August 2021 – davidbruceblog #2

lockup — Annette Rochelle Aben

When she’s scared to admit The truth of her beauty She won’t let others see Beyond surface It’s easier to hide Behind a smiling mask Of layers from her past Safer that way No one expects too much Then she’s not rejected Innocence protected Fear’s prisoner ©2021 Annette Rochelle Aben
lockup — Annette Rochelle Aben

When she’s scared to admit

The truth of her beauty

She won’t let others see

Beyond surface

It’s easier to hide

Behind a smiling mask

Of layers from her past

Safer that way

No one expects too much

Then she’s not rejected

Innocence protected

Fear’s prisoner

David Bruce: The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Names, Olympics

Names

• Several major-league baseball players, including Florida Marlin Alex Fernandez, Toronto Blue Jay Alex Gonzalez, New York Met Alex Ochoa, and Seattle Mariner Alex Rodriguez, once attended a Boys and Girls Club fund-raising event all at the same time. Mr. Gonzalez says, “Every time a kid said, ‘Hey, Alex,’ all four of us looked around.”

• Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine of the 1970s consisted of such great players as Johnny Bench, Dave Concepcion, Ken Griffey, Tony Perez, and Pete Rose. Many of these players had young sons who played catch together. These sons—including Ken Griffey, Jr., and Pete Rose, Jr.—were known as the Little Red Machine.

• In 1967, Kathy Switzer decided to run in the Boston Marathon, although it was not open to women. She sent in her application using the name “K. Switzer,” but when she arrived at the race site and officials discovered that she was a woman, they ripped her number off her back. She ran and finished the marathon anyway.

• Figure skater JoJo Starbuck got her nickname as a baby. Her real name is Alicia Jo, but when her mother tried to teach her to say her name, she couldn’t say “Alicia,” so she called herself JoJo Buckle instead. The JoJo part stuck.

• Yogi Berra once did a radio show with a friend of his, Jack Buck. After the show, Yogi was handed a check made out to “Bearer.” Yogi complained to Jack, “You’ve known me all this time and you still can’t spell my name!”

• Babe Ruth was such an American sports hero that during World War II, Japanese soldiers used to shout at American soldiers, “To h*ll with Babe Ruth!”

Olympics

• In 1904, Cuban Felix Carvajal decided to run in the Olympics marathon race that would be held in St. Louis—even though he was not a distance runner and had never run 26 miles and 385 yards before. The Cuban government would not pay his way to St. Louis, and he had no money, so he started to run around Havana’s great public square each day to attract the attention of people whom he asked for money to pay his way to the Olympics. He did get enough money, and he sailed to America. Unfortunately, he landed in New Orleans where some friendly people persuaded him to play a friendly game of chance, and all his money ended up in the pockets of the friendly people. Still, Mr. Carvajal was determined to compete in the Olympics. He ran all 700 miles to St. Louis, relying on the kindness of farmers and their wives to feed him and give him a place to sleep during his journey. When he arrived at the Olympics to compete in the marathon, people laughed. He was wearing long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and shoes too heavy for a marathon. Still, an Olympian used scissors to cut off the bottoms of Mr. Carvajal’s long pants so they would be more suitable to run in. On August 20, the marathon began, and many runners wilted in the hot sun and dropped out of the race, but Mr. Carvajal ran on and on. Eventually, he finished the marathon—fourth. Mr. Carvajal did not become an Olympic marathon champion, but Felix the Fourth did become one of the Olympics’ most memorable athletes.

• When Tara Lipinski was two years old, she played in front of a TV that was tuned to the Olympics. Because she was so little, she didn’t pay much attention—until some athletes were awarded medals. Young Tara also wanted a medal. Like the athletes standing on a platform, she stood on a plastic tub in which she stored her toys. Her mother put a ribbon around her neck, similar to the ribbons that were put around the necks of the athletes, and she handed her some flowers similar to the flowers that were handed to the athletes. In 1998, Ms. Lipinski went through the awards ceremony for real after winning the gold medal in the women’s figure skating competition.

