I'm Retired, You Know

  I’ve been scolded. Big time. For being baseball and football centric in my previous blog. I choose only so many topics and I have shortened my blogs to a somewhat tolerable length.

Again, I have weathered criticism that I am too much a homer; unopinionated; and not very knowledgeable overall. These are the pitfalls of keeping things brief while going as free form as I can be. 

In doing this, I omit things—sometimes by choice, other times forgetting about a topic. One thing is for sure, I read the sports pages, watch ESPN and view the app; devour CBS Sports.com; and scour The Atlantic. There is very little I don’t know about that happened in sports during a week. 

I was excoriated about not mentioning the incredible Simone Biles and her phenomenal return to the sport after a needed pause. Do I follow gymnastics—YES!! My daughter participated in it through high school then joined the Penn State Club team to sneak in a couple of more meets before the amount of injuries she sustained would be too much a detriment as she went forth in her career. 

Did I see Biles perform in the recent U.S. National Championships? Of course, I did. She routed the field—with a smile on her face which spoke abut the joy that has returned to her passion. Biles is one of a kind—which those who understand and appreciate women’s gymnastics clearly get. 

For the more casual observer, we should enjoy her artistry. But we should temper our expectations once more, because she has proven how vulnerable she is—after all, Simone Biles really is human. 

Most of all, we should share in her euphoria. It is simply the best think to see someone compete at the highest level—with a smile on their face. 

The same person went after me for my lack of reporting on track and field. Again, chiding me for my lack of interest in the sport. 

My roots go back to watching Marty Liguori run in the N.J.S.I.A.A. Track and Field Championships, held on my high school track in Highland Park. I actually had my mother’s stop watch running along with the official timers and I wasn’t far off from his meet record. I went there for five years while I was in seventh through twelfth grades. I saw the best of the best New Jersey had to offer. 

Of more recent vintage, I saw Sydney Mc Laughlin, the Olympic champion from Dunellen, running on the same track I walk on in Springfield. She was being trained by her high school coach at the time, as she still was a student at Union Catholic High School. Watching her run so fast and effortlessly—whether scaling hurdles or running a lap—one could clearly tell she was special. 

Did I follow the World Championships? Yes. Did I read that Noah Lyles was a triple winner? Yes. Did I also know that Mc Laughlin-Leverone suffered a knee injury just prior to the event which cost her a chance to repeat in the 400 meter hurdles and to win in the 400 meters? Yes.

I also read an article where Jackie Joyner-Kersee, a three-time Olympic champion, offered Sydney advice—to never give up the joy one has in the sport they love, no matter the distractions. Joyner-Kersee is 61 years old. She remains the world record holder in the women’s heptathlon after her dominant victory in Seoul in 1988. 

I could have talked about the machinations of the men’s soccer world. Or gotten into the minutiae of college soccer—the University of Chicago and Williams College top the Division III men’s pre-season poll, with Johns Hopkins at #7 and Franklin and Marshall sitting at #18. Then again, who would believe that Syracuse is ranked first and the University of Kentucky second in the Division I poll? That #7 Brigham Young upset top-ranked UCLA on Thursday night in women’s action? 

I could delve into high school sports, as the fall season has begun. Teams in New Jersey actually played last weekend, with the majority of the schools joining the action on Labor Day weekend. The regular season is over in mid-October, allowing for multiple rounds of playoffs or consolation games for football. 

I restrained myself this week about pro football. At the gym on Friday, that’s all the talking heads could discuss while I sweated my way through a half hour on the recumbent bicycle. How are the Jets going to do—playoffs or not? Which teams will decline—the Giants?

It simply was not time for me to get into that in depth. I did omit that Gil Brandt, the great Dallas Cowboys executive and Pro Football Hall Of Fame inductee, passed away. His legacy is so broad—he drafted black players from HSBC schools ahead of anyone else. Brandt integrated analytics into the sport way before anybody did. He helped make the Cowboys America’s Team with his innovative and encyclopedic mind. 

I can go on and on about what I chose not to write about. My selectivity comes with the fact that my mainstream audience—yes, I have an audience—recognizes that I am writing for the fun of it and that I can weather all kinds of critiques. 

What I choose to focus in on, or even briefly touch upon is done in about an hour and a half of typing and editing, then awaiting my editor’s final comments. I know it isn’t science, but it is more like polishing teeth than pulling them. 

A reader gave me very positive feedback on my recent  “baseball musings,” as he liked to call them. Most often, I receive praise for what I write. Which motivates me to be the best that I can be for those who opt to read my discourses. 

Writing thus blog is a labor of love. So I am writing this second edition on Labor Day weekend with that in mind. 

Sure, the complaining fan was busting my chops. That’s not unusual with this person. I expect it. I actually appreciate it. I kinda like the guy.

The final complaint was that I get into gymnastics and track and field next blog, so as to satisfy him. That’s covered now. 

This will leave me free to write about Ronald Acuna, Jr.’s season, including his game in Los Angeles on Thursday, right after he was secretly married. And the playoff intensity of the game—one where National League M.V.P. rival Mookie Betts swatted 2 homers and nearly had a third in a contest which started out lopsidedly in favor of Atlanta and ended up as a one run affair. 

Or whatever else I might surprisingly decide to touch upon. Within limits. I am going to relax. Two blogs in one day is a bit much—I’m retired, you know.