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Probably my favorite piece of writing, ever.

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by cwilson3, Jul 7, 2009.

  1. cwilson3

    cwilson3 Member

    July 29, 1988: Bo Jackson was facing Baltimore's Jeff Ballard. He called timeout and stepped out of the box. He adjusted his batting glove when he realized that the umpire did not actually grant his timeout, and Ballard was throwing the ball. Jackson jumped back into the box, swung that bat and ... yeah. He hit a home run.

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2003726909_seam30.html?syndication=rss
     
  2. Double J

    Double J Active Member

    Great article.....thanks for linking that. :)
     
  3. Blitz

    Blitz Active Member

    Really nice article, or column.
    An award-winner, I'd say.
    Bo, along with Jerry Rice and Barry Sanders, never shows up doing TV analysis.
    Those guys might not be articulate enough in the eyes of sports TV execs, but their perspective would be unique.
     
  4. JackReacher

    JackReacher Well-Known Member

    Pretty awesome. I'm one of Bo's biggest fans, and I happen to agree with the late, great Dick Schaap, who thought Bo was the best athlete, well, ever.

    Just unreal.

    Thanks for the link, C-Wil. That's right. I just gave you a nickname.
     
  5. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    There was an online piece from either ESPN or the Detroit F-P that showed how Bo is just the humble family man today. It was a great work as well, but I cannot find it.

    Jackson was fantastic.

    Didn't he help (understatement) end some huge losing streak for Auburn against Alabama?
     
  6. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    Bo also starred in one of my favorite television shows: Pro Stars

     
  7. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    Bo has a pretty bad stutter. It's gotten better over the years, but I doubt he could make it through an extended broadcast without struggling.

    And I love this line:

    No shit, George.
     
  8. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/baseball/shadowball/oneil.html

    Buck O' Neil talks a little Bo...

    When you think about modern baseball — the huge salaries and artificial turf and television. Do you ever worry that the game might not survive?

    We've done a whole lot of things to hurt it, but it's a type of thing that you just can't kill it. You can't kill baseball because when you get ready to kill baseball, something is going to come up, or somebody is going to come up to snatch you out of that.

    I heard Ruth hit the ball. I'd never heard that sound before, and I was outside the fence but it was the sound of the bat that I had never heard before in my life. And the next time I heard that sound, I'm in Washington, D.C., in the dressing room and I heard that sound of a bat hitting the ball — sounded just like when Ruth hit the ball. I rushed out, got on nothing but a jockstrap, I rushed out — we were playing the Homestead Grays and it was Josh Gibson hitting the ball. And so I heard this sound again.

    Now I didn't hear it anymore. I'm in Kansas City. I'm working for the Cubs at the time, and I was upstairs and I was coming down for the batting practice. And before I could get out there I heard this sound one more time that I had heard only twice in my life. Now, you know who this is? Bo Jackson. Bo Jackson swinging that bat. And now I heard this sound... And it was just a thrill for me. I said, here it is again. I heard it again. I only heard it three times in my life.

    But now, I'm living because I'm going to hear it again one day, if I live long enough.
     
  9. cwilson3

    cwilson3 Member

    No problem. I first read that story before I knew about this site. So last night when a coworker and I were talking Bo, I dug it up and thought it'd be a good thread here. JoePo knows Bo.
     
  10. LWillhite

    LWillhite Member

    I've probably told this story on here before, but I was playing golf with a couple of other guys from my paper at Cog Hill in Chicago's southwest burbs five or six years ago.
    We were a walking threesome, so 'round about the fifth hole a single guy in a cart caught up with us.
    "I'm Bo," he said casually as he shook our hands.
    He played with us the rest of the way, even after we revealed our occupations.
    He used a custom set of clubs, including a 0-iron (that's right, a zero iron) with a XXX-stiff shaft that allowed him to swing as hard as he liked. He just murdered the ball.
    After the round, we said our goodbyes. As he left the parking lot, though, he stopped when he saw us shoving our clubs away and offered us directions to make sure we knew how to get out of there.

    Just a regular guy.

    For argument's sake, does his legend remain more amazing because he suffered his injury while still at or near the peak of his powers? I mean, we saw Michael Jordan's creaky knees while a Washington Wizard...Willie Mays grew old in front of sports fans' eyes...

    How far could Bo have gone with a healthy superstar's career trajectory?

    And how does Tecmo Bowl Bo factor into his eternal reputation? :)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 1, 2015
  11. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    LW, honestly, I enjoy him more this way.

    Something would have happened. Something would have ruined this near perfect athlete.

    If he would have kept playing professionally, would you have gotten an "I'm Bo" from him?

    I will always smile when I think of being a kid watching Bo. I do not want that taken away. The realist in me says something would have happened to tarnish his image if he kept playing. I remember the Jackson rushing for 5.3 ypc, not a guy who would have bounced to the Cardinals or Seattle or Denver.

    To know that Bo would approach some hackers on a course and play a round of golf makes me feel very good. With all the crap that happens in sports, stories like this make up for a lot of it.
     
  12. HorseWhipped

    HorseWhipped Guest

    One of the greatest plays I ever saw involved Bo Jackson. He was playing right field in Double-A ball then, guy on second base, with a single hit to medium right. Bo fields the ball on two hops and unleashes a hard throw home to get the runner. He threw an absolute missile, about nine feet off the ground all the way. You could almost hear the ball screaming.

    Of course, when the ball got to the plate, it was still nine feet off the ground. And the catcher has to leap for it as the runner begins his slide to the plate. And then the catcher, fully extended, does a jackknife in the air, leading with his mitt as he comes down on the runner a foot from the plate.

    Bang-bang-bang. Catcher nailed the tag. And the crowd sat there for about two seconds before going nuts. What a play by the catcher. I can still picture the entire sequence in my head. And as great a play as the catcher made, I can also see Bo field that ball and come up and uncork that throw in one smooth, powerful motion.

    He also crushed a mammoth homer that night, way beyond center field.
     
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