Feedback
The people have spoken. You guys and gals want to talk wrestling. I am apparently not the only person who sees grave injustice in the fact that Macho Man Randy Savage's Intercontinental title victory over Tito Santana has been erased from the legendary moments in Boston Garden history. It belongs right up there with Orr's goal to win the Stanley Cup and Havlicek's steal.
The Texas Yankees Fan writes: Best match ever, by the way, was Ricky Steamboat and Macho Man at, I think, Wrestlemania III. Steamboat was great.
SD Jones also lost the quickest match on record, to King Kong Bundy at Wrestlemania 2 I think. It lasted six seconds.
Hard to argue with Steamer, one of the all-time greats. Like Yaz playing his entire career with the Red Sox or John Elway with the Broncos, Ricky Steamboat was a pristine good guy his entire career. Wrestlers generally would switch from good to evil at the drop of a hat -- Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff turned on the Hulkster because Hulk didn't answer Orndorff's phone call while he was at the gym, if I remember correctly -- but not the Steamer. You can't really count at the end, when he brought his wife and kid to the ring and people booed them.
As for poor SD, I had my interns do the research between football picks and they discovered SD lost in nine seconds to Bundy, at the first Wrestlemania. I was going to pour through some of my old Pro Wrestling Abstracts to see if I could find any sabermetrical detail related to the number of championships won by wrestlers who suffered sub-30 second pinfalls, but I believe I left them back in Boston.
David S. writes from his seaside shanty in Hull, MA: The only man in
WWF history who should have been allowed to wear any type of wrist or arm protection
was Iron Mike Sharpe, who had to have the leather brace on his wrist to protect
from further injury. If that leather concealed metal, so be it. It was a
medical condition and the only way he could enjoy his livelihood safely (ala
Casey Martin the golfer). So take your outlaw Cowboy Bob Orton and his goon act and shove it up Captain Lou's ass.
Now, I always used to scoff at Iron Mike Sharpe. Not about his "Canada's Greatest Athlete" nickname. I believed that part. Wayne Gretzky never had to contend with the Superfly coming at him from 15 feet in the air. But that leather brace on his arm -- now just how tough could that be?
I decided to test it out. Dave's World Enforcer Steve Sears has these armbands he wears as part of a leather ensemble he trots out on certain special occasions. I instructed him to hit me full force in the head pro wrestling style, stomping his foot for extra emphasis like Baron Scicluna. He did so, and when I was revived I had a grade two concussion.
So the leather thing is legit. The problem was, Sharpe was so preoccupied with getting set up to use it, that he'd get distracted and never win. Unless he was wrestling SD. I bet they must have wrestled the opener 500 times over the years, and the record is probably 250-250.
Simon F. of White Haven, Idaho sent me about a dozen emails over the past few days. The first one declared: "I don't think a girl needs teeth to look fine. What do you think?" When I didn't respond, he hit me with six or seven more emails saying "Answer me," and "Are you doing to answer, Doyle?" Finally he got the hint and turned to other matters:
I was prepared to do a bit of research to show you how ignorant you and
your boss were about dissing the Milwaukee sports scene. Why? Don't ask
me, it just seemed like the thing to do. Problem is, you're right. I
want to SI.com's archive of the mag's 50th anniversary vanity project
to check on the 50 greatest Wisconsin athletes. Let's just say that,
unless they missed somebody, Latrell Sprewell is on a very short list
of names you might recognize.
But I digress ... the real point of my writing this is to mock the
Mass. Top 50, and specifically the Top 3. Doug Flutie over Patrick
Ewing? Doug Flutie at No.2 and Patrick Ewing at No. 3? It is absolutely
absurd. Yeah, and Tom Glavine No. 7, ahead of Pie Traynor at No. 8?
Best athlete in Idaho history? Harmon Killebrew. Not a bad little guy
to have for such a podunk state as mine.
I'm still not on the Mike Morse bandwagon, though he's been a breath of
fresh air. Morse might have a hard time keeping his job in the future
as the Mariners have a veritable conga line of SS prospects coming up
as they've spent high draft picks on the spot in four of the past five
years. Still, they are looking good up the middle for the future,
especially once Jeff Clement gets a couple years in the minors ... and
assuming they don't trade him to wherever it is Heathcliff Slocumb is
playing these days.
First off, that is Billerica's Tom Glavine to you. That's his legal name. Second ... dude, Doug Flutie. C'mon. Flutie. The greatest high school football player in state history, or at least since Wayne Milner, and no one alive remembers Wayne Milner. Flutie won the Heisman Trophy. In Boston. That's like someone from the U of Texas winning the Hobey Baker Award. He won 264 Grey Cups, and the only time he was given a real chance to start in the NFL, he kick-started the Bills, got them into the playoffs ... then Genius Wade Phillips benched him at the last minute in favor of Rob Johnson, Johnson's team lost the Home Run Throwback playoff game to Tennessee, and the Bills have sucked ever since. Anyway, I can grant you that someone outside New England might not understand, but Flutie was a Boston football phenomenon that will likely never be repeated. Ewing was an excellent high school basketball player, obviously, but that was his only real tie to the area and he didn't have Flutie's mainstream breakthrough impact. Now, where did the Duke of Dorchester Pete Doherty rank on that Top 50?
*Had a pretty great surprise yesterday when I got a call out of the blue from my buddy Matt, who is back on leave from Iraq. Matt's a Stryker Brigade sergeant based in Mosul. We snuck off to the Mariners-A's matinee game, and I can now hold on to my ticket stub and proudly claim "I was there when the A's hit 14 singles and Kirk Sarloos pitched a complete game." Maybe I'll tell my grandchildren that someday. Maybe not. Afterwards, we were playing whiffle ball in a parking lot down by the railroad tracks waiting for the traffic jam to let up, and I hit a foul ball over the fence and into the tracks. Without batting an eye, Matt promptly scaled the eight foot fence topped with barbed wire and got the ball, something I'm guessing I'll never do.
Anyway, I mention Matt because he's going to start occasionally contributing pieces on life in Northern Iraq. I won't be taking any political stands -- Matt and I are simply aiming to provide a snapshot of what the kids over in the desert face in their day-to-day routine.
*Eric Mirlis has a site worth checking out at The Writers. Mirlis' credentials include working for the NBA and the New York Islanders.
*And no, to those who asked, I did not watch Game 7 last night. Just because a series goes seven games doesn't mean it magically transforms into a classic series. Case in point: The 1997 Indians-Marlins World Series, still the worst seven-game championship series in pro sports in my lifetime (OK, maybe Knicks-Rockets was worse). The end of Game 7 was dramatic. Didn't make the rest of the series any better.
*Time for my weekly pitch -- if you're new to Dave's World and like what you see, please pass along the link to a friend or two. Likewise, I encourage you to drop me a line and tell me how you heard about the site. That even goes for you sports reporters who publicly mock blogs, then click my site and a half-dozen others in your downtime between deadlines. Go ahead, drop me a line. I won't tell anyone.
Feedback
<< Home