Sports

Quote the Raven “Speed Kills”

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The month ago NFL trade of eleven year veteran, Baltimore Raven Joe Flacco to the Denver Broncos became official yesterday as the new fiscal year of the NFL began.  There were several other trades and a bevy of free agents signing.  To say the pace of play was fast would be understating it all.

Lamar Jackson, the 2018 first round pick and late year starter for the Ravens, was the beneficiary of the trade as the deck was cleared for him to take the full-time starting quarterback position.  The Ravens’ brass hopes that he will be the franchise’s next, well, franchise quarterback.  To say the pace of LJ’s 2018 on field play was fast would be understating it as well.

However, to say his Mercedes-Benz pace was 105 mph on Tuesday would be exactly accurate.  Like a stop watch at the combine, Lamar provided video proof of his fast driving.  He decided to video the needle on 105 and post it on Instagram complete with the no seat belt dash-board indicator on as well as his tapping on the steering wheel to the selected tune of his choice.

On Wednesday the 22-year-old tweeted out an apology saying that “he had made a bad decision.”  We wonder if the bad decision was driving 105 mph, the unhinged seat belt, the phone recording while driving, or the world-wide web post of it all.

Some surely see this as a problem.  We see this as an opportunity for Lamar, his agent, and the Ravens however.  Commercial gain from endorsements, advertisements, or public service announcements can come from this.  Some awesome, and some not as awesome, possibilities follow.

  1. The Raven’s film Lamar getting in the car, buckling up, and driving exactly the posted speed.  Lamar looks into the close up of the camera and quote the  Raven “nevermore.”  A CLIO award awaits.
  2. A video of Lamar’s pure on field speed and elusiveness running in to the endzone for a touchdown fades to a dated video of his 105 mph dash.  The camera cuts to Lamar who states that “speed on the field and off the field kills.  I only speed on grass these days.”  This one is tricky due to the potential dual interpretation of the word “grass” however.
  3. Adidas has Lamar under contract.  They could film him running in his three stripe cleats and have him say “the only thing faster than me in my car is me in my adi kicks.”  Ok, ok, this one needs some work.  But, impossible is nothing.
  4. Mercedes-Benz could film him calmly walking out of the airport from his arrival gate spliced with OJ Simpson’s Hertz commercial running through the airport 30 years ago.  The tag line could be “why run and rent when you can Benz and speed?”  Ok, ok this one needs work too.  But, how about those rental choices from Hertz in 1978?  Fairmont, Mustang, or LTD anyone?
  5. Lamar could go rogue and video himself going 105 the next time he so chooses, and seat belt be damned again.  He could turn the smart phone on to himself and say to the average Joe, “don’t give me any Flaccover this!”  Ah, these kids these days.  Instant Instagram fortune awaits.

We’ll be back after these words from our fine sponsors.

 

 

It’s March Madness and SWA is Flying

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Southwest Airlines ran the popular ad campaign “Need to Get Away for a While?” for several successful years.  In the ads paid actors would say or do something, usually in a business, meeting, or social environment that would cause the room to collectively pause and wonder “did that just happen?”

Yesterday we learned that an often paid actor, Felicity Huffman, paid her way around the college entrance process to get one of her children into a school of higher education that they otherwise would not have qualified for.  Huffman, one of the housewife character actors of Desperate Housewives fame, was a desperate mom it seems.  She wasn’t alone in this scheme that was exposed, not by a long shot.  SWA has non stops from LAX to nearly anywhere.

It amazes us how often big time personalities, either by hook or crook, fall flat on their face.  Did that just happen?

Totally unrelated, it was only Monday when the NFL network had a get away moment.  Charley Casserly, former longtime NFL GM for the Redskins and the Texans, is a “front office/GM expert” for the network.  The NFL Network rolls old Charley out when they need the “why” answered after the “what” has occurred.  Charley was asked why the Cowboys didn’t get the ball to effective wide receiver Cole Beasley more last year.  His answer is right here.  “The Cowboys threw the ball to Dez Bryant too much last year.”  The only problem with the answer is that Dez Bryant didn’t play one snap for Dallas in 2018, not one.  The former star was cut last summer.  Southwest has some great fares to The Bahamas right now.

