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Ancient and Recent Looks at New MLB Seasons

February 13, 2017

1962: Harry Craft Previews 1st Season of the Houston Colt .45s

Darrell Pittman

Darrell Pittman

1962 and 2017 are the years involved here today. Both seasons of mention pertain to the immediate MLB futures of our Houston clubs – the first and ancient one being one of a series written by Manager Harry Craft prior to the start of the first NL season of the Houston Colt .45s – the second being a visual on how Minute Maid Park is shaping up as a restructured playing field for the Houston Astros of the AL as they now play their first schedule, sans Tal’s Hill.

Both of the stories for this column are made possible by the contributions of friend, colleague, and frequent publishing flyer of The Pecan Park Eagle, the amazing Mr. Darrell Pittman of AstrosDaily.com. Thanks again, Darrell, and please extend my appreciation to your dear spouse, Susan Pittman,  for all you guys both do to research and study “the game” for all its worth – and also – please send the word to your website compadre and our baseball pal, Bob Hulsey, to keep up all the good work he does too to document the history of Houston baseball in every way imaginable. All that some of us can do now is build an energized and accurate digital reliquary floor that will be strong enough to hold all that is yet to come beyond this era as the need for a strong, safe, and permanent home for accessible and usable information on local baseball history continues to grow, as time goes by.

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haryy-craft-62

The above copy of the Manager Harry Craft comments on the first MLB season that was coming up for the new NL Houston Colt .45s was published in the Gettysburg (PA) Times on February 1, 1962.

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2017: How Minute Maid Park is shaping Up, From another Work-in-Progress Photo taken on 2/11/2017

Photo by Denis Costello February 11, 2017 Submitted to The Pecan Park Eagle By Darrell Pittman

Photo by Denis Costello
February 11, 2017
Submitted to The Pecan Park Eagle
By Darrell Pittman

A note attached to the photo submission indicated that the new grass is scheduled for installment this coming week. We presume that the large presently yellow section in center field also will be getting a coat of dark green paint at some time soon as another phase of the job completion agenda also.  Pitchers would undoubtedly prefer to leave the thing yellow, but there would sure be a lot of screaming from batters if they did.

Hot Damn! Pitchers and catchers report to the new spring training base of the Houston Astros in West Palm Beach, Florida on Tuesday, February 14, 2017. That’s the day after tomorrow from this Sunday eve writing! And also Valentine’s Day!

“And I say to myself – what a wonderful world!”

Addendum Photo, Monday, February 13, 2017 – Submitted also by Darrell Pittman

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This Monday photo features the installment of the new Minute Maid Park pitching mound. It also provides a little closer look at the new batter’s backdrop in center field, at least, as it is shaping up as a work in progress.

____________________

eagle-0range
 Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

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Hey Astros! Here’s a Guy with a Pitch that Hops!

February 12, 2017
Saturday, February 11, 2017 Player agent Elwood P. 0Dowd gave Astros GM Jeff Luhnow an oil painting of himself with his top pitching prospect, Harvey Pucca, yesterday. The painting now hangs in Luhnow's office while he mulls whether the Astros have any interest in signing the guy that some are now already calling

Saturday, February 11, 2017
Player agent Elwood P. Dowd gave Astros GM Jeff Luhnow an oil painting of himself with his top pitching prospect, Harvey Pucca, yesterday. The painting now hangs in Luhnow’s office, while he mulls whether the Astros have any interest in signing the guy that some are now already calling “The Rapid Rabbit.”

Baseball agent Elwood P. Dowd dropped by the office of Astros General Manager Jeff Luhnow on Saturday to see if he could interest the Houston AL club in the services of a rookie starting pitcher by the name of Harvey Pucca.

“Let me give you an original oil painting of Harvey and me for your walls, while you’re thinking about it, Mr. Luhnow,” Dowd blithely continued during the early moments of his spiel. “After you see Harvey throw some of his stuff down there on the floor of MMP in a short while, the painting will help you remember who you were watching. It should also give you pause to think: ‘Wait a minute! The long-eared tall guy in the painting upstairs is the real painter here! He can find any corner of the strike zone that the worst umpires can also see – and without the help of an attached GPS!’.”

Harvey Pucca showed his stuff to Luhnow, all right. His repertoire includes:

  1. a moving fastball that approaches 97 MPH on average.  (“That Pucca fast ball had more hop on it than any pitch I’ve ever seen on a right-pawed rookie starter prospect,” Luhnow said. As a matter of clarification, Luhnow pointed out later that Harvey Pucca was also the first right-pawed pitcher he had ever seen.)
  2. a 92 MPH slider that Dowd has tagged as Pucca’s “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” pitch.” (“At the very moment this pitch reaches the plate and the batter thinks it’s going to ‘Zip-A-Dee-Du-Dah’ at the last second,” Dowd says, “the ball ‘Zip-A-Dee-A’s’ instead – and the batter’s swing misses it by a mile.”)
  3. an 80 MPH change of speed pitch that leaves the “paw” looking and feeling to the batter exactly like a 97 MPH fastball that is heading for the center of the plate. (Nuf sed.)

“Young Harvey here has an interesting philosophy about his pitching style,” agent Dowd also explained to Luhnow. “He calls his approach a variation on the old “Carrot and Stick” philosophy.  Harvey thinks of the ball as the carrot and, of course, the bat as the stick. It’s the batter’s goal to make sure that the bat and the ball meet early and often in each game. It’s the pitcher’s goal, of course, to either keep them from meeting at all, or more practically, to get the batter to only hit balls that have a greater chance of becoming playable outs as ground balls or short distance fly balls.”

Harvey also communicated through Dowd that he has other pitches he could add to the mix, but that right now he’s confident that the three that are present in his current playbook are enough to get the job done by a country mile.

Is there a chance that the Astros might take a chance on a talented out-of-the-blue mythical creature like Harvey Pucca in 2017?

Jeff Luhnow told us that he was impressed by what he saw in Harvey Pucca, but he quickly added that he needed to take some time to think about whether the Astros’ current needs for superior starting pitching were worth the risk of using money to sign an unproven, and, yes, legendary talent like Harvey Pucca.

Let’s hope for the best on this one, Astros fans.

____________________

eagle-0range
 Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

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New Extra Inning Rule Idea Sucks

February 11, 2017
Elysian Fields ~ Hoboken NJ About 1845

Elysian Fields ~ Hoboken NJ
About 1845
“If they don’t score this time, let’s allow the next inning to start with a runner on 2nd base – just to help the chances of getting this thing finished soon. OK?  I’ve got a hot date at Delmonico’s tonight and need to get out of here soon as possible! – Does that make sense to everybody?” – Alexander Cartwright

 

Baseball began in the 19th century – and not as a 21st century millennial game-time-saver thought. In fact, it began as a game that flat-out portrayed life – without trying to fit the needs of the living into a two-hour game time frame that guaranteed protection of its fans and teams from the unforeseen and inconvenient interference that an unduly long game might cause to the needs of those same human beings for rest, sleep or social, work and travel plans to be elsewhere after the game, doing something else.

