Time Out with Tany • Pre-Father's Day Edition

THIS COLUMN WAS WRITTEN IN FRONT OF A LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE

QUICK QUIZ

How many 12-ounce cans of beer does it take to fill the Stanley Cup?

A.  12

B.  15

C.  17

D.  19

QUOTABLE QUOTES

“A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be.” – Tom Landry

“Baseball teaches you about perseverance and staying mentally strong. It’s a game of ups and downs, and you have to stay level-headed through it all. – Cal Ripken Jr.

“You learn from your mistakes and you learn from your failures. It’s how you get up that defines you to a certain extent.”   – Martin Brodeur.

IDLE THOUGHTS

Seeking a Father’s Day gift for good, old Dad? If he’s a baseball fan, purchase the book “The Glory of Their Times” by Lawrence S. Ritter. It profiles the stories of the early days of baseball as told by the men who played it.

I read where Texas A&M University offers a class on Texas Barbecue that teaches the history of BBQ cooking methodology, flavorings and seasonings, and different types of BBQ. The class if offered in the fall and is held on Friday afternoons. Friday afternoons? I thought Thursday afternoon marked the official start of the college weekend.

It had been 69 years since a Canadian golfer had been victorious in the RBC Canadian Open, and Nick Taylor was desperate to end the drought. He made that long slump come to an end when he nailed an incredible 72-foot putt – the longest putt of his career - on the fourth extra playoff hole to win the tournament over British golfer Tommy Fleetwood. Loved the fans singing “Oh Canada” on the 18th hole. The fans at the Waste Management Phoenix Open are going to have to step it up.

Congratulations to Joe Ricard of Frankenmuth who will be inducted into the Bay County Sports Hall of Fame this fall. Ricard, who coached Nouvel Catholic Central to a pair of state championships in boys’ basketball, is the president of the Bay Community Tennis Association. He has provided most of the sweat equity at Bay City’s Janet H. Jopke Bay Community Tennis Facility located in Richard Shaw Park.

Wayne Gretzky played his final game ever in the National Hockey League on April 18, 1999, in front of a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden. His New York Rangers suffered a 2-1 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, but nobody cared about the score of the game. The Great One recorded one assist in the game, the 2,857th and final point of his splendid career. Gretzky still owns close to 60 NHL records, including most goals (894), assists (1,963), and points (2,857). When Gretzky decided to say goodbye, the entire sports world was watching. After the game fans gave Gretzky a standing ovation as he took a few laps around the Garden ice. Postgame, Gretzky met the media still in his uniform. What happened during and after the game is old news. Gretzky, however, shared an awesome story about what happened before the game and his heartwarming gesture toward his father Walter. “Like every kid, being in sports is your parents driving you to your games, and I said, for the last game, I’m going to drive my dad to the game. I thought it was a nice ending to it. And the whole way there, he just kept hitting me on the leg saying, ’You know, you could play one more year’ I said, ’Dad, I think I’m done.”

Itchy clock finger in Philadelphia? The Philadelphia Phillies are claiming that the pitch clock is faster at Citizens Bank Park and visiting players agree. There have been 14 violations on the Phillies and 11 on visitors. But only 5 violations have been on visiting pitchers.

Whenever a New York Yankees game is broadcast on television, the camera always seems to zoom in on manager Aaron Boone who wears a huge wristwatch. Boone is one of the greatest wrist models straight out of Hölstein, Switzerland. He wears an Oris Big Crown Pro Pilot X Calibre 115. It costs a cool $3,700.

On the morning of July 6, 1930, Fred Newton waded into the Mississippi River in Minneapolis and started swimming. He told reporters he planned to reach New Orleans in 90 days. An athletic 27-year-old from Clinton, Oklahoma, Newton aimed to be the first person to swim the river’s length, hoping the exploit would bring wealth and fame. His younger brother Byron followed in a rowboat, carrying supplies and taking notes to document Fred’s torturous journey.

On the second day, Newton encountered floating mats of manure and stinking animal parts dumped off the stockyards of South St. Paul. But he kept swimming, even amid the Upper Mississippi’s treacherous whirlpools. Along the way, Newton stopped in riverside towns. A talented artist, he sometimes painted signs for local businesses in exchange for a meal or a bed.

By December, the water was frigid, so Newton donned wool underwear and slathered himself in axle grease for insulation. When he reached New Orleans on December 29 - three months behind schedule - a crowd gathered to greet him, and the New Orleans Athletic Club offered him a hot bath. Though Newton’s feat earned him a world record, it didn’t bring him riches. He went on to make a living as an insurance salesman and later founded a company that sold orthopedic products. He died at age 89 in 1992 in Gainesville, Texas, where, according to his son Phil, he mostly preferred to watch other people swim."

I attended the Great Lakes Loons’ baseball game on Saturday evening with my son Sam. We had great seats in the first row by the Loons’ dugout. After the last out was made in the 7th inning, the Loons’ first baseman tossed me the baseball. Despite being hip-checked by the doofus sitting next to me, I still caught the ball and gave it to a kid sitting behind me.

Remember Horace Clarke who played second base for the New York Yankees? In 1970 he broke up three 9th inning no-hitters.

Whatever happened to John Ogrodnick?

QUICK QUIZ ANSWER

Answer: C. 17. The Stanley Cup is the oldest professional sports trophy in North America and it is named after Lord Stanley of Preston, the 1892 Governor General of Canada. After he became interested in the sport, he donated the Cup to award Canada’s amateur hockey club. The trophy is awarded annually to the playoff champion club of the National Hockey League. However, unlike every other sports trophy The Stanley Cup is not made every year. Instead, the names of the winning team, coaches, and management are added to the Cup. When the rings of the Cup become full, the oldest band is being replaced with a blank one, ready for the next championships to be added to it. If the rumors are true, baseball legend Wade Boggs once drank more than 4 Stanley Cups worth of beer in one day.