WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary….
Play of the Decade: There’s “Sports” and then there’s “Sportsmanship”
byVanderleunonNovember 30, 2019
I ignore all professional sports except baseball (Because it has no clock and is an excellent summer game to drink to all the long afternoon.) I do make an exception for College Football since it is not infected with the boring, grindgame repetition of Professional football. And every so often something happens that makes college ball all worthwhile.
“In all the years of broadcasting football, I have never seen such an unselfish act before. A D-lineman rarely gets a chance to score and for John to have the presence of mind in those moments as he was heading to the end zone to instead give the ball off to Chris, a senior playing in his final game for the Falcons, was just phenomenal. I will never see that again.”
The two players behind the play, John O’Kelley and Chris Hoad, are just trying to soak it all in. Hoad said they can’t believe how big this has become.
“It’s definitely blown up way bigger than I think anyone really thought it would”
The act of sportsmanship is something Head Coach, Justin Carrigan explained can’t be taught. It simply speaks to the brotherhood the players have built.
“I think it’s pretty cool and stuff like that happens organically. You can’t create those kinds of moments. I think it was a tremendous display of brotherhood. It’s what has been built here over the past four or five years.”
“On the field, I was definitely hit with emotions by it and John being that selfless to hand me a touchdown my senior night was definitely special and something I have thanked him for many times over,” Hoad said.
It’s definitely been an exciting time to be a Falcon but truth be told, it’s the stories behind O’Kelley and Hoad that should be making headlines.
John O’Kelley suffered a season-ending knee injury in 2018 and just two months before walking back on the field this year he lost his father to cancer.
“With my dad passing the motivation is higher than ever to succeed and make him proud.”
He credits his teammates, especially Chris Hoad, for helping him get through devastating loss.
“Chris came up to me and said, I’m playing this season for your dad and that meant the world to me.”
I too loved baseball. I remember watching Cubs’ games on our b&w TV with my Grandma in the 50s(Jack Brickhouse), whom BTW took me to the World’s Fair in ’64 and we just happened to catch a game at Yankee Stadium. The walk up the causeway to our seats in Wrigley gave me my first look at a field in COLOR. OMGoodness, the green was gorgeous. The outfield walls were thick with a jungle of vines. I recall that more then however that game turned out.
I went to high school in Evanston and many a time, especially on too nice a spring day, I’d just continue on Howard St to the el and and quick ride to Addison where a buck would get you a bleacher seat.
Through the years I followed the Cubbies from Denver and lo and behold, we got a team, the Rockies(yeah, I know). Amazingly I managed season tickets and I gotta tell you, Coors Field is a magnificent ball park, a contemporary Wrigley Field. It was a short 7 block walk from the warehouses that housed myself and my business and whoa, what a hoot.
The strike in the mid 90s(?) was the end of my love affair. Years later, the Rockies finally made it into the World Series and even that failed to get me back. An exclusive, couple hundred men were given an unbelievable opportunity. Paid millions to play A GD GAME??? And they strike???
Anyway, I have no time for sports…except men’s tennis. I’ve been a life long player and watcher. First of all, it is absolutely the best sport(I believe) to indulge in. The rating system allows you to play people at your level, or a little better(say a 4.5 v 5) as you should. Wonderful exercise as well as a very strategic and the better you play, the more you think ahead. Played various sports all my life and nothing compares. You are out there all alone, all by yourself, trying to put together a game that exploits your opponent’s weak points. Nothing like it.
Plus watching the pros is wonderful. I had the greatest time almost e-VAH! when I went to Australia in 08 and caught the Open there. It was Novak’s 1st Grand Slam. I have been so fortunate to have watched all of Fed’s and Nadal’s career, what fantastic tennis players. I will admit to buying tickets for the women in Melbourne despite some reluctance and I did enjoy watching them hit but the power comparison with the men is off the charts.
I wish I had the time to follow some of the lesser ATP tournaments but as I get older, time is just too damn precious. I stick to the Grand Slams but I do enjoy the heck out of them. As for baseball, couldn’t even tell you who won the World Series and as for football, the year after the Peyton and the Broncos won their last SB, the knee bullshit began and that killed football for me. Haven’t the foggiest how they’ve been doing.
I hope to fook men’s tennis never gets woke but if it does, oh well…how’s it go, get woke, go broke. I believe you told us Mom played into her 90s. I can only hope…
VanderleunNovember 30, 2019, 12:22 PM
My favorite field was Fenway during my 4 years in Boston. It had and still has an antique feeling to it.