The game of baseball that first crawled out of the grass as it also descended gracefully from the sunny skies over the Elysian Fields across the Hudson River from Manhattan onto the welcoming shores of New Jersey was special to all as an amusement in the sense that it wasn’t set up merely as a miserly way to squeeze the essence of life, which included the beyond-time framework for eternity, into a mostly probable two hours, or less, controlled game-time investment from all participants, players or fierce watchers.

Baseball from the start was still more a life-play than a game, and an occupation of time with a clearer understanding about the scoring of victory and a sharper awareness of the absence of control we all have over time. As an activity based upon life itself, that meant that there would be some surprising, toiling or challenging days – some that would run longer than others. To play this “game” of baseball, one had to understand, at some point, that participants had to be made of enduring stuff. They had to know how to chill. And to hang in there.

For hope to prevail, players needed to give their best to the moment and to never give up on the goal of victory over the course of a long day. “Players” even had to put aside all due concern about how much worse they were going to feel, if they expended all this heart and energy – over time – and still failed to prevail at the end of the day. – And they had to duly reckon with the reality that there would never be a guarantee, win or lose, that they would not have to go through the same thing again tomorrow – if that’s when the next game was scheduled for their club.

It seems a lot. But that’s life. And baseball is the play of life. The more we move deeper into this third baseball century culture from our root understandings about the eternal struggle for everything that’s really important in life through baseball, the more some people seem to grow in numbers as those who want to change the rules of baseball as a game for the added convenience of tired players and fans who need their sleep too.

The dynamic that’s at play

The more they tamper with the rules of baseball, the less baseball lives as a breath-taking entity of life itself. And, if baseball has no business being independent of the clock, why don’t they also throw out the long regular season of 162 MLB games each year and simply play out the season as a 30-team, best-of-seven games tourney, and simply offer that as the fan’s annual game offering. Something like that works for the NBA, doesn’t it?

The rule that MLB wants to test

Here’s what lit the flame on a possible need for change: On April 10, 2015, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox got hooked up in a 19 inning game that lasted six hours and forty-nine minutes. It didn’t finish until 2 o’clock in the morning – and before only a handful of fans who remained to see the end.

https://qz.com/907103/major-league-baseball-is-testing-a-rule-to-start-extra-innings-with-a-runner-on-second/

OUCH! The baseball gods could not have picked a more powerful audience than the owners, players, and fans of these two storied MLB franchises to inconvenience. As you read the linked article, it’s pretty easy to see how this game became the epicenter for a rule change proposal that could soon “protect” all from the recurrence of such a real life inconvenience.

The rule proposes that extra innings shall begin for each team with a gift runner on second base to increase the probability of a run scoring and the game ending in that same frame. All further questions as to who shall be that runner – how earned or unearned he shall be tallied, if he does score – and what this does to the ongoing flow of baseball records  – are all undecided.

The Legacy of Radical Rules Change

Some of us shall regret the loss of baseball as an archetypal athletic depiction of life itself, but that doesn’t matter. Most of us who feel that way won’t be around too much longer – and most of the people who remain to make the decision on this latest radical “rule change” have lived their entire lives with the implicit understanding, even now, that there already are two similar, but different games of baseball, anyway, so what’s the harm?

In 2017, we have NL No-DH baseball, played with the 19th century traditional rules about each of the nine fielders batting. And we have the AL DH brand of baseball, in which a special designated hitter is allowed to bat for the often anemic hitting pitcher.

“Where’s the harm in this extra inning special runner rule change – if it gets everybody home early?” We are betting that a decision based upon that kind of thinking is now more probable than possible.

When it happens, baseball will no longer be the game of relentless heart, hope, and life, but maybe that’s already happened, and some of us elders simply missed it in our sleep.

At any rate, if it still maters to you, please consider letting Joe Torre know your thoughts in this matter. He seems to be the MLB force behind the possibility of this rules change.

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A Couple of Baseball and Life Ironies

The Blue Pill

If baseball were really life, there would have been no DH in the game today. Some scientists would have solved the problem of soft hitting by pitchers with a miraculous little blue pill – one that firmed up the hard-banging purposeful tool swings and batting averages of all pitchers. In turn, pitchers could have made some good side money selling their extra blue pills to some of the catchers and shortstops who sometimes also needed the same help, but who did not want go public about their use of the same biochemical solution.

How To Get Past 1st Base with the Girls

A lot of great single MLB players lack the good looks or social skills it takes to get to 1st base with the really hot and attractive girls. Maybe God – or the baseball gods – could introduce a new social rule in which the 30 years plus age and still awkward MLB players could be allowed to start with each girl they pursued from 2nd base now that their lonely private lives are headed for extra innings. – That could give each qualifying player a better chance to score – if he, at least, can start his run at the lovelies in the knowledge that he no longer has to worry about getting to 1st base. – He’s half way home from the start.

____________________

eagle-0range
 Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

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One Last Shot at Astrodome by Foes

February 11, 2017
The Astrodome and NRG Stadium

The Astrodome and NRG Stadium
“Sometimes Proximity Breeds Contempt”

We can’t prove it, but the last time a 100% pure hearted politician stepped forward to save the taxpayers some money at the last minute was that time back in 1939, when young first term Congressman Jefferson Smith stepped forward to stop a complex a group of other congressmen and their developer friends from stealing land from a national boys’ club that had been doing the kids a lot of good until its existence got in the way of a private enterprise/political boss needed the property for a lucrative commercial project that would make a smaller group of investors and representatives even richer than they already were at the time of the scheme’s conception.

The above plot served as the life force of the 1939 movie, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

The chicanery didn’t work because (1) the story was fictional, written for a movie crowd; (2) it was written intentionally for the American culture that still feasted in 1939 on the idea that the “good guys” always defeat the “bad guys” near “The End”;  and (3) the movie producers had cast Jimmy Stewart as the idealistic “too good for his own good” political champion of the people. He was believable in that title role at the tale end of the Great Depression era. All naivete and honesty and patriotism rolled into one on-his-own warrior voice of the people.

Now you need to read about this last gap attempt by State Senator John Whitmire to get some legislation passed in Austin very soon that could derail the current, sound plan for preserving the Astrodome as the treasured architectural and performance venue for all the right and most feasible economic reasons. Then please come back here for a summary of our thoughts in this matter – and some suggestions for what each of us need to do to fight back:

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/State-Sen-Whitmire-to-introduce-bill-aimed-at-10923891.php

Whitmire wants a law passed that would take away Harris County’s right to use the $105 million dollars that already have been approved by Commissioners’ Court for use in the current restoration project until another referendum on whether or not the public wants to approve this money for the Astrodome is held. Such a step is both spurious and unneeded. The County has approved the $105 million dollars from existing funds, in accordance with the law, and they have done so upon a groundswell of preservationist group and popular citizen support – support that includes two new highly respected designations of the Astrodome as an historical landmark building  – and with assurance that further need for further money from the County shall be unnecessary.

