Column by Brian Hoffman – Sports Editor
It’s now 230 AG, or 230 days “After (Rudy) Gobert” tested positive for Covid-19 and all sports as we knew them came to an end. Some of them have since returned, but certainly not like it was before the NBA Utah Jazz walked off the court, seven months and two weeks ago.
I can remember that clearly. A few days later the NHL ceased playing games and then “March Madness” was canceled. Major League Baseball would soon follow.
I never saw this coming. On February 7 I had my annual physical and we were just starting to hear about this virus. I asked my doctor if it was anything to worry about, and he assured me it wasn’t. “It’s like a drop of ink in a swimming pool” were his exact words.
I went to Walgreens around that time to pick up some items and when I was ready to check out the phone rang. The Walgreens clerk answered the phone and I could hear her end of the conversation as she replied, “I’m sorry, but we’re out of them.”
I go in there often and I know all the folks so I asked her, “What are you out of?” She replied people have been calling in for masks and they were out, and I thought that was jumping the gun a bit at that time. Well, I guess that caller knew something I wasn’t aware of back in February.
Hopefully, things will be back to normal sooner than later, although I try not to get my hopes too high for the winter seasons, with events indoors and the pandemic raging again. Whoever comes up with a vaccine that works should be richer than Mookie Betts.
One for the birds
I heard on the TODAY SHOW Monday that Pope Francis has appointed Wilton Gregory as the first ever African-American Cardinal. I thought that was amazing that in all these years not a single African-American was deemed worthy of that honor by the Catholic Church. It’s 2020 for gosh sakes. And, they’ve never named a Jew!!
In contrast, baseball’s first African American Cardinal was 66 years ago, in 1954. In honor of the late Bob Gibson and Lou Brock, who both passed away in the past couple months, can you name that first black St. Louis Cardinal? Answer at the end of the column.
Goodbye fish
My wife and I purchased two goldfish on October 17. I named mine “Abe Vigoda” and most of you won’t understand why but a few of you will and think it’s really funny, sort of like a Dennis Miller joke. Again, some of you will get that Miller reference and some of you won’t.
Abe was with us for a week and a day, passing on October 25 when he received a burial at sea in our hall bathroom.
He’ll be truly missed. I think I’ll get another one this weekend and name it Trey Anastasio.
Reason to bet
Everybody who bets on sports has a story like this.
There were a lot of exciting finishes to NFL football games last week, including six games that went down to the final seconds when a team scored to win, failed to score for a win, or forced overtime.
One game I was particularly interested in was the Browns and Bengals game. I sometimes bet on football, for entertainment purposes only, and understood that the Browns were three and a half point favorites for that game. The Browns had been spanked by the Steelers the week before and usually a team will bounce back from a game like that (maybe not the Cowboys) so I wagered some candy bars on the Browns to cover the three and a half points.
Well, the game went back and forth all afternoon. In fact, there were 12 touchdowns or field goals in the game and neither team had consecutive scores among the 12. The biggest lead all day was seven points and most of the time the Browns were up four or the Bengals led by three.
The Browns were up four, 31-27, when Cincinnati was faced with a fourth down inside the Cleveland five-yard line with just over a minute remaining in the fourth quarter. I figured if the Browns could hold they’d win by four and, in turn, I would win the bet. However, Joe Burrow threw a three-yard TD pass with 1:06 left to put the Bengals up, 34-31, and the Browns were out of timeouts with 1:06 to go. At that point I concluded my only shot was if the Browns could somehow kick a long field goal, put the game into overtime, and score a touchdown in the extra period.
However, to my surprise, Baker Mayfield engineered an 80-yard drive, culminating in a 24-yard TD pass with just 11 seconds left. That put the Browns up by three, needing only to kick the extra point to cover the three and a half point spread!!
Well, you can guess what happened. Cody Parkey hooked the extra point attempt, the Browns won by three and I lost my bet by half a point.
“That’s what you get for betting,” a good friend replied as I whined about the tough loss.
I guess it was only fitting, as Parkey was the one who missed the “triple doink” field goal two years ago when he was with the Bears that allowed my favorite team, the Eagles, to win a playoff game.
And I shouldn’t be eating too much candy anyway.
First black Redbird
The first African American St. Louis Cardinal was Thomas Edison “Tom” Alston, a first baseman who hit .246 in 1954 with four home runs and 34 runs batted in. That was seven years after Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Dodgers in 1947.
I couldn’t tell you whether Alston was Catholic or not.