As for mom, yes she played until around 94-95 years of age although in the end she would sometimes insist on getting two bounces.
Rob De WittNovember 30, 2019, 1:59 PM
MM, I remember baseball too, well enough that I just don’t care about seeing the modern version. I grew up about a hundred miles from St. Louis listening to Harry Caray broadcast Cardinal games on KMOX. My great-uncle took me down on the Illinois Central to see a game at Sportsman’s Park, where I saw Stan Musial hit one out right over the 402 sign in right-center. Ken Boyer, Enos Slaughter, all heroes.
When I lived in Berkeley and Oakland I saw several A’s games from the right-field bleachers, and a few from the grandstand, like a playoff against Roger Clemens in 1990. Basketball was great in the ’80s until they just stopped enforcing the rules for Michael Jordan, but Larry Bird…..man.
These days I make due with watching old games on utube, and that’s about good enough.
ghostsniperNovember 30, 2019, 2:55 PM
Speaking of baseball. I played all the sports from walking age up through high school then mostly lost interest, or rather, my interests took a different route. I have never watched any sporting event live or on TV for more than about 15 mins a few times. The stuff bores me to tears. Still have my favorite bat, fielders glove, a few balls, football, and basketball in a closet around here somewhere. Reminds me, I need to dig that glove out and give it a lookover, maybe a cleaning with saddlesoap then a fresh coating of mink oil. One more thing to do….
I designed a giant McMansion for the owners of “Bagel Bites”, you know, those little pizza deals in the frozen food section?, but I have never eaten them – not a big fan of bagels and I’ve been burned out on ‘za forever, and the crib was built in south Fort Myers, FL. The owners were real nice folks and were high up with the owners of the Boston Red Sox who had recently completed the construction of their brand new summer stadium Fenway South on Six Mile Cypress Parkway and they invited me to the opening game against the Twins. Well, I’m a business man first and foremost and an architectural designer so I thought maybe I can get a connection along the way. So I went. I sat right there in the front row with all the owners who were hootin and hollerin like they were insane and I excused myself and wandered the stadium looking at all the construction and design details. Ate a giant sausage sando with the peppers and onions and brown mustard and warshed it all down the pipe with a 32oz bud. After an hour or so I went back to my seat and told the owners I must leave and did just that. No connections were made.
However, someone I know knew Mike Greenwell, the shortstop for the BoSox and he hired me to design “the last house I’m ever going to live in” on a 120 acre estate right on the north bank of the Caloosahatchee River. This crib was all log, mostly hand cut and machined cypress and the size was over 12,000 sf. Not too long after this project word got out and a very famous football player for Dallas hired me to design a crib for him and it too was over 12k sf. You’ve heard of him. In the floor of his pool, in 22k gold lettering is his trademarked logo, “PrimeTime”. While I was designing his place he got arrested (again) for fishing in a retaining pond along Interstate 75 by the jetport. sheesh
I’m probably one of only a handful of people in this country that has never seen any sporting event but has also made 10’s of thousands of dollars off the players. And that is a good thing.
Gordon ScottNovember 30, 2019, 3:30 PM
That you built two houses for athletes? I believe.
“Caloosahatchee River”, c’mon, there can’t be that many *chee rivers.
ghostsniperNovember 30, 2019, 7:14 PM
Yep, it’s true. The Caloosa part is for the Caloosa indians that heavily populated that area a thousand years ago. Their burial mounds are being found and excavated all the time and if one is found on your building site well guess what? You’re dead in the water. Our last house, that I designed and built largely with my own hands in 2002 was in a very remote area where the nearest neighbor was more than 2 miles away and nobody had lived around there since the Caloosa’s. No burial mounds have been found on that property. Yet.
Out of boredom I recently started reading the Randy White book titled “Captiva” and in the first part he mentions Capt Kim Gerz of Matlacha. My eyes popped out. I know that guy! Kim’s a real nice guy that has a large seafood farm out in Pine Island Sound. He took me out there and gave me the nickel tour one time, cool set up. It’s almost all underwater and you probably wouldn’t notice it if you flew past in your 30′ Donzi. When Kim bought his old fishing shack house in the late 90’s he hired me to do a complete makeover from the ground up and he was paying cash for everything. Time flew as it always does and the project was completed and he was elated. Then I couldn’t get rid of him. I like seafood as much as the next guy, maybe even more, but come on. Kim would stop by my place weekly and drop off a 5lb bag of raw shrimps. Ever tried to get rid of 5 lbs of shrimps? All that deheading, deveining, unshelling, and a 5 gallon pot on a glass top range is threatening. Then the next week it was 5lbs of clams, then oysters, then something else, etc., etc. I finally had to ask him to stop. Now, I’m in a place in the hinters where real seafood is rare as hen teefs, so maybe I’ll send my ol buddy Kim an email and tell him to stop by sometime. HA!
