Another Teammate Gone

Once upon a time baseball ranked at the top of my list of sports love affairs.  It was the sport I first embraced when the light bulb went off in my head that men like Sandy Koufax and Mickey Mantle existed.  About that time my mother got me a subscription to Sports Illustrated and I was hooked.

I loved the game's history.  I studied it with a passion, paging through the Baseball Encyclopedia, devouring the statistics, debating the merits of different players with my friends.  Tucked away in the list of great players and teams were the Boston Red Sox of the late 1940's.  You look at that lineup and wonder how the hell is it that they didn't make more trips to the World Series.  Oh yeah, the New York Yankees were a major roadblock, but those Red Sox teams were loaded.

David Halberstam chronicled the four core teammates of those great teams in a 2003 book called, "The Teammates:  A Portrait of Friendship."  The story revolved one of baseball's greatest hitters Ted Williams and his relationship with three other teammates, Bobby Doerr, Dom Dimaggio, and Johnny Pesky.  It is a wonderful read, peeling away Williams crusty exterior by detailing the enduring friendships he had formed with these three wonderful ballplayers.

Johnny Pesky died today at 92.  He was a slick fielding shortstop who hit for average but not much power.  He hit only 17 home-runs in his war shortened career but has the honor of having the right field foul pole in Boston's historic Fenway Park named after him.  Of the four teammate only Doerr remains, at age 94.  Williams died a decade ago, Dimaggio in 2009. 

When I see news that a great ballplayer like Pesky die I feel a twinge of in my heart.  My mind races to some of the all time greats still walking this earth, men like Stan Musial and Yogi Berra.  They ruled the sports world when baseball was still America's past time.  The pace of life was a little slower.  There was no Internet, no sabermetrics to weigh every stat each player produced, free agency was years away.  Heck, America's interstates weren't even complete.

They were part of America's greatest generation.  Go read Halberstam's book then read anything by Roger Angell about baseball.  Great books about baseball remind me why I once loved the game so much.

Let the Games End

I'm suffering from Olympic fatigue.  Never have I been so happy to see the Olympics come to an end.  That's saying a lot considering my love of track and field.  The performances at Olympic Stadium in London did not disappoint.

What did disappoint was NBC's presentation of the Games.  The horrific web feed was a buffer mess chalk full of endless commercials which ruined the continuity of the broadcast.  The prime time shows aimed at the lowest common denominator, with lousy commentary and even worse analysis.  The only interesting bits came from Tom Brokaw and Mary Carillo with their stories of British history and tradition.

The BBC delivered in spades.  The few chances that I got to watch through a web stream showed what Olympic coverage can truly deliver.  The race calls were thrilling, the analysis insightful and even though the BBC focused on their athletes, they gave the proper amount of coverage and respect due to the other athletes competing for other countries.  It wasn't personality or star driven like NBC.

NBC decided before the meet started who the stars are and that bit them in the ass more times than I care to count.  Lolo Jones stands out the most.  The amount of coverage given to her compared to Dawn Wells, who owns both an Olympic Gold and Silver medal was about 10 to 1.  Galen Rupp and Leo Manzano deliver historic performances in the 10000 and 1500 and it merits barely a blip in the prime time coverage.  Instead with are deluged with scantily clad bikini beach volleyball players who couldn't cut it in indoor volleyball and BMX bike racers.  But enough of my rant.

The track and field portion of these games were amazing. Meb Keflezighi's amazing run from further back than 15th place to finish 4th in the marathon is nothing short of amazing.  Even though he didn't medal it ranks right up there with the Silver medals snagged by Rupp and Manzano showing the terrific comeback in American distance running.

The biggest hero of the American effort to me is relays coach Jon Drummond.  The former sprint great got the most out of four relay squads.  The women delivered 2 Gold medals and a World Record in the 4 X 100.  Despite two Silver medals from the men's squad both teams did great considering the injuries and the dominating presence of one Usain Bolt.  Kudos to Drummond for getting such great performances out of all four relay teams.  America's track and field team brought back 29 medals and with a bit of look could have won 3 or 4 more. 

The most magnificent run came from Kenya's David Rudisha.  His 800 meter world record was a stunning one man show that clearly stamps him as the greatest at two laps in history.  I wouldn't be surprised to see him return in 2016 and claim Gold in Rio.