So, what is it with John Whitmire? And who is with him, or behind him, in this expressed Lone Ranger effort to take one last wildly egregious shot at killing the preservation of the Astrodome before the current successfully supported and legal plan is carried out?

Let’s assume two conclusions about the answers to these questions: (1) Let’s assume that State Senator John Whitmire is not Jimmy Stewart playing U.S. Rep. Jefferson Smith in the 1939 movies, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”; and (2) That we may never know for sure who might have enough personal business interest to propose, support, or back this late move by Whitmire to kill the Astrodome, but that we probably wouldn’t have to look too far to find the names and businesses located nearby that could stand to benefit most by both the Astrodome’s demise and physical disappearance as an actual “neighbor.”

For names and businesses of whom we have in mind, get a pictorial map and a list of owners doing business there and do the pristinely logical remaining identification work yourselves. – Round up the usual suspects. Not as the accused in this matter, but as possibly active partners with Whitmire, for whatever agreed upon variable advantages these alliances bring to all involved , in not simply turning the Astrodome into additional parking space, but as a famous Houston brand victory for tomorrow over yesterday, for expedience over history, and for richer developers over richer preserved enlightenment of “who we’ve been all these years as the City of Houston” through our special architectural sites.

In brief, whether it is intended or not, victory over the survival of the Astrodome in any physical form is a serious matter of increasing the brand-space for whatever else is going on in the same geographic proximity.

Who knows? Houston may soon need that Astrodome space to build a new football venue that is attractive to the NFL as a 2022 Super Bowl site. After all, NRG Stadium will be 22 years old by 2022, and probably will need replacement by then, if Houston is expected to compete with all the newer, fresher venues for the 2022 Super Bowl.

In fact, a recent Houston Chronicle article suggested that any currently needed renovation to NRG would take in excess of $100 million dollars. Wonder if anybody with any itch to scratch in that need for a NRG remodeling job for the sake of future Super Bowl prettiness and modernity had any thoughts at all along the lines of “if we could get our hands on that money that the county plans to spend on the Astrodome, we’d be in a whole lot better shape going forward. – If only that Astrodome money were free for the taking.”

Can’t imagine who might think that way about a County decision that’s already been settled, but you don’t have to be a math major to see that the kind of money that’s been approved for the Astrodome rehabilitation is pretty darn close to what an undeveloped NRG Stadium upgrade might also require for its own face lifts.

What can Astrodome rehabilitation supporters now do?

What can you do to say NO in protest to State Senator John Whitmire and his attempts to pass legislation that would block the current Astrodome (already funded/with no further tax money needed) plan?

Call his office at 713.864.8701 and make your voice known in your own way. – The grand old dame of stadium architecture fame and countless major Houston event moments needs your help! So please don’t put it off. Act quickly. And decisively.

Regards,

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, and Primary Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

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eagle-0range
 Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags:
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“Only The Ball Was White”

February 10, 2017

This is short notice but, hopefully, some of our readers in the LA area will also find this news attractive enough to make plans for attending this very special event at the Baseball Reliquary tomorrow, Saturday. January 11, 2017.

Regards, Bill McCurdy, Publisher, The Pecan Park Eagle

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A Painting of Jackie Robinson By Kadr Nelso

A Painting of Jackie Robinson
By
Kadir Nelson

For people in the LA/SoCal region, the Baseball Reliquary is sponsoring a showing and panel discussion on “Only The Ball is White” tomorrow. Saturday, February 11, 2017. Here’s a columns and link to all the details you will need to find this priceless admission free production.

We now leave you in the steady hands of “BR” Director Terry Cannon for all the help you need for planning a great Hot Stove League weekend among similar souls and minds.

http://www.arcadiaweekly.com/arts-entertainment/baseball-reliquary-presents-only-the-ball-was-white-film-screening-and-discussion/

Wish we had the free time and extra wherewithal to be there ourselves. Guess we’ll have to surprise you some other date down the line. Just don’t ever count us out.

Regards,
Bill McCurdy
The Pecan Park Eagle
____________________
eagle-0range
 Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags:
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UH COUGAR FOOTBALL PANEL IS A BLAST

February 9, 2017
Former UH Football Coach Bill Yeoman 1962-1986 and Bill McCurdy

Former UH Football Coach Bill Yeoman
1962-1986
and Bill McCurdy

Wednesday Night, from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM at the Heritage Society Tea Room downtown, the UH Cougars football panel more than filled the time with bonded reminiscence about their blended-in-blood, shared experience as actors on the stage of Houston growing in glory, and through disappointment,  as one of the top NCAA football (and basketball) programs in America since their first humble season of 1946.

The night also featured a wonderful exhibition of artifacts to peruse as the memory raced back of great Cougar moments. Items like helmets, jerseys, trophys, pictures, newspaper stories, and ancient Cougar game programs abounded.

As usual, however, the play was the thing. The reminiscences of the panelists were the revealed the same eyes and hearts understanding that made many of the great moments in Cougar history even possible against all odds. The fact is, the panelists spoke like an ongoing chain of shared values about what  UH Cougar football is really all about as a very special kind of destination school. It is a team and continuity commitment that they all seem to have understood over time – playing in different eras – and it is a value system that flies in the face of recent kiss and run, short-time beguilement that never was UH anyway.

The UH panel program was the second of five such chapters in the “Bayou City Blitz” panel discussions on football in Houston that have been so artfully planned by Mike Vance, Program Director for the Heritage Society. The panel series began on January 25th with a focus upon the Houston Oilers. It will now continue  on Wednesday, March 8h, with a panel on Rive University football; it will move on to a Wednesday, March 29th panel on local high school football; and it will conclude on Wednesday, April 12th, with a panel discussion on the Houston Texans.

Longtime Houston sports media broadcaster Craig Roberts, who also worked several years directly with iconic UH Coach Bill Yeoman on the football seasons Sunday morning “Bill Yeoman Show” was the capable, entertaining panel moderator for a group of deep red UH football former players, coaches, and vital history contributors.

Night of the UH Cougars Panel February 9, 2017 Ouside the Heritage Scoiety Downtown Houston

Night of the UH Cougars Panel
February 9, 2017
Outside the Heritage Society Grounds
Downtown Houston

These invited guest respondents included: former players Chuck Brown, Ted Pardee, Jerry Drones, David Klingler, and Alois Blackwell. In 2015, historian and author Robert “Bob” Jacobus, completed “Houston Cougars in the 1960s” at Texas A&M Press. It’s a book about how the UH inclusion of black football and basketball players  in the 1960s also made a quietly powerful contribution to how the City of Houston positively and non-violently pulled away from the broadest, most obvious areas of desegregation in the community. It also didn’t hurt that the newly integrated UH major sport teams were doing a pretty good job of teaching the SEC schools they played, and sometimes defeated, that integration just might be important to their own of sporting competition in the near term future.