A few years back during the TBS portion of the NCAA March Madness telecast Charles Barkley called Duke star Justise Winslow’s name just a bit wrong. He called him Winston Justice and knew no differently.  But to one up himself a couple of years later he was asked why a certain NCAA Final 64 team (the name escapes us) trailed another at halftime.  He noted that team’s star player needed to pick up his game in the second half.  The only problem was that said star player had missed this game and the prior two months due to injury.  What might Sir Charles have in store for us this year?

Barkley is paid to be Barkley.  He is quite good at it.  Casserly is paid to be an expert.  He is quite bad at it.  And Huffman illegally paid and/or bribed and/or cheated to get her child in college.  That’s the worst of it.

Given the Madness, it must be March.  Southwest Airlines flight 123 now boarding.

Ten Piece Nuggets- Sports at Random

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

This AM we gladly serve you our ten piece nuggets from sunny Orlando.   Actually it’s only going to be a few nuggets shy of ten.   One, it’s Lent.  Two, the Keto diet, being all the rage, makes us want to slim down a bit.   Three, we have a plane to catch back to our world headquarters in foggy, soggy, and cloudy H Town.

If we didn’t know better we might investigate who switched Portland and Houston’s spot in the continental 48.

Time ticks.  Time for nuggets.

  1.  We took in some Bay Hill Arnold Palmer Invitational golf on Saturday.   It’s a beautiful, well maintained, difficult track.   Arnold had/has quite a thing going here.
  2. Last year’s winner Rory McIlroy roared to within one stroke of the lead by nightfall Saturday.  His 31 back nine in last year’s final round made him yesterday’s strong favorite to repeat.  Plus the competitor’s resumes paled by comparison.
  3. But, starting in the final group Sunday, Rory forgot to roar.  Francisco Molinari started the day five back and won by a clear two strokes with a sizzling 64.   A closer look at McIlroy when he starts the final round in the last group is eye opening.   He’s only converted one of those golden chances at victory.  And, he’s been there sixteen times.  Rory needs a dose of Alex Baldwin’s character in Glengarry, Glen Ross.  A.B.C.  Always Be Closing.
  4.  The Will Wade LSU basketball mess is, well, a mess.  His refusal to meet with his bosses to discuss the taped and leaked conversation with yet another basketball “handler” was the impetus to the dreaded indefinite suspension purgatory.   It says here that he has coached his last game at LSU. Too bad too as he turned the worst, two years ago in the SEC, team into a first place finish.
  5.  He was the best coach for the money that LSU could buy.  Unfortunately some of his players sound like they were the best Wade could buy as well.   College basketball is a dirty business.  Now LSU is warming the water to wash their hands of it.
  6. So Antonio Brown, a Pittsburgh Steeler, and nearly a Buffalo Bill, is now an Oakland Raider which soon will be the Vegas Raiders.   He cost the Raiders a third and fifth round pick and a lot of dough too.
  7. Didn’t Oakland trade Amari Cooper for a first round pick midseason?   So, net net they have an older drama queen wide receiver that is quite expensive and a one minus a three and a five.   Sounds like Jon Gruden is spinning his wheels to us.
  8. Expensive wide receivers don’t win championships.  Value does.   Like it or not, and we like it, Pittsburgh puts team ahead of individual talent.  We read an analysis of the trade that spoke to the Steelers being the big loser in this.   We think quite the opposite.
  9. We aren’t big NBA fans.  But.  But, in the span of about nine days the Houston Rockets have beaten the Warriors, the Raptors, and the 76ers.  And, two of those three were road games.   That’s pretty impressive.
  10.  Meanwhile, every time we look at ESPN we get this incessant Lakers and LeBron  gibberish.  At least they can let the Antonio Brown story go now.  Disney owns ESPN.  It’s always a show about a character with them.
  11.  Ok, ok.  It was ten nuggets after all.  We don’t like dieting anymore than you do. And please excuse the no feature picture.   Our editor is busy taking pictures with Mickey Mouse.  It’s always a show about a character with him.