• When Sarah Hughes won the gold medal in ladies’ figure skating at the 2002 Winter Olympics, she accomplished a major upset. She skated early in the long program, and she skated excellently. The crowd roared, and her coach, Robin Wagner, wanted her to wait a few extra moments before leaving the ice. She told Sarah, “Turn around. Close your eyes. Soak it in.” After winning the gold medal, Sarah slept with it, and when she met her family next, although she had not seen them for a while, they asked, “Where’s the medal? Where’s the medal?” She joked, “Hey, guys, what about me?”

***

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Buy

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Buy the Paperback

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Kindle

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Apple

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Barnes and Noble

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Kobo

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Smashwords: Many Formats, Including PFD

Music Recommendation: Mysti Moon and Danny B. Harvey — “Walkin’ After Midnight”

BRUCE’S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC

Music: “Walkin’ After Midnight”

Single: This song is a one-sided single.

Artist: Mysti Moon and Danny B. Harvey

Artist Location: Austin, Texas

Info:

“This is the newest single from Mysti Moon and Danny B. Harvey. In 2014 they released their critically acclaimed album, HELLCAT STOMP, on Cleopatra records.” [You can get it from Amazon.]

“Danny B. Harvey is best known as the lead guitarist, and founding member of Headcat, Lemmy Kilmister’s ‘other band.’ However he has also played guitar with Wanda Jackson, Nancy Sinatra, Levi Dexter, Linda Gail Lewis, The Rockats, 69 Cats, Bow Wow Wow, 13 Cats & Annie Marie Lewis. He is also a noted film composer having completed the soundtrack to THE RAGE: CARRIE 2 for MGM.”

Mysti Moon is a member of the group Devil’s Daughters.

Price: $1 (USD) for track

Genre: Americana. Rockabilly.

Links:

“Walkin’ After Midnight”

https://dannybharvey.bandcamp.com/track/walkin-after-midnight

Danny B. Harvey on Bandcamp

https://dannybharvey.bandcamp.com

Danny B. Harvey on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpcKtshsUFk0w6yPuU_yRIg

great lemonade — Annette Rochelle Aben

It’s that moment when
You realize your life’s good
And you are happy
And you’ve made friends with your past
Which helped give you this good life
©2021 Annette Rochelle Aben
great lemonade — Annette Rochelle Aben

David Bruce: The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Music, Names

Music

• In 1908, Jack Norworth wrote what is probably his greatest hit: “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” He wrote the song after seeing in a subway an advertisement for a New York Giants baseball game. Surprisingly, he had never seen a baseball game before—and he didn’t see his first baseball game until 1942. According to Mr. Norworth, not seeing a baseball game wasn’t important: “So what? I’m a songwriter. That’s what I like to do. Going to baseball games doesn’t interest me a bit.” He was refreshingly candid about his abilities as a songwriter, estimating that he had written “more than 3,000 songs, seven of them good.” Two of the good ones were “Shine on, Harvest Moon” and “Meet Me in Apple Blossom Time.”

• Edward “Duke” Ellington learned how to play the piano as a result of a baseball accident. While he was playing baseball with a group of kids from the neighborhood, a player threw the bat after making a hit. The bat hit Duke in the head, and his mother decided that he would be safer inside the house, taking piano lessons, than outside, playing baseball. As an adult, Mr. Ellington became a giant in the jazz world.

Names

• Nate Archibald was six-foot-one, so as a player in the NBA, he was called “Tiny.” When coach Bob Cousy drafted Tiny to play for the Cincinnati Royals, he had never seen Tiny play, although he had heard much about his impressive basketball abilities. When Tiny met Mr. Cousy for the first time at the coach’s hotel room, Mr. Cousy was shocked by how small he was. Mr. Cousy said, “I knew he was little, but I didn’t know he was that little. Or that skinny. Or that baby-faced. I thought he was the bellhop.” When Tiny showed up by himself at the Madison Square Garden, at first the guard at the players’ gate wouldn’t let him through. Tiny told the guard that he played for the Royals, but the guard replied, “Sure, kid. And I’m the shortstop for the Yankees.” Mr. Cousy ended up telling the guard, “He’s one of my guys, but I don’t blame you for wondering about it. We haven’t even got a uniform that fits him yet. His number’s stuffed halfway down his pants.”

