Sam's Notes

Handling the snap

If you'll remember, I had Tony Romo in a postseason truth-is-stranger-than fiction scenario. Well, I was right. Sort of.

I haven't checked it out, but surely I'm not the only pundit to recognize that Romo's fumbled snap in last night's game is straight out of North Dallas Forty, the movie based on Peter Gent's fictionalized account of his days with the Cowboys. In the movie's climactic scene, which is different from the book's, Mac Davis is leading the two-minute drill with a playoff berth on the line. During a timeout, Davis convinces G.D. Spradlin to bring in the benched Nick Nolte, who promptly makes a couple of key catches, including the TD that presumably will tie the game. But the backup quarterback fumbles the snap during the extra point attempt, dashing North Dallas' playoff hopes.

Meanwhile, the NYT's William Rhoden just won't give it a rest. He thinks Ohio State's Troy Smith is disrespecting the Black Quarterback title:

Earlier in the season, Smith told reporters that he felt the African-American quarterback angle was a dead issue. 'We're way beyond it,' he said.....'I don't see color. I see people in my situation. I disliked it so much when they said Warren Moon was the first African-American quarterback inducted into the Hall of Fame. He's a quarterback. I didn't appreciate that.'

With all due respect to Smith, the Buckeyes' senior quarterback, if you respect Moon, you must appreciate the arduous path that took him from Los Angeles to Edmonton to Calgary to Houston to Canton. Moon helped clear the way for Smith to flourish in Columbus and Leak to survive in Gainesville. Someone cleared the path for Moon, and earlier generations cleared the a path for that pioneer.

Taken in context, Rhoden implies that Moon's path to the NFL was arduous because he was black. Maybe so. But is it not possible that a lot of guys don't take a direct path to the NFL because it's pretty damn hard to make it there? Fortunately, Moon had the tenacity and the skills to do it. So did Doug Flutie, a Heisman Trophy winner who spent some time in Canada before he became an established quarterback. Short people got no business, as Randy Newman once said.

Rhoden also implies that racism was behind critics' suggestion that Vince Young would be a better position player than a quarterback. His performance in last year's Rose Bowl, no matter how extraordinary, certainly suggested he might not be a classic pocket passer. But Young has proven his critics wrong. So has Steve McNair, the veteran quarterback who was unceremoniously cut loose to make room for Young.

Personally, I'm rooting for McNair during the playoffs because he'a good Southern boy. I don't if that cuts it with guys like Rhoden.

Beyond weird

Cone says "let college football stay weird." I agree in principle, but we all know there's good weird and there's bad weird.

The BCS is bad weird. Big 12 teams in the Rose Bowl. The Orange Bowl on Jan.2. As I wrote over at Publius, it's crazy that Wake Forest won't be playing on New Year's Day after its historic season.

Michael Rosenberg makes the case for good weird:

Michigan should face Florida on the field.

No, not in a playoff. Florida should head to the Sugar Bowl as the Southeastern Conference champion.

Michigan should go there as the best available at-large team.

Ohio State? The Buckeyes should fly out to the Rose Bowl, as the Big Ten champ, to face Pac-10 champion Southern Cal.

If the Buckeyes beat USC, they would be undisputed national champions. If they lost, the door would be open for the Michigan-Florida winner.

That is how college football worked for a few decades before people decided to look out for No. 1 and only No. 1. Conference champions went to specific bowls -- everybody else went to the best bowl they could find.

The sport wasn't perfect. Last year's USC-Texas matchup never would have happened under the old system.

But it was better than the Bowl Championship Series because teams got what they earned, and the system never claimed to be something it wasn't.

Given the fact that the BCS has rendered the system beyond weird, I'd rather go ahead with a playoff system. Just one run by an underdog would make everyone wonder why they didn't do it years ago.

Truth can be stranger than fiction

I conjured up this Super Bowl scenario while watching the first quarter of the Panthers game, when there was nothing but bad passes and punts.

Cowboys vs. the Patriots. Not only would Bill Parcells be facing the last team he took to the Super Bowl, but you'd have Tony Romo, this year's version of Tom Brady, facing the master in the flesh.

The common denominator, of course, is Drew Bledsoe, who will be standing on the sidelines watching two guys who knocked him out of a job go at it. But wait: Romo gets knocked out during the second offensive series and Bledsoe is forced to take over. He beats Brady at his own game, driving the Cowboys down the field for a game-winning Martin Gramatica field goal.

