Count Down to Game Six

According to a 2018 survey of NFL fans, about 30 percent believe game-day rituals and superstitions can influence the outcome of the game.

I know people who have to wear the same shirt if their team won the previous game or they won’t move from a certain position from the TV if their team is doing well. I have never been in that camp and not just because dressing myself is enough of a challenge that I don’t need to add on the additional burden of satisfying a superstition.

Although I am between 99.9999 and 100 percent certain none of this matters, I can’t have my Milwaukee Bucks mere hours away from potentially winning an NBA title and not feel as if I’m doing my part.

So wanted to knock out a short blog post ahead of the game tonight.

What a fun run this has been. From the highs of sweeping the Heat, to the lows of Giannis going down with a knee injury, followed by the jolt of excitement from his return and other-worldly play. From down 2-0 to the Suns, to the brink of four consecutive victories. If the Bucks win one more game, it would be almost the exact way the Toronto series of two years played out except this time it would be the good guys on top.

A particular highlight was attending Game 5 of the Hawks series with my brother, son and nephew. It was probably the most we’ve ever paid for tickets and we were in the third to last row but it was unforgettable and such a rush to be in the building and continually shout, “pass it to Lopez” throughout the game.

Here’s to one more victory for this talented, classy and supremely likable group of players who have captured the hearts and minds of a city and much of NBA nation.

 

 

Say It Will Be So Joe

In the last week, I made rack of lamb and quoted Shakespeare in an all-associate email.

To make this the most unlikely of trifectas, I will now poke at the third rail and write about politics.

Since the case against Donald Trump is so vast, let’s focus on white nationalism and conspiracy theories.

In 2017, white nationalists held rallies on consecutive days in Charlottesville, Virginia; this led to counter protests and violence. Trump’s initial comment read in part, “we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides—on many sides.” This caused immediate outrage and Republican senator Marco Rubio tweeted, “Very important for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists.”

Two days later, reading off a teleprompter, and appearing as the late Charles Krauthammer memorably put it as if it was a “hostage tape,” Trump said he condemned in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred. The next day, Trump negated any goodwill from his words of the day before by again seeming to look for ways to find a moral equivalence between the two sides.

As part of his explanation for why he did not say more initially, Trump talked about needing to “know the facts.” This is particularly rich from a man who for his entire life has shown a willingness to be, charitably, loose with the truth, and who led the charge that Barack Obama was not born in this country.

From the birther conspiracy theory, let’s move to QAnon, which has rapidly increased in popularity in recent months. The Wall Street Journal defines it as, “a far right-wing, loosely organized network and community of believers who embrace a range of unsubstantiated beliefs. These views center around the idea that a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles—mainly consisting of what they see as elitist Democrats, politicians, journalists, entertainment moguls and other institutional figures—have long controlled much of the so-called “deep state” government, which they say seeks to undermine President Trump, mostly with aid of media and entertainment outlets.”

This is how Kevin Roose describes it in the New York Times. “QAnon is the umbrella term for a sprawling set of internet conspiracy theories that allege, falsely, that the world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who are plotting against Mr. Trump while operating a global child sex-trafficking ring. QAnon followers believe that this clique includes top Democrats including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and George Soros, as well as a number of entertainers and Hollywood celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks, Ellen DeGeneres and religious figures including Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama. Many of them also believe that, in addition to molesting children, members of this group kill and eat their victims in order to extract a life-extending chemical from their blood. According to QAnon lore, Mr. Trump was recruited by top military generals to run for president in 2016 in order to break up this criminal conspiracy, end its control of politics and the media, and bring its members to justice.”

Asked about the conspiracy, Trump said, “I’ve heard these are people that love our country. So I don’t know, really, anything about it other than they do, supposedly, like me.”

Thomas Friedman started a recent New York Times column by asking what you would do as a parent if your child came home from school and said, “President Obama ordered the killing of the U.S. Special Forces team that supposedly killed Osama bin Laden. My teacher said Bin Laden is actually still alive, that the guy the Navy SEALs killed was a ‘body double.’ He also claimed that Obama’s aides got Iran to send Bin Laden to Pakistan so Obama could have a ‘trophy kill.’ What’s a trophy kill? My teacher said he had heard all of this somewhere on the internet and he just thought he’d pass it along to our class. Mom, Dad, is this true?”