• Whitbread and America’s Cup sailor Dawn Riley sometimes ran into problems early in her career. She would show up on a boat, then discover the other sailors were expecting to sail with “Don” Riley. However, she was a good person to have along in an emergency. While she was sailing in an around-the-world Whitbread Race with an all-female crew, their boat developed rudder problems. Ms. Riley ended up using a hacksaw to create a temporary replacement rudder from a spinnaker pole. Despite the rudder problems, Ms. Riley and her teammates finished second in the race.

• Athletes can be honored in many different ways. Some athletes are honored by entire towns. For example, Ismay, Montana, is a small town that changed its name to Joe, Montana. In addition, Jim Thorpe was honored when the town where he is buried in Pennsylvania changed its name from Mauch Chunk to Jim Thorpe. Many players are honored when the team they played for retires their number, but Jackie Robinson was honored in 1997 (50 years after he broke the color barrier in modern major-league baseball) when EVERY major-league team retired his number: 42.

• Buck O’Neil, a third baseman in the Negro Leagues, acquired the rather strange nickname of “Nancy” from the great pitcher Satchel Paige. This is how it happened: Mr. Paige was entertaining two women in different rooms of the same hotel, and he mixed up the women’s names. Knocking on one woman’s door, he whispered, “Nancy? Nancy?” The door opened, and standing in the doorway was a woman whose name was not Nancy. She demanded, “Who is this Nancy?” Just then, Mr. O’Neil walked into the hallway. From then on, Mr. O’Neil was called Nancy.

• Jigoro Kano adapted the martial art of jujitsu into the sport of judo. In Russia, he demonstrated judo by facing a much bigger Russian fighter. He quickly threw the man, but he put his hand under the man’s head to cushion his fall and make sure the man was not hurt. For good reason, the 5-foot-4-inch-tall Mr. Kano was known as the Gentle Giant.

***

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Buy

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Buy the Paperback

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Kindle

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Apple

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Barnes and Noble

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Kobo

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Smashwords: Many Formats, Including PFD

Music Recommendation: Terra Jackson and Danny B. Harvey — “Fallin'”

BRUCE’S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC

Music: “Fallin’”

Single: This song is a one-side single.

Artist: Terra Jackson and Danny B. Harvey

Artist Location: Los Angeles, California and Austin, Texas

Info:

“A couple years ago Terra Jackson, a lovely and very talented actress / singer / model from Los Angeles, hooked up Danny B. Harvey to record debut single. A second single was in the worlds but got sidelined because of Covid, hopefully it’ll be back on track soon. Thank you.”

Danny B. Harvey also works with the Devil’s Daughters (Above).

Price: $1 (USD) for track

Genre: Rockabilly

Links:

“Fallin’”

https://dannybharvey.bandcamp.com/track/fallin

Danny B. Harvey on Bandcamp

https://dannybharvey.bandcamp.com

Terra Jackson on Instagram

www.instagram.com/pinupterrajxn

Terra Jackson on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQgqtxUwzYiFBZQjVoSuEjA

Danny B. Harvey on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpcKtshsUFk0w6yPuU_yRIg

David Bruce: Mothers, Motivation, Music

Mothers

• The mother of Sarah Hughes, the gold-winning medalist in women’s figure skating at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, overcame breast cancer. When she told Sarah and her other children about the breast cancer, Sarah was confident that her mother could overcome the disease. After all, Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton had overcome testicular cancer with chemotherapy. Sarah’s mother said, “I wanted to call up Scott Hamilton and just kiss him. Someone my daughter knew of and admired so much had been through cancer and beat it.”

• Pittsburgh Penguin hockey player Mario Lemieux claimed that he learned to skate in his living room after his mother, Pierrette, allowed her sons to create an ice surface at home. She turned off the heat in their home, opened the doors and windows, and let her sons bring in snow and pack it on the living room floor—the snow quickly turned to ice. True or not, this is a good story. (But don’t try this in your home!)

• When she was a very young gymnast, Tracee Talavera’s worst-scoring event was the vault; however, she did receive five perfect scores of 10 from the judges of this event at the final trials for a United States World Championship team. When Tracee called home with the good news, her astonished mother asked, “Tracee, did the vaulting judges have seeing-eye dogs?”