If You Are Gonna Talk the Talk

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Last week seemed to have been filled with a bit more rancor than most.  So much so that we wrote this.

After a week of too much misdirected, failed, or ill-advised passion we decided to end it on a somewhat lighter note that allows us to forget for a bit all of the above.  Sports.  Now that’s passion directed in the right direction 24/7.  Combatants on any field, arena, or track of competition bring out the love of the game in all of us.  Their actions and subsequent achievements are plenty enough to gain a sense of the love for their chosen filed of dreams.  But, sometimes their passion spills over into their words as well.  Below we offer to you in no particular order some inspirational quotes from some intense sport folks.

Well, today we offer you a few savage quotes.  Savage quotes are like verbal daggers in your back.  Except, in the often heated moment of sports and its resultant aftermath, these sharp words are aimed directly at the intended target’s heart.   In the coming weeks we’ll bring you more as they are plentiful and never disappoint.  For now, enjoy the beast mode bravado of these seven quotes below.

  1.  “But the real tragedy was that fifteen hadn’t been colored in yet.”  —Steve Spurrier then head coach at South Carolina on the Auburn dorm room fire       that, among other things, burned 20 books.
  2.  “I dunno, I’ve never smoked any Astro Turf.”  —Tug McGraw on being asked if he preferred natural grass or artificial turf.
  3.   “Because there are no fours.”  —Antoine Walker when asked why he took so many threes.
  4.  ” I will eat your children.”  —Mike Tyson spoke directly to Lennox Lewis in the prefight weigh in.  Lewis knocked him out when they fought.
  5.   “These are my new shoes.  They are good shoes.  They won’t make you rich like me, they won’t make you rebound like me, and they definitely won’t         make you handsome like me, they’ll only make you have shoes like me.  That’s it.” — Charles Barkley on his new signature shoes.
  6.  “I’m not worried about the Sacramento Queens.”  —Shaquille O’Neal responded in the heat of the 2002-2003 season when the Kings were the upstart   team and suddenly popular choice to end the Lakers dominance in the west.
  7.   “All he does is talk. He’s terrible, and you can print that. I was happy when he was in the game.”  —Bill Belicheck unloaded this dandy right after the   2004 Super Bowl when his secondary held Freddie Mitchell to one catch.  Mitchell was running his mouth in the weeks leading up to the game about not   even knowing who the NE secondary players were.

Running your mouth isn’t good.  But when you can back it up, well.

As Jimmy Johnson once said, “if you gonna talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk.”

 

King Kong Bundy’s Last Act is a Permanent One.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Another Mardi Gras has come and gone. Many kings of their parades were praised and glasses toasted.  It’s quite the production.  So, too, were quite the productions of a few blockbuster King Kong movies.   But, there was only one King Kong Bundy.  And, he was a production unto himself.

Christopher Alan Pallies (born in 1957) was a professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, King Kong Bundy. He is best known for his appearances in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the mid-1980s till the mid-1990s. In his career zenith Bundy wrestled in the main event of WrestleMania 2 in 1986, facing Hulk Hogan in a steel cage match for the coveted WWF World Heavyweight Championship.

It’s quite the production when they add the old steel cage to insure the paid actors cannot escape from the stage on which they are getting paid for their act.  It’s  the ultimate extraneous prop.

He was developed by the infamous Von Erich family as “Big Daddy Bundy.”  He wore blue jeans with a rope belt. After a dispute with the Von Erich family, Bundy was recruited by “Playboy” Gary Hart (not the politician) and with great fanfare was reintroduced as “King Kong Bundy.”  King Kong, wore a black singlet for the first time to signify his change. This was quite a wardrobe upgrade from jeans and a rope belt.

He lost his hair during the feud, adding to his signature look.  Who doesn’t go through a feud, lose their hair, get a new look, geta  new name, and get a new gig in life?  Oh, and don’t forget about the singlet in the slimming black color.