These are all things the President of the United States recently tweeted or retweeted.

Let’s close this out with two quotes. During the midst of a challenging summer for our country marked by racial unrest and COVID-19, former Trump Defense Secretary Jim Mattis wrote, “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.

Biden made a particularly strong closing argument at the end of a recent 60 Minutes interview.

“Look, there’s a lot of reasons people are upset, a lot of good reasons. All he wants to do is take that sort of subliminal fear out there and say it’s because of that guy or because of that woman. That’s not who we are as a country. I mean, this is not who we are. It’s not our value system. We hold these truths to be self-evident. We’ve never met it. We’ve never met the standard, but we’ve always gone further and further and further toward inclusion. It’s the first president who’s trying to shut it down. We cannot sustain this democracy that way. We’re so much better than this.”

Say it will be so Joe, say it will be so.  

"At Least I Get to Write the Headline"

The first sentence of the Facebook post where he announced his news was classic Bill Pemstein.

“At least I get to write the headline,” he wrote.

So was the rest of the post by my friend and former colleague.

“I have been diagnosed with ALS. Lou Gehrig’s disease,” he wrote. “It will one day kill me. I hated acne in college. It went away. I hated ulcerative colitis (30 years). They cured it. My walking is off. I’ve fallen. I have a wonderful physical therapist nearby who is helping me tremendously. Not feeling sorry for myself.”

In one paragraph, you get a glimpse into his sense of humor, the way his mind works, his raw honesty, and his positive, determined attitude.

“Would I invite him to the Life of Riley Party?”

In 2002, I was a correspondent for the Daily Herald and Bill was with the Pioneer Press. We covered many of the same games and quickly struck up a friendship. Talking with Bill, whether about sports, music or his family, was always a trip.

Each summer, he organized a group to take in Brewers games on weekday evenings in Milwaukee. The man thought of everything. From leaving enough time at the start to drink a wide selection of eclectic beers in the Miller Park parking lot, to always making time to stop at Leon’s Frozen Custard on the way back.

Before he moved to Illinois, Bill worked in sales for the Baltimore Orioles. His stories about those days were legendary, made even all the more memorable because all three of his sons were named after Orioles.

None of those sons were named Cal, Jim or Eddie; instead, it was Brady, Riley and Nolan.

I didn’t learn why until years later when he told me that his wife was on board with naming after Orioles players as long as they were Irish names. So his three sons received names in honor of Brady Anderson, Matt Riley and Joe Nolan, respectively.

Riley had a difficult birth and to celebrate his health, for many years, the Pemstein family would throw a “Life of Riley” party over Labor Day Weekend. I looked forward to the party and could tell how much it meant to Bill and his family.

I once asked Bill about a fellow sportswriter who covered some of the same games and I’ll never forget his answer. “He seems like a good guy but I’m not sure if I’d invite him to a Life of Riley party.”

I’m so glad I made the cut for the party and for our friendship.

Pioneer Press Days

Bill covered high school sports in his own unique way. Too many stories to recount so let’s pick two that stand out in particular.

For many years before the state high school playoffs in basketball, Bill would write his annual trade column. In it, he would propose hypothetical trades.  For example, ship a guard to a team that needed some ball-handling and quickness, and in return the team would receive some needed size.

One year, Bill received a call from a parent saying that his daughter was in tears because she believed she had really been traded and would have to start going to a new school. The parent thought this was an insult to his daughter.

Bill’s reply was classic. He only trades good players!

The second one was the time an accomplished football player became a high school coach and told Bill his team would go to the playoffs. Bill replied they should worry about winning a game, not making the playoffs. They bet a steak dinner and sure enough the team went 0-9. The steak dinner was paid up but there was some tension over whether the bet included wine. It was a triumphant night for Bill.

Those Orioles and Throwing Stone(s)

Every author needs a muse.

For some, it’s a beautiful woman or a striking piece of art. For Bill, it was a rather average pitcher better known for his candid color commentary, who, in 1980, for the Orioles (of course), put together one of the most surreal seasons in MLB history.

Stone went 25-7 with a 3.23 ERA, won 14 consecutive games, and retired all nine batters he faced in the All-Star game. Throwing his curve more than 50 percent of the time, Stone notched more single-season victories than any pitcher in franchise history. For his career, Stone was 107-93 with a 3.97 ERA.

