Author Archives: AD

Bay of Cigs: History and Revision

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Earlier today, the Detroit Free Press tipped the new Sports Illustrated cover, pictured above, reporting that “it’s . . . thought to be the first time a pair of Tigers have been on the cover of SI since Al Kaline and Denny McLain made it in September 1968.” (Such thorough and confident reporting by the Freep is in line with their recent work on even more important issues.) For anyone who collected baseball cards in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the headline is immediately evocative of an earlier pair of mashers. The caption dubs Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder “Baseball’s 21st-Century Version of Mantle and Maris,” explaining to the Free Press in greater detail:

Ruth and Gehrig. Mays and McCovey. Ortiz and Ramirez. To the list of great hitting duos in baseball history we can now add one more: Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers. Both were established stars long before coming to Detroit but since joining forces prior to last season, Fielder and Cabrera have become baseball’s best 1-2 punch, which makes it only fitting that the sluggers appear together on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated.

Wait, what? I thought…. Hang on. Continue reading →

Langston Golf Course Celebrates Its Heritage (via The Washington Informer)

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For many, like Ray Savoy, who regularly tees off at the historic Langston Golf Course in Northeast, the 74-year-old sports cathedral is a home away from home.

ESPN recently noted that the famed course is the only one in Washington, D.C., where you can still get breakfast at 6 p.m. More importantly, Langston has been both a playground and a meeting ground for generations of African-American golfers.
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An African American renaissance in golf began based on the creation of Langston, which essentially became the Mecca for black golfers.

World Heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, famed Big Band leader Billy Eckstein, singers Dionne Warrick and Lena Horne and Hall of Fame baseball player Willie Mays counted among the famous to patronize Langston.

Former President Gerald Ford, entertainer Bob Hope, and PGA champion Lee Trevino are among the notable non-African Americans who have played 18-holes at the fabled course.
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Northwest resident and golfer Luke Watson is also a regular at Langston and his review of the course on his “hot dogs and golf” blog echoes the thoughts of many who have had tee-times there. … Read More

(via The Washington Informer)

How Bob Dylan Co-Wrote Darius Rucker’s ‘Wagon Wheel,’ 40 Years Ago: The secret history of a country hit, from Dylan to Old Crow Medicine Show to Rucker

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If you’re a hardcore Bob Dylan fan, the new Darius Rucker hit “Wagon Wheel” might sound a little familiar. It’s actually a fleshed-out version of an untitled, unfinished song from the 1973 Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid soundtrack sessions. Dylan fans titled the song “Rock Me, Mama” when the sessions leaked to bootleggers.

Old Crow Medicine Show’s Critter Fuqua picked up a bootleg of the Pat Garrett sessions in the ninth grade when he visited London. “I let [bandmate] Ketch [Secor] listen to it, and he wrote the verses, because Bob kind of mumbles them and that was it,” Fuqua recently told a South Carolina newspaper. “We’ve been playing that song since we were, like, 17, and it’s funny, because we’ve never met Dylan, but the song is technically co-written by Bob Dylan.” … Read More

(via Rolling Stone)

The slowest day in sports blogging?

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Things have been a little slow around here lately, but hey, we aren’t the only ones. Deadspin’s pulling an amateur radio move and begging for calls, while Clay Travis has been padding his content at Outkick the Coverage by reposting months-old articles by guest writers.

Fortunately, we have tons of great content sitting in the hopper just waiting for that finishing touch and a push out the door. Stay tuned, and in the meantime, go Wings!

How did the Detroit Red Wings manage to take a 3-1 series lead over the Chicago Blackhawks?

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I’m not exactly sure, but it sure has been a fun series to watch so far. My main concern is not that the Blackhawks may get a game back when the series returns to Chicago Saturday night, but that one of their players will do something to injure one of the Detroit players. This undoubtedly is one of the NHL’s oldest rivalries, stoked in recent years by the matching successes of both squads, but as last night’s game demonstrated, one team’s handling most of the extracurricular physical activity, and one team’s handling most of the goal scoring.

Door Jam

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The Doors obviously would not have been the special band they became without Jim Morrison, but it’s equally valid to say that, without keyboardist and musical director Ray Manzarek, the Doors would have been little more than Big Brother and the Holding Company to Morrison’s Janis Joplin (which is in no way to disparage that still-underrated band). Manzarek gave the Doors a distinguishing sound as a keyboard-led group, rather than a guitar-first group, and he brought and integrated jazz and blues influences more directly than most in his field. Manzarek died this week, and we remember him with this Jam (the genesis of which the group explains here):

The NFL is keeping its priorities straight

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USA Today reports:

Stephen Jones says there will be another pressing issue on the agenda: the increasing problem of getting NFL fans off the couch, away from their high-definition TVs and back into stadium seats.

“Everybody always says we have to watch concussions and all of that, and that’s at the forefront. But I’d say 1-A is this,” the Dallas Cowboys’ executive vice president and chief operating officer told USA TODAY Sports on Monday.

“We don’t ever want to take for granted our fans, and with the technology out there … the flat screens, the laptops, the iPhones. I’ve got young kids, and they’ve got a lot of options. If we’re not innovative, we’re going to have issues.”

Full article here. (HT: KSK)

There was plenty of circumstantial evidence that the NFL didn’t really care about its head-injury crisis, but it’s nice to have some direct, on-record evidence too.

Friday Roundup

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  • R.I.P. Dick Trickle. He wasn’t Cole’s biological father, but it makes no difference, and he certainly wasn’t any kind of new school driver. As sure as rubbin’ is racin’, the hammer had to drop one final time for Trickle, but this isn’t how we expected it to happen. To the best of the Midwest:

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