Finally, there's Bolt.  He pronounced himself a legend while taking a well-deserved shot at America's greatest track and field Olympian, Carl Lewis.  Bolt's is much like Muhammed Ali, full of bravado.  I think his words won't play well in the United States.  Let the journalist and fans pronounce you a legend.  Let your running speak for itself.

In the end none of us should be fooled by what we see on the track.  Drugs remains a serious problem in the sport.  The IOC and IAAF don't want to do anything to inflict further damage on a sport that sees its fan base eroding.  I'm not saying Bolt is a doper, I simply don't know.  But I think you could easily spot a lot of chemically enhanced performances in London.  The real winners are the chemists who keep creating concoctions that stay just one step ahead of the testers.  It leaves me in doubt and feeling empty about a sport that I truly love. 

Leo Roars

12 men toed the line tonight for my favorite Olympic event.  The men's 1500 meter run.  The experts were pondering whether American Matt Centrowitz could duplicate his shocking accomplishment from last year's World Championships by taking a Bronze medal.  Another American stood beside him at the start, a tiny figure born in Mexico, but raised in Texas, Leo Manzano.

Leo Manzano first popped onto my radar nearly a decade ago when he appeared out of nowhere at the Kansas Relays to set a meet record in the boy's 800 meter run.  I scratched my head and wondered where the heck this kid from Marble Falls High School came from?  Rarely did runners travel all the way from Texas to run the Relays plus I prided myself in knowing the top high school kids in track and field. Manzano wasn't on my radar at all.

He went on to an outstanding career at the University of Texas where he built upon an outstanding high school career.  Leo won 4 NCAA titles and showed an uncanny ability at the college level to run well off of any pace.  Yet his times in college, while good, didn't indicate greatness.

Manzano was an accomplished runner no doubt but hardly ballyhooed like my running hero Jim Ryun.  The Kansas great set world records and went into the Mexico City Olympics as a Gold medal contender.  Were it not for the altitude of Mexico City and the team tactics of the Kenyans Ryun might have been able to beat the great Kip Keino.

I remember the intense disappointment sitting in front of our black and white RCA TV in Abilene, Kansas watching Ryun helplessly try to close the massive gap Keino had opened up going into the last lap.  Keino ran a stunning time, 3:34.91, perhaps the greatest 1500 ever, considering the track sat at 7,350 feet.  It was pure agony 44 years ago for this 12-year-old.  I can only imagine the heartbreak for Ryun.

Now in London, Leo Manzano was toeing the line, not even picked by the experts to make the finals.  The Czarina loves Manzano.  He's only 5' 5" which means most other middle distance runners tower over him.  She loves the scrappy determination he shows when running the last 150 meters of a mile or 1500.  But all too often in big events, Manzano seemed to lack the tactics and the explosive speed needed in a championship final.

But not in 2012, this Texan was destined to stand tall.  No, Leo didn't win.  Leo came away with a Silver medal just like my hero Jim Ryun.  I watched with unbridled joy the BBC web feed of the 1500 finals this afternoon.  At first I thought it was Centrowitz who was going to burst down the final stretch but Manzano had run a perfect race positioning himself to slingshot down the track over the final 100 meters.

The winner, Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria, used all sorts of deception to work his way into the finals, undoubtedly faking an injury to get out of the 800 to save himself for the 1500..  His speed from 1000 meters to 1400 was unbelievable and he gave him a gap big enough for Gold.

And now I sit in front of the television with the Czarina waiting for NBC to show the 1500 finals some seven hours after it happened.  The Czarina has no idea what happens.  I can't wait to see her joy when her favorite miler grabs Olympic glory and America's first Olympic medal at 1500 meters in 44 years.

The Golden Hour

A week into the Olympic Games where Michael Phelps rose like a phoenix and Gabby Douglas became America's latest gymnastics sweetheart.  But nothing could stir the sporting soul like the period between 3:45 p.m. EST and 4:45 p.m. EST but you wouldn't know it watching NBC's coverage.  The Brits enjoyed a golden hour of athletics.  First Jessica Ennis overcame her many critics to capture gold in the Heptathlon.  Shortly after her victory Greg Rutherford seal his surprising gold medal in the Long Jump.  As that event wrapped up more than 20 men circled the track running 10000 meters.  You had to watch it all unfold on the Internet to watch history unfold in real time.

