October 2008 - Posts
In every race, somebody has to finish last. For the last 20 years in the New York Marathon, that distinction has gone to Zoe Koplowitz.
It’s never been a contest. No matter how slow the slowest runner has been, Zoe has always slower – a lot slower. In 2000, she even set an unofficial world’s record for the slowest marathon ever run by a woman – 36:09. That’s nine minutes more than 1½ days.
Zoe doesn’t set out to finish last. She sets out to finish. She trains hard for her marathons and runs as hard as she can. But she has multiple sclerosis and navigates with the aid of forearm crutches. In recent years, she’s also battled diabetes.
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Unlike a lot of people, I don’t want to see Jose Canseco go to jail for illegally bringing testosterone-producing drugs into the country. Economic times are tough, and as a taxpayer I don’t want to pay for his room and board in the big house. Force him to get a real job and pay taxes instead.
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Usually, when a long-time sports executive is ousted, there are plenty of people ready to defend the poor fellow. This will not be the case with Elgin Baylor.
For 22 years, Baylor was the vice president of basketball operations and general manager of the Los Angeles Clippers. And only Matt Millen, the recently canned GM of the Detroit Lions, has been worse at that job.
Millen was fired two weeks ago after seven years of failure. Baylor resigned Tuesday. Since 1986, Clippers owner Sterling was perfectly happy with Baylor’s efforts, such as they were. Like a proud parent who looks at a toddler’s smear of a finger-painting and pronounces the kid the next Picasso, Sterling looked at everything Baylor did as a museum-quality work of art.
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Curses don’t exist. Good-luck charms don’t work. Destiny is no more real than the chupacabra. And the Great Spirit in the Sky doesn’t care how hard you pray or how many goats you sacrifice or what sin you swear to give up for the rest of your life, He, She or It isn’t going to help you win a ball game.
Of these things I am as certain as I am that Sarah Palin needs to work on giving interviews.
My thoughts were directed to these things while I was reading Bob Cook’s terrific piece about the Billy Goat Curse and other reasons why Cubs fans experiencing high anxiety as the playoffs begin.
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