It’s time for garage sales, also vacation season (for many of us), so I rummaged around my head to see what was eligible to be jettisoned before perambulating to points westward.
Just some stuff:
u For sale: One La-Z-Boy Clayton Luxury Lift Power Recliner with 6-Motor Massage & Heat.
Just one stipulation, it will only be sold to a person who got bent out of shape by U.S. celebration of World Cup events on Thursday.
Relaaaax.
Team USA got beat by Germany, 1-0, to which there was much rejoicing.
Also, to which there was much gnashing of teeth by those who viewed this as some sort of backdoor entree into the round of 16. This is un-American!
Sorry, but the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately concept doesn’t apply here.
It’s what have you done for me over the course of three games in group play, and the U.S. won one, tied one and lost one, which by mere coincidence was the last game in the sequence.
Coupled with Portugal’s 2-1 win over Ghana, the U.S. advanced to play Belgium on Tuesday, reaching that level for the second straight World Cup, something that has never happened before.
People who were looking at the big-picture ramifications and not the superficial short-term result of the Germany game, including me, had every reason to celebrate. The boys did what they had to do during the survival round.
u On display, but not for sale: One blue NBA logo ballcap.
That’s the hat Isaiah Austin put on his head after NBA commissioner Adam Silver “drafted” the Baylor University center on Thursday.
A week before the draft, Austin found out that he had Marfan Syndrome, a life-threatening connective tissue disease that ended his athletic career just as it was about to reach its pinnacle.
His story was inspirational already, a projected first-round pick despite being blind in one eye from a detached retina.
Instead of wallowing in self-pity, Austin vowed to turn his latest setback into an avenue for helping others as a spokesman raising awareness about Marfan Syndrome.
He covered his face in tears as he walked to the stage to shake hands with Silver, but, after “the toughest week of my life”, he told Jay Williams “When God closes one door, he opens another one.”
It was a classy move by the NBA and a touching moment to see this 7-foot kid take the stage under those circumstances.
u For sale: One pair of trousers, dusty, but salvageable.
Apparently during the Thrilla in Loo-ah-villa between trainer Dale Romans and Indian Charlie publisher Eddie Musselman at Churchill Downs on Thursday, Romans’ pants wound up down around his ankles.
Romans’ life partner and exercise rider Tammy Fox told the Louisville Courier-Journal: “They’re in a bear-hug on the street and they landed on the ground. Dale’s pants are on the ground, no underwear.”
No word on whether the loose horse siren went off or not.
The two got in a fistfight over a string of accusations toward Romans about his training practices made by Musselman in a recent edition of Indian Charlie.
If you’ve been to Saratoga Race Course, you’ve probably seen boxes of this supposedly satirical ragsheet.
As Inspector Clouseau said in “The Pink Panther Strikes Again”, “Not anymore.”
The print edition of Indian Charlie can no longer be distributed at NYRA tracks, as well as Churchill, Keeneland and Frank Stronach’s properties, because of a tasteless slur against Mexicans that Musselman made in a recent copy.
I’m not advocating violence, by any means, but I guarantee there are plenty of racetrack types out there who don’t mind the fact that Ed Musselman got punched in the face.
u For sale: One extra-wide shovel.
In a voicemail Saturday morning, a reader said I “glossed over” problems that fans faced at the Belmont Stakes in a column I wrote about NYRA’s new director of racing operations Martin Panza and how he’s altering the landscape of racing in New York.
For the record, I’ve already brought up these issues in other post-Belmont columns and intend to pursue them further, because they speak to the overall performance and direction of upper management at NYRA.
Panza actually mentioned the problems with WiFi, parking and train transport from Belmont Park, but ultimately, that’s president Chris Kay’s responsibility.
Kay got the shovel out when asked about it on Monday, saying NYRA has been talking to Nassau County and the Long Island Railroad. After the fact.
But we’ll get to that. In the meantime, the shovel is showing signs of wear and tear, but still has some load-bearing
capacity.
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