Love ya, Abe
It's President's Day morning and I'm thinking about sports and Abraham Lincoln. I figured I might as well write some of it down, since President's Day only happens once per year.
1. Nate Robinson has taken his act further than I ever thought possible. I used to coach high school football in Seattle and our team played against Nate. I watched him score two touchdowns in his first three touches one time. Another time I saw him throw down a flying tomahawk dunk over two kids in a basketball game. He had freaky talent, but seemed way too small to play football at the next level (let alone basketball). So what does Nate do? He starts on the Husky football team as a true freshman, then walks on to the basketball team and leads the Washington men to the NCAA tourney twice (once as a number one seed). Then he gets drafted and plays for the Knicks, averages better than 8 ppg as a rookie, and wins the slam dunk contest with a crazy dunk over Spud Webb. Way to go Nate!
2. How good is the Washington Husky men's basketball team? I asked this question a couple months back and still don't know. We might not know until March madness begins.
3. Shaun Alexander is a great back. If the Seahawks don't re-sign him, their TD production will be cut by at least one-third, which is the only stat that should really matter to management as they consider whether or not to re-sign the MVP. There's no reason Shaun can't find the endzone 16-20 times per year for the next four years. Pay him accordingly.
4. Is anybody excited about the World Baseball Classic? I'm not hearing anybody talk about it. Maybe it's because I don't talk to the right people. Or maybe people in this country don't really care about international competition, which seems to be a sideshow to the Superbowl, March madness, and the World Series.
5. Three greatest presidents of all-time: Abe Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and Teddy Roosevelt.
6. Speaking of international competition, I've been watching the Olympics quite a bit. I love that the games are progressing (if you haven't seen Snowboardcross, you're missing out) while holding onto the oldies but goodies (ski jumping and bobsled). I still think figure skating is like a car wreck on the side of the freeway, painful to watch but impossible to keep your eyes off.
7. You've got the first pick in your fantasy baseball league. Do you take Pujols or A-Rod? Production wise, it's a wash. Take A-Rod because third basemen are tougher to come by.
1. Nate Robinson has taken his act further than I ever thought possible. I used to coach high school football in Seattle and our team played against Nate. I watched him score two touchdowns in his first three touches one time. Another time I saw him throw down a flying tomahawk dunk over two kids in a basketball game. He had freaky talent, but seemed way too small to play football at the next level (let alone basketball). So what does Nate do? He starts on the Husky football team as a true freshman, then walks on to the basketball team and leads the Washington men to the NCAA tourney twice (once as a number one seed). Then he gets drafted and plays for the Knicks, averages better than 8 ppg as a rookie, and wins the slam dunk contest with a crazy dunk over Spud Webb. Way to go Nate!
2. How good is the Washington Husky men's basketball team? I asked this question a couple months back and still don't know. We might not know until March madness begins.
3. Shaun Alexander is a great back. If the Seahawks don't re-sign him, their TD production will be cut by at least one-third, which is the only stat that should really matter to management as they consider whether or not to re-sign the MVP. There's no reason Shaun can't find the endzone 16-20 times per year for the next four years. Pay him accordingly.
4. Is anybody excited about the World Baseball Classic? I'm not hearing anybody talk about it. Maybe it's because I don't talk to the right people. Or maybe people in this country don't really care about international competition, which seems to be a sideshow to the Superbowl, March madness, and the World Series.
5. Three greatest presidents of all-time: Abe Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and Teddy Roosevelt.
6. Speaking of international competition, I've been watching the Olympics quite a bit. I love that the games are progressing (if you haven't seen Snowboardcross, you're missing out) while holding onto the oldies but goodies (ski jumping and bobsled). I still think figure skating is like a car wreck on the side of the freeway, painful to watch but impossible to keep your eyes off.
7. You've got the first pick in your fantasy baseball league. Do you take Pujols or A-Rod? Production wise, it's a wash. Take A-Rod because third basemen are tougher to come by.
posted by Small Fish at 11:24 AM
5 Comments:
Well, what is the standard used for Presidential greatness? If you want to concentrate on run-of-the mill Presidential aspirations like foreign policy or war or domestic accomplishments, well, you'd have to start with ol' George. No, not W you Republican hacks, the #1 George...the face on the bills most often slipped into G-strings. George set the plate by not wanting America to be a monarchy like how that other George, King George, ran the British Empire. If you want to really learn about our George and the great man he was, and how a rabble of revolutionaries took down the superpower of its day, read David McCullough's "1776." A great book, and also voted one of the top ten books of 2005.
