Dick Butkus had to be tough
With that name, what choice did he have? But he also was funny & caring.
Ear ya go: 7 little kernels of joy from the world of sports…
🏈 Quote
“I wouldn’t ever go out to hurt anybody deliberately. Unless it was, you know, important ... like a league game or something.”
— Dick Butkus, Hall of Fame middle linebacker with the Chicago Bears who died at age 80 Thursday
Source: AP News
The Chicago native retired 50 years ago with eight Pro Bowl selections and a bum knee. Butkus traded in his playbook for a SAG card — acting in dozens of TV shows, movies and commercials.
Butkus created a charitable foundation that helped fellow tough guys — former athletes, military, cops and firefighters — get free screenings for heart disease. He also started a campaign to help high school athletes improve their training and nutrition so they could avoid performance-enhancing drugs.
The man tackled a lot. RIP. And if you don’t like his humor, well grin and bear it.
⚾️ Story
The radical calm of Bruce Bochy
By Tim Keown, ESPN
“Bruce Bochy speaks in a low rumble, walks like his shoes are three sizes too small and prefers to talk about anything but himself. He manages a baseball game as if there are actual human beings on the field and not just a collection of numbers designed to dictate all outcomes, big and small. He is 68 years old and back for another run at glory that, if successful, he will refuse to accept credit for helping to create.”
That’s how Keown starts his profile of the Rangers' manager. Great stuff on a leader with a light touch and few peers. Just five managers in history have more World Series rings than Bochy, who earned three with San Francisco in the 2010s.
Bochy may not want credit, but we have to extend him some. Prior to taking over in Texas this year, the club banked six straight losing seasons. Now they’re in the playoffs and one of the last eight teams standing.
Back in 1991 I experienced a bit of the Bochy touch. At the time I was writing for the San Bernardino Sun and did a short pre-season profile on the young manager and his team, the High Desert Mavericks, a brand-new club and an affiliate of the San Diego Padres in the single-A California League. I don’t remember what I wrote about him, but it certainly was not as insightful as Keown’s piece. Luckily, this was before the internet kicked in, so we don’t have a record of it.
What I do remember is that after I interviewed Bochy, he had a conversation with my editor and apparently said some things about me — something about me doing my homework and knowing a little baseball. As a cub reporter, it meant a lot. That this former big leaguer not only gave me some of his time and thoughts during our interview, he went out of his way to complement me to my boss. He was not a rah-rah guy, so it meant even more.
Bochy treated me with great respect that summer every time I covered the Mavs. Before games or after, win or lose, he answered my questions patiently. He made things go well, yet he was the one who complemented me. I moved to Colorado near the end of the Cal League season, so I missed him leading the Mavs to the league title.
The next year Bochy moved up to AA and won the Texas League. Three years later he was managing the Padres. Three decades later he’s still at it. Still treating people with respect, still winning in the postseason, and still taking no credit for any of it.
🪂 Highlight
Some define a sport as anything with a ball. So you can debate whether skydiving is a sport, but there’s no question jumping out of plane takes balls. And at 104 years old?! You go, Dorothy Hoffner! What a sport you are!
⚽️ Stat
34,130: fans in Seattle Saturday at Megan Rapinoe’s final regular-season home game with OL Reign, setting a National Women’s Soccer League attendance record
“I do know my impact,” said Rapinoe, who has won Olympic and World Cup gold while serving as a tireless activist for equality and inclusion. “But it's one thing to know it, and another thing to really feel it and see it. To see some of the signs and the pink wigs and see what that means to people. It's hard to put just this deep sense of gratitude and joy and thankfulness for being able to have a moment like this into words.”
⚾️ Groaner
What do you yell after a playoff berth that yields two victories?
“Twins!”
The Minnesota Twins beat the Toronto Blue Jays twice last week to sweep their American League Wild Card Series. Prior to that the Twins had lost 18 straight playoff games, the longest postseason winless streak in North American pro sports history.
The last time Minnesota sprayed drinks in the postseason was 1991 after Jack Morris threw a 10-inning shutout in Game 7 of the World Series as the Twins beat Atlanta. Their postseason series results since:
2002: lost 4-1 to Anaheim in the AL Championship Series. Minnesota won the first game, then lost the next four.
2003: lost 3-1 to New York Yankees in the AL Division Series. Minnesota won the first game, then lost the next three.
2004: lost 3-1 to New York in ALDS again. Again Minnesota won the opener and lost the final three. Ouch. And the pain was just beginning.
2006: lost 3-0 to Oakland in ALDS.
2009: lost 3-0 to New York in ALDS.
2010: lost 3-0 to New York in ALDS.
2017: lost 1-0 to New York in AL Wild Card game.
2019: lost 3-0 to New York in ALDS.
2020: lost 2-0 to Houston in ALWC.
2023: WON 2-0 vs Toronto in ALWC; lost game 1 of ALDS to Houston
So not only did the Twins go winless in 18 straight postseason games, they didn’t win a postseason series for 31 years and lost 25 of 28 games during that time. The damn Yankees ended the Twins’ season six times during the dark period.
Minnesota’s turnaround reminds us that every state is temporary. Victory is just around the corner. Or the next one… Plus, the twinning gives hope to those of us who root for the Colorado Rockies, who in their 31-year existence have yet to win their division. 😳
⚽️ Song
“Ain’t No Sunshine”
By Bill Withers
When Megan Rapinoe came onto the pitch in Seattle for possibly the final time, “Ain’t No Sunshine” played over the loudspeakers. What a perfect choice from an amazing artist for what must’ve been a Lovely Day.
⚾️ Trivia
Miguel Cabrera retired from MLB last weekend with a .306 career batting average, 3174 hits, and 511 home runs. He’s one of only three players to hit .300 with 3000 hits and 500 homers. Who are the other two?
Hank Aaron & Willie Mays
Barry Bonds & Alex Rodriguez
Lou Gehrig & Babe Ruth
Stan Musial & Albert Pujols
Aaron and Mays are the only other members of the .300/3000/500 club. Aaron hit .305, 3771, and 755. Mays was good for .301, 3293 and 660.
What’s next for Miggy?
“I think I got to wake up at 7 in the morning, take my kids to school,” he said. “It’s tough. I’m gonna have a normal life now.”
Go to KalRucker.net for more Corny Sports Trivia.
Aw shucks 🌽, that’s it for this week! Thanks for stomaching Corny Sports. This week let’s be tough like Butkus, calm like Bochy, and adventurous like 104-year-old Dorothy Hoffner. Cheers!