A Little Golf, Maybe and more

On the day the 2021 PGA begins on Kiawah Island, I was thinking of my friend Andy Brumer, a skilled golfer and a terrific poet, whose book, The Poetics of Golf, for you golf fans is a must read. Which made me think that it was high  time I wrote something about golf. Okay, so I don't know squat about golf. Should that stop me from writing about it? I watch golf, These days mostly because it is so peaceful on the eyes and mind, like a soccer field without the players. And in golf, there is scenery: trees in every variety in abundance, lakes, streams and oceans. Ducks, geese, and a the occasional solitary alligator refusing to acknowledge the golf ball in its path to water. The sport is also beautiful, not in the kinematic sense of a Steph Curry magically dribbling through the Lakers for a layup or LeBron James clutch long-range jumper that broke my heart last night as the Lakers defeated my Dubs in the Play In. It's the precision of golf that gets me. Every stroke depends on it from the drive off the tee, to the approach from a sand-trap to the putt. It's minimalist poetry.  

I'm a great fan of the walk from Tee to second shot. The golfer's mind must be reasonably at rest, since he or she has little idea what to expect until she reaches her ball and determines her next shot, unless, of coarse he has seen the flight of the ball heading to New Jersey, in which case he is cursing himself down the fairway. Watching from my seat in front of the TV I do not know the turmoil going on in the golfer's mind, and imagine most golfers are enjoying the fresh air and a brief stretch of the legs. I repeat, I know nothing about golf. 

I have my favorites. They have little to do with the numbers of majors they've won. I would mention all the old greats, except I never watched them. I'm a Johnny-come-lately to golf. I cheer for Little Tommy Fleetwood. Bubba Watson and his pink driver is a favorite. I've always liked lefties in all sports. In basketball, they're really tough to defend. My wife loves Jordan Spieth because his caddie is "gorgeous." I'm a Spieth fan also because of how he cherishes and cares for his challenged little sister. He's not a bad golfer too, and I'm pulling for him or Jason Day to win this years PGA. Sergio Garcia is one of the golfers I've always enjoyed watching, although he's slipped some. DeChambeau drives me nuts with his robot like approach to the game. I used to like Matt Kuchar until he tried to under pay his Hispanic caddie. I'm a Hideki Matsuyama fan since his brilliant win at the Masters this year, but also because I lived four years in Japan as a child, and I have a sportswriter friend, Ed Odevan. writing from Tokyo. I like personal connections to influence my preferences. I'm for Tony Finau because golf is really too white and needs a little color to perk it up. Nervous nelly Keegan Bradley is a golfer I get a big kick out of. Love his approach to the tee: step up, step back, spin the club, step up again, maybe back and forth again. Take a lude, dude! Top of my favorite's list is Rory Mcllroy. Do I have a reason? No. It's a gut reaction to his game, how it appeals to my to my senses, which is how I usually judge athletes in all sports. It is why LeBron James will never rank in the top ten of my greatest basketball players. 

From Andy Bruner's The Poetics of Golf, Some may call this prose, I call it prose poetry.

Pro-trait #11: Se Ri Pak

Who has the best swing in golf? It's Se Ri  Pak. Why? Because of  the smooth and silky way she takes it back. Sam Sneed said  the swing should resist friction like oil. Nor did he care if it belonged to a boy or a goil. Who has the best swing in golf? It's Se Ri Pak. Why? Because it looks like it grows from the root of a flower and that nothing fed it from a mechanical source.

    Who has the best swing in golf?

     A magazine editor asked me to choose one, and I thought, "Even a dunce by using his eyes can deduce it's "Se Ri Pak's" And he printed it. 

World Mixed Double Curling Championship

 A bit of a fake out to start as I want to say a few words first about the Sacramento Kings. I've lived in Sacramento for the last twelve years. Although I am a Warrior, both ex-player and resolute fan, even during those dreadful years of losses before Curry and the Dubs, I have adopted the Kings as my team of second choice. I have watched and shaken my head at their futile attempt to make the playoffs. If I were asked how futile has this season looked, for the first time in my memory, at least since the owner stupidly fired Mike Malone, I can say not that futile, in fact somewhat encouraging. Despite their record every single start has improved his game. And most importantly, the new GM Monte McNair managed to acquire through some nifty trades, three solid reserves, and in the case of Terrance Davis ii, a possible starter, to replace the previous weak bench. 

Stability combined with smart leadership from the top is the best sign that the future can change. To be sure, there needs to be filled and questions about personnel and coaches that must be addressed and answered, but I see a number of key players that could make up a strong playoff ready core. I wish I felt better about Marvin Bagley's ability to stay healthy because his growth was very positive, and a speedy power forward with an inside and outside game is exactly what the Kings need to get to the next level.

