Summer in the City
I have no idea what to write today. It is the middle of the summer. It’s hot outside. The air conditioning is not working, so it’s hot inside too. But I have to write something.
There are things going on in sports, but there is nothing really HAPPENING today.
There’s baseball going on. There’s always baseball going on. Some pennant races are nearly settled. Some are still competitive. Especially when there’s a race to get TWO wild card spots (per league) and several teams in each league still have a chance to get them.
One thing needs a comment though. There are two players each still having yet another season of excellence and it’s starting to look more and more like they might be piecing together more entries on their resumes of Hall of fame careers and becoming all time greats right before our eyes. I am talking about Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw and Angel centerfielder Mike Trout. They might not win Cy Young awards or MVP’s every year, but they DO put together excellent pitching outings and quality at bats nearly every time they lace up their shoes. And the stat totals prove it.
They are looking more and more like modern day versions of Sandy Koufax and Joe DiMaggio. Use your eyeballs to watch them play every chance you get. Appreciate them. One of the fun things of being a sports observer is watching the great careers of great players unfold before your eyes. Discovering early who is the real deal and who is just a one season, one time wonder. Kershaw and Trout are the best players of their generation.
Oh, there is a World Golf Tournament going on this weekend. World golf tournaments are like majors. All of the top rated fifty or so players in the world rankings are invited. You get big time, big name winners. Only they’re not majors. They are bigger and better than a regular tour event (either the PGA or the European Tour), and the prize money is great, but they are usually right next to a major on the tour calendars and the thing that makes them quasi major-like is the quality of the competition. The BEST golfers in the world are very motivated and playing the best courses. That’s a good thing, right?
All of the pro football teams are at training camp by now. I golfed today, Saturday, at the course right next to the Dallas Cowboy training camp (in Oxnard, CA), but the more memorable image of the day was not my golf, but rather observing the thousands of fans flocking to an uneventful Cowboy practice (they have their first pre-season game tomorrow night Sunday and today’s practice was a mostly limited, abbreviated affair due to the upcoming game).
It was amazing seeing all of the Cowboy fans paying a nominal but still significant admission fee and wearing all of their Cowboy gear at a kind of boring football practice a full month before any regular season game. A LOT of Number 88 jerseys out there. A lot of Texas license plates in the parking lot next to the California ones. Such is the love of pro football fans for their teams.
It was sad to hear of Louise Suggs passing. Who is Louise Suggs? She is one of the “founding mothers” of the LGPA Tour. She is a woman golfer who used to have a really sweet swing who used tp play golf (and win a lot) against Babe Didrickson Zaharias during the infant days of women’s golf. She won 11 women’s majors. When she was younger, she played golf with such men’s greats as Bobby Jones and Sam Snead, once beating Snead in a competition.
There once was a time, long ago, when women golfers were laughed at as being totally inferior to those in the men’s game. The world that existed then simply understood the men to be better and the women to be inferior. Someone had to have the toughness and grit to stand up to men golfers and say, “hey, dude, I’m just as good as you.” Babe Didrickson and Suggs were those players. They were amongst the very first women golfers to be good enough to challenge the men and to be willing to take them on. They believed in the power of women. They were trail blazers.
And most importantly, Louise Suggs believed in and championed all aspects of the LPGA Tour (before their ever was a commissioner, she was once the President of the LPGA) before it ever got any significant traction. She would be one of the members of women’s golf’s Mt. Rushmore. She lived to be 91. She was still actively supporting the LPGA up to just one week ago, and as of today, the LPGA is celebrating the life and contributions of Louise Suggs. Though she will be missed, they were lucky to have her when they did.
That’s it. It’s still hot. It’s still summer. But at least I wrote something. Until next time.