After his playing days ended, Stone became better known for his broadcasting career, first for the Cubs and now for the White Sox.

“If I had moved to Seattle or Missouri, I never would have thought about it,” Bill told me for an article I wrote in 2011 for the Pioneer Press. “I would watch him on television and think I had to write a book about that incredible season.”

Bill's research into the 1980 season began in the early 2000s. He ordered out-of-state newspapers and devoured websites such as Retrosheet.org and Baseball-Reference.com. In 2003, he made the trip to Baltimore and photocopied “every stinking article from the Baltimore Sun.” He hired our mutual friend T.J. Brown to edit the book and self-published it.

In addition to some book signings, a major highlight for Bill came when the Babe Ruth Museum in Baltimore purchased 12 books.

Tunes and More Tunes

Bill always referred to the basement of his house as “the shrine.” It was filled with Orioles memorabilia, idiosyncratic drinks and more music than you could imagine.

He had a 200-CD stereo and he needed every bit of it. He was an Ipod first adopter and made sure he used every single bit of his storage. When he got to 99,999 songs, he was not ready to stop.

“I remember the person he talked to at Apple was astounded he had that many songs,” Nolan said.

In addition to his vinyl, CDs and digital music library, Bill kept hundreds of old cassette tapes. The older two boys have their own musical tastes but Nolan is just like his old man. That means high on Nolan’s playlist is Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Al Stewart, Stevie Wonder and “many musicians no one has ever heard of.”

“That’s why I’ll never connect with my generation,” Nolan said with a smile. “One of my friends popped in a tape and wondered what was going on?”

His Boys

I always loved the pride and joy Bill took in his three children. Although each boy has a different favorite team (White Sox, Red Sox and Mets, respectively), they inherited his love of baseball. Of course, that love also came from their mom who was quite a softball pitcher. In fact, one of Bill and Eileen’s first dates was a pickup softball games with some friends from the Pioneer Press.

All three boys played baseball and Bill’s commentary on their games was always much anticipated. Nolan tells a story about the time he was in a jam and before a pitch his father shouted loudly,” throw your slider.”

“I never had a slider,” Nolan said with a smile. “That got me to laugh right on the mound.”

Nolan points out proudly that at Lake Zurich High School where he will be a junior, there is a wall of framed stories from local newspapers. Each time he walks by, he knows that his dad’s byline is featured.

Nolan admires the way his dad continues to make the most of each day.

“He works with his physical therapist, he watches reruns of classic MLB games, listens to music and watches movies,” Nolan said. “A lot of people would give up but not him.”

Bill, I hope you read this with an MLB classic ballgame on in the background, while sipping a microbrew and listening to the great, great Nils Lofgren.

That would be the best kind of multitasking.

The Five for May 31, 2020 – Everything Coming Up Liam

1. Liam and I finished reading the first Harry Potter book earlier today. Even though I care nothing for witches, wizards or fantasy, it was as good as advertised. For the people that find witches, wizards and fantasy fascinating, I can only imagine how much they enjoyed it.

This was the longest book I’ve read to Liam, and it had me thinking about, Patty, one of Liam’s first teachers. He had just started preschool and we received a report that his first morning went so well. That same afternoon, we got a call from a different teacher that Liam was crying because he was scared of nap time. At his school, the teachers somehow pull out these tiny, individual cots that all children sleep in or “rest quietly” during nap time.

I had a lot of sympathy for Liam. I went to what we called nursery school for a half day so there were no naps. Still, I had a lot of anxiety and it took me weeks to feel comfortable in the new environment.

The next day we got a call from the same teacher. She said that they would be able to give Liam some time to adjust but this was a prep period for her. It was sort of left unsaid this couldn’t go on forever.

Then, Patty stepped in. She spent extra time with Liam the next two days, welcoming him to the school and helping him feel more comfortable at nap time. By the end of the week, Liam was asleep minutes into nap time and it was never an issue again.

The nap issue may have resolved itself on its own, but we’ll never know. What we do know is her kindness and warmth helped Liam become comfortable in a new environment, and he had a great experience at the school for the next two-plus years.

So how does this relate to Harry Potter? We became friends with Patty and her husband John. Their family loves horse racing and we met them one beautiful Saturday at Arlington Park. One of their son’s, who worked at Arlington, even gave Liam a special tour.