Snakepit KansasDecember 1, 2019, 5:37 AM
Ghost,
I can eat a pile of oysters before I get tired of them!
I had some good times partly growing up not far from Cincinnati. Dad took me to Riverfront Stadium to see the Reds on a number of occasions. It was the early 70’s and BIG RED MACHINE. Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, George Foster, etc. etc. Dad had a turquoise colored transistor radio going in the garage for most of the Reds’ games. Color man, Joe Nuxhall along with Al Michaels were the on-air play by play. Dad and I passed baseball frequently before or after dinner. Even as an adult at my last house, I purposely left an area open in the back yard void of new trees and shrubs so that I had a clear area to pass baseball with Dad.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
That’s some cool stuff, right there…
I was waitin for em to swap spit.
I too loved baseball. I remember watching Cubs’ games on our b&w TV with my Grandma in the 50s(Jack Brickhouse), whom BTW took me to the World’s Fair in ’64 and we just happened to catch a game at Yankee Stadium. The walk up the causeway to our seats in Wrigley gave me my first look at a field in COLOR. OMGoodness, the green was gorgeous. The outfield walls were thick with a jungle of vines. I recall that more then however that game turned out.
I went to high school in Evanston and many a time, especially on too nice a spring day, I’d just continue on Howard St to the el and and quick ride to Addison where a buck would get you a bleacher seat.
Through the years I followed the Cubbies from Denver and lo and behold, we got a team, the Rockies(yeah, I know). Amazingly I managed season tickets and I gotta tell you, Coors Field is a magnificent ball park, a contemporary Wrigley Field. It was a short 7 block walk from the warehouses that housed myself and my business and whoa, what a hoot.
The strike in the mid 90s(?) was the end of my love affair. Years later, the Rockies finally made it into the World Series and even that failed to get me back. An exclusive, couple hundred men were given an unbelievable opportunity. Paid millions to play A GD GAME??? And they strike???
Anyway, I have no time for sports…except men’s tennis. I’ve been a life long player and watcher. First of all, it is absolutely the best sport(I believe) to indulge in. The rating system allows you to play people at your level, or a little better(say a 4.5 v 5) as you should. Wonderful exercise as well as a very strategic and the better you play, the more you think ahead. Played various sports all my life and nothing compares. You are out there all alone, all by yourself, trying to put together a game that exploits your opponent’s weak points. Nothing like it.
Plus watching the pros is wonderful. I had the greatest time almost e-VAH! when I went to Australia in 08 and caught the Open there. It was Novak’s 1st Grand Slam. I have been so fortunate to have watched all of Fed’s and Nadal’s career, what fantastic tennis players. I will admit to buying tickets for the women in Melbourne despite some reluctance and I did enjoy watching them hit but the power comparison with the men is off the charts.
I wish I had the time to follow some of the lesser ATP tournaments but as I get older, time is just too damn precious. I stick to the Grand Slams but I do enjoy the heck out of them. As for baseball, couldn’t even tell you who won the World Series and as for football, the year after the Peyton and the Broncos won their last SB, the knee bullshit began and that killed football for me. Haven’t the foggiest how they’ve been doing.
I hope to fook men’s tennis never gets woke but if it does, oh well…how’s it go, get woke, go broke. I believe you told us Mom played into her 90s. I can only hope…
My favorite field was Fenway during my 4 years in Boston. It had and still has an antique feeling to it.
As for mom, yes she played until around 94-95 years of age although in the end she would sometimes insist on getting two bounces.
MM, I remember baseball too, well enough that I just don’t care about seeing the modern version. I grew up about a hundred miles from St. Louis listening to Harry Caray broadcast Cardinal games on KMOX. My great-uncle took me down on the Illinois Central to see a game at Sportsman’s Park, where I saw Stan Musial hit one out right over the 402 sign in right-center. Ken Boyer, Enos Slaughter, all heroes.
When I lived in Berkeley and Oakland I saw several A’s games from the right-field bleachers, and a few from the grandstand, like a playoff against Roger Clemens in 1990. Basketball was great in the ’80s until they just stopped enforcing the rules for Michael Jordan, but Larry Bird…..man.
These days I make due with watching old games on utube, and that’s about good enough.
