little left to play for, the Buccaneers had a bit of unfinished business with the Bears. On October 6, the Buccaneers made their first-ever appearance on Monday Night Football at Soldier Field in Chicago. The experience turned out to be less than memorable for the Buccaneers and their national audience.
Despite only trailing 3-0 at the half, the Bucs ultimately fell to the Bears 23-0. Walter Payton rushed for 122 of his 183 total yards in the second half and the Bears sacked Doug Williams four times. Head coach John McKay famously quipped after the game that his team had "set Monday Night Football back 2,000 years."
Then there was the additional matter of a borderline shot levied on tight end Jimmie Giles by hard-hitting Chicago safety Doug Plank. Plank achieved a place in NFL lore when his jersey number -- 46 -- became the root of the so-named "46 defense" developed by Chicago defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan. It was his hit on Giles, however, that enraged Tampa Bay quarterback Doug Williams.
Although no penalty was called on the play, Williams believed that Plank had speared Giles with his helmet. For the hit, Plank earned a $750 fine from the league (roughly $1900 in today's dollars). Giles remained in the game, although some speculated that there may have been a long-term impact on his performance.
Prior to the Bears game, Giles had 12 receptions for 222 yards and three touchdowns in four games. Following the Chicago game, Giles had only 19 receptions and one touchdown in 10 games, this after leading the team in receiving with 40 catches and seven touchdowns in 1979. Still, Giles earned ultimate vindication by being named to the NFC's Pro Bowl squad.
While McKay attributed the decline to Giles drawing more attention from opposing defenders, Giles bluntly stated that the hit had nothing to do with his decrease in production.
"If I let one hit stop me or get me scared, I shouldn't be in football," Giles said. "I think I've had a great year compared to last season because I'm getting double-teamed and triple-teamed in certain situations."
While most of the Buccaneers expected that there would be no retaliation in mind towards Plank, defensive lineman David Logan knew the importance of evening the score with the Bears.
"They beat us 23-0," Logan said. "They embarrassed us. We're not just going to go out there and go through the motions and then just get out of town."
On December 20, with John Madden in the house for the nationally-televised Saturday afternoon game on CBS and a sell-out crowd of over 72,000 expected at Tampa Stadium, both the Bears (6-9) and Buccaneers (5-9-1) had plenty of reasons to not just go through the motions.
Although the actual crowd numbered closer to 55,000 fans – resulting in the greatest number of unused tickets in team history at the time -- those in attendance saw a game that epitomized the struggles of Tampa Bay's 1980 campaign. Not that they didn't have their chances, but the Bucs held true to form and self-destructed at the most important time.
Tampa Bay started off strong enough, racing to a 10-0 first quarter lead behind a 33-yard pass from Williams to Gordon Jones and a 27-yard field goal by Garo Yepremian. For the eighth time in 1980, however, the Buccaneers could not hold on to a 10-point lead.
Chicago signal-caller Vince Evans began the Bears comeback with a six-yard touchdown run at the 10:14 mark of the second quarter. He added his second of the game in the third quarter from one yard out just three plays after Tampa Bay's Jerry Eckwood fumbled at his own three-yard line.
Although the Bears held a 14-10 lead, the Buccaneers had time to mount a comeback. A Yepremian field goal from 26 yards out cut the lead to 14-13 with 10:38 left in the fourth quarter. The fun, however, was just about to begin.
On their next drive, Williams connected with rookie wide receiver Kevin House on a 61-yard completion to the Bears 16, but House got careless with the ball and cornerback Terry Schmidt forced a fumble. The ball then bounced down to the 4-yard line where it was recovered by Doug Plank to kill the drive.
After forcing a Chicago punt, the Bucs had another golden opportunity when Williams connected with Giles across the middle inside the Bears 20. Turning to run towards the end zone, however, Giles fumbled after a big hit by rookie linebacker Otis Wilson. Again, the Bears recovered inside their own 5 to end a potential Buccaneer scoring drive.
Tampa Bay forced another Bears punt and had one final chance to win the game, driving down to the Chicago 15. From there, Yepremian would attempt a 32-yard field goal, surely an automatic kick for one of the most accurate kickers in the NFL.
Instead, the kick never had a chance due to a high snap by George Yarno. Holder Tom Blanchard got the ball down, but Chicago's Al Harris - a 6'5" Monster of the Midway -- got his hands up and blocked the potential game-winning kick to preserve the 14-13 lead for the Bears.
The Buccaneers battled and put up a better fight than during their Monday night meltdown in Chicago, but the missed opportunities and turnovers epitomized their wasted season.
McKay, for one, could not understand how his team could be completely undone by the late fumbles.
"It is absolutely ridiculous," he said. "In professional football, when you are paid the money they are paid here, you should not drop the football. It's disgusting, ridiculous, and has no part in the game."
In short, a fitting end to the one of the most disappointing seasons in team history.

