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Grandpa Abe Simpson may have hacked my website and penned the essay that follows. Or at least it might read that way. The Buffalo Bills went to four straight Super Bowls and lost all four in the 1990s, but man did they give us the best Super Bowl of all time. Like Tom Petty said, “even the losers- get lucky sometimes.”
Obviously, they never did but sometimes history is better when it’s written be the losers. It wasn’t just the Buffalo Bills who made that Super Bowl so special.
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(Editor’s note: re-publishing this holiday season article in advance of Christmas Eve)
This weekend begins the bowl season, and with it the crappy bowl games that very few of us care about. Saturday brings us a cadre of bowl games that are just as awful as whatever bowl game hosted Notre Dame and USC in the classic Christmas film “Die Hard.”
The total number of bowl games has multiplied at an absurd rate these past few decades, but one truth still remains- real bowl games don’t start until after Christmas, and for the most part well after Christmas. Genuinely desirable bowl games still adhere to tradition, and take place on New Year’s. (For a preview of #14 Notre Dame vs #17 LSU go to this link)
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This week is rivalry week in college football. Which conjures up memories of the Toledo War and the Frostbitten Convention. This weekend brings awesome games with cool names like “The Iron Bowl” (Alabama-Auburn) and “The Holy War” (BYU-Utah). But only one of these rivalry games can claim an actual war in the history of its geographic region. That’s the Michigan Wolverines vs. the Ohio State Buckeyes, or “The Game,” as it’s called.
The Toledo War is one of the many reasons ESPN Classic is running a marathon of past tOSU-UM games today.
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Editor’s note: re-publishing this from May 2014 as the centennial of the 1919 World Series approaches on Tuesday.
The Black Sox are one of the most compelling stories in Chicago sports history. The eight members of the Chicago White Sox ex-communicated from baseball forever for throwing the Cincinnati Reds comprise as intriguing and multi-layered scandals as you’ll find anywhere in sports history.
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Sunday sees the ending of the Chicago White Sox season, with not much of note to show for it, except Tim Anderson winning the batting title. Tuesday marks the centennial of the beginning of the most intriguing and interesting thing the White Sox, or anyone else in sports for that matter, has ever done.
We are referring of course to the 1919 World Series, which will forever be defined by the Black Sox scandal, in which eight ballplayers were forever evicted from the game, due to their conspiring to intentionally suffer defeat.
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There is a brick outside Wrigley Field that honors Hack Wilson; accompanying the flag that flies atop the roof, also glorifying the Great Depression era slugger. Wilson is also enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, largely on the strength of his 56 home run, 191 RBI season of 1930.
His National League single season home run record didn’t fall until the steroid era, and his Major League Baseball single season RBIs record still stands to this day, having made it through the PEDs craziness of the 1990s and 2000s. For a few years, Hack Wilson was legitimately standing eye-to-eye with Babe Ruth. Yet his career end before his mid 30s, with under 250 homers to his name.
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Shoeless Joe Jackson, and the rest of his teammates banned from baseball due to the Black Sox scandal, are not in the Hall of Fame, but they do have a strong presence in Cooperstown.
On the main level of the baseball hall of fame, you’ll see prominent photos of Shoeless Joe, the 1919 Chicago White Sox, and various artifacts relating to the team and the scandal. The hall has ace pitcher Eddie Cicotte’s pocket watch, manager Kid Gleason’s jersey and the very first ball thrown in the World Series on display.
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Sometimes for better, often for worse, the Chicago Cubs have a very prominent place in baseball history. This is undeniable, as they are one of the sport’s biggest brands, and their imprint at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York is expectedly massive.
Let’s take a look at what Cubs fans need to see and experience when they visit the Hall of Fame. First though a little history about why the museum is located where it is.
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The Chicago White Sox, via Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Black Sox affair of the 1919 World Series, brought us the most interesting and captivating moment in baseball history. They, along with the gamblers, also inspired the greatest book and movie in baseball history.
With this in mind, you knew there was going to be representation at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Gambling is big now, especially at uudet nettikasinot, so maybe it’s time to rethink the Black Sox? We’ve covered that in previous post yesterday, which you can read over at this link, so now we’ll take a look at what else White Sox fans need to see and experience when they visit the Hall of Fame.
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“Disco Stu does not advertise,” but I do. The Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast is back with episode number three, centering on Disco Demolition night. Part of the Hammer & Rails Podcast Network, which is under the SB Nation umbrella, the latest edition of LGWS is the most popular episode yet, with 4,150+ listens and counting!
And why not? It is a classic tale of a baseball promotion that worked “too well.” The Chicago White Sox drew too many people, and the event got too much “notoriety” as it was an absolutely cataclysmic night at the old ballpark back in 1979.
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As has been well documented, especially so on this site, the patriotism gets ramped up to jingoism and then some at the Indianapolis 500 every year. Actually take that jingoism and square it, no wait- take it to the tenth power. On one hand, we get it- this site’s colors are red, white and blue for a reason.
It is the nation’s biggest Memorial Day weekend gathering, as it draws over 300,000 people each year. On the other hand, come on- spare us the native advertising for the armed services; sponsored by Chevrolet. People showed up for an auto race, not a recruiting pitch, and certainly not for more Chevy ads.
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The first head football coach in Purdue history was a man named Albert Berg, who coached the team to an 0-1 record in the inaugural 1887 season. He was paid $1, which is about $25 in today’s money to do so. The result was not good for Purdue, as they lost to Butler 48-6.
Still Albert Berg was an incredibly talented and unique man who overcame the obstacle of deafness. Yes, he was able to become Purdue’s first ever football coach despite being deaf.
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