• When Julie Krone was young, she told her mother that she wanted to be a jockey. When her mother told the family veterinarian what young Julie wanted to do when she grew up, he advised her to knock Julie in the head. Her mother didn’t follow that advice; instead, she took Julie to the racetrack. Of course, Julie grew up to become a famous jockey.

• The mother of Boston Celtic Bill Russell was a strong woman. When Bill was a child, she saw another kid slap him. Bill didn’t fight back, so she made him fight the other kid. While Bill was fighting that kid, another child insulted Bill, so after Bill had finished fighting the first kid, she made him fight the other child, too.

Motivation

• Walter Payton knew how to motivate the linesmen who blocked for him. When he earned his first 1,000-yard rushing season—the first Chicago back to earn that many yards in a single season since Gale Sayers—he gave each linesman a gold watch that bore this message: “Thanks for the 1,000 yards.” In addition, he gave praise to linesmen even when the linesmen felt that the praise was not due. For example, in college Jackie Slater felt sometimes that his block could have been a whole lot better, and that only Mr. Payton’s incredible athletic ability had enabled him to get free and get big yardage. However, in talking to the media, Mr. Payton would give the credit to Mr. Slater and say that the block had gotten him loose to go for big yardage. Things like that motivate linesmen to work hard to protect the runner.

• A good athlete makes other athletes better. Evidence for this can be seen in the high-school career of major-league player Alex Rodriguez. Baseball scouts often came to his games, and they used radar guns to see how fast pitchers were throwing to him. The radar guns showed pitchers throwing an average of five miles per hour faster when facing Mr. Rodriguez. Simply by being a good athlete, Mr. Rodriguez had motivated the opposing pitchers to throw harder.

Music

• In 1956, American Tenley Albright won the gold medal in ladies’ singles figure skating (the first American to do so) at the Winter Olympics held in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. She won despite an injury suffered during a practice in which she fell and her skate cut through her right boot and reached the bone. Fortunately, her father, a surgeon, flew to Cortina and fixed her up, although for a few days she couldn’t do any real practicing of the hard jumps and spins. Fortunately, on the day the competition was to begin, her ankle felt normal and she could do the hard stuff. In the final part of the skating competition, she started skating to her music, and suddenly she heard what sounded like singing, although her music was instrumental only. She says, “What happened was the thousands watching were humming and singing along with the music. It was wonderful. It made me forget my injury.” Interestingly, Ms. Albright shares the same birthday (month and day) as the first American man to win the gold medal in men’s singles figure skating: Dick Button, who won gold in 1948 and 1952. Each year, they call each other up on July 18 to wish each other a happy birthday.

***

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Buy

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Buy the Paperback

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Kindle

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Apple

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Barnes and Noble

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Kobo

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Smashwords: Many Formats, Including PFD

Music Recommendation: Lee Harrington and Lynda Mandolyn — “Real Love”

BRUCE’S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC

Music: “Real Love”

Single: This song is a one-side single.

Artist: Lee Harrington and Lynda Mandolyn

Artist Location: Boston, Massachusetts and Portland, Maine

Record Label: Red on Red Records

Record Label Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Record Label Motto: “The best little label in Boston. Featuring power pop, punk, indie, and Americana. Content and quality obsessed. For artists, by artists.”

Info:

“Power pop collaboration of Lee Harrington, of storied Boston group The Neighborhoods, with Lynda Mandolyn (Tiger Bomb, Fabulous Disaster). Based in Portland, Maine and Boston. Duets, harmonies, jangly power pop perfection.”

Chuck recorded at Mad Oak Studios, Brighton, MA. Benny Grotto, engineer.
Lee recorded at Ed Reimer’s Barn, Canton, MA. Ed Reimer, engineer.
Lynda recorded at Acadia Recording Company, Portland ME. Todd Hutchisen, engineer.

Above: Here’s a song by another Red on Red Records artist: Kid Gulliver

Price: $1 (USD) for track

Genre: Power Pop Perfection.