Today in Sports History: December 31st

12/31/1967 - Packers win in Ice Bowl

In one of the greatest, and coldest, NFL games in history, the Green Bay Packers narrowly beat the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL Championship Game. The Packers' win came on a last-second dive by quarterback Bart Starr, who just barely got into the end zone for the score.

To read more about this story, click here for an in-depth Inhistoric article:

12/31/1967 - Knievel attempts Caesar's Palace

Evel Knievel, the American daredevil who became a household name in the 1970's, makes the first major jump of his career. Riding a motorbike, Knievel attempted to jump the fountains outside the newly-opened Caesar's Palace hotel. Knievel accelerated at the ramp and cleared the 50 yards worth of fountains. But as he connected with the downward ramp, something went wrong and he botched the landing. Badly.

Knievel landed with a wobble and was thrown from the bike, which continued to speed forward. The large crowd that had gathered to see him watched in horror as Knievel bounced violently down the ramp, each roll seeming to be more painful than the last. Knievel broke his back, femur, and pelvis, fractured his hip and wrists, and wound up in a month-long coma.

Today in Sports History: December 28th

12/28/1958 - The Greatest Game Ever Played
In the first overtime game in league history, the Baltimore Colts defeat the New York Giants, 23-17, in the 1958 NFL Championship Game. The game was played at Yankee Stadium and famously ended on a touchdown run from Colts running back Alan Ameche, who scored from just a yard out. The tightness of the game, mixed with the significance of the teams playing and the 45 million viewers watching on NBC, helped dramatically increase the popularity of the NFL. It is this game, more than any other, that is credited with making the NFL the most popular sports league in the United States.
Jack Hand of the Associated Press wrote, "If they play football for 100 years, they never can top the Baltimore's first championship snatched in a sudden death playoff 23-17 after New York refused to gamble."
With two-and-a-half minutes to play in regulation, the Giants were holding a 17-14 lead and were on fourth-and-inches from their own 43. Had they decided to go for it, and had they converted on the first down, the Giants likely would have run out the clock. Instead, coach Lee Jim Howell took the cautionary route and ordered his team to punt. The ball was placed at the 14 yard-line with 1:56 to go, setting up Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas, who led the team on an 80-yard drive to put them within field goal distance. Many regard this as the first instance of the "two-minute drill," which had been unheard of 1958.
The Colts' drive led to a 20-yard field goal from Steve Myhra, who had missed a short-range kick earlier in the game. Myhra's boot was good this time around and tied the game at 17 with six seconds remaining in the game. Time expired shortly there after with the outcome still undecided. "When the game ended in a tie, we were standing on the sidelines waiting to see what came next," Unitas later recalled. "All of a sudden, the officials came over and said, ‘Send the captain out. We’re going to flip a coin to see who will receive.’ That was the first we heard of the overtime period."
The Giants won a coin flip from the officials and started the extra period with the ball. After failing to get farther than their own 29, the Giants once again punted the ball on fourth-and-1. The Colts then finished the game with the drive that set up Ameche's run, leaving the 64,185 fans at Yankee Stadium in shock.
Sports Illustrated writer Tex Maule was the first to dub the game "The Best Football Game Ever Played." Because the word "best" doesn't carry the same gravitas as "greatest," the 1958 NFL Championship is generally referred to as "The Greatest Game Ever Played." Although few historian will argue against the deservedness of the game's moniker, many of the players from the game later contended that it didn't deserve the title. In fact in an ESPN.com article written by Eddie Epstein, three Colts players stated that a regular season game against the 49ers from less than a month earlier was a better contest.
"I've always felt that it (the '58 championship game) wasn't a real good football game until the last two minutes, and then the overtime," Unitas said. "Just the fact that it was the first overtime in championship play and it happened in Madison Avenue's backyard, that was enough to make people feel they had seen something fantastic. ... They always forget that the month before, in the game we clinched the division and put us into the playoff, San Francisco had us down 27-7 at the half and we came back to beat 'em 35-27. That was a much better game."
In 1959, the Colts and Giants once again met in the championship game; the rematch wasn't nearly as competitive and ended in a decisive 31-16 Colts win. Just a year after the 1958 championship, businessman Lamar Hunt launched the American Football League to directly challenge the NFL. The AFL and the NFL would later merge, creating the dynamic event we now know as the Super Bowl.
''You can't overemphasize the dramatic impact of that 1958 NFL Championship Game," Hunt later told the New York Times. "Pro football was just starting to grow. It suddenly had its first overtime game in a championship game with the nation watching on television. I can vividly remember seeing it in a hotel room in Houston. ... In February 1959, the idea formed that there was more than enough pro football interest around the country for another league. The Colts-Giants game had been the turning point in my thinking and awareness."