 Another huge encouraging sign is the instant production of rookie pt guard Tyreese Haliburton, a thoroughly mature presence coming in out of college. (Might this say something about one and done projects?) In the past, I've been very critical of Coach Luke Walton, but I've changed my mind, or perhaps Luke has changed it for me. Team growth has been there. Such growth is always the result of coaching decisions and effort. With that in mind, and with the caveat that I'm still not happy with individual defense, it seems the wisest choice is to keep Luke for one more season and see whet he can achieve with some roster stability. I will be the first guy to cheer for Bill Walton's son. 

Today' headline online: "Norway and the United States had quick six-end wins in Monday evening's opening round-robin session for Group B in the World Mixed Doubles Championship being played in Aberdeen, Scotland. I love Scotland. My wife and I visited there during their three days of summer. A delightful country of Trump haters. I love curling. Turn on your TV and watch. I'll bet some of you will be hooked. It's bocce ball on ice played with stones and brooms. Tell me that doesn't peak your interest. Our two champs representing the United States are Tabitha Peterson and Joe Polo.

 We pay so much attention to the so-called big three and a half sports, hockey representing the half - a Canadian sport really -  that we forget so many other interesting sports. My apologies to golf and tennis; they are not exactly under appreciated sports and have a huge fan base. What I'm talking about are sports like badminton, curling, softball, fencing, gymnastics (other than in an Olympic year), bowling, etc. As a country we need to give a little more love in the way of viewership to these sports and their devoted athletes and coaches. 

Curling by Tom Meschery

Let's hear it for curling, a sport in which
two brooms, like blockers in the NFL
(I'm thinking Packers, Green Bay in the snow.)
lead the running back, a guy names Stone
down the icy field; masked fans in parkas,
sipping from their flasks. They're watching curling
on local ice, while I'm enjoying building
this extended metaphor; thinking that Milton
had he a sense of humor, which there's no
evidence he possessed, might have appreciated.
My wife also enjoys curling,. "What's not to like
about a sport played with brooms?" she asks.
"The ice needs cleaning, and the players
are only doing what any good wife would do."
She's talking to me while dusting,
which comes before vacuuming, a rule
in her sport that must never be broken.

2021 MVP and etc

 Got my comeuppance for a mistake on my last blog, misusing the term begging the question when I should have written raising the question. I taught rhetoric for years and should have known better. No excuse for sloppy writing. Thanks Mike C. 

Read in The Athletic this morning Draymond Green's reasons why Steph Curry should be MVP this 2021 NBA season. I am in complete agreement with Draymond. Both of us acknowledge that Nikola Jokic is deserving and worthy, but what Curry has done this year translates beyond basketball. 

On the basketball end of things, both men in my mind are tied over the importance to their teams. Warriors and Nuggets would collapse without their stars. Individual performances are about different strokes, each player excelling in their special ways, Curry's magical threes and dribble drives and sheer ballhandling magic; Jokic with his improbable over-the-head threes that arc into the sky before dropping, moistened by rain clouds, into the net, and his bruising muscle shots in the paint, and deft passing to cutters from the high post. The only difference between the two seems to be team standings, the Nuggets in the thick of battle for the Western Conference title, while the Warriors remain a wild longshot to get beyond the first round of the playoffs. However, let's not forget the Warriors making it into the 8th spot in the Play In round was unlikely and would never have happened without the brilliance of Step Curry. 

Let us consider another factor that the NBA should consider this year to determine the MVP and that is value to the league and to all of the NBA's fans in a year when fans and non fans of sports needed desperately to be cheered up. Steph Curry's magical year did just that. 

Assuming that Jokic and Curry are the two most logical choices for MVP this year, ask yourself which of the two provided you with more viewing pleasure and excitement. Curry hands down. We may be awed by what Jokic can do as a big, but we experience pure pleasure watching Steph Curry darting around opponents and sinking amazing long threes and doing his little dance afterwards, smiling that smile that makes all mothers see him as their fantasy son-in-law. 

One might argue I'm not talking sports but public relations. Well, maybe it is -  the relationship of the public to the player. In this case, this year, the public needs to be taken into consideration. 

All things are not equal. The NBA needs to be wise this season. What Curry had accomplished goes beyond basketball and arguably beyond sports. He has given us joy in the midst of national crises. He should be honored for it. This is the year when the NBA must select co-MVPs. It is the only thing that makes sense. 

Another of my little quatrains to close.

Ezra Pound   by Tom Meschery

Lo, down the track cometh the sprinter
Aye, it is with great exertion he finishes
Leaning into the tape
Does he not appear effortless?