I’m not sure how it came up, but Patty told us that she read every word of the Harry Potter series to her two wonderful boys. That’s quite something but I’m not surprised. Whether it’s nap time or reading time, Patty is amazing.

2. Liam started to enjoy watching the Packers this year and he likes watching football videos. He is definitely picking up the lingo. I threw him a pass Saturday and he made a bunch of cuts for a touchdown. He pointed at something on the ground and said, “Look, I broke that leaf’s ankle.”

3. We were on a bike ride earlier this week, and Liam commented that someone we passed, “looked just like Seattle coach Pete Carroll.” He was right; he did.

Of course, the man didn’t act like Carroll because that would have meant running around with a goofy grin and passing on second-and-goal at the 1 with 26 seconds left in the Super Bowl! Couldn’t resist.

4. My brother Mike and his wife Gillian gave us a bottle of Cherry Bomb hot sauce.

Liam asked me to read the label after he tried it. The label reads in part that the sauce, “explodes with complex flavors.” Liam looked thoughtfully and said, “I guess I’m not old enough yet to appreciate complex flavors.”

5. Liam and I were watching golf and a player’s shot found the sand. Or, as Liam referred to it, a sand pit. I told him, Liam, it’s called a sand trap or bunker.

He responded that, “In my world, I call it a sand pit.”

Sometimes, it’s Liam’s world and we’re all just living in it. We’ll let that example of Liam Logic walk us off.

This Is Not Water

Earlier this week, I wrote about the cheap hats you buy in Florida and take to other places, as well as an aquatic ninja warrior experience with Liam in the Adriatic Sea.

This had me thinking about some other travel stories and one that came to mind right away was our first trip to Beijing with Liam. It is memorable all right but also infamous.

Liam was young, couldn’t have been more than 3-years-old. On a Sunday morning, we were about to have an early lunch at Xiaoli’s mom’s house. Her mom was preparing the meal and Xiaoli’s sister and brother-in-law were there as well.

We realized that we were out of bottled water and I was drafted to go to a nearby store that we had shopped at previously.

Given my limited sense of direction, not going to lie, I was feeling pretty good about myself when I found the store without any issues. I asked the cashier where the bottled water was and he pointed in the general direction. 

I wasn’t positive the cashier knew any English but he had responded affirmatively so maybe he understood. There were quite a few choices at varying prices, all which seemed a touch expensive.

I should point out here, probably not surprisingly, that I have no aptitude for currency translations. The bottled water seemed expensive, but it was possible I did not convert the price correctly. Regardless, it wasn’t that much money and we needed the water.

So I paid more than I thought I should and returned to the house. One other mitigating point for what transpired next – beyond my interactions with the cashier – was that no one in Xiaoli’s house commented on the purchase.

We started eating and pretty soon Liam asked for water. I poured him a glass and he instantly spat it out. I wanted to reprehend him but his face was still in shock.

I decided maybe I should try the water myself.

It only took one sip to realize this was not water but cheap Chinese alcohol. I can only imagine what was going on in Liam’s little head.

So, the next time you are looking for the best Chinese alcohol to serve your young children, you know how to find me.

Reliving An Iconic Home Run

I enjoyed the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s 50 in 50 Series, which ranked Wisconsin’s greatest sports moments over the last half-century.

Lists and rankings are inherently subjective. I remember when I worked as a reporter and picked all-area teams for high school sports. Some of the picks were obvious, but sometimes you were making a decision on two evenly accomplished players and there was only room for one.

I used to agonize ranking the top teams in weekly polls. Especially early in the season, you had so little to go on and may not have even seen many teams play. I still chuckle about the time I had ranked a team in the top ten but not as high as the team had hoped for, and the coach said after that was the motivating factor for its victory that day.

So back to the 50 in 50. Obviously, a ton of work went into this so kudos to the paper and sports writer JR Radcliffe for writing all 50 pieces; he is also writing the next 10 that just missed the list. This is a huge project and one he excelled at.

I also liked how the criteria was spelled out. “These are singular moments. You’re supposed to remember where you were when they happened.”