Coach Yeoman also attended the evening program, and rightly so. He needed to be there to hear the effusive praise and expressive love he received from the panelists – and all the rest of us longtime Cougars who were present to let him know how we much cared about him and all he did to elevate UH from the primordial mud of it’s early lackluster life into both a trailblazer in civil rights advancement at the collegiate campus level in Houston, a step that also evolved as a tribute, as well, to how Yeoman’s great impact upon fairness,  civility, and talent as essentials in football , indeed, also were the great spirits controlling who plays all sports at UH.

As a football coach, I’m prejudiced,” Coach Bill Yeoman once remarked to a report during the mid-1960s. “I’m prejudiced against the use of bad football players. Nothing else matters. Good players come in all colors of the rainbow. And I don’t care what color they are, if they can play the game better than anyone else. If they are the best at what they do, they are going to start for the UH Cougars.”

Coach Yeoman brought in outstanding running back “Wondrous Warren” McVea as his first black player in 1964. McVea’s footprint on UH football history was that 37-7 whipping that the Cougars laid upon Michigan State at Ann Arbor in 1967. On the basketball side, UH late basketball coach, and another icon,  Guy Lewis was also given due credit for bringing in Elvin Hayes and Don Chaney as the pioneer blacks who would change the face on Cougar basketball fortunes equivalently, and perhaps, even more so in the hoopster sport. The Cougars’ 71-69 win over #1 UCLA at the Astrodome in the “Game of the Century” on January 20, 1968 also proved to be the contest that elevated all of college basketball to prime time tv interest in sort order. That game too was referenced by author Bob Jacobus. It was the only fair and balanced thing to do.

Ted Pardee, son of former UH Coach Jack Pardee and later, a long time member of the UH football broadcast crew, made some strong points about the UH way. It had been the Jack Pardee way as much as it earlier had been the Bill Yeoman way – and, of course, it has been considerably influenced by the way the now Power Five power structure types work to keep UH away from a full serving of the television money and conference prestige benefits at the NCAA cash bar set up.

Former UH Cougar Defensive Lineman Jerry Drones and Bill McCurdy

Former UH Cougar Defensive Lineman
Jerry Drones
and 1960 UH Alumnus Bill McCurdy

“The Cougars don’t focus on the full-of-themselves top recruits who think that football is only played at places like Texas, Alabama, and USC. Nobody wins a national championship on signing day by collecting star (eyes for only themselves) guys,” said Ted Pardee. “You become a champion player as a great team school by signing the diamonod-in-the-rough guys who will bond together as a team-devoted effort.”

“A player won’t really help you if he’s just counting the rep numbers at practice til things are done – or if he only is working hard for himself,” Alois Blackwell added.  “Coach Yeoman taught us the right way too. It’s got to be something you’re doing for the team. All for the team – and not just something you’re doing for the sake of helping yourself.

Chuck Brown, Jerry Drones, and David Klingler simply amplified the same esprit de corps. “If you played your position better than anyone else, you were going get to play at UH; if not, someone else would get the job who would then do the things you either would not – or could not – d0,” said former great Cougar QB David Klingler. “We weren’t one of those places in which people start based upon the paper clippings of their high school pedigree accomplishments. You start at UH by giving the game and the books your best – and by giving your best to the team in red and white energy roar that never, ever stops clawing.”

We are ~ The University of Houston Cougars.

Try to catch one of the last three programs in this series. You will be glad you did. Mike Vance and the Heritage Society have done an excellent job for the City of Houston Football History on this one – and they deserve our support.

If you are worried about parking, do not. The Heritage Society has a lot of free, well-lighted parking next door to the the immediate south entrance of their presentation center. And if you are still worried that attending something downtown takes you way out of your routine, please resist the norm and don’t miss something that could be really worth your time and willingness to make it happen. Call the Heritage Society and get more explicit direction on how to reach the parking area. Their telephone number is 713 655 1912.

Good Luck!

And Eat ‘Em Up, Cougars!

____________________

eagle-0range
 Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags:
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The Not-So-Grim-Reapers of Comeback Glory

February 8, 2017
The Persistence of Memory By Salvador Dalii The Most Persistent Memories are Those That EIther Feel the Best or Hurt the Worst.

The Persistence of Memory
By Salvador Dali
The Most Persistent Memories are Those Which Either Feel the Best or Hurt the Worst. ~ The Pecan Park Eagle

We made the observation in yesterday’s Eagle column on the amazing Super Bowl 51 game in Houston that its incredible come-from-way-back outcome win rally may also have the same effect upon Tom Brady’s NFL career as the 1979 Cotton Bowl had upon Joe Montana’s reputation in the college ranks going forth into a very similar NFL career.  They also were named “Player of the Game” in contests which became the signatures on their greatness at the expense of opponents who suffered the meltdown cost of losing at the Great Expectations level of bitter disappointment.

And what was that effect? Easy answer. The reapers were not so grim once they closed the clock on the success side of each iconic final result.

It is now far easier for millions of us to say, without any further qualification of the obvious fact. – Tom Brady has now proven that, indeed, he truly is – the greatest quarterback in NFL history. And look – guys my age grew up with the images of Otto Graham, Johnny Unitas, Y.A. Tittle, Bart Starr,  and Bobby Layne as the impeccable symbols of NFL QB greatness. The prose on their football bubble gum cards virtually said everything that already wasn’t implied by those virile statue of liberty poses on the face-picture hemisphere of each cardboard marketing bullet. The subjective pitch on each card screamed about their greatness. But none of those guys won five out of eight appearances in the championship games of their era seasons – and none had to come back from a 25-point deficit with a little over a quarter to go to win that record 5th championship ring.

We made the effort to give you a couple of time flow tables on how the Super Bowl 51 game slipped away from the Atlanta Falcons – and how the 1979 Cotton Bowl crumbled from the grasp of the Houston Cougars.

Atlanta Falcon Meltdown in Super Bowl 51 of 2017

QTR GAME TIME LEFT PLAY SCORE
3RD 17:15 28-3 ATL
3rd 17:06 NE TD 28-9 ATL
4TH 9:44 NE FG 28-12 ATL
4TH 5:56 NE TD 28-18 ATL
4TH 5:56 NE 2-XP 28-20 ATL
4TH 0:57 NE TD 28-26 ATL
4TH 0:57 NE 2-XP 28-28 TIE
OT 3:58 into OT NE TD 34-28 NE WINS

Houston Cougar Meltdown in the Cotton Bowl of 1979

QTR GAME TIME LEFT PLAY SCORE
4TH 7:35 HOU on own 33 34-12 HOU
4TH 7:25 ND 33 YD Blk Punt 34-18 HOU
4th 7:25 ND 2-PT CONV. 34-20 HOU
4TH 4:15 ND 2 YD RUN 34-26 HOU
4TH 4:15 ND 2-PT CONV. 34-28 HOU
4TH 0:00 ND 8 YD PASS 34-34 TIE
4TH 0.00 EXTRA PT KICK 35-34 ND WINS

As someone who watched yesterday’s game at home on TV – and the 1979 ND-UH Cotton Bowl in person, there is one factor about the latter that doesn’t show up on its time chart:

The 1979 Cotton Bowl is remembered today by those of who were there as “The Ice Bowl”. We literally had to bang about two inches of ice off our seats before we could sit down. We also learned quickly that our hot coffee turned to frozen sludge if you didn’t drink it pretty fast. The temperatures  dipped down into the teens, as I recall, but later newspaper reports we saw in that pre-digital era that the wind chill even dropped to 18 degrees below zero at one point. The wind from the north end zone bordered on storm level. Naturally, the Irish had the wind at their backs for their amazing Joe Montana-led 4th quarter rally.

