NBA Draft Recap

The 2008 NBA Draft will go down in history as one of my greatest moments ever b/c this father and son exchange took place.

Son: Dad?

Father: Yeah, what?

Son: Who's going to draft Quentin Thomas?

Father: Well, I assume that's why the Bobcats traded for the 20th pick. They need all the Tar Heels they can get. No, he probably won't get drafted. The NBA only drafts 60 players, so they only pick the best players from college basketball. Quentin's probably not one of the best 60 players they can choose from.

Son: Oh.

Son: Hey Dad?

Father: Yeah, what?

Son: Who's going to draft Surry Wood?

Best Sports Writing of Pat Jordan

I read an interview w/ Pat Jordan on Deadspin and was sufficiently intrigued to get his most recent book at the library. The articles span a 35 year period and topics as diverse as hall of fame pitchers, professional poker players, professional pool players, child beauty queens, and post-trial OJ. Since it's an anthology I immediately read the Steve Carlton article b/c he didn't talk to the media for most of his playing career. He comes off not only as delusional about his pitching (thinking he can still pitch in 1994 when he couldn't pitch in the last few years of his career in the 80s) but also about government conspiracies against him. I was hooked at this point. This isn't your typical sports reporting. When Peter Gammons writes an article about the real life Natural, Pat Jordan comes along a few years later and interviews Toe Nash in jail. Then he interviews the girl who accused him of the rape. He also interviews a woman who gives a less than flattering portrayal of Nash and his sexual transgressions. The only movie this guy fits into is a Lifetime movie of the week. Bloggers haven't suddenly exposed this underbelly of the sports world. Pat Jordan has chronicled it for years.

SAL All Star Game

I took the kids to the SAL All Star Game the other night. We sat in the 2nd row next to the dugout. Of course after the 2nd inning we were off to the playground never to return to our seats. I could have got Desmond to stay there longer, but Izzy was finished w/ her sno-cone so it was time for her to go play. I'm not sure how many future MLB stars were in the game, but if I had to guess I'd say the Braves are in pretty good shape. The highlight for me was honorary coach Andre Dawson standing at the top of the dugout steps about 8 feet away from me. I think I watched him watch the game as much as I watched the actual game. Even though I know his knees are wrecked, he still looks like he's in playing shape and seemed to get around w/o any trouble. I'm sure he's just happy that there isn't artificial turf at the stadium.

Redemption Song

Yet another book left laying around by the librarian, it's billed as the definitive biography of Joe Strummer. However, in the book there is a line attributed to Joe Strummer (I think, I don't take notes on these things) where he's discussing reading multiple biographies of the same person and getting a different impression of the person in each one. For the "definitive" biography, that's probably not your money quote. I read Last Gang In Town a few years ago and that was certainly more Clash-centric than this, so I don't know how much new information there is about his life in the Clash. There are plenty of stories about that period and quite a few from the rest of his life that make it worth a read. My favorite was while shooting Mystery Train, Joe and Jim Jarmusch go to see INXS after their gig in Memphis. Joe makes a comment to Michael Hutchence about how it must be nice to be a sex symbol. He replies that Joe Strummer was certainly a sex symbol in the halcyon punk rock days. Joe's response "No, I wasn't a sex symbol. I was the spokesman for a generation." You still are Joe.

2 good ideas?

I was discussing my NASCAR oriented ideas w/ one of my 2 NASCAR hating brothers and he thought both of these were good ideas so I'll throw them out there. First, when youngish looking Kasey Kahne wins in the Budweiser Dodge and has to swig from a can of Bud in victory lane, they should card him before handing him the Bud. I think it would be kind of funny, and they could actually act like they are interested in stopping (or at least not promoting) underage drinking. Second, Barack Obama '08 should sponsor the #28 Robert Yates Racing Ford driven by Travis Kvapil. This is a car that will be on the track every week (I won't explain the NASCAR rules but trust me on this) and doesn't have a full time sponsor. It seems like a win/win b/c the Obama people will get exposure to an audience that doesn't necessarily follow him and the Yates people get the same kind of exposure. I know you're thinking NASCAR wouldn't allow it or the Republican car owners wouldn't want it, but in 2004 Democrat Bob Graham sponsored a truck for Roush Racing and Roush Racing is involved in a partnership w/ Yates racing. No unsponsored team would turn down a legitimate sponsorship when their teams cost tens of millions of dollars to operate. And more importantly, money talks bullshit walks. The Obama campaign could shell out $12 million for 6 months of sponsorship and not lose any sleep over it. Now if we can get the lame Obama '08 logo off the car and get the Shepherd Fairey pictures there, I would be buying diecast collectibles left and right.