Payne Stewart - 14 years later

Hard to believe it's been 14 years since Payne Stewart died in an eerie plane crash. Happened on this day.

Pinehurst, site of the 1999 U.S. Open that Payne won a few months before his death, has a few photos and video clips today:

http://pinehurstresort.wordpress.com/2013/10/25/we-still-miss-you-payne/

 

14 years? Is that a big anniversary? That's an odd commemorative number.

 

Yup. Next year, it'll mean way more!

 

Fixed.

 

Also on board was Stewart's agent, Robert Fraley, a one-time back-up quarterback at Alabama who had a hand in one of the strangest Alabama-Tennessee games ever 39 years ago this month (speaking of timely anniversaries):

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/golf/stewart/stewfs06.htm

 

Retired abruptly?

Fraley was also Parcells agent and then through Parcells became
Francesa's agent.

 

I once got into a furious debate at a roulette table over what I considered to be an odd number.

 

I'm with you on this.

I used to be really big into writing anniversary stories. It was an easy angle, and I suppose milestones like 50 years, in particular, or 20 years, are ways that people stop for a moment and consider the passage of time.

But it's way overdone. It feels so arbitrary and manufactured, particularly since we now make a big to-do over things like 14th anniversary.

Part of this is just me. My wife, for example, really gets into annivesary dates and times of the year. For example, she's dreadfully anticipating the one-year anniversary of a relative's death. That kind of thing just doesn't do a whole lot for me. Wonder if it's a gender split at all.

 

Am I missing where they're making a big deal over the 14th anniversary? I just see where they've written the date with a "We still miss you, Payne." They don't even have the number 14 written anywhere, at least as far as I can see.

 

I blame 9/11 and Generation X.

 

Like the anniversary of people's births. Those are totally overdone.

 

Absolutely. Because we're supposed to be celebrating the anniversary of people's conceptions. [ducking]