On offense in the 4th quarter, the UH Cougars could do nothing. The wind blew passes and kicks back to UH, making running the predictable and stoppable play. Running plays were also made easier to stop by the patches of turf ice that caused all players on both sides of the ball to slip down with ease.

It wasn’t the time and place for it literally, I don’t think, but January 1, 1979 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas would have been a great stimulus to Simon and Garfunkel. That definitely was the figurative best time and space for the birth of “Slip Sliding Away.” That song says it all about so many things that slip through our fingers in life – and here was UH going through it on one of what was then one of the biggest stages of College football.

The end of the game left all Cougar coaches, players, and fans with enough banana peels on Memory Lane to last a life time. You see, “What might been” attached heavily to all tearing of the soul for Cougar Nation – and the very mention of the words “ice bowl” by someone else remains sure to invite a cringe of pain to us Cougars, if not more.

Now the Atlanta Falcons family is similarly infected with the same big game meltdown blues. They will have to get used to it. And make their peace with it. It may heal for all of them eventually on the life wisdom level, over the passage of much time, but the pain never quite goes away. And we offer that fact from 38 years experience.

____________________

If I were an abstract artist, I could paint it:

The Visual

Flashes of red and white, blue and gold, in pom-pom and human form – are moving violently against each other on an almost pure, but swirling white background day. A never aging coed smile flashes from a foreground figure as she flashes the Cougar Claw hand sign from the field level to us fans in first level. She will never grow old. Nor will her smiling moment of joy ever be swept away by what is yet to be. QB Danny Davis, running north to south, right to left, is running out of bounds for a first down. It is all fluid. Heart-filled. Dynamic. And indelible. And it brings some to tears quicker, if viewed in the company of bonded Cougar supporters as a major canvas piece, in the dark of evening, while listening to the song “Kiss Today Goodbye” from the musical, Chorus Line, 1979.

The Soundtrack

Kiss today goodbye,
The sweetness and the sorrow.
Wish me luck, the same to you.
But I can’t regret
What I did for love, what I did for love.
Look my eyes are dry.
The gift was ours to borrow.
It’s as if we always knew,
And I won’t forget what I did for love,
What I did for love.
Gone,
Love is never gone.
As we travel on,
Love’s what we’ll remember.
Kiss today goodbye,
And point me toward tomorrow.
We did what we had to do.
Won’t forget, can’t regret
What I did for Love.
(partial of all lyrics) ~ Kiss Today Goodbye, Chorus Line.
____________________
Back to actual 1979 Cotton Bowl

Near the end of the game, with time running out, UH owned the ball on about their own 28 with 4th down coming up, but still leading, 34-28.

Punting into that hurricane from the north was no option. ND already had blocked one punt for a TD. Another option might have been to risk Danny Davis running back to the end zone for a safety. If it worked, the Cougars could then hope to survive with a 34-30 lead as their kicker tried to a get a free kick far enough down the field to run out the clock or maybe even get lucky enough to recovery a fumble in the horrible field conditions.

UH did neither. They tried to run the ball for a short distance first down, which would have been a game-winning play, but they were stopped short – allowing ND to have the ball again from 29 yards away – and about 0:28 seconds left in the game.

Four quick players later, with time now showing 0:00 after Montana took the snap from the UH 9 yard line and rolled right. Joe found wide receiver Chris Haines for a falling out-of-bounds catch with one foot in the end zone for a touchdown.

With the game clock done, ND and UH were tied 34-34. It didn’t stay that way long. ND then kicked the extra point and the games was decided. The Irish and Joe Montana had come back to defeat the UH Cougars in the 1979 Cotton Bowl, 35-34.

Footnote: During the Summer of 1979, we invited UH QB Danny Davis to our house for dinner. When asked about the “take a safety” option on the Cougar’s last play, Danny smiled, even throwing a little appreciation my way: “Hey, Bill,” Danny said, “now you’re thinking like me. That’s what I wanted to do too, but Coach Yeoman was afraid that I might slip down on the icy field on my way to the end zone. Then they (ND) would have been almost sure to score that close to our goal line.”

“That makes sense. How do you feel about it now?” I asked Davis so many years ago.

“Coach made the right call,” Davis quickly confirmed. “We came awfully close to making the first down that would have made all other talk unnecessary.”

“It just wasn’t our day.”

_________________

Special Reminder: By the earliest CST time you read this column, it will be Wednesday morning, February 8, 2017. – Don’t forget! – Tonight from 7-8:30 PM is time for the Houston Cougar Football Panel and Exhibition at the Heritage Society downtown. Please join us, if possible. Here’s a link to the column we wrote last week for program details:

UH Cougar Football Panel is Feb. 8th

UH Cougar Football Panel is Feb. 8th

____________________

eagle-0range
 Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

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Some Post-Super Bowl Observations

February 7, 2017

What a game! ~ What a game! ~ What a game!

SABR friends and colleagues Bill Gilbert and Mark Wernick both were kind enough to e-mail some of their own brief observations last night and this morning about Super Bowl 51 at NRG Stadium in Houston. on Sunday, February 5, 2017.

Bill Gilbert Rogers Hornsby Chapter SABR Pecan Park Eagle Contributor

Bill Gilbert
Rogers Hornsby Chapter
SABR
Pecan Park Eagle Contributor

(1) Bill Gilbert wrote Sunday Evening:

“It appeared that Houston did itself proud with Super Bowl 51. Everything I heard announcers say about Houston was positive. The game was possibly the best Super Bowl ever.
 
   “It’s interesting that all three major professional sports featured big come from behind wins this season. I suspect that this won’t happen again for quite a while.”
My Personal and Pecan Park Eagle Response to Bill Gilbert:

Bill –

I couldn’t agree more. It was the greatest comeback deficit rally in Super Bowl history – and also the first overtime game in any Super Bowl.

Houston did a great job, people had a great time, and even the weather cooperated. The city deserves all the praise it earned from this effort.

SB51 will also be remembered – in pain and sorrow – as the event that gave even more people the courage and right to claim that Tom Brady, indeed, is the greatest QB in NFL history. With this incredible game under his belt at age 39 – and as the new holder of the most SB wins for a QB at 5, who else really compares? Count me in among Brady’s believers.

Another thought that floated through my head after tonight. Wonder how many baseball/football fans will now begin to couple the Cubs’ 7-game World Series win and tonight’s New England win as the two greatest versions of each event in the eyes of some beholders. They certainly are for me. In fact, it’s impossible tonight for me to see how the next offerings of each could be more dramatically important than these two have been to each of their sports.