Links:

Lee Harrington and Lynda Mandolyn on Bandcamp

https://leeharringtonlyndamandolynred.bandcamp.com

Red on Red Records on Bandcamp

https://redonredrecords.bandcamp.com

Red on Red Records on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFUZi87bqYqpMs_60zHBOpQ/videos

David Bruce: The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Money, Mothers

Money

• Babe Ruth occasionally got in trouble for breaking training and staying out too late. For example, in 1925, he was fined $5,000 late in the season for just those reasons. He also hit only .290—a low average for him. However, in 1926, he had a great season and hit .372. His manager, “Hug” Huggins, told him, “Babe, I admire a man who can win over a lot of tough opponents, but I admire even more a man who can win over himself.” Mr. Ruth replied, “That’s fine, Hug—do I get the fine back?” Mr. Huggins, who seldom wasted words, answered, “No.”

• If you pay for a ticket, you are entitled to express your opinion. After the Notre Dame football team was held to a tie by a much weaker team, a man accosted coach Knute Rockne and told him, “What’s the matter with your team? It stinks!” Mr. Rockne asked the man if he had paid to see the game. The man dug in his pocket and pulled out a ticket. Mr. Rockne looked at the ticket, then replied to the man, “You’re right. We stink.”

• Heavyweight champion Joe Louis lost very few fights, either as an amateur or as a pro fighter, but when he was an amateur, he lost a decision to Max Marek. No fool, Mr. Marek cashed in on his victory after Mr. Louis became a champion. Mr. Marek opened a bar and grill in Chicago, and he put a big sign out front inviting people to come in, enjoy themselves, and shake hands with Mr. Marek—“The Man Who Beat Joe Louis.”

• Famous racehorse Man o’ War was worth a fortune, and Texas oilman W.T. Waggoner wanted to buy the stallion from Sam Riddle and even offered a blank check as payment. Mr. Waggoner told him, “You go to France and bring back the sepulcher of Napoleon. Then go to England and buy the jewels from the crown. Then go to India and buy the Taj Mahal. Then, Mr. Waggoner, I’ll put the price on Man o’ War.”

• On June 3, 1932, New York Yankee Lou Gehrig hit four home runs in one game against the Philadelphia Athletics. This made him the first major-league player in the 20^th century to accomplish such an impressive feat. Afterward, the other Yankees teased Mr. Gehrig, saying that he was costing the American League too much money due to replacing the baseballs he hit for home runs.

• One day, Muhammad Ali was speeding on a Los Angeles highway. A police officer stopped him and gave him a $100 speeding ticket. Mr. Ali immediately wrote a check and gave it to the police officer, who looked at it and said, “Mr. Ali, there’s been a mistake. The ticket is for only one hundred dollars. You made this out for two hundred dollars.” Mr. Ali replied, “I still have to come back.”

• Dodger co-owner Branch Rickey was tight with team money. Joe Medwick says that he once dominated the league in hitting, leading in 12 out of 13 hitting departments. Of course, he wanted a big raise. How did Mr. Rickey respond? By cutting Mr. Medwick’s salary by $5,000. Mr. Medwick asked, “How can you do this?” Mr. Rickey replied, “I expected you to hit .374 again.”

• Rube Foster was a tough manager in the Negro Leagues. He carried a pipe (for smoking) that he used to make signals, and when a player ignored his signal to bunt and instead hit a triple in a game, Mr. Foster was not happy. As soon as he could, he hit the player in the head with his pipe, and then told him, “As long as I’m paying you, you’ll do what I tell you.”

Mothers

• Martina Hingis’ mother (and coach), Melanie Molitor, raised her to be a tennis star. Not only did Ms. Molitor name Martina after her favorite tennis star, Martina Navratilova, but she also did everything she could to make her daughter interested in tennis. For example, when Martina was only two years old, her mother gave her a special tennis racket—a light one that was for adults but with a specially shaved-down handle that allowed Martina to grasp it. Ms. Molitor would throw tennis balls toward her daughter, and her daughter would try to hit them back. By age 10, Martina was embarrassed because she was beginning to beat her mother in tennis games and so she wanted to play left handed against her so her mother would win.

***

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Buy

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Buy the Paperback

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Kindle

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Apple

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Barnes and Noble

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Kobo

The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Smashwords: Many Formats, Including PFD