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December 11, 2011 · 00:30

The Good the Bad and the Ugly: The Day in Sports

Well sports fans it has been a day hasn’t it?  Now most of my day has been spent in transit getting Judy and Molly down to North Carolina so I can go back to work and give Judy a chance to continue to recuperate. With the exception of listening to ESPN radio on the trip and catching the last few minutes of the Army Navy game when we got here I have been playing catch up on sports stories. Of course the Molly loved the ride down here and is passed out on our bean bag at the Island Hermitage as I get ready to call it a night. Of course Molly knows that the trip is all for her benefit and she has already had several long walks and is looking for the deer that populate the neighborhood.

This was an interesting day. There was a doping scandal, a bench clearing brawl, an unexpected winner, a buzzer beater, a major upper level ownership gaffe and a continuation of a decade of dominance and that was just at the Republican debate.  But I jest, the sports world was as scandalous as politics today as several stories broke to steal the limelight from the Presidential primary debaters in Iowa.

Ryan Braun NL MVP Busted? 

Topping the news from the baseball standpoint was the report that National League MVP Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers tested positive for a banned Performance Enhancing Drug (PED.)  This was a surprise and Braun has been denying the report and appealing the ruling.  If the test is upheld and his appeal denied Braun faces a 50 game suspension.  This is a blow to the Brewers who will most likely lose free agent First Baseman Prince Fielder and the loss of Braun will hurt.  Braun was not someone that I would have thought to have done PEDs but I guess anything is possible. He never in the minors or majors tested positive prior to this.  Baseball is no longer playing games with PED use and I expect that Braun will be suspended as no one else has ever won an appeal for PED use.  However it hurts the game because baseball has worked hard to clean up the mess created during the steroid era and has the most stringent policies in place of any professional sport.  Baseball is not going to mess around with this and because of the risk to reputations as careers goes the extra mile to ensure that if a test is positive that it is not a “false” positive.  From what I have read it appears that baseball and its testing agency are sure that this was an accurate test.  Too bad as the season was one of the most amazing in baseball history and this takes away some of the shine from all of the players and teams that made it great.

The Hansen Brothers and Dean Wormer enter NCAA Basketball

Meanwhile in Cincinnati Xavier and Cincinnati were playing in their yearly “cross town shootout” and with 9 seconds left in the game a bench clearing brawl better suited to a Charlestown Chiefs hockey game and the Hansen brothers.  Both University Presidents issued comments about the brawl reminiscent of Dean Wormer and his comments about Faber College’s Delta House. Methinks that some of these players will end up suspended as well.  Too bad they don’t have a penalty box. See the fight: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Yancy-Gates-decks-Kenny-Frease-in-wild-Xavier-Ci;_ylt=AiT3clAGA6sDmaDIcDxL7cPevbYF?urn=ncaab-wp6817

Classless and Clueless David Stern tries even harder to Blow up the NBA

Not to be outdone in the “no class” category the Commissioner and Dictator of the NBA David Stern made a complete ass of himself and embarrassed a sport already reeling from the self inflicted wounds of the just ended player’s strike. Stern’s office voided a deal between the LA Lakers, New Orleans Hornets and Houston Rockets that would have sent Hornets star Chris Paul to the Lakers. The trade made sense for all the teams involved. In doing so Stern figuratively shot himself and the league in the balls to try to show that he was the boss. He has since back-peddled and the trade will probably be approved in a modified form. By doing this Stern showed his hubris and probably has ensured that the end of his reign as dictator will be only slightly less bloody than that waged by other dictators.  The sad thing is that people were starting to get interested in the NBA again.

Christian Watford and Indiana Shock Kentucky

But the bad news was balanced with good news, unless you are a fan of the Military Academy, University of Kentucky basketball or anyone not named Robert Griffin III at the Heisman Trophy presentation.  The unranked but undefeated Indiana Hoosiers knocked off the No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats when Christian Watford sank a last second 3 pointer to defeat the favored Wildcats by a score of 73-72.

Navy Dominates

In Washington DC the Midshipmen of the Naval Academy defeated the Cadets of the US Military Academy, the Black Knights of the Hudson for the 10th time in the last 10 years. It has been termed the Decade of Dominance.  Though I am an ardent Navy fan I do feel bad for the Army players who like the classes before them have went a full college career without having beaten the Midshipmen.

Robert Griffin III wins the Heisman Trophy 

And finally in a presentation of an award that any of the players nominated could have won Baylor Quarterback Robert Griffin III was awarded the Heisman Trophy.  While I was hoping that Stanford Quarterback Andrew Luck considered the top draft choice in the upcoming NFL Draft would win I think that Griffin was deserving. He s the first player from Baylor to win the Heisman.  Griffin completed 72 percent of his passes for 3,998 yards.  He had 36 touchdown passes and led the nation with an 192.3 efficiency rating.

It was an amazing day in sports and like life it was a day of the good and the bad and the ugly. But that’s life.