Today in Sports History: December 30th

The Mills Commission, a panel appointed by Albert Goodwill Spalding, announces that the game of baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday, a respected Civil War general. Spalding, a former big league player, manager, owner, and the creator of a sporting goods company that bears his name, launched the committee to investigate baseball's origins. His intention was to prove that baseball had been devised in America, and not through the evolution of British activities such as townball, rounders, and cricket.

There was no evidence to back up his claim. Then, a couple years later, a 73 year-old man named Abner Graves wrote the commission a letter. In it, he claimed to have been a companion of Doubleday, who allegedly drew out the rules of baseball in the dirt, on a small farm owned by Elihu Phinney in Cooperstown, on a June day in 1839. Without checking for proof, Spalding used the old man's letter to confirm his assertions. And thus, Abner Doubleday was thereby recognized as the inventor of baseball.

But years of dedicated research by historians would disprove Spalding's efforts as a massive hoax. Doubleday never wrote a single letter about or mentioned to be in involved with the game of baseball, and the day that he supposedly created it, he was stationed in West Point, not Cooperstown. The man who wrote the letter turned out to be crazy, and was later sent to an asylum for killing his wife -- the Doubleday story was a complete fabrication.

Favre's storied career ends in irrelevancy

When Brett Favre chose to retire in March of 2008, he had made a rare choice for professional athletes: he had decided to walk away with a few years of athleticism and skill still in his body, leaving behind the game, and the money, and all the adulation that came with it. But Favre decided to come back, demanding he return to his old position in Green Bay and was subsequently traded to the New York Jets. He then wound up in Minnesota, and had maybe the greatest season of his career at age 40 -- an unprecedented feat in the NFL. And even though his first year in Minnesota ended with an interception, had he walked away then, he still would left the game on one of the highest high-notes in league history.
But unfortunately for Favre, he made the same mistake all too many competitors make. He kept dipping into the well, kept asking his body to hold up, hoping that he could make it through another season. Instead, Favre -- who may have been the most durable quarterback the league has ever seen -- suffered a plethora of injuries: a lacerated chin that required 10 stitches, broken bones in his feet, elbow tendinitis, a concussion, and a sprain to his throwing arm that swelled up his hand like a grapefruit. His consecutive games streak ended at 297, and on Sunday, the 41-year-old was forced to stand on the sideline and watch as a healthy quarterback took his place.
It's a quiet, miserable end to one of the loudest, most exciting players in sports. He ends his career in the same vein as Jerry Rice, Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Joe Montana, and Roger Clemens -- other athletes who could have left on top but instead stuck around too long, switching teams and playing their last games in relative obscurity. It's the path most Hall of Fame athletes wind up taking, and Favre, having hopped from New York to Minnesota in the past two years, is no different. Athletes who take the opposite approach (John Elway, Kurt Warner, David Robinson) are few and far between.
