5-at-10: Friday mailbag with racism questions, Jim Murray's brilliance, traitors, betting plans and news

To our business first.

Rushmore of ‘summer’ — Suzanne Somers (Come and knock on our door, indeed), Boys of Summer, “Summer School,” the great Mark Harmon 1980s movie that was jobbed by the Academy, dog days of summer. (All of which narrowly edged summer-sault, summer better than others, Donna Summer and a slew of others.)

Rushmore of Yogi Berra quotes, and this one was a lot harder than I remembered — The ones I remembered without looking: “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” “It’s like deja vu all over again.” “That place is so crowded nobody goes there anymore.” And one of my all-time personal favorites, “Even Napoleon had his Watergate.” (Which is forever poignant to me because my father coined the phrase, "I'd rather be rich and healthy than poor and sick any day.") But I was mighty tempted to add, “I never said most of the things I said” to the list of Yogi-isms.

Rushmore of famous people with the first name of a color: Redd Foxx, Scarlett Johannson, Red Auerbach and Whitey Ford. Does Sandy count as a color? As for movie characters in this category, there’s Whyte Goodman, Red Redding from Shawshank, Blue from “Old School” and Black Panther.

Rushmore of dances in song titles: “The Twist,” “The Macarena,” “The Electric Slide” and “The Tennessee Waltz.”

Here’s Paschall on the Vols’ edge at QB heading into the big Florida tilt.

Here’s Hargis with a great Football Friday story on a Meigs County running back who worked through a near-tragic injury to get back on the field. (Side note: I watched this dude run through and over Signal earlier this year. Not sure which is tougher, tackling him or spelling his last name.) 

As for our Eliminator Pool, here’s what I have entering Week 3, and know this is down from more than 70 entries to start the season. #Carnage.

If you do not see your name but think you have staved off elimination, please email me ASAP.  (Side note: Staved is in that team photo of verbs that is almost always linked in one scenario. Staved of elimination. Billowing smoke. Wreaking havoc. Who has others?) 

Ted P, Chris P — Browns

Pete, HGLIII, Jason T — Chiefs

Ellis — Panthers

Kevin C, Mike B, Willie C — Chargers

SAC — Eagles

To the bag


From Chas

Question for the bag, Jay: Is it wrong when Republicans resort to crying “racist” instead of making an actual argument, or only when Democrats do it?

Chas  — 

Of course it’s wrong. And it’s worse than that.

It’s dangerous because the faux calls of racism from either side are detrimental to the real fight against real racism.

And it’s becoming a universal deflection shield used by far too many. For Pete’s sake, Stephen A. Smith went on a hard-to-listen-to rant Thursday morning on ESPN that the reporting on Celtics coach Ime Udoka being suspended for violating team rules by having a consensual affair with a Boston staff member was an example of racism. (We now know the suspension is for a year and the female has said the end of the affair broke bad and claims Udoka said some very untoward and unprofessional things. No es bueno.)  

Smith said plenty of people in professional sports cheat on their wives — which is likely true — but we were only hearing about Ime Udoka’s dirty deeds because he’s Black.

When you make adultery and violations of team rules (and almost every Human Resources guidelines in almost every industry since you have to believe said staffer in some ways reported to the Celtics head coach) racist, well, then everything is racist, no? And moreover, if everything is racist then is anything racist? 

As for this morning’s question, considering the source and the timing of said question, we all can assume Chas is referring to Donald Trump Jr. — a white Republican, for those living under a rock since the Trump clan switched from being Democrats to further advance the Trump agenda — who called the Black New York DA a racist for pledging to prosecute the Trumps to the lengths of the law on a bunch of allegations for a slew of financial misdeeds.

Saying that is racist is ludicrous, of course. And by the preliminary evidence I’ve seen it’s nonsensical.

But let’s be clear here: Racism is not just whites hating Blacks. Sadly the hatred of racism is an equal opportunity societal nightmare.

And that it has far too often become a deflector shield for the guilty because of the hotness of the button or a justification for so much because of a lack of self-awareness, devalues the efforts to spot, address and end actual racism in my mind.

Granted, the Little Trump’s claim feels like the second-biggest unintentional “We’re guilty” plea this side of “I want a lawyer.” And sadly, it’s par for the course in terms of hollow and false racist allegations that come from the accused, whether they are Black or white, no?

If the Trumps or their attorneys wanted to use words like vendetta or grandstanding as a way to deflect or defend the DA’s pursuits, then that’s one thing.

But the practice of falsely using self-serving claims of racism for self-advancement is dastardly, regardless of the affiliation or the letter after someone’s name.

Right Stacey Abrams?  


From Jeff

Jay

One thing that has always amazed me is that the distance between the bases has stayed 90 ft since instituted in 1845(!). With the uber all over better athleticism, shoes that went from bearskins to track shoes, training/diet etc, it's amazing there are always so many close or bang bang calls, especially at first. You would think they would have adjusted like other sports have - goal posts moved back ten yards, 3pt line moving out, Tiger proofing courses etc, but right now they look like geniuses because speedsters get thrown out on a regular basis (and yes I know that fielding has alot to do with that).

Still, hard to believe that it has just not remained, but proven to be the perfect distance. 

PS Next rule change: get those managers, especially the ones in their 60s and 70s out of the unis and into golf shirts, sweaters etc. You never saw Vince Lombardi or Popovich wearing one.

