HEY, WILLIE!
NASCAR finally figured out a good package for restrictor-plate racing at the All Star race. They need to use it at Daytona and Talladega, too.
The racing at Charlotte was 1,000 times better than a two-wide bumper-to-bumper parade, lap after lap after lap after lap.
BILL
HEY, BILL!
You know it’s a whole new world in NASCAR when folks are clamoring for more plate racin’.
The “racing” at Charlotte indeed looked better, but you had to get past the visual of those cars going so much slower than before.
HEY, WILLIE!
An article about Saturday’s Charlotte race said “changes are expensive and disruptive to the purity of the championship season.” I understand expensive but could you explain the rest of it?
CHARLIE
HEY, CHAS!
Good point. While I’ve seen “purity” attached to many endeavors — even some of the sporting variety — I’ve never seen it within 20 paragraphs of an auto-racing story.
In earlier times, and in keeping with the habit of falling in love with the latest and greatest thing, NASCAR might've immediately mandated more restrictor-plate racing at the intermediate-sized tracks.
But it would throw a monkey wrench — maybe literally — into all the mechanical and engineering work already done, and make for some very unhappy team owners.
Again, in earlier times, NASCAR might not care. But right now, they’re playing nicer with those willing to keep spending millions to go fast(er).
HEY, WILLIE!
It’s one thing for a golfer to hear heckling from the fans, but to come home and get heckled by your wife …
DON
HEY, DON!
“Heckled” was the least of it, according to police reports. Poor ol’ Lucas Glover shot 78 last Saturday at the Players Championship, got back to his tournament rental home and got quite an earful from Mrs. Glover.
Things went downhill from there — again, “according to police reports,” which is a phrase you don’t see much since John Daly grew old and mellow.
Most guys I know, there’s an occasional berating upon arriving home from golf. But rarely because they shot 78.
HEY, WILLIE!
I noticed that the Florida Gators’ softball catcher is a lefty. I cannot recall another lefty catcher.
Were there others? If not, why not?
The only other unusual position for a lefty, that I know of, is the center in football. In high school, our coach was trying to move a tackle to center. The tackle didn’t want to move, so he took the ball in his left hand. Coach moved him back. The tackle was actually a righty, but smarter than the coach.
JIMMY
HEY, JIMBO!
The Gators’ lefty catcher — Janell Wheaton — actually followed Aubree Munro, who was also a left-handed catcher. Not sure why, but you have a better chance of seeing it in softball. The last lefty catcher in MLB was Benny Distefano, an emergency fill-in for three games with the Pirates in 1989.
The leading theory on the lefty prohibition seems to involve plays at the plate and how a left-handed catcher would be more physically vulnerable to an oncoming runner. Other than that, there seems to be no reason why you don’t, at least occasionally, see one in baseball. Except, of course, where in the world would you go for a left-hander’s catcher’s mitt?
HEY, WILLIE!
If you are a professional golfer and want to be remembered when you die, you don’t want to live to 95 like Doug Ford, a great golfer from an earlier era.
As great as Doug was, his passing was only noted by a short paragraph in the “In Brief” feature of the sports section.
Today’s great golfers should take note.
JOHN
HEY, JOHN!
Doug Ford won the PGA Championship in 1955 and the Masters in ’57. He had to hold off Arnold Palmer to win that Masters, and faced a plugged lie in a greenside bunker on the final hole. On the green and two putts for bogey would’ve been enough, but instead he holed the shot, leading to one of those great written descriptions that golf often delivers.
“Ford walked into the sand and with about as much deliberation as a waiter picking up a 10-buck tip, he swung,” was how Johnny Hendrix described it in the next day’s Augusta Chronicle.
With those two majors and 17 other PGA Tour wins, Ford still waited until he was nearly 90 before making the World Golf Hall of Fame. And yes, back to the original point, the danger of outliving your contemporaries is the lack of available trumpeters when you’re signaled home.
Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com