Richie Lewis died last week. I became close to him in the 1980s when I was Florida State’s baseball sports information director and he was a former All-American pitcher. He stood just 5-7, had a ferocious fastball and a nasty curve, and was the most competitive pitcher I ever saw. In a college game against LSU once, Richie walked 12 batters in a game, hit another, allow four hits and five stolen bases, AND win allowed just one run in winning the game 2-1. I think he threw something way north of 150 pitches that game but took the ball four days later and pitched five innings of shutout ball against Southern Miss. Pitch counts were never an issue with this guy, who had the nicknames “Bulldog” and “Banty Rooster”. He would go on to pitch seven years in the major leagues. A great competitor and good guy, he is gone too soon at age 55…
Things I learned today while looking up other things. “Take Home Country Roads,” the John Denver smash hit that became the official state anthem of West Virginia and is sung by WVU athletes after every football and basketball game, was co-wrote by Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert – the lead singers for the Starland Vocal Band, who sang the syrupy song Afternoon Delight…
Relatively speaking, Formula One racing does not have a huge fan base in this country compared to football and our other “major sports” so it did not get a lot of attention when former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone suggested that superstar driver Leonard Hamilton should have “retired” this year rather than pursue an eighth championship that would put him one in front of legendary driver Michael Schumacher for the most ever. I am not sure if there were any racist overtones to Ecclestone’s suggestion (Hamilton is black) or whether he just loves Schumacher that much, but I do know it was one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard in sports. If Ecclestone would have been in charge of NASCAR I would have loved to hear what Dale Earnhardt Sr. would have told him if he suggested in 1995 that he retire rather than try to break Richard Petty’s record for championships….
Can’t help but wonder if the Urban Meyer is even going to last the rest of the year in Jacksonville. Few college coaches have made the successful leap to the NFL and Meyer appears to be the latest to fall into that category. There is a huge difference between coaching boys in college and coaching men in the NFL. In college, the head coach controls playing time and can basically use that hammer to control the players (including keeping them from talking to the media or openly criticizing the coach). Add to the fact that in the NFL, even bad teams have great players and there are no Ball States or FIUs on the schedule to pad the win total. It takes a special person like Jimmy Johnson or Pete Carroll to understand these differences. Frankly, Urban looks lost to me. He had made numerous mistakes from the beginning, including trying to conduct illegal practices. It took another bizarre turn on Sunday when he threatened to fire a staff member who was leaking stories about strife inside the Jags locker room. Even his body language on the sidelines gives the impression of a defeated man who has no answers. The only question that remains is how long ownership will go before admitting to the mistake…
True story from the Arena Football League archives. It’s a few days before the 1995 championship game and the league was handing out its regular season awards. They announced for the first time ever, the same player had won both the MVP and Ironman Award—the league’s top two honors. In a media interview after the announcement was made, the recipient—Orlando’s legendary Barry Wagner — wanted to make the point that individual accolades would play second fiddle to him compared to winning the big game. In his excitement, he let out this gem…”Barry is not about Barry…Barry is about team… And as we all know, there is no “I” in championship!” …