Speaking of baseball. I played all the sports from walking age up through high school then mostly lost interest, or rather, my interests took a different route. I have never watched any sporting event live or on TV for more than about 15 mins a few times. The stuff bores me to tears. Still have my favorite bat, fielders glove, a few balls, football, and basketball in a closet around here somewhere. Reminds me, I need to dig that glove out and give it a lookover, maybe a cleaning with saddlesoap then a fresh coating of mink oil. One more thing to do….
I designed a giant McMansion for the owners of “Bagel Bites”, you know, those little pizza deals in the frozen food section?, but I have never eaten them – not a big fan of bagels and I’ve been burned out on ‘za forever, and the crib was built in south Fort Myers, FL. The owners were real nice folks and were high up with the owners of the Boston Red Sox who had recently completed the construction of their brand new summer stadium Fenway South on Six Mile Cypress Parkway and they invited me to the opening game against the Twins. Well, I’m a business man first and foremost and an architectural designer so I thought maybe I can get a connection along the way. So I went. I sat right there in the front row with all the owners who were hootin and hollerin like they were insane and I excused myself and wandered the stadium looking at all the construction and design details. Ate a giant sausage sando with the peppers and onions and brown mustard and warshed it all down the pipe with a 32oz bud. After an hour or so I went back to my seat and told the owners I must leave and did just that. No connections were made.
However, someone I know knew Mike Greenwell, the shortstop for the BoSox and he hired me to design “the last house I’m ever going to live in” on a 120 acre estate right on the north bank of the Caloosahatchee River. This crib was all log, mostly hand cut and machined cypress and the size was over 12,000 sf. Not too long after this project word got out and a very famous football player for Dallas hired me to design a crib for him and it too was over 12k sf. You’ve heard of him. In the floor of his pool, in 22k gold lettering is his trademarked logo, “PrimeTime”. While I was designing his place he got arrested (again) for fishing in a retaining pond along Interstate 75 by the jetport. sheesh
I’m probably one of only a handful of people in this country that has never seen any sporting event but has also made 10’s of thousands of dollars off the players. And that is a good thing.
That you built two houses for athletes? I believe.
“Caloosahatchee River”, c’mon, there can’t be that many *chee rivers.
Yep, it’s true. The Caloosa part is for the Caloosa indians that heavily populated that area a thousand years ago. Their burial mounds are being found and excavated all the time and if one is found on your building site well guess what? You’re dead in the water. Our last house, that I designed and built largely with my own hands in 2002 was in a very remote area where the nearest neighbor was more than 2 miles away and nobody had lived around there since the Caloosa’s. No burial mounds have been found on that property. Yet.
Out of boredom I recently started reading the Randy White book titled “Captiva” and in the first part he mentions Capt Kim Gerz of Matlacha. My eyes popped out. I know that guy! Kim’s a real nice guy that has a large seafood farm out in Pine Island Sound. He took me out there and gave me the nickel tour one time, cool set up. It’s almost all underwater and you probably wouldn’t notice it if you flew past in your 30′ Donzi. When Kim bought his old fishing shack house in the late 90’s he hired me to do a complete makeover from the ground up and he was paying cash for everything. Time flew as it always does and the project was completed and he was elated. Then I couldn’t get rid of him. I like seafood as much as the next guy, maybe even more, but come on. Kim would stop by my place weekly and drop off a 5lb bag of raw shrimps. Ever tried to get rid of 5 lbs of shrimps? All that deheading, deveining, unshelling, and a 5 gallon pot on a glass top range is threatening. Then the next week it was 5lbs of clams, then oysters, then something else, etc., etc. I finally had to ask him to stop. Now, I’m in a place in the hinters where real seafood is rare as hen teefs, so maybe I’ll send my ol buddy Kim an email and tell him to stop by sometime. HA!
Ghost,
I can eat a pile of oysters before I get tired of them!
I had some good times partly growing up not far from Cincinnati. Dad took me to Riverfront Stadium to see the Reds on a number of occasions. It was the early 70’s and BIG RED MACHINE. Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, George Foster, etc. etc. Dad had a turquoise colored transistor radio going in the garage for most of the Reds’ games. Color man, Joe Nuxhall along with Al Michaels were the on-air play by play. Dad and I passed baseball frequently before or after dinner. Even as an adult at my last house, I purposely left an area open in the back yard void of new trees and shrubs so that I had a clear area to pass baseball with Dad.
Makes a nice counterpoint to that retard at Ole Miss:
https://twitter.com/theScore/status/1200261639406325760