Here are some other observations that made me smile:

1) About 20 minutes prior to the game, one of the referees jogged all the way across the field to pat Tom Brady on the back.

2) After the game on Channel 2, Chronicle writer John McClain said that “once Tom Brady got over playing like Brock Osweiler, the Patriots were back in the hunt.

3) At the trophy presentation, Pats Owner Robert Kraft, Coach Bill Belichick, and QB Tom Brady all gave the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell the same blank stare as they accepted his handshakes of congratulations. Wonder if their hands felt as cold as their stares? Kraft even made a point of grabbing the mike to thank the fans, saying something like “as all of you know, we’ve been through a whole lot this past year. I don’t have to mention what it was, but it hasn’t been easy, but thanks to all of you, it’s been a whole easier.” Kraft knew that the NFL chief was standing behind him as he talked, of course.

4) Football will never replace baseball for 1st place in my heart, but it is an interesting contrast by virtue of the way football has to be spatially played because the wear and tear of violence from a single game. In football, every championship game is a “there’s no tomorrow” contest. For baseball’s World Series to have that special moment, as we did this past year, two teams have to play even in the W/L column before our Game 7 can appear to give us that same weight in a single game.
Mark Wernick Larry Dierker Chapter SABR Pecan Park Eagle Contributor

Mark Wernick
Larry Dierker Chapter
SABR
Pecan Park Eagle Contributor

(2) Mark Wernick wrote Monday Morning:

“The two most fearless people in the stadium tonight were Tom Brady and Lady Gaga.

 “The comeback from a 28-3 deficit late in the 3rd quarter would have been a rejected Hollywood script. What was that graphic they showed?  Teams with a lead of  19+ points in the 4th quarter were a combined  93-0 in post-season play?  Make that  93-1.
“Edelman’s stupendous catch in the 4th quarter … that did it. I re-watched it in slo-mo 12 times.
“Actor Mark Wahlberg, a big Patriots fan, left the game with the Patriots down  28-3. He missed the comeback.
“I can’t be too critical.  I retreated to my study at half-time to work on bills and finances and didn’t come back to the game until 18 seconds were left in the 4th quarter. I was sure New England was en route to getting blown out. However,  my wife,  who is from Russia and who never saw an American football game until 2010,  faithfully watched the entire spectacle and was glued to the television screen when I returned. I made up for it by watching the whole thing on  DVR. Hence the time-stamp.
The weather here has been pleasant all week.
Houston had a good time.
Pitchers and catchers report in two weeks.
My Personal and Pecan Park Eagle Response  to Mark Wernick:

Great observations, Mark!

1) Brady and Gaga the most fearless? Absolutely!

 

2) SB51 rejected as a Hollywood script? Absolutely 2!

 

3) Also, remember all those 1940s movie scripts where some bad guy weakens the lines of the beautiful trapeze artist before her act. I thought of that one when Lady Gaga made her descent into NRG. Glad there were no bad guys working NRG yesterday.

 

4) Edelman’s catch was another one for the ages by the little man with the tall talent for remarkable catches. The name is amusingly distracting to me. 85-years old and quite tiny herself, Miriam Edelman is a fifty year friend and still practicing therapist in Houston. I can neither shake nor try to release the imagery that – under that gear and helmet – that it is my friend Miriam making all those catches in the Edelman name. Guess I’d better call and congratulate her for the great grab of yesterday when I’m finished here.

 

5) Poor Mark Wahlberg, but let’s do cut him a break. Did any of us really see this coming? No way. I thought it was close to done late in the first half when Brady threw the pick-6 to make it Falcons, 21-0. I might have done the same thing you did last night, but my personal TV sits side-by-side with my computer and Internet service. Everything I do with written work or writing, I do from here, and I am also guilty of occasional multi-tasking of a report column and bill-paying at the same time. I think I hold a degree in OCD propensities. But, unless it bites me, I see no need to call animal control for assistance. 🙂

6) My wife didn’t grow up in this culture either, but, as a native Filipino and naturalized American citizen, Norma is now an avid Texans, NFL, and Super Bowl fan. She watched the whole game on our big TV, pulling for the underdog Falcons. When it was over, however, her appraisal was simply that “the best team had won.” She will attend an occasional baseball game with me, but she really doesn’t understand the sport. She is wont to make statements like “they don’t really do anything in baseball and they spend way too much time standing around.”

7) This game was great for Houston – and Houston deserves all the credit it is now receiving from visitors.

 

8) Because of the way this game played out so awesomely – many of us are now free to say without equivocation ~ Tom Brady has now proven that he is the greatest QB in NFL history. Ironically, Joe Montana earned his bones at the college level the same way on January 1, 1979. That was the frozen Cotton Bowl game in which Montana rallied ND from a 34-7 deficit with 7:30 to go to a 35-34 win over UH on the last play of the game. – Believe me, many of us Cougar football fans know exactly how the Atlanta owner, coaches, players, and fans feel today. Atlanta people will get over the “stunning” phase that they are in today, but they will never forget the loss or the remnant pain that rests with yesterday’s cave-in loss.

 

9) I thought the contiguous editions of the 2016 World Series and the 2017 Super Bowl were the best examples of each that I’ve ever seen.

10) Because of the pain that comes from each football game played, football cannot handle a best 4 of 7 World Series format – nor does a once-a-week potential 7-game series over 7 weeks sound exciting or practical. – So – football can make their annual Super Bowl the three hours plus sudden bang for all the marbles that it already is. Baseball, on the other hand, has to settle for two teams breaking even in six closely scheduled games to even experience a year in which a seventh game, winner-takes-all contest, is even possible.

Late Post-Game Note
Some sleazeball managed to get into Tom Brady’s clothing bag inside the Patriots NRG clubhouse after the game and steal his game-worn jersey – supposedly for some kind of greed-grab and quick sale of it as an historic NFL Super Bowl artifact. Hope they catch the idiot and recover the jersey. Tom had planned to give it to his mother, who is still recovering from a longstanding health problem. One thing we hate more than cockroaches are the human variety that keep falling into life’s most delicious moments and causing everyone to lose their appetites for an adulterated beautiful moment in time.

_____________________

eagle-0range
 Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

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Maltese Falcons Come Close, But No Cigar

February 6, 2017
Life's greatest lesson has now been reenforced by our loss to the New England Patriots - and ithat is to - 'always avoid presumption in all human matters.'."- Kasper Gutman

Life’s greatest lesson has now been reenforced by our Maltese Falcons’ loss to the New England Patriots – and that lesson, most simply, is to – ‘always avoid presumption in all matters of human trust and performance’.” – Kasper Gutman

 

Editorial Note: For this column to make any sense, please make sure you’ve first read what launched it into publication today at yesterday’s column. Thank you for both your patience and general kindness. – The Pecan Park Eagle.

Yesterday’s Column Link: 

What If the Maltese Falcons Took on the Pats?