His acting ,er wrestling career, began in 1984 and lasted till 2007.  In that span of time his character was paired with many, opposed by even more, and took several twists and turns into the turnbuckle.  While he squared off against Hulk Hogan, his best schtick might have been the long running feud that he had with Andre the Giant.  Andre might have been the only wrestler bigger than King Kong Bundy.  Christopher Pallies, or KKB, stood six-foot four and weighed in at svelte 458 pounds, a giant in his own right if not by name.

His wrestling/acting landed him in a few “real” acting roles as well.  Bundy had two guest spots, and one bit part on Married… with Children, as the creators had named the lead characters “Bundy” in honor of him.  We aren’t sure which side of that should be more honored.  In 1987, he played Uncle Irwin, the brother of Peggy Bundy.  Lastly, in 1995, he appeared again as his day job, King Kong Bundy character.  In the role he taught Bud Bundy how to wrestle if you really want to call it that.

King Kong Bundy died Sunday at the too early age of 63.  He joins many, many other “professional” wrestlers who left here too soon to go to another ring in a another place.  The 458 lbs might have helped to punch his quick ticket to paradise.

There have been many kings, a few King Kong’s, but only one successful production named King Kong Bundy.

 

 

Halftime Score -14 from 7.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

As the BBR staff descended yesterday on the city of New Orleans for a little Mardi Gras fun today, we couldn’t help but think of Antonio Cromartie.  Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday.  Fat Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday in the Catholic religion.  Ash Wednesday officially kicks of the Lenten Season, or Lent.

Lent is traditionally described as lasting for 40 days, in commemoration of the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, during which he endured temptation by Satan.  During Lent devout Catholics give up or fast from one or more of their favorite foods, drinks, or activities.

So based on the above clearly the catholic religion, Mardi Gras, lent, restraint, and Cromartie would make for strange bedfellows don’t you say?  Therein lies the connection actually.  Cromartie has apparently never met a strange bedfellow.

Antonio Cromartie (born April 15, 1984) is a former NFL starting cornerback.   He played college football at Florida State and was drafted in the first round (19th overall) by the San Diego Chargers in the 2006 NFL Draft. He was selected to four Pro Bowls and was a first-team All-Pro in 2007 after leading the league in interceptions. Cromartie is credited with the longest play in NFL history, returning a missed field goal 109 yards for a touchdown in 2007.   He also played for the Arizona Cardinals, New York Jets and Indianapolis Colts.

Productive might be a word used to describe his career on the field. He played defense. But, on another playing field Cromartie might be called prolific.  There he plays offense.  And,  Antonio’s greatest talent is scoring.   His 14 children at the age of 33 arrived via seven baby mamas.  So the score, which we clearly hope is the final score, is children 14, baby mamas 7.  But, at only 33 years of age we might have only reached halftime.

Several years back when the baby count had reached the meager total of only eight, Antonio was interviewed for a segment on the HBO show Hard Knocks. It’s 1 minute and 27 seconds of pure gold and definitely worth another look.   At that point three of his children were each three years old.  None of the three were twins, nor were they triplets.  Three kids all three years old from three women has to be a record.  3,3,3.  It has to be, doesn’t it?

Cromartie owes, and we assume pays, $336,000 in child support a year.   We hope that he saved/invested wisely from his successful on field career to fund his successful playing the field career.

Mardi Gras gives one a last shot at decadence before Lent sets us straight.  Mr. Cromartie could be the king of this carnival.  He more than qualifies.  We aren’t judging.   Are we?

Lent?  Well, so far, not so much for him.  There is still time though.  It’s only halftime.

We’ll be back after these commercials ladies and gentlemen.  Once again, the score 14 from 7.

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Ten Piece Nuggets-Multiple Sports

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Update-February still makes us shiver.

As the shortest month of the year rolls along we dug deep to find a savory serving of ten nuggets for our insatiable readers.  We need to grab a bit from here and some from there to do so.  The oven is on.

