Happy Mother's Day Everyone!
Sorry we didn't post last week, to be honest, I just didn't have the motivation.
Being that this is Mother's Day, we'll try to keep this one light and somewhat entertaining. But either next week or the week after, depending on how long it takes me, I am going to do another pandemic special. I've held off on criticism mainly because I feel like in times like these, we need to come together. I still do. But I've seen too much gone wrong here, that I feel like I can no longer don the rose colored glasses. The gloves need to come off (and I don't mean the ones I use to protect myself from COVID-19 either)
But that will be for the near future. For now, lets see what else we can discuss.
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So we left off our last blog post saying that I wasn't going to watch the ESPN 10 part documentary The Last Dance. Well, I went down and popped on the TV and some show called Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist was on. I watched about 2 minutes of that and cried Uncle. I mean the whining and carrying on was just too much for a Sunday night. So guess what I put on?
DAAA Bulls Da Bulls Da Bulls Da Bulls Da Bulls Da Bulls
TV REVIEW: The Last Dance
In his Sunday Shooting From the Lip Column, Mike Lupica said "Look at the ratings for this documentary. Michael (Jordan) is still selling tickets."
No the ratings for this are through the roof because the alternative is "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist." If this was up against a NBA or NHL playoff game, we wouldn't be talking about monster ratings.
That having been said, This has been a very entertaining. I still can't stand those Bulls, but the documentary has answered some questions I had about them..
When Jordan came out of retirement for the 2nd time as player/owner of the Wizards, he hired Doug Collins as the coach. I had always thought Jordan had run Collins out of Chicago, so I found his hiring of Collins strange. Turns out it wasn't Jordan who didn't like Collins, it was the other 11 guys on the Bulls who didn't like every play being run for Michael. Enter Phil Jackson and his triangle offense, and the rest as they say is history.
I have always maintained that the Bulls wouldn't have had their second threepeat without the services of Dennis Rodman. I always found the idea that Jordan and Scottie Pippen alone would have carried the Bulls laughable. Rodman did the grunt work. And he served other purposes as well.
I remember reading in SI, that when Steve Kerr was having an unusally bad stretch of games, Jackson called him into his office and told him "Dennis is heading to AC tonight after the game. Why don't you go with him? Kerr thought he was hearing things, but Phil insisted that a night out with Rodman might do Kerr some good. So off to Atlantic City they went, and sure as hell, Kerr next few games were good. He just needed to blow off some steam.
Incidentally, when Jordan pulled the same stunt during that 1993 playoff series with the Knicks, they showed a clip of Mike Francesa on WFAN questioning Jordan's commitment to his team. Mike Francesa folks, the gift that keeps on giving.
I also decided to torture myself further and watch the infamous Charles Smith play at the end of Game 5 of the above referenced ECF. I had always maintained that Smith was fouled at least twice on that play and nothing was called. So I used my DVR and went frame by frame as if I was reviewing the Zapruder film of the Kennedy Assassination.
Here are my findings..
The first shot- I always maintained that Horace Grant hacked Smith on that play. Looking at in in sol-mo, it's hard to say. Grant may have gotten all ball, or he got a piece of Smith's arm, but it's not as flagrant as I had thought back in the day.
The second shot- Jordan slapped the ball out of Smith's hands, and THAT looked like it could have been called. Jordan got him on the wrist. I'm not so naive to think that a ref would call a foul on Michael Jordan in that situation. But that doesn't mean it didn't happen.
The third shot- Somehow Smith managed to get the ball back himself a third time. This time he was clearly pushed from behind by Pippen. That foul not getting called is bullspit.
I don't know where Patrick Ewing was at that point, or Charles Oakley to oh I don't know maybe BOX someone out? My tush ended up on many a CYO bench for not boxing out.
Back to Rodman for a second..The beginning of episode 4 where Jordan literally dragged Rodman out of bed to come to practice after Rodman spent two days during the season partying in Vegas was hysterical.
One thing I will give Jordan credit for, he was, at least in that last season with the Bulls great with the press. He was asked every which way if that was his last season and he never blew his stack. Maybe that is creative license by the director, I don't know.
I'd like to see if they go into his first retirement/gambling issues/death of his father. If they do, it will be tonight. I'd like to see how that gets covered.
BASEBALL: The 1969 World Series
SNY replayed the 1969 World Series. All 5 games, even their Game 1 loss in Baltimore.
Game 3, the one with Tommie Agee's incredible catches, had several celebrity sightings.. amongst them.....
Dad was there with the other injured vets. I wrote about that last Father's Day. Before Game 3, Joe D and the Commish came out and shook hands with the vets. Meeting the Yankee Clipper is one of Dad's fondest memories.
Some other thoughts.... The first two games from Baltimore were shown in black and white. That made it hard to watch. Also didn't like the camera angle from behind the plate.
The announcers were great. NBC of course broadcast the World Series in 1969. The legendary Curt Gowdy worked all 5 games. Orioles announcer Bill O'Donnell worked with Gowdy in Games 1 and 2, Mets announcer Lindsay Nelson worked the last three games at Shea with Gowdy. You guys know I don't hate Joe Buck as much as most of my fellow New Yorkers do, but shoot they don't make announcer like Curt Gowdy anymore (Or Lindsay Nelson for that matter)
I watched Game 5 Friday night while having my editorial meeting for WM, and when they won, watching the fans storm the field was something else. Someone lit off a cherry bomb and a bunch of dudes were fighting over home plate. It was insane. That's one of those things that it's probably good that they don't do that
Big Bill watching the final out of the World Series 1969
Speaking of the Mets, it was reported this week that J-Rod is out of the running for purchasing the Mets. I guess the only drawback to that is the sportswriters around here will have one less thing to write about during the pandemic.
Little Richard died Saturday. One of Rock and Rolls last living pioneers. My high school music teacher spent a good part of the class telling us that Little Richard and not Elvis Presley was the true king of rock and roll. He made a damn good case for him too.
OK that’s it. I hope all the Moms had a great day.
The rest of you Have a Great Week
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