The problem with ending on a high note is that being a professional athlete is a job first and a game second. Million-dollar professions are once-in-a-lifetime, and few players are willing to walk away when there's still teams interested in them. Legacy is always trumped by revenue. Favre probably didn't need the $16 million contract he earned this year, but then again, most millionaires and billionaires don't need a dozen summer houses and a garage full of Rolls-Royces. That doesn't mean they won't happily take them if offered.
For his part, Favre said he didn't regret coming back in 2010. "It’s been a wonderful experience for me," he told reporters yesterday. "This year did not work out the way we would have hoped, but that’s football. I don’t regret coming back. I enjoyed my experience here."
Maybe so. But it certainly didn't add anything to his career. In time, people will forget Favre's time in Minnesota and remember him more as a Green Bay Packer, the same way people will forget that Roger Clemens was an Astro, or that Jerry Rice was a Raider, or that Patrick Ewing was a Magic, or that Michael Jordan was a Wizard. But that doesn't mean it wasn't a mistake coming back. For everything that Brett Favre did, he should have retired sooner. He spurned the Packers because he didn't want to wallow on the sideline while some upstart youngster got a go at it, and he certainly didn't want to go out quietly.
In 2010, he did both

Criticize baseball's Hall, but at least theirs matters

There are four things you can count on at the start of a new calendar year: a never-ending stream of ridiculously-named bowl games -- like the "San Diego County Credit Union Poinsetta Bowl," a regular season hockey game that's actually worth watching, the absolute worst movies Hollywood can produce, and the announcement of the Baseball Hall of Fame's newest inductees. Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven are expected to get in this year, since both fell by less than a dozen votes in 2010, and Rafael Palmeiro will make his first appearance on the ballot and may or may not finish with fewer votes than Mark McGwire.
The MLB Hall of Fame is by no means perfect. Lee Smith, who retired with the most saves in history, will never even sniff Cooperstown, nor will players like Harold Baines, Tim Raines or Fred McGriff, whose stats are at least comparable to other Hall of Famers. And that's not even including the Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosas of the world, whose implication in steroid use could put them on a perennial waiting list with Joe Jackson and Pete Rose.
The announcement of baseball's immortals has often been met with controversy, especially now, when the people getting in are debatable, borderline inductees such as Gary Carter, Jim Rice and Andre Dawson. But in a way, it's the controversy associated with baseball's Hall that makes their selection process all the more compelling. People will  wonder if this is the year that so-and-so will get in, and argue that he should have been in years ago, and that that other player isn't nearly as good because his WHIP was too low or his batting average stunk. Add to all that the 15-year limit players are allowed to be on the ballot, and you have a system where attention is paid to the balloting both before and after the voting, so that no one slips through the cracks. This is why even though the NFL is twice as popular as Major League Baseball, getting into Cooperstown is still a bigger deal than getting into Canton.
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, where the NBA sends its greatest players, has much to learn from Major League Baseball's.