Super Bird Bowl I

New England Patriots 34 – Maltese Falcons 28

NRG Stadium, Houston TX, January 5, 2017

Score By Quarters of Play:

 

Super Bird Bowl I 1 2 3 4 0T Final
New England Patriots 0 3 6 19 6 – 34
Maltese Falcons 0 21 7 0 0 – 28

 

It was “close, but no cigar” for Playing Coach and Quarterback Sam Spade of the Maltese Falcons yesterday. When all seemed well in hand for a blowout victory by the upstart Maltese version of the fighting Falcons yesterday, the legendary New England Patriots came roaring back from a 28-3, 25-point deficit in the 3rd quarter to tie the game with less than a minute to go that sent the game into overtime. The Patriots then won the toss, took the ball, marched efficiently and athletically down the field and winning the game on a two-yard gallop right by Pats running back James White. The nose of the ball broke the plane to complete the 31-point total.

It will take a long time, if ever, before we see another Super Bowl – or Super Bird Bowl – or championship football game by any name – that even comes close to rivaling this one for the sheer volume of  incredible  joy and agony that was spawned in Houston today. This game will vibrate down the ages, and those who saw it who really care about the outcomes of it shall have no choice but to carry the wings of hope – or the anchors of despair – that accompanies this one for the rest of their human lives.

The Maltese Falcons got off to a good start early in the second quarter after the two clubs battled each other even defensively through a 0-0 first stanza. Then, Falcons linebacker Kasper Gutman stripped a ball away from a Pats runner and the momentum changed. With only 1:53 gone in the second quarter, Joel Cairo then took a pitch out for the Falcons from QB Sam Spade at the Pats 5 yard line and ran left before leaping into the end zone for the first score of the game. After kicker Brigid O’Shaughnessy drilled the extra point, the Falcons led, 7-0.

Cairo didn’t stop there. He went super crazy good only minutes later, catching a 40 Bleed Right pass from Spade from 19 yards out that raised the Falcons lead to 14-0. But crazy was only getting started. Before anyone could say “half time – time for Lady GaGa”, the amazing Kasper Gutman picked off a Tom Brady pass and took it 82 amazing yards to the house. In spit of is great girth, none of the stunned Patriot offensive players could catch him. Stunned himself by his surprising newfound skill, Gutman offered a rather professorial explanation.

“We’ll never be sure really, but I think it may be related to my decades old search for the real black bird that is now the namesake of our new Falcons team. Like the digging out of that Pats fumble earlier, getting actual possession of the ball suddenly became my obsession as strongly as my lifelong pursuit of the true Maltese Falcon. Once I got my hands on it from that errant Brady pass, I wasn’t about to let any of New England gents take it back from me. So (loud guffaw laughter “HA-HAA!!” followed) I suppose I must have some real muscle behind all the fat in these speedy loins!” (another “Ha-Haa!” followed).

Miss O’Shaughnessy got the Falcons on the board with a field goal with 2:19 left in the half, but a 21-3 deficit didn’t look good for the Maltese Falcons going into the second half.

When Sam Spade then hit his old detective agency partner, Miles Archer, for a 6-yard TD pass with 4:14 gone in the 3rd quarter, the Falcons’ new lead of 28-3 looked even more like a coffin nail in the Patriots’ chances for a win. To win now, the Pats would almost surely have to stop all further scoring by the Falcons and also score, at least 4 times, and probably have to pick up a couple of two point conversions to boot.

But guess what? That’s almost exactly what happened! As reflected the rest of the way by the scoring, it was all by the Patriots – all 31 points of it!

For sake of now questionable brevity here, the remaining scoring flow, from the time the Pats were down 28-3 in the 3rd Quarter:

Third Quarter

Score was 21-3, Falcons, starting the 3rd quarter.

Falcons TD with PAT made it Falcons, 28-3

Patriots TD with missed PAT made it Falcons, 28-9

Patriots TD (missed PAT) NE down, 9-28

Fourth Quarter

Score was 28-9, Falcons, starting 4th quarter.

Patriots FG made it 28-12, Falcons

Patriots TD with 2-pt. conversion made it 28-20, Falcons

Patriots TD with 2-pt. conversion made it a 28-28 tie

Over Time

Patriots TD won Super Bird Bowl I Bowl for New England, 34-28.

WOW! The greatest comeback in any kind of Super Bowl History!

The 5th Super Bowl of any kind as another win for Belichik and Brady!

And finally – the decisive proof that Tom Brady is absolutely the greatest NFL quarterback of all time!

"The Stuff that Dreams are Made of"

“The Stuff that Dreams are Made of”

 

When asked what he thought of Tom Brady’s accomplishment, Maltese Falcon QB Sam Spade smiled through the cigarette that dangled from his clenched lips to utter his thoughts from a stool near his locker at NRG.

“It’s been said before, but Tom Brady deserves it big time tonight,” Sam Spade ventured. – “What he did tonight – was a reality version of ‘the stuff that dreams are made of ‘- now – and forever.”

____________________

eagle-0range
 Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

 

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What If the Maltese Falcons Took on the Pats?

February 5, 2017
Official Helmet Logo Of The Maltese Falcons Featuring Sam Spade Falcons Coach & QB

Official Helmet Logo
Of
The Maltese Falcons
Featuring Sam Spade
Falcons Coach & QB

Let’s presume to stretch reality a bit this morning – and why not? It’s Super Bowl Sunday, the annual NFL Day that always attempts to stretch the bejabbers out the ordinary, while once-in-awhile succeeding, but too often showing up with a Super Bowl game that is as ordinary and ugly-boring that it is more prone to causer second advertisers to wince and think twice about television advertising next year.

Our expedited offering suggests a minor number of three large ban reality changes that will guarantee “extraordinary” results on an annual basis: (1) Change the name of the game to the Super Bird Bowl Game. Why? Because most birds fly; they do not flounder; (2) Limit the NFL team participation in this new bowl structure to one team only; and (3) allow Hollywood to construct an opposing team each year, based upon some kind of classic movie – with the movie characters themselves filling all rolls as players and coaches of the Tinseltown entry.

Since it’s a little late to have the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots play today’s regular Super Bowl to determine the new Super Bird Bowl game and then play this new game this same day, we are going to start with a big stretch and ask Atlanta to step aside and allow New England to take on the team role for the NFL as the opposition to the club that the Hollywood Game Committee has selected as their appropriate replacement foe, in deference to the Atlanta sacrifice – and in exchange for pledging the ghost of all these movie characters to the future success of the Atlanta Falcons in all ways possible to movie characters..

At 5:30 PM today, the Maltese Falcons will show up to play the New England Patriots in Super Bird Bowl I. Look for the results story in tomorrow’s Pecan Park Eagle.

Meanwhile, here’s a brief pictorial on how the Maltese Falcons got themselves organized for the challenge in their rooms at the Lancaster Hotel in downtown Houston over the past 24 hours.