Anyway, my list would be tiered. You have the truly greats, and then the notables. Truly greats would be: 1) George 2) Abe 3) Teddy Roosevelt 4) FDR 5) Truman. The notables would be: 1) Jefferson (that ol’ Louisiana Purchase was a pretty good deal, Katrina aside. And he dispatched two pretty adventurous explorers west, by the name of Lewis & Clark 2) Polk (Just about every state west of the Mississippi resulted from his picking a fight with Mexico.) 3) Kennedy (avoiding a nuclear war with Russia over Cuba was a good call. Plus, he bagged Marilyn Monroe.) 4) Reagan. (Winning the Cold War is a pretty good bullet point on any resume.)
Now, if your criteria is which President bagged the most babes, you’d have to go this way: 1) Kennedy, hands down. Jeez, the White House should have had a revolving door to keep up with the parade of women to-and-from the Oval Office 2) Clinton. If we include his stints as Arkansas Governor, perhaps he would be close to Kennedy. 3) Jefferson. His affair with slave Sally Hemings and numerous resulting offspring set him apart from the rest. 4) FDR. Yes, wheelchair or not, FDR got around, but his were long tenured affairs, dignified in a sense, not the notches on bedpost type that Kennedy favored. Read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s biography on the Roosevelt White House, very informative. FDR is also the only President to die with his mistress (Lucy Mercer Rutherford) at his side, while Eleanor was away. 5) LBJ. I don’t know, I guess he was just continuing that part of his predecessor’s legacy. But I heard his favorite line was, "Didn't you hear, everything is bigger in Texas."
To prw:
1. If you told me 5 years ago that Nate would accomplish what Kenny "Sky" Walker accomplished at the NBA level, I'd have told you you're nuts. 5 years ago, if you'd have said Nate Robinson and NBA in the same sentence people all up and down Rainier Ave would have laughed at you. He wasn't even the best player on his high school team!
2. If I had to pick between Dentmon or Brockman, I'd take Brockman hands down.
3. Good point on Shaun, although I still think the most important thing he brings to the team BY FAR is his ability to score.
4. I think the WBC will be fun to watch, and it's great for baseball.
5. GWash would be #4 on my list. That guy was a balla.
6. You must be dozing off when the ice dancers come on.
7. Pay-Rod happens to have one of the most rigorous off season training programs of anybody in baseball. It includes intense coccyx workouts. Sorry.
To bob weeks:
Man, you really broke it down. And thanks for the book recommendation ("1776"). I think I'll check that out.
I'm not sure I agree with your selection of Truman. I don't see how you mention him in the same breath as Gwash, Abe, TR, and FDR. Granted, it took some serious stones to drop the big ones on Japan, but the prudence of his decisions to do so is still questioned by many historians today.
Here's another name for you: Andrew Jackson. Where do you put Old Hickory in the mix?
To PRW:
Brockman overrated? Hardly. Take a look at some of the other hyped freshman in the country, and his numbers are similar. In fact, his scoring is the same and his rebounds per game are more than Josh McRoberts (Duke), who was rated higher than Brockman coming out of high school.
I believe he is in the top 5 in rebounding and field goal percentage in the Pac-10 -- he simply doesn't touch the ball a whole lot this year. You can't blame him for having the Pac-10 player of the year (Roy) on his team, as well as the Pac-10 chucker of the year (J. Williams). His offensive game is not polished, yet, but he's young still. Let's be a little patient with the guy, and I think we'll see that with his athleticism, his constant effort, and his work ethic, by the time he is a senior he will be more valuable to the team than Dentmon (although that isn't to say that Dentmon won't be good, it simply means that, in my estimation, Brockman will be something special by his senior year).
Yes, Jackson thought the earth was flat. He was also born in the woods, and as bob weeks mentioned fought in a duel. From what I gather, Jackson was a pretty crusty guy--tough as nails. Here's a website with some good stories about Old Hickory:
http://www.thehermitage.com/
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