Keep this in mind.

Not much of an appetite

R. Emmett Tyrrell piles on James Webb:

"Mr. Webb now takes his place with Hillary Rodham Clinton, Howard Dean, Al Gore, Jean-Francois Kerry, and so many other Democratic notables as a rebarbative blowhard with whom you would not want to share a gondola. Nor would a civilized American want to have any of these churlish cads to dinner or even as neighbors down the block. Just the other day one of Mrs. Clinton's neighbors turned up with a gunshot wound. I would not be surprised if it were self-inflicted.

"As it happens I did dine with Mr. Webb, sometime after his brief stint at the Navy Department. He is a pretty good novelist and in print at the time had expressed some ideas of which I approved, particularly his scruples against women in combat, though other of his references to women strike me as coarse.

"At any rate, I invited him to dinner for what turned out to be a gruesome evening. Mr. Webb is one of those people said to be uncomfortable in his skin. At first, I thought his discomfort might come from the fear he would have to pay his way. It was a classy eatery. I reassured him he was my guest. I went on to make clear I considered him a fine writer.

"Nothing I said reassured him, not even my insistence that he have dessert. I left baffled. Most of the military men I have known are gents. Many writers are cads, but I thought a writer who had also served high up in the Reagan administration might be civilized. After that dinner I never made the mistake of inviting him anywhere again."
   

The line

Cal Thomas weighs in on the aborted O.J. special:

"Even more bizarre than the prospect of O.J. Simpson "confessing" to the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in a book and TV show and getting a few million for it (proving crime can pay) was the cancellation of both by Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation. The most often heard indictment of this project was that the deal had 'crossed the line.'

"Ultimately, O.J. Simpson getting millions to spill his guts after being convicted in a civil case and in the public consciousness of spilling the blood of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman should not surprise anyone. It is what happens, not when a line is crossed, but when a line has been erased."

That was more or less Rush Limbaugh's take on the situation, though his viewpoint was actually a thinly-veiled defense of his former publisher Judith Regan.

But both Thomas and Limbaugh are right. Look at what people are doing on TV these days. I was just thinking about that as I looked down at the urinal at a rest stop somewhere in Virginia. I haven't seen anyone lick a toilet bowl on TV for a million dollars, but they've performed equally gross acts. And Thomas ceretainly has a point about women mentioning male body fluids on TV. I admit "Sex and the City" is one of my favorite TV shows, mostly because the acting and writing are excellent. But I'm amazed at what TBS considers to be the sanitized version of the show it airs every Tuesday night. They've cut out the "f" word and frontal nudity, but that's about it.

If you remember a couple of years back, another famous social outcast spilled his guts to the world, and the world reacted quite harshly. I personally was shocked at the indignation expressed by many to Pete Rose's admission that he bet on baseball. Fellow fans told me how sick it made them, his book was trashed by critics and there's no indication baseball will reinstate him. I found his book very entertaining and still don't understand why, with the love-your-enemy mentality in this country, baseball and society can't forgive Rose. What he did was wrong, but at least he didn't kill two people.

So while "the line" has faded, there still is a line. O.J. just can't say "if I did it." He's going to have to say "I did it." Someday he will, and I guarantee that interview won't be cancelled.

Hey Dad

Somehow, the Friday after Thanksgiving seemed like an appropriate time to visit Mount Vernon. More than a few people had the same thought. The place was packed, so I basically waited two hours for a 15-minute tour of George Washington's estate. The wait was made longer when an EMT pulled up to the front door. After 20 minutes, a geriatric in a green pant suit was escorted down the steps by a medic and loaded into the ambulance. My guess is she couldn't handle the steps leading to the second floor.

But hey, it was beautiful day, and if you've got someone to hold a place in line, you can stroll aorund the estate and look the stable, the smokehouse, the laundry, the clerk's office and "the necessary." Three holes in a bench. Washington may been a founding father, but he didn't have indoor plumbing.
But he had an awsome view of the Potomac. We also made friends with the people in line in front of us. The dad was a State Department employee who was in charge of security at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan. It was his most challenging assignment, he told me. I couldn't imagine.

However brief the tour, it's worth it to walk through Washington's personal space. The best part was his study. It was a large room, but certainly not the fanciest. In fact, aside from the large bookshelf on one wall, it was rather spartan. My background in pop psychoanalysis tells me this is where Washington came to be Washington, a place where he could escape from the pressures of helping to build the country that became what it is today. One can only imagine the deep thinking that went on in that room.