  1.  In men’s NCAA basketball the new AP Top 25 is out.  Duke regained the no. 1 spot for the third time this year.  Somehow, Tennessee dropped for 1 to 5.  Sure, Kentucky worked them over in Lexington Saturday.  But, a drop of four spots with only two year long losses in what is supposed to be one of the top two conferences seems a bit strong.  It doesn’t matter too much just yet.
  2. Kentucky, somehow rose one from 5 to 4.  The same voters that punished Tennessee rewarded Kentucky for losing at home earlier in the week to LSU and then beating Tenn.  It must pay to have the Kentucky blue unis come voting time.  It doesn’t matter too much just yet.
  3. This just in.  The PGA is now allowing shorts for the pros in practice rounds.  After an offseason of rule changes for the stodgy sport that includes leaving the flag in on putts, can beer kegs next to the Powerade coolers on the tee boxes be far off?  One can hope.  This just in.  John Daly liked boomboomsroom.com.
  4. How many mock drafts do you think you could review between now and the NFL draft in April.  How many ways can the “draft experts” recast a list in hopes to get one to read one?  Like the stock market pundits someone should write a column or three after the draft to mock the absurdity and inaccuracy of these mocks.
  5. Speaking of mocks, mocking, and bad franchises; have the Cleveland Browns turned a corner?  Baker Mayfield, Jarvis Landry, and a talented defense won seven games last year after the team won one game in the last two years prior combined.  And they have a lot of decent, promising, young talent acquired in  2018 draft.
  6. And, here is the kicker.  The once and forever woeful Browns have their own pick in all seven rounds in 2019.  Plus, they have an additional 3rd, 5th, and 7th thanks to some savvy moves on draft day 2018 made by their “suddenly to be taken seriously” front office.  Can the heretofore bad ownership stay out of the way?
  7. This writer sat fifteen rows from the ice in Nashville at a Predators v. St. Louis Blues game Sunday a week ago.  The Blues prevailed sixteen seconds into overtime 5-4.  Why is this now news?  It’s not.  It’s just the setup to say that hockey is SOOOO much better in person than on the TV.  Two dimensions, even in HD, cannot do justice to what large grown men do at full speed on a relatively small piece of ice with wooden sticks and a small frozen rubber puck.  If you haven’t recently, get to an NHL game soon.  If they don’t look faster than ever to you it will be a surprise.
  8. Pitchers and catchers reported to MLB camps over a week ago.  With Tampa Bay now pitching backwards in some games (starting the closer and finishing with longer innings guys) and other teams increasingly going to “Johnny Whole Staff” for pitching games by committee, innovative thinking is accelerating in baseball.  Can it be very long before a team decides to not have pitchers and catchers throw and squat in early February in hopes that they will still be able to throw and squat in early October?
  9. In yesteryear four man starting rotations were the norm.  Now nearly every team has a five man starting rotation, giving an extra day of rest to all.  The analytics side to the game has really changed the thinking on many fronts for what we think is the good of yet another sport viewed by too many as too stodgy.
  10. Which reminds us of the whispers emanating from MLB’s front office.  “Should we limit the severity of the defensive shifts that teams are making against hitters?”  Here is a simple answer-NO.  Should teams, and hitting instructors from early ages, rethink their approach as to how hitters work their plate appearance?  Here is a simple answer-YES.  Can you imagine the NFL dictating that defenses must not overload one side of the field?  Well, with this commissioner, maybe you could.  The ever-changing strategy is the actual beauty of these games.

March is but ten days away.  Who’s counting?

Fashionable Managers are Good (for) Sports.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The NBA fashion show and All Star weekend has come and gone.  Team LeBron squeaked by Team Giannis in a defensive thriller 178-164.  In defense (none played) of the NBA the weekend is really more about style than substance anyway.  The atmosphere surrounding one of these weekends is dress up, party, three-point contest, dress up, party, pretend to play a basketball game, dress up, party.  The dearly departed Yogi Berra would call it 90% style and 50% substance we think.  Which got us to thinking.

When Yogi hung up his cleats from catching for his Yankees he eventually wore those cleats and an entire game ready Yankees’ uniform while managing them from the dugout.  This is, of course, just like every other MLB (or MiLB) manager before and after him.  Which got us to thinking.  Why do MLB managers wear the team uniforms?  Respect?  Tradition?  Superstition?  Are they more effective or authoritative if they dress so?  At a minimum we suppose that when they disagree with an umpire’s call its better to kick dirt on home plate with cleats and an easily washable uniform.  Which got us to thinking.

