Holiday Sampler Plate Of ThoughtsFrom time-to-time I get about five or six thoughts running through my head about what to write about.
Most of those times I use a process of elimination and cut it down to one subject, but sometimes I just go with it and lump them all into one column. It’s like a meal during the holidays where you take a little bit of a lot of different things and fill your plate.
We’re going that way today.
Notre Dame in the Camping World Bowl vs. Iowa State: I went to the prom all four years in high school. I know what you are thinking, and I don’t blame you. There was a time in my life where I didn’t look anything like George Costanza of Seinfield as I do now. One year I really didn’t want to go, because I had nothing in common with the girl who asked me and I politely said “thanks, but I don’t think so.”
Then mothers got involved.
Next thing I knew, I was wearing a suit and standing on her front porch getting my picture taken.
It was good for me. I am glad I went. I feel bad that I said no originally.
Notre Dame fans are outraged that they are paired up with a five-loss Iowa State team in the Camping World Bowl on December 28. My Twitter feed is filled with comments like “I won’t watch” and “the seniors should vote not to go.”
I have chastised all of them as spoiled brats.
Your team gets three more weeks of practice to get better (especially your returning players), you get to go somewhere warm and…and it’s a Notre Dame Football game, so of course you’ll watch.
The alternative: You could have beat Michigan, and then you would have played Alabama on New Year’s Day.
No thanks.
Cubs fans want to trade Kris Bryant. OK, I get the initial point of the wish to trade Bryant—he’s going to want a mega deal when he becomes a free agent and the Cubs have already filled their payroll with bad contracts. That means trading one player (Bryant) in the year before his initial contract ends could bring back several high-quality prospects in return.
Problem is, there is NO WAY the Cubs get back the value of Bryant in a trade. No chance. Zero.
So what do they do?
Play it out next year and see what happens. If they are out of the race in June, they could always trade him if there is no way to put the cash together to sign him long-term.
The White Sox are the most stable pro team in Chicago. The Bears look they will miss the playoffs, the Blackhawks are 4 points out of a playoff spot but seventh in their division, the Cubs seem to be in payroll purgatory, the Bulls still stink and…and then there are the White Sox.
Clearly they are a team with some younger up-and-comers, and they have been aggressive so far in free agency this winter.
They are going for it, and the reason why is because owner Jerry Reinsdorf is getting old.
Jerry knows that the Bulls aren’t going to win him any championships any time soon, so he is putting his time, energy and resources into the South Siders in hopes of getting him one more run at glory.
A rough ending for Larry Clisby: The Radio Voice of the Boilermakers has been in bad health over the last few years, and a couple of weeks ago he made the hardest call of his life—to stop doing play-by-play.
For four decades, he’s been the one Purdue fans have turned on to listen to their beloved Boilermakers on the radio. But while stage four lung and brain cancer haven’t claimed his life yet, it did rob him of his ability to think quickly and turn those thoughts into words intended to paint a picture for those who cannot see what he sees.
And that, friends, is the whole point.
So, a few games into this season, Larry Clisby told the people he worked most closely with he could no longer performing his duties, and he was stopping—right then. Immediately. The night before the next game.
He explained to us all why, and that he was doing it of his own accord, and that he recognized that he couldn’t do the job anymore.
I was moved to tears as I listened to him make the case for his decision. Listening to this man do his job helped me shape my thoughts and dreams into wanting to do it myself. Now, as I am in the middle of my 28th season of broadcasting sports here in Warsaw and approaching a milestone broadcast of my own, I only hope that I get the chance to exit gracefully when that day comes for me.
