George Raveling died. He was a successful basketball coach at USC and at Washington State. He cut his teeth in the college basketball world as Lefty Drisell’s top recruiter when Lefty was about the business of resurrecting basketball at Maryland. The moment of his coaching career that I recall was a time when he was at USC and their next game was at Arizona which was ranked #1 in the country at the time. Raveling was asked how he was preparing for that challenge. He said that he realized the level of “greatness” exhibited by Arizona and so he had gone to the library to get a copy of the Japanese Surrender Papers so he could submit them just before tip-off.
Rest in peace, George Raveling.
A September MLB game between Team A (record = 52-88) and Team B (record = 62-77) is normally worth what Daniel Patrick Moynihan once called “benign neglect”. However, in one specific circumstance where Team A is the Chicago White Sox and Team B is the Minnesota Twins, there is a nugget of interest.
The White Sox trailed 3-1 at the end of the 8th inning but rallied to score 3 runs in the top of the ninth to win the game 4-3. Up until that moment, the Chicago White Sox had lost 205 consecutive games when they trailed going into the ninth inning. That is a level of frustration and incompetence that needs to be appreciated now that it no longer stands.
Moving on … When the Eagles and Cowboys kick off tonight and put the NFL regular season in motion, the football season is officially “fully functional”. That means I will listen to play-by-play guys and color analysts doing various games for multiple hundreds of hours. That means I am certain to be exposed to three manipulations of the English language that have become commonplace in sports broadcasting. Would that I were able to expunge them …
- “Hostile environment”: In a football game, that means one team has the benefit of noisy, raucous and devoted fans while the other team must endure insults slung their way by said noisy, raucous and devoted fans. Big deal… A hostile environment is Gaza City in the summer of 2025; a hostile environment is the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile where it rains about once every two decades; a hostile environment is not needing to endure being the visitors in a football game.
- “Line to gain”: Somehow, this phrase replaced “first down” or “first down marker”. Players now fail – or succeed – in making the line to gain. No longer does a player make or fail to make a first down. Has this been a net positive for the English language? Does the English language now get a new set of downs?
- “Running downhill”: Football is played on a level surface that is ever so slightly sloped toward each sideline to facilitate drainage when it rains. No one runs downhill or uphill or east/west or north/south. Players run towards and away from their goal lines. Period.
Switching gears … I have a nugget of good news to share today. March Madness in 2026 will not expand; it will continue to invite 68 teams to compete. There is no sporting reason and no groundswell of fan interest in expanding the Tournament. The only people suggesting it would be a good idea are coaches who have bonus clauses in their contracts for making the Tournament field or business execs who always look at ways to wring the greatest number of dollars out of any and all situations. At least for the moment, we have been spared from the consequences of the NCAA listening to the pleadings of those sorts of folks.
Finally, these from Will Rogers:
“It isn’t what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that ain’t so.”
And …
“Everything is funny, as long as it’s happening to somebody else.”
And …
“When the Oakies left Oklahoma and moved to California, it raised the I.Q. of both states.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
A hole big enough to drive a U-haul through it.
well, being it is Philly – it might be hostile. Projectiles are not unknown. this is the city that has been known to put a satellite court room and jail in their stadiums
I do like downhill, when a running back gets a head of steam and goes straight downfield and tries to overrun a DB…
Ed:
More fan “violence” and “discourteous behavior” in the old Veterans Stadium were directed at other fans and not the opposing players. Oh and at Santa Claus too …
I wonder where “line to gain” came from. Usually, football jargon springs forth from the mouths of assistant football coaches and is parroted incessantly by TV announcers. It gives them a patina of expertness. But in this case it seems to have come from retired officials who pontificate — often incorrectly — about calls on the field. Anyway, you are not the only curmudgeon who would like to see “first down” come back in vogue.