Running for Great Britain was Somali transplant Mo Farah.  It was a bruising competition.  The Eritrean runners continually pushed and shoved Farah during the first half of the race, trying to throw him off his game.  Farah also had to deal with the Kenyans and Ethiopians who were ready to steal his gold.

The real racing didn't begin until 5 laps remained in the competition.  3 Ethiopians, 3 Eritreans, 2 Kenyans, Farah and his American training partner Galen Rupp appeared poised to battle it out over the last 2000 meters.  It was a chess match, no one wanting to push the tempo too hard.  The Ethiopians trying to keep it under control for Kenenisa Bekele, who was seeking yet another Olympic title.  The Kenyans looking lost and confused over whether to push the tempo or wait and kick.  Rupp and Farah simply ran with confidence biding their time.

It came with 500 meters to go.  Farah seized the lead and dared the field to catch him.  Rupp, bravely held on as the race for the podium fell to just 6 runners down the backstretch.  Farah never faltered, running away from the field coming off the final turn while Rupp gathered himself and sprinted around three other runners into 2nd.  It was amazing stretch run, the British crowd roaring for Farah and Rupp sprinting after his training mate in wide eyed surprise as he realized they would go 1-2.

As much as this first ever gold at 10000 meant for Great Britain, Galen Rupp's silver means just as much for U.S.A. distance running.  It marked the first American medal at 10000 since Billy Mill's spectacular sprint to gold in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games.  Rupp is standing on the precipice of becoming the greatest distance runner in American history.

Now both men will figure in the hunt for medals at 5000 meters next week.  Alberto Salazar has proven himself as one of the great distance coaches of his generation, having guided both Farah, Rupp and Dathan Ritzenheim who finished a respectable 13th in this incredible race.  As great as Salazar was as a runner, he's now proven himself an even greater coach.

Finally, this medal marks redemption for Rupp.  He has been the whipping boy for almost a decade for nasty critics who grace the message boards of websites like Let'sRun.  They've questioned his toughness and his finishing speed.  They hate his association with Salazar and the advantages that training at the NIKE facilities give him with its state of the art technology.  Most of all I think they were envious of his success.  Galen Rupp has seen success at every level and whether they know it or not, an Olympic silver medal is a huge success.  Just ask Jim Ryun.

Editor's note:  Just wanted to add that it's a shame that American Matt Tegenkamp did not compete better in the 10000.  Matt, who hails from Lee's Summit, Missouri, has had an incredible career and still holds the American Record for 2 miles.

Delta Force, to the Power of One

Tomorrow afternoon a 40 something junior college coach will sit down in front of a computer or a television set to watch one of his progeny will take to the track in London in a quest for Olympic glory.  Mike Bloemker is a very successful track and cross country coach.  He made his bones first as a private coach working out of the now Health Plus club in a Kansas City suburb.

Bloemker was hated by a handful of spiteful high school coaches.  He took several high school boys and girls, trained them properly, turning many into state champions.  One of his boys, Dwight Davis, went on to break 4 minutes in the mile in college.  During one period in the late 90's he had half a dozen girls running at Division 1 schools, one a two-time Footlocker finalist, Amanda Pape.

The hatred eventually put Mike in a bind.  It was impacting his recruiting at Johnson County Community College.  He hated the back biting lies and jealousy that his success brought.  By 2001 he washed his hands of private coaching and slowly but surely the hate and resentment among the high school coaches in the Kansas City area faded away.

The best group of his long, line of successful distances runners came out of a group which dubbed itself, Delta Force.  Amy Gouchner, Elle Pishney and Amy Hastings were all outstanding high school runners.  All ended up at D1 schools, Gouchner first running for Mike at JCCC, then Southern Utah.  Pishney went to Duke.  Hastings was an All-American at Arizona State.  Now she's an Olympian.

I went a long for a long run or two with this trio in the late 90's.  They loved running together.  You could see the bond gained from those16 mile runs they rolled through every Sunday morning.  But I can honestly say that I would never expect that any of these three would become world class distance runners.  Yet, Hastings did.

