column #2

Sports are strange in the summer some times it slow and some times there is a lot of news. This is one summer were there is a lot of news.

Finally some good news in sports. The baseball Hall of Fame inducted two of the greats of the last era. Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr played with the same teams through out their whole careers. Tony Gwynn won eight batting tittles with the San Diego Padres. My best Tony Gwynn moment was at the 1999 All-Star Game in Boston when Ted Williams came out and in the middle of all the All-Stars on the field there is Ted and Tony sharing a special moment and then Ted asks for Tony’s help to throw out the first pitch. I cried that night; I remember it like it was yesterday. My best Cal Ripken Jr. moment was the night that he broke Lou Gering’s consecutive games streak at 2131. Again I cried and remember it well. To end up at 2632 consecutive games with one team, the Baltimore Orioles is just amazing.

I’M a big soccer fan, so when David Beckham signed with Major League Soccer and the Los Angeles Galaxy, I was at first excited. The more MLS talked about him changing the fate of American Soccer the more I think it will not happen that way. David Beckham is still a great player, don’t get me wrong, but Americans like to play soccer and not watch it, one player will not change this. I don’t think Beckham should have played in his first game, an extabion. He has a knee injury and could have been injured more.

On a sad note, one of the great sportscasters of our generation passed a way this week, Bill Flemming. He reported on every thing from NASCAR to Barrel jumping for ABC’s Wide World of Sports. This reminded me how much I miss Wide World. I can remember one day watching Wide World and can remember what was on that day, the Grand National for England and the Baja 1000. Some kids idolieyes sports stars, my idol is Jim McKay and I wanted to be just like him. Those were the good old days.

I can understand what the PGA tour was thinking when they added the FedEx cup points completion. But I don’t think it is working, points system works if all the athletes play the same number of events. I do hope all the top 144 players play in the playoff and the tour can make this thing work better next year.

This week’s spotlight is on a father and son team from Massachusetts, Dick and Rick Hoyt. You see Rick was born in 1962 with the umbilical cord coiled around his neck and cut off oxygen to him brain. But in 1972 his first words, using a special computer, was “Go Bruins”. Rick was a sports fan, but he wanted to compete, and he did in 1977 in a five-mile benefit run for a paralyzed lacrosse player with his dad pushing him in his wheelchair. That night Rick told his dad that he just didn’t feel handicapped when we were competing. So the story go on and in 1981 they entered the Boston Marathon and finished in the top quarter of the field. After 4 years of marathons, Team Hoyt attempted their first triathlon, not just any triathlon but the Ironman in Hawaii. I saw the story on the TV coverage of the Ironman, let me just say I cried. Each time they competed it touched me the same way. What a great story of a fathers love for a son and of the true meaning of inclusion. Please go towww.teamhoyt.com and lean more about this unbelievable story. As Rick said: “The message of Team Hoyt is that everybody should be included in everyday life”. That is a message for everyone to live by.

That’s my take; I’d like to hear yours

Jamie Lazaroff

Jman200086@netscape.com


Some information about the Hoyt family come from “Team Hoyt: Racing towards Inclusion” by David Tereshchuk-www.teamhoyt.com/history