Can you imagine if they dressed like Pat Riley, aka Mr. GQ, the NBA multi time world champ head coach extraordinaire?  Or, could you imagine the cool Riley bouncing out of a dugout in his woven Cole Hahn’s and Perry Ellis tailored suit to turn his cap backwards and spit tobacco juice hither and yon? Heaven forbid that one gelled strand of coiffed hair stray out of place.   Which got us to thinking.  Why do NBA coaches roam court side in thousands of dollars of fine silk threads and pressed shirts?  ‘Why not?’ is our guess.  Aside from sitting, standing, and very occasionally drawing up a play with a Sharpie on a white board there isn’t much physical exertion inside of a climate controlled arena to sweat about.  Which got us to thinking.

Why do NFL football coaches wear coaching shorts and shirts and cleat looking shoes without cleats during practice?  And why do they wear NFL sideline team gear on game days?  Ah, we think we know this one.   NFL practices can be messy, with grass, mud, and sweat and all.  And, the NFL is the ultimate marketing machine.  “Ooh, did you see the new LA Rams shirt that (poster boy) Sean McVay wore on the sidelines?”  “I gotta get me one.”  Which got us to thinking.

Why don’t NHL coaches wear team sweaters and skates while standing behind 20 or so sweaty guys that sit on a cold bench holding a wooden stick waiting for their shift to be called out by men who wear suits and ties?  It’s always an adventure for the coaches try to walk on the ice with dress shoes on.  And, can the NHL afford a tanning bed for them? Milk white skin washes out against milk white ice.  The winters are long in those parts.  Which got us to thinking.

Why do soccer coaches (or managers or trainers or whatever they are called) in Euro leagues wear skinny ties and skinny pants with fitted shirts with their skinny sport coats next to those benches that look like bus stops?  Exact change is needed to board please.  Which got us to thinking.

We think that we might have over thought this.

 

Well Beyond “Just Do It.”

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Opinions on the quality of individual original content programming on ESPN vary.  It ranges from excellent to steaming hot, mid summer Manhattan, New York, New York garbage.  Yep, that’s quite the range.  Two that we feel are on the excellent side are Outside the Lines and 30 for 30.

So, the other night when James Harden’s scoring streak crossed over 30 thirty games with 30 points or more per, we began to wonder.  What “inside the lines” performance, regardless of the sport, is the most excellent of all time?  Harden’s run is indeed impressive.  But, it’s not even the best historically in basketball.  Wilt Chamberlain holds the all-time record at an amazing 65 straight games, set during his astounding 1961-62 campaign, when he averaged an NBA-record 50.4 points and set the single-game scoring mark with 100 points against the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962.

The record of playing in 2,632 consecutive games over more than 16 MLB years is held by Cal Ripken, Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles. Ripken surpassed Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees, whose record of 2,130 consecutive games had stood for 56 years.  Impressive.  But, that speaks, at the least, to good for a long time.  Tiger Woods once made 142 consecutive cuts on the PGA Tour over several years.  Very Impressive.  That speaks, at the least, to very good over a long period of time.

But that’s not what we’re after.  We are after a run of unmatched, high level, measurable success while we scan multiple sports.  Yet its very hard to measure across sports.

Wilt Chamberlain’s run is the type of run we’re looking for.  How about Oscar Robertson’s season of averaging a triple double? In the 1961–62 season, Robertson became the first player in NBA history to average a triple-double for an entire season, with 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds and 11.4 assists.   Robertson also set a then-NBA record for the most triple-doubles during the regular season with 41 triple-doubles; the record would stand for over half a century when, in 2016–17, Russell Westbrook recorded 42 and joined Robertson as the only other player to average a triple-double for an entire season.  Very, very impressive.  Now we’re getting somewhere.

Is there anything harder to do, though, than hit a baseball consistently for a long stretch?  Yankee Joe DiMaggio holds the Major League Baseball record with a streak of 56 consecutive games in which he got at least one hit.  In 1941, it began on May 15 and ended July 17. DiMaggio hit .408 during his streak (91-for-223), with 15 home runs and 55 runs batted in.  Baseball’s best get out seven out of every ten time they bat over the course of most careers.