Amy was in no way the best runner Mike ever coached.  Pape was the most accomplished at the high school level with a national junior title at 5000 meters.  Amanda was good in college (Georgetown), but lacked Hastings drive.  Amy thrived at Arizona State and by her junior year she started running quality times and earned multiple All-American honors.  Then last year she ran a stunning 2:27 debut marathon in Los Angeles opening a lot of eyes.

A heart breaking 4th place finish at the Olympic Trials Marathon in Houston left her with only one option.  Amy had to qualify for the Olympics in the 10000.  She did it shocking everyone by out sprinting the field for an unbelievable win.

Tomorrow Amy will toe the line against the world's best.  That means facing the Kenyans, Ethiopians, Russians, Chinese and Brits in hopes of Olympic glory.  It would be a miracle on the scale of Billy Mills epic win in Tokyo for Hastings to even make the medals.  A top 10 finish would be a stellar achievement.

Tomorrow when I sit down at 4:25 p.m. to watch this race I will think of Mike and all the garbage he swallowed to help get Hastings to where she is today.  He played an important role in developing a young, talented runner, into a world class competitor.  I know he's proud.  He should be proud.

As for Amy, her home state of Kansas and her hometown of Leavenworth will be rooting for her.  The Czarina and I will be rooting for her.  I hope she runs the time of her life and shocks the world.

Dropping the F Bomb!

I used to swear like a sailor at work.  Swearing was a lot more acceptable in a newsroom environment 30 years ago.  The flood of four-letter words could be endless.  Despite having an extensive vocabulary, my language was more than a little salty.  My tongue has been a source of great embarrassment as it was today.

I was sitting on the assignment desk dealing with a balky email.  Journal Broadcasting has decided that Gmail is the route to go for handling station email over Outlook.  For the past 2 days the system has barred me from being able to get into the email which goes to the assignment desk.  It's been restored by our IT guy on more than a couple of occasions and then goes back into failure mode.  About mid-morning I realized that I had suddenly stopped getting emails into my account altogether.  A GD, F this S followed. 

Not more than 15 feet away from my perch is a conference room with paper thin walls.  As Andrew our 6 p.m. producer giggled at my short rant the GM stuck her head out of the door and asked, "Is there anything I can help you with?"  I meekly bowed my head and responded, "No."  I had forgotten about a manager's meeting that included some corporate suits that was going on in there.  Andrew proceeded to snicker even harder.

I apologized to folks as they moved past my desk for the outburst.  One of the corporate guys looked at me and said, "It wouldn't be a newsroom without a little colorful language!"  I was still embarrassed by my bad behavior.

But that little incident pales in comparison to two remarkably similar verbal miscues.  It was probably 1985 or 1986.  The sports department had their own office on the first floor at WDAF where the graphic arts folks sit now.  I had come downstairs from the newsroom in the middle of the evening and let forth with a spew of obscenities aimed at sports director Frank Boal.  It was the foulest of the foul and as I turned the corner into the office there sat Frank sporting a shit eating grin with two Catholic priests looking at me with the widest of eyes.  I did a quick 180 and excused myself.

Fast forward to a decade later.  The station was undergoing some renovations and sports had been stuck in a horrid spot behind the studios next to the garage.  I was back working at WDAF, my third tenure at the station.  I once again headed downstairs at mid-evening and started with a foul tirade aimed at Frank.  Now don't misunderstand me, Frank could go toe to toe with anyone when it came to blue language, so he was an aficionado of cussing.

This time I came through the doorway to find him sitting in discussion with two guys, both wearing polo shirts with the FCA logos.  That FCA stands for Fellowship of Christian Athletes.  I turned beat red, apologized, turned and retreated.  I never learn.

Chasing 4000

I produced my first newscast on a early October weekend in 1978.  I remember it because the Royals were in the process of losing the American League Championship to the New York Yankees as I watched from afar in Eugene, Oregon.  I had traveled out to Eugene in hopes of finding my television fortune.

Instead, I had run into a good-hearted man, Peter Speer, who ran the newsroom at the ABC station in Eugene, KEZI.  For about a month I produced the two weekend newscasts for Peter while I looked for full-time employment.  I remember working for a couple of pioneering women in broadcasting, Debbie Segura who would later land as one of the first employees at CNN and Dixie Watley who made her name as a entertainment reporter.   I was clueless.  I stumbled my way through putting together rundowns, timing the shows out, and writing legible copy.  But Peter saw something in me and helped me land my first full time TV gig at WTCN in Minneapolis where I once again produced weekends. 