Jeff  — 

So many talking points.

First, let’s start with the best sports columnist to ever put fingers to keys.

Jim Murray was a longtime L.A. Times sports editor and was a genius in terms of sports columns.

Truly.

Among his thousands and thousands of great lines are: 

— “Gentlemen, start your coffins” as an intro to covering the Indy 500 one year.

— “Jack Dempsey was the only champion who practiced the same way the early Christians did — as if his opponent had a mane and claws and would not only fight him but eat him.”

— “I lost an old friend the other day. He was blue-eyed, impish, he cried a lot with me, laughed a lot with me, saw a great many things with me. I don't know why he left me. Boredom, perhaps. We read a lot of books together, we did a lot of crossword puzzles together, we saw films together. He had a pretty exciting life. He saw Babe Ruth hit a home run when we were both 12 years old. He saw Willie Mays steal second base, he saw Maury Wills steal his 104th base. He saw Rocky Marciano get up. I thought he led a pretty good life.

“You see, the friend I lost was my eye.  My good eye. The other eye, the right one, we've been carrying for years. We just let him tag along like Don Quixote's nag.”

And maybe my favorite of all of Murray’s lines is “Man has never come closer to perfection than 90 feet between the bases.”

Wow. 

And to Jeff’s point, it is amazing how true that is even today, with the changes in the game. In the athletes. In the technology.

The distance between the bases is still, well, perfect.

A ground ball to Honus Wagner back in the 20s I’m sure was just as much a bang-bang play as any ball Dansby Swanson fielded last night.

Incredible.  

Also incredible — but in the other way — is trying to imagine Gregg Popovich in a ‘Jackie Moon’ type of super tight basketball uni and yelling at the refs. Here’s betting that Pop would not have been such a jackwagon to all those sideline reports with his backne and shoulder pimples popping out of a tank top.

Also, it’d be pretty tough to take 5-foot-6 Lord Saban seriously if he showed up to the presser in shoulder pads, no?


JoeDon

JG…

You may already have this on your calendar, but 242 years ago (Wednesday), Benedict Arnold did his dirty deed.

In a Rushmore of traitors, who would be far left? Judas or Mr. Arnold?

Have a great day, sir.

Joe Don  — 

Great question, but Judas is far left.

Yes, Benedict Arnold betrayed his country, and in America, if on the “Family Feud” Steve Harvey asked, “100 Americans surveyed, who is the biggest traitor of all time” Arnold would rank ahead of Judas.

(Sadly, I think ‘Spouse’ could be a contender for No. 1 in this day and age of 100 random Americans.)

But globally, Judas has to be far left here. He betrayed our Lord and Savior for St. Pete’s sake.

Brutus has to be in that conversation too right?

Who else?


From BicycleBob

Jay,

Why do our young people want to decorate themselves by putting rings in their noses? Earlier this week, I was in beautiful Damascus, Virginia to do a bicycle ride on the equally beautiful Virginia Creeper trail (named after a slow-moving train whose converted railroad bed is now the trail). Anyway, an otherwise attractive young waitress in the local diner had a ring in her nose. Now Jay, I grew up in Ringgold. We lived in town, but a lot of my friends lived on farms out in the county. If you wanted to see a nose with a ring in it, you could look at some of the livestock on their family farms. Pray tell what makes the young folk think a nose ring is an improvement to their appearance?

BB  — 

I grew up in Smyrna.

My view on earrings was not judgmental. It was fear.

Because I knew if I came home with a hoop or a stud my father would’ve turned the hole in my ear into a slit in my lobe.

Period. End of discussion.

I wish I had a better answer for this trend. I know when I was much younger it was a sign of rebellion.

Now it feels like designer fashion.

Advantage: Us older generations. 


From JTC

Jay, assume that you are on house money after 2 weeks and fancy a particular line in the upcoming weekend.

Do you play aggressively or keep your pattern the same? Do you play a few wild parlays to stretch your gains?

JTC  — 

Such a great question, that leads to some spin-offs.

First answer your question.

The smart play is to stay in your same pattern. The unit plan is pretty universally praised.

That plan is simple. Take your bankroll and develop a comfortable amount to be 1 unit. Some do it at 1/20th your bank toll. Some do it large. Some do it smaller.

You play multiple units on plays you love, fractional units on plays you just want to dabble in.

In truth the long-term success in almost all gambling endeavors is in wagering strategeries, be it betting or blackjack.

That said, I’m a sucker for the “Hey, it’s house money, let’s roll with an in-game parlay” which is the fun play but not the smart play.

For example, let’s pretend you know a guy who had a hot Saturday in college football that included some local SEC teams like Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee covering big numbers and maybe an Ole Miss win and/or a Charlotte-Georgia State over hitting.

Let’s say said friend viewed those dividends as a chance to really score big and put a fairly large in-game parlay on Nick Chubb to score a TD, Najee Harris to score a TD and Kareem Hunt over 15.5 receiving yards last night.

Let’s say your friend’s parlay was at +710, and the TDs hit but Hunt finished with 14 receiving yards. Yes, a detailed but still random example, people.

You stay with units, you’re still close to four units to the good. You try to break the bank, you go back to Go and do not collect $200. 

Which also brings us to some exciting new gambling endeavors I will be doing with the TFP in the coming weeks. It’s going to be fun and cool, and free.

We’ll discuss more Monday, but until then, have a great weekend friends.

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