Forgiveness ain't worth a damn to MLB baseball writers

One of the biggest lies in sports is that if you come clean to something you did, you'll eventually be embraced. They said it about Pete Rose, who lied about betting on baseball for a decade and a half. They said it about  after they were implicated in steroid use. And they said it about Mark McGwire after his image-ruining appearance on Capitol Hill, in which it became all too clear that he had used performance-enhancing drugs.
It turns out, though, that simply repenting isn't good enough for the voters of baseball's Hall of Fame. It wasn't for Pete Rose, who received even less write-in votes the year he came clean, and it wasn't the case for Mark McGwire, who tearily admitted last year that his 70-home-run season in 1998 wasn't on the up-and-up. McGwire was eviscerated when he came clean; one statement he made, in which he denied that the drugs made him a better hitter, was particularly savaged. And now the proof is in the pudding. McGwire received only 115 votes this time around -- 13 less than he got in 2010.
The reality is that all coming clean does is vindicate the opinions of the baseball writers, who all along wanted the heads of cheaters and liars on pikes. Let's not pretend that a simple thing like telling the truth means anything to them. They've kept Joe Jackson out of the Hall of Fame for almost a century, and will gladly do the same to any other cheaters, because they feel the need to play executioner. McGwire's turn in the box was supposed to have ended the minute he confessed, but by not doing it in the precise way the Hall of Fame voters would have liked, he'll probably never get more than 40% of the vote, if even that.
It's a rather hypocritical way to go about your business. The writers stand on a pedestal, demanding that the cheaters and liars come clean for all their years of disservice, promising them that they will all be forgiven if they show just the slightest bit of contrition. And McGwire, while giving somewhat of a flawed, defiant apology, nonetheless came forth on national television last year, bawling his eyes out, and showing the courage to be vulnerable to an audience waiting to pounce him. It would have been a crime if McGwire had only earned a few extra votes than he did in 2010, but to earn 13 less is nothing short of pathetic.
It gives absolutely no incentive for Bonds or Clemens or Palmeiro or any of the other steroids-users to admit to anything. Why would they? All that would happen is that a bunch of people would get on TV and scream, "Ahah! You see! I knew it all along!" And if we're going to preach that this is really a case of bad ethics, that these players are sending the wrong message to impressionable kids, then we should be just as harsh to the self-righteous baseball writers who won't even reward the very act they've been demanding for years and years and years. If anyone needs to read up on redemption, it's them.

Western Sport Shop

The new 2011 California Fishing Licenses are now available for sale in both of our stores. With the new license year comes a big change - fishing and hunting licenses are now issued using a computerized system. This is a project which has been developed over the past few years, and it is now in effect for California.

The beauty of the system is that once your information has been entered, we won't have to re-enter your info when you come back to get a steelhead report card, or come in to purchase your hunting license (though hunter safety evidence is still required).

We've had the terminals in place since last week, and have been shaking the bugs out of the system while getting our staff trained on the new method. While it actually simplifies a lot of the paperwork and makes things more efficient, there are a few things you should know about before you head down to purchase a license.

If you are buying a license for yourself, it's simple: just bring in your California Driver's License or Identification Card. We can swipe the magnetic strip and transfer your information into the DFG database, then issue the license. If you don't have a California Driver's License or ID card, you can bring down a passport, green card, birth certificate or other form of photo identification.

If you are buying a license for someone else: You will need to know the name, birthday and driver's license/ID number for that person, in addition to address and personal information (height, weight, eye and hair color). We can not issue a license without full identifying information.

If you don't have that information, there is another option - you can purchase a "Voucher" for a 2011 Resident Sport Fishing License. This is a "prepaid" Voucher which lets them go into any California License Agent and redeem it for a 2011 Resident Sport Fishing License. (Vouchers are transferable, so if you receive two Vouchers, a friend or relative could redeem it for their license.)

Please Note - the Voucher is not a valid fishing license. If you are caught fishing with a Voucher rather than a license, you will be cited. Vouchers may not be redeemed for anything other than a 2011 California Resident Sport Fishing License.

License sales actually take a little less time than previously, but because we now must complete the information through the DFG-issued terminals, there will be times when people are waiting their turn. We appreciate your patience on this, and encourage you to head down to the stores at less busy times to obtain your California Licenses.

Please note:
California Hunting and Fishing licenses and Vouchers are non-refundable. Any claim for refund due to duplication or incorrect purchase of licenses must be made thro