That said, I definitely recommend devoting the majority of your time to the newly-opened Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center, especially if it's your second tour. The museum uses incredible interactive technology and traditional exhibits to give visitors a truly three-dimensional view of the Father of Our Country. You'll never think about him the same way again.

For your consideration

Heroes and Villains

Glavine knocked out of Game 5; Sammy Stewart gets six years; A-Rod to Cubs?

Here, there and everywhere

So while the RMA report is being passed around town like a dirty magazine in brown paper bag, while Mike Barber is putting cops on horseback, while Elizabeth Edwards is listening as much as she's talking and while Skip Alston is demanding a boycott of the N&R, here I am, sitting in a hot tub with my wife:

Publius will handle the RMA report. I do not have a copy; but I've been told I am not without resources.

I wasn't totally disconnected from the real world, either. Before heading to Hot Springs, we made a detour through Asheville. It's one of my favorite places to visit, though I'm not sure I could live there. We checked out the setting of one of my favorite books, Look Homeward Angel. The Thomas Wolfe Memorial is open again after being closed for quite some time while damages resulting from a fire were fixed. It looks great; I could swear it used to be white, though.

While eating breakfast this morning, I came across two interesting baseball articles in the Asheville Citizen-Times not including the Tigers' sweep. The first was on former Orioles pitcher Sammy Stewart. I disticntly remember Stewart's major league debut when he set a major league record by striking out six batters in a row. Now he's an inmate in the Buncombe County jail:

"Since 1988, he has been charged 46 times with more than 60 offenses. According to Department of Corrections records, he has been sent to prison six times for a total of 25 months.

Now, just days away from his 52nd birthday and nearly two decades after the cheering stopped, Stewart is facing a prison sentence of up to 10 years on a felony drug charge. He’s being held before the trial because he couldn’t raise the $70,000 bail.

Stewart is on the trial calendar this week in Buncombe County Superior Court, when the district attorney’s office will attempt to convict him as a habitual felon.

“I’m a crack addict, a drug addict,” Stewart said. “I want one more chance. I’m hoping I get 18 months in rehab or three years, and I’ll do that. But don’t give me seven years. Don’t just throw me away.”
With an arrest record that dates back nearly 30 years and runs 17 pages from a court printout, he is asking for another chance while admitting he’s uncertain if he can lick the addiction to drugs that he blames for ruining his life".

The second was Steve Lyons' insenstive remarks to his partner Lou Piniella, which resulted in his ouster from the FOX booth. I saw this coming: While watching an earlier ALCS game, I heard Piniella mention that Jim Leyland came to the Tigers because he knew the franchise had a commitment to winning. That's an important factor for any managerial candidate, he added.

"Then why'd you take the Tampa Bay job?" Lyons asked.

Dead air. Never good.

Full circle

Speaking of Scott Johnson, this Powerline post (actually Paul Mirengoff's) reminds us the ALCS is 1972 redux:

The Tigers now face Oakland, victors in three straight over the Twins (sorry, guys). This is a rematch of the 1972 AL Championship series. That year, an over-the-hill Tiger club, inspired by Billy Martin, won the old AL East with a record of 86-70. They benefited from a little remembered quirk -- in a strike-shortened season, the Boston Red Sox, with a record of 85-70, were not allowed to play the extra game (whom would they have played?) they needed to catch the Tigers.

In the Championship series, the Tigers extended the powerful A's to five games (the max in those days). The A's won the decider 2-1. As I recall, Reggie Jackson scored the tying run by stealing home. He injured himself in the process and missed the entire World Series. The A's nonetheless upset Cincinnati to win the first of their three straight championships.

Funny, I was talking about this with Guarino and Floyd Stuart about this during lunch at Freedom Net. That series, along with the NLCS pitting the Reds against the Pirates (another exciting series, with my idol Johnny Bench emerging as a hero) are my first baseball memories.

I'd totally forgotten that Billy Martin was the manager of that '72 Tigers club, which was still basically the '68 title team, only four years older and without Denny McClain.

What I remember most is when Lerrin LaGrow hit Bert Campaneris with a pitch and Campy rared back and threw his bat at LaGrow, who ducked out of the way. As you can imagine,   bench-clearing brawl broke out. Pretty interesting stuff for a kid watching his first ballgames.