Shame on sportswriter Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union Tribune

 Nick Canepa's fantasy ownership of an NFL team fell as flat as his over used cliche about inmates running the asylum. He was talking about Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers being upset that he wasn't consulted about the draft pick, which brought rookie QB Jordan Love, "QB in waiting" to the team last season Rodger's beef was that the team had a greater need to strengthen other positions. (The playoffs proved Aaron was right.) Canepa's point was, and I assume still is, that a player or players should have no say in coaching and GM decisions, which reminds me of the old TV series title Father Knows Best, Balderdash! 

Sounds a lot like the conservative pun-drips of Fox News telling LeBron James to shut up and stick to dribbling. How arrogant, they claim, of professional athletes that they have opinions and a platform from which to speak How dare they? Well, this isn't news. I get it. There are people in sports who still hearken back to the "Good Old Days" of complete control of teams by ownership. So, write on, Canepa. It's a free country again.

Except that you dissed my league, NBA. What was that all about? Here's what you wrote: ". . . there are now babies in the NFL who want to act as if they're in the NBA, which is a pathetic handful of teams made up of rich, entitled children. . ." You call them, "showrunners." Like, they want to run the show? Gee, how creative! You point to LeBron James as the superstar "showrunner". Can you name another? Hmmm? The NBA and its owners - some conservative, some liberals - have wisely chosen to be a 50 50 league. They understand that theirs is a symbiotic relationship between owners and workers. Owners, coaches, GMs and players share in this equality. Players may be critics, so too owners and coaches and GMs (GM Daryl Morey of the Rockets for example). The NBA is by far the most transparent of all the pro leagues. The players may be rich (so are movie stars and mortgage bankers) but they are not children but grown men who have a constitutional right to speak their minds. That is as long as we believe in the Bill of Rights, Which begs the question, Nick Canepa, do you believe in free speech?  

There is a marvelous collection of poems about sports and sports in poetry compiled by Lillian Morrison called Sprints and Distances. It's been a while, so it may be out of print. You will find some wonderful old-timey poems within as well as some that sound very modern. Many are classic poems. I love to browse through this book from time to time. Today's poem to end the Blog is a prayer. 

PRAYER   by Charles Beeching

God who created me
   Nimble and light of limb,
In three elements free,
    To run, to ride, to swim:
Not  when the sense is dim,
     But now from the heart of joy,
I would remember Him;
   Take the thanks of a boy.

The NBA Play In & etc

 I better get my two cents in before the NBA PLAY IN starts. My original thoughts were along the line of LeBron's, terrible idea that makes a mockery of the season. I have slowly changed my mind as I've become aware of the increased competitiveness of the teams below sixth place in the conference standings and the increased fan interest in those teams' cities. It has always been a problem for me to take games seriously at the end of the NBA season between teams that are already eliminated or on the verge of elimination. The Play In has changed that. For example, up to last night's loss to the Spurs, I still felt the Sacramento Kings had an outside chance to make the 10th spot in the Play In. As for my Warriors, they're in 8th place and still have a shot shot at 6th and certainly 7th. Seventh just sounds better than 8th. See what I mean about the nature of competition? If you've got something to root for, you root. The NBA has provided That Something to root for with the PLAY IN format. 

And, of course, let's not forget the additional revenue the Play In will generate, which will help players and owners tremendously this COVID season without ticket sales, etc. LeBron may feel secure in his own contract, but the lack of cash might be the difference a bench reserve stays on a team or is waived. LeBron should not forget there are 15 players trying to make a living. Not to mention how positive revenue streams have on over-all effect on hiring of management employees and arena workers. 

I have a suggestion for the NBA. This year is the perfect year to name co-equal MVPs: Curry and Jokic. There have never been two players that I recall in recent NBA history that have carried their teams on their talented shoulders. I'll even forgive Jokic, his constantly running nose. He is indeed a force. As for Curry, can anyone deny what he has and still is accomplishing this season. It is time for the NBA to drop the idea that the MVP must be from a winning team. 

Some talk about the 49ers signing Richard Sherman in this mornings sports page. I don't blog much about the NFL. In this case, I'll opine, it's always a good idea for a team with Championship aspirations to have one of its main players be a loud cocky voice that resonates in the locker room, in practices, and games. Sherman walks his talk and the rest of the team knows it. It's a mental thing. Sign the dude!

Baseball season is on the way. Here is a Haiku to kick the season off as perhaps Walt Whitman might have written about it.

WALT WHITMAN   by Tom Meschery

I marked, where, isolated
On a little mound of earth, he rubbed
The ball, tenderly, 'till, he felt its worth
Between split fingers, launch'd it forth.