I was way in over my head.  But I had a great teacher, Paul Adelmann, who took me by the hand and taught me the intricacies of good writing.   I received my finishing course in producing a little more than a year later in Little Rock working for Garry Long producing the 10pm news at KARK.  So by the middle of 1980 I probably had about 200 newscasts under my belt before moving on to WDAF where I had my longest run as a producer from 1980 to 1987. 

I produced a ton of newscast at WDAF.  It wasn't unusual for me to double on the 5 and 10 or 6 and 10.  I filled in on the weekend newscasts constantly.  During that almost seven year period I produced, conservatively, 1750 newscasts.  There was a summer in which for a period of three months I had 5 days off over 90 days.  A lot of those days included a lot of double newscasts because of a staff shortage.  Despite the abuse and I got plenty of it I had a news director, Mike McDonald, who encouraged me to experiment and take chances.  My newscasts had a flair, a character, a style that none of the other newscasts in the market could claim.  And I had helped built it from a bottom scraping number 3 to a strong number 1.

I had another 2 plus year run in Phoenix as a 10pm producer before returning to KC in 1990 where I remained a producer until June 1991.  Again, conservatively, I produced an additional 875 newscasts which would put me at a conservative estimate of 2850 newscasts before I took my first news director position in 1991 at KSNT.

I spent much of the 1990's as a news manager but I did a lot of producing.  I was at KSNT for a little more than 2 years where I produced at least 100 newscasts in that time.  You can add another 25 or so during my stint in Paducah and another 25 more in my even shorter stint in Omaha.  That puts me at 3000 newscasts.

I returned to WDAF in the spring of 1995 as a fill-in EP who produced a little bit before getting a full time producer's gig in September that last until January of 1996.  That's another 85 newscasts.  The rest of my time at WDAF I was an executive producer but I produced a lot of newscasts.  I filled in as vacation relief, producing special programs, being the go to guy to plug in any hole.  That four year stretch would put another 100 newscasts under my belt conservatively.

I went to Fargo as a news director but a budget cut put me back on the line in a big hurry handling newscast a minimum of three days a week.  I easily racked up another 150 newscasts produced.  Then it was off to WINK TV where we were always short of producers.  I remember within my three months on the job I produced the 5 p.m. news for about two months.  That first year because of staff shortfalls I produced another 80 newscasts easily.  2004 was much the same although that number fell to about 50.  By 2005 because of illness and my departure that number fell dramatically to 25.  So by the end of 2005 as I headed to my fourth and final news director job I had closed in on 3500 newscasts. 

In my short lived stint in Topeka I produced no more than a dozen newscasts.  Back in Fort Myers as an EP in Waterman I never touched a newscast.  It was frowned upon which I found stupid.  But I got back right back into the swing of things when I was lured to Sacramento and back to television where I worked as an EP beginning 2010.  I was supposed to produce sparingly.  I produced closed to 100 newscasts or special programs. 

That brings us to my new job as morning assignment editor at WFTX.  I remarked tonight to our director extraordinaire Xane Peters that I had produced about 4000 newscasts.  But alas I think I am actually short of that magical number.  I've plugged my way through another 60 newscasts.  So give or take a 50 or so newscasts I'm somewhere in the range of 3650 newscasts.  That's not a bad number by well short of the 4000 I bragged about to Xane.

Now throw in the 8 plus years of working as an Executive Producer with direct input on two or three newscasts a day and I zoom past 4000.  We're closing in on 10,000 in that case.  What does it all add up to or even mean.  I'm willing to be you that less than a dozen people have produced as many newscasts at as many television stations as I have.  It's nothing to brag about, in fact I find it embarrassing.  I got into a bad habit of chasing jobs that I thought would lead to something better. 

I probably should have never left WDAF the first time in 1987 because I could have and probably should have stayed there for the rest of my career.  But I would have missed working with so many great people who I still hold near and dear to my heart.  It's been a rollercoaster God willing, I'll put away number 4000 right here in Fort Myers at WFTX.  Now that would be something for somebody who is officially the morning assignment editor, now wouldn't it?