One random observation. With no sports going on for most of this stretch, why did one person write every story? For example, why wouldn’t the two Brewers beat writers handle some of the Brewers stories, particularly since they covered some of the moments for the paper. I’m sure they had plenty of rich stuff left in the notebook they weren’t able to share at the time because of space constraints. Same for the other sports.

Anyway, I want to write a bit about one moment that did not make the top 50 but did make the 10 that just missed the list. My  intent is not to criticize the omission (OK, maybe a little), but near the top of my list was Brandon Woodruff’s home run in game 1 of the 2018 NL Championship series. It is hard to imagine any Brewers fan forgetting that moment.

I was at Miller Park that night with my dad, brother and his son Roger. The Brewers trailed 1-0 and Woodruff, a relief pitcher who had just worked a scoreless third, was due up first. It’s not as if being down one run, even against the great Clayton Kershaw was insurmountable, but there was definitely nervous tension in the crowd.

What happened next almost defies description. Woodruff, who bats left-handed, facing an all-time lefty, clobbered a 2-2 pitch for a no-doubt solo homer to right-center. With the possible exception of the Easter Sunday rally in 1987, I’m not sure I’ve ever been more excited at a baseball game.

A big piece of it was the surprise and the stakes. No one was expecting a pitcher, someone with 10 prior at bats during the season, to hit a home run. Not just a home run, but a home run off a legend. The Journal Sentinel article included a fun stat that Woodruff was the second pitcher to homer off a former MVP in the postseason and the first since 1924.

According to MLB.com, this was the first time Kershaw allowed a home run to a left-handed hitting pitcher. Woodruff also became the third reliever in baseball history to homer in the postseason.

Woodruff told the Journal Sentinel he knew it was gone when he saw centerfielder Cody Bellinger pull up in front of the wall. “That’s about the time I started rounding the bases, and the emotion started coming out.”

Woodruff looked back at the Brewers dugout during his trip around the bases and he used all of his 6-foot-4, 215-pounds to dispense high fives. As Lorenzo Cain said in the same story, “he almost broke my arm. If you look at the replay, it was a pretty strong high-five.”

Oh, Lorenzo, we’ll get to that replay soon enough.

Woodruff’s homer electrified the crowd and the dugout and the Brewers were off to the races. The Brewers scored another run in the third and Woodruff worked a scoreless fourth (4Ks over 2 innings). The Brewers chased Kershaw from the game in the bottom of the inning with three more runs.

The Brewers led 6-1 going into the eighth but needed all of those runs in a 6-5 victory. The Brewers were  suddenly three victories away from their first trip to the World Series since 1982.

After the game, Mike Moustakas said Woodruff, “is a legend in Milwaukee right now.”

Moose, truer words have never been spoken. 

I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve watched the replay, but what’s one more?

All that’s left to do now is for Woodruff to walk us off.

Croatian Ninja Aquatic Warrior ...

Or as I called him that day, the Croatian Sensation Ninja Aquatic Warrior.

Last year at this time, Liam was obsessed with American Ninja Warrior. He’s not currently obsessed, but it’s even money he will be when new episodes of the show finally return.

In August, we were in Croatia in the town of Zadar on vacation with Xiaoli’s mom and sister. On one of our last days on the beach that feeds into the Adriatic Sea – which apparently borders Croatia in addition to Albania – we noticed some type of warrior course set up in the water.

Of course, Liam couldn’t wait to try it. I did not share his enthusiasm for participating but couldn’t wait to see him take his shot. So, the two of us walked on excruciating rocks for more than a minute. Then, we started swimming and about 50 yards later we arrived at this obstacle course, an inflatable paradise on water.

Just lifting ourselves up from the water onto the inflatable was challenging and that was not even a true obstacle. 

What happened next was fun and fairly amazing. There were children of various ages spread out and also some people who appeared to be in their early 20's. There may have been a lifeguard by the beach but everyone seemed to be on their own.

As a result, everyone took care of each other.

If someone fell off an obstacle, and falling off meant finding yourself in the Adriatic Sea, people stopped what they were doing to make sure that person could get back up. 

There were a few kids not in groups and Liam found a boy from Sweden who was about his age and the two became fast friends. They went round and round the course, figuring out their favorite obstacles. Although it looked exhausting, it was a long while before they tired.

It will also be a long time before Liam forgets that wonderful memory of his time in Croatia.

The same is true for his Dad.