Surely one off night, or one dominant pitcher, would prevent any mortal from going 56 straight games.  Ask Pete Rose. “Pressure? Well it ain’t hitting in forty-four straight games, because I done that and it was fun. The playoffs are pressure.” – Pete Rose .  He forgot (or as they say today misremembered) that he was chasing Joltin’ Joe D. and fell quite short.  Forty-four is over 20% less than 56.  You may have heard that Peter Rose, aka Charlie Hustle, sometimes has trouble telling the truth.

Wayne Gretzky was also unstoppable for a run on ice that left all others stone cold. The Great One scored the most points in one season including the playoffs with 255 in 1984-1985.  Nestled inside of that run was four goals in one period and most assists in one game with seven.  There are many other candidates we are sure.

Rocky Marciano never lost a boxing match.  Never.  49-0.  Byron Nelson won 11 straight golf tournaments.  11.

We could go on.  Choosing one across sports is impossible.  But, someone once said “Impossible is Nothing.”  Not for nothing, we choose The Big O, Oscar Robertson’s season of triple doubles by the slimmest of margins over Marilyn Monroe’s ex husband’s hit streak.  What’s your choice?

 

 

 

 

 

What’s Important Now?

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Al Davis, the unconventional owner and GM of the Oakland Raiders from its first days in the Sixties, until his last days in the New Millenium, coined the phrase “Just Win, Baby!”  And his Raiders won and won.  Two Super Bowl wins and two more appearances with several coaches and ever-changing personnel in an ever-changing league bears that out.

Of course his baby son, Mark Davis, now principal owner and GM of his dad’s beloved Raiders might be the biggest winner in Raider Nation.  His dad turned a 50k investment in a fledgling upstart American Football League into an icon valued at well over 1.5 billion dollars.   That’s billion with a “b” if your 2.0x readers are around here somewhere.

Nick Saban, the six-time NCAA championship winner, and arguably(is it even really arguable?) the greatest coach in college football history, coined the phrase “focus on the process and the results will take care of themselves.”  His focus is such that his overall w/l record is 233-63-1.  His Bama record is 141-21 with six of the losses coming in year one as he quickly rebuilt the Crimson Tide.  His coaching tree is now a coaching forest and sprouting new saplings yearly.

Tyrone Willingham, the one time head coach of Stanford, then Notre Dame, and finally Washington, coined the acronym “WIN”.  He has gone on to explain that it stands for  “What’s Important Now?”  Of the three men, Davis, Saban, and Willingham, Tyrone has by far the most modest accomplishments.  He lost more games at the helm 88, than he won, 76.  Though, we point out that coaching at three fine universities is in and of itself success.

Why might we refer to Willingham, who stands in the shadow of these two unrelated but both hugely successful men, in the same post as them?  It’s because we feel like WIN-What’s Important Now is a clean, clear, and simple to use “words to live by.”  And live by them we try daily.

This writer was fortunate to hear the impressive Willingham speak well over a decade ago.  Meticulous in his dress, he meticulously outlined what WIN meant to him.  In short after he establishes a goal or goals for himself he asks what it takes to accomplish them.  From there he writes them down. Then he organizes them from which are the most important down to the least.  And, he revisits the list daily, resorting after either accomplishing some or evaluating others, in the ever-changing world that we live in.

Note, this list isn’t what is urgent in others minds.  Failure to plan on your part does not create an emergency (urgency) on mine.  Separating what is perceived as urgent from wha tis important seems critical.  Heck it sounds one heck of a lot like “focus on the process.”

Does this sound rather simple? In theory we think it is.  In application it requires dedication and passion.  Oh, and most of all it requires the “how.”  Once the “when” to do and “what” to do, are organized the “how” separates us.  The “how,” is Saban’s process.

Getting things done through others can be tough.  But if you don’t know what’s important now then they won’t either.  If they don’t, the agenda has no direction and the urgent replaces the process.

Willingham may not have been the most successful, but for us one evening, and to this day, he was the most inspirational.

Who doesn’t want to win?

WIN-What’s Important Now?