"The front office suits have asked us to represent our town in the ist Super Bird Bowl this weekend against the Pats and - by damn - we are going to do it. I kid you not!" - Sam Spade

“The front office suits have asked us to represent our town in the 1st Super Bird Bowl this weekend against the Pats and – by damn – we are going to do it. I kid you not!” – Sam Spade

 

"Now listen up, Birds. This is the trophy we get to keep, if we win today. I you don't recognize it, you haven't been paying much attention to all that's been happening since made "The Maltese Falcon" back in 1941." Sam Spade

“Now listen up, Birds. This is the trophy we get to keep, if we win today. If you don’t recognize it, you haven’t been paying much attention to all that’s been happening since we made ‘The Maltese Falcon’ back in 1941.” – Sam Spade

 

"Surely, you don't think that I, of all people, are that misinformed, do you, Mr. Spade?" - Kasper Gutman

“Surely, you don’t think that I, of all people, are that misinformed, do you, Mr. Spade?” – Kasper Gutman

 

"I suspect everyone, Gutman! .... And by the way, don't call me shirley!" - Sam Spade

“I suspect everyone, Gutman! …. And by the way, don’t call me Shirley!” – Sam Spade

 

"I'd like to use you as our kicker, sweetheart, but you gotta cut me a break here. Whn we mad this movie back in 1941, guys like me didn't have room in their brains for kicking shoes that came with high heels." - Sam Spade

“I’d like to use you as our kicker, sweetheart, but you gotta cut me a break here. When we made this movie back in 1941, guys like me didn’t have room in their brains for kicking shoes that came with high heels. – Can’t you just stay sexy, maybe lead a few cheers. Something like that?” – Sam Spade

 

"It says here in his report: "pat have great QB and coach.' - You mean the Pats shots you for reporting thiss news to me? Hell, we lost you for goog, but the Pats wasted a perfectly good bullet!" - Sam Spade, remarking on his dying spy Pats scout.

“It says here in his report: ‘Pats have great QB and coach.’ – You mean the Pats shot you for reporting this n0-news to me? Hell, we lost you for good here, but the Pats wasted a perfectly good bullet!” – Sam Spade, remarking on his dying spy Pats scout.

 

"Wilmer, what are you soing sitting here in the lobby of the Lancaster reading the sports pages? I told you to get over to NRG and let the air out of Brady's balls as a payback. Now it's too late. Better watch out for a telegram thys afternoon!" - Sam Spade

“Wilmer, what are you doing here in the lobby of the Lancaster, just  reading the sports pages? I told you to get over to NRG and let the air out of Brady’s balls as a general payback. Now it’s too late. Better watch out for a telegram this afternoon. I don’t like disappointments.” – Sam Spade

 

"Your services have been traded to the Cleveland Browns for $500 and a bucket of deflated footballs." - (Telegram to WIlmer Cook from Coach Spade))

“Your services have been traded to the Cleveland Browns for $500 and a bucket of deflated footballs.” – Telegram to Wilmer Cook from Coach Spade

 

"Gutman, I need you on the o-line to give me 5-7 seconds time to throw into the Pats' defense. You're so big that I also plan to use you on defense somewhere. Can you handle it?" - Sam Spade

“Gutman, I need you on the o-line to give me 5-7 seconds time to throw into the Pats’ defense. You’re so big that I also plan to use you on defense somewhere. Can you handle the double duty?” – Sam Spade

 

"Mr. Spade, take all the time you need to get us a win over the Pats today. They won't get by me. - Kasper Gutman, offensive right guard for the Maltese Falcons.

“Mr. Spade, take all the time you need to get us a win over the Pats today. They won’t get by me. – Kasper Gutman, offensive right guard for the Maltese Falcons.

 

"The Pats won't get past our defense either. Watch out, Mr. Brrady, here we come.Brady, here we come!" - Kasper Gutman, Middle Linebacker for the Maltese Falcons.

“The Pats won’t get past our defense either. Watch out, Mr. Brady, here we come!” – Kasper Gutman, Middle Linebacker for the Maltese Falcons.

 

"Look at my phone, Cairo. That's the 40-Bleed Right pass zi threw you this morning in practice. You went left and we missed n uncovered TD. Cant do that in the game today. got it?" - Sam Spade to WR Joel Cairo. at lunch Sunday.

“Look at my phone, Cairo. That’s the 40-Bleed Right pass I threw you this morning in practice. You went left and we missed an uncovered TD! – And don’t ever wear that bow tie with your Falcons uniform. again. It makes you look like a sissy!” – Sam Spade to WR Joel Cairo. at lunch Sunday.

 

"You don't want to hear the truth, Mr. Spade. Bow ties are for sissie. They are cool! If you don't want to be taken for a sissy, why don't you stop bogarting those chorus girl cigarette and get you some Cuban cigars. SOgies are the coice of real men like Al Capone. - Did you even know that? - Joel Cairo, defending himself against the words of Sam Spade.

“You don’t want to hear the truth, Mr. Spade. Bow ties are not for sissies. They are cool! If you don’t want to be taken for a sissy, why don’t you stop bogarting those chorus girl cigarettes and get you some Cuban cigars. Stogies are the choice of real men – men like Al Capone. – Did you even know that? – Joel Cairo, defending himself against the words of Sam Spade as he also uses his on lighted showgirler as a pointer.

 

"Stuff it Cairo, and just get you mind ready to have the first heroic day of your weasel life. In the meanwhile, keep your trap shut. You don't want me to attach this "stuff that drems are mde of" trophy to a part of your body that will make it hard for you to go long for anything!." - Sam Spade in a calm and delivered response to Cairo's comments.

“Stuff it, Cairo, and just get your mind ready to have the first heroic day of your weasel life. In the meanwhile, keep your trap shut. You don’t want me to attach this “stuff that dreams are made of” trophy to a part of your body that will make it hard for you to go fast and long for anything!.” – Sam Spade in a calm and delivered response to Cairo’s rejoinder to Sam’s first personal comment.

 

"I borrowed the Super Bird Trophy last night so we Falcons could also squeeze a few extra bucks from cheap knock-off copies bucks could have a few knock-0ff could make a few extra bucks from the sale of overnight knock-off copies we hoped to have made by a slimy friend. Sad to say, he misplaced it and I went over help him find it after lunch. We finally located it two hours later, but it was then too lates to make the copies." _ Sam Spade

“I borrowed the Super Bird Trophy last night so we Falcons could also squeeze a few extra bucks from cheap knock-off copies we planned to have made by a slimy carnival friend. Sad to say, he misplaced it and I went over to help him find it after lunch. We finally located it two hours later, but it was then too late to make the copies.” – Sam Spade

 

It’s late Sunday afternoon, Feb. t, 2016.  Almost time for the first annual Super Bird Bowl I at NRG Stadium in Houston. Hope you have time to tune in tomorrow for the results of the big game. And don’t be confused by the stories you also read about on the Internet and in the newspapers. These sources are contractually required to report the results of Super Bowl Li – even though no actual game between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots will be played today.

The Maltese Falcons and the New England Patriots are another reality matter altogether – and the Pecan Park Eagle will be your exclusive source for information on that Sunday game sometime on Monday.

Stayed tuned.

____________________

eagle-0range
 Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags:
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