Peace

Padre Steve+

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December 9, 2011 · 23:55

GO NAVY! BEAT ARMY! Padre Steve is Passionate About Navy

I have always been a fan of Navy. I was born in a Navy hospital and grew up as a Navy Brat.  My dad was a Navy Chief Petty Officer and retired from the Navy in 1974. However my dad for all of his virtues, love of the Navy, distain for the Army was not a fan of the Naval Academy during the Army Navy Game. I remember asking him about this and it turns out that as a kid he was a fan of the Military Academy sometimes known as “Army” at this time of year.  He was a man of of principle and never wavered in his support of Army football during the Army Navy Game.

As for me I have been a “flip flopper” in much of my life. I grew up as a Navy brat and entered the Army because Judy said that she wouldn’t marry me if I joined the Navy but that the Army was okay.  No to be truthful I did ask the Navy ROTC unit at UCLA about the possibilities of entering the Navy but to do so they wanted me to change my major in my senior year of college from History to something in the hard sciences, Mathematics or Engineering.  Since I had no desire to repeat several years of college I asked “who will take me?”  I was told to “see the people in green down the hall.”  Thus I ended up in the Army.

Now when I was in the Army I remained faithful to the Navy.  I had a “Go Navy” button that I would keep in my uniform pocket especially during the weeks leading up to the Army-Navy Game.  Well after 17 1/2 years of service in the Army, Army National Guard and Army Reserve I declared free agency and resigned my Army Reserve commission as a Major to enter the Navy, reducing in rank to do so. Judy was not pleased because I basically made the decision without consulting her, even though she probably would have agreed if I had asked her but what can I say? I am a man. A manly one at that. However Judy has remained with me for all of these years she has been a military wife for over 28 years now and probably has another 5-8 or more to go.  God bless her and the other military spouses that choose to endure the career choices of their husbands or wives.  But I digress…

The fact is that through thick and thin and despite the fact that I was a military service “flip-flopper” I have always been true to the Naval Academy in its rivalry against the Army and the Air Force.  The fact that I was in the Army for many years never took away from the fact that as a kid I loved the Navy and always was for Navy in the Army-Navy Game. The fact that my dad who was a career Navy man always cheered for the Army is inspirational to me. My dad was a man of character and never abandoned the team that he cheered as a child.  Like him I have not wavered in my support of the team that I cheered as a child. The irony is that I spent nearly a full career in the Army before going to the Navy.

As for the “Go Navy” button I gave it to my best friend in Germany a now retired German Army Officer who spent the first three years of his military career in the German Navy.  Gottfried never left his navy roots and I gave the button to him many years ago.  He may have spent most of his career in the German Army but still is a Navy man at heart.

On Saturday the Midshipmen of the Naval Academy will play the Cadets of Army. The Navy Goat will face the Army Mule yet again in this great American tradition. While we may be adversaries on the gridiron we are brothers on battlefield and in the defense of the United States and our friends.  I have served over 30 years in the Army and Navy. Though I admire and respect my friends in the Army I can only say one thing about the Army-Navy Game….

 

GO NAVY! BEAT ARMY!

Peace

Padre Steve+

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December 12, 2009 · 23:59

Padre Steve and the Army-Navy Game

I love irony and at one time took my shirts to the cleaners at the same time if irony is so rich why aren’t I a millionaire?

I grew up with the Army-Navy game.  As a Navy “brat” I have always had a deep affinity for Navy and can say that no matter who they play I am pretty much always for the Midshipmen. Now my affinity for Navy went against my dad who despite being a Navy Chief had grown up as an Army fan with little love for the Midshipmen.

Padre Steve Army 1983

The irony is something that I find fascinating, my dad the Army fan joins the Navy and serves a full career but never embraces the Midshipmen. His son, me, Padre Steve after being told by the Abbess that she will not marry him if he joins the Navy enlists in the Army goes through the Army ROTC program and becomes an Army officer spending a total of 17 ½ years in the Army, the Army National Guard and Army Reserve before resigning from the Army and entering the Navy in February 1999 taking a reduction for the rank of Major to Navy Lieutenant to do so. Of course my dad the Army fan was at loss that I joined the Army but rejoiced practically parading a picture of me in my Dress Whites around the neighborhood according to what I heard from my vantage point 3000 miles away.

So anyway the Navy brat turned Army Officer turned Navy Officer and Chaplain is still a Navy fan.  When I was in the Army I would wear a “Go Navy” button on the inside of whatever Army uniform, be it the BDU or the Class A uniform the week of the game.  If someone asked what I thought about the game or who I thought would win I would whip out the “Go Navy” button.

Now I do have one connection with an Army all-time great, Bill, “The Lonely End” Carpenter also known as Lieutenant General Carpenter who in Vietnam was nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor.  I met the General the summer of my pre-commissioning camp and troop leadership training at Fort Lewis Washington.  I had had a pretty rough six weeks in the ROTC “Advanced Camp.”  Having been destroyed and built back up by Sergeant First Class, or Drill Sergeant Harry Ball.  Moving across the base I went to the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry of the 9th Infantry Division.  It was with the 2nd of the 1st that things got better and I came into my own.  I was assigned as a platoon leader during the unit’s ARTEP, Army Readiness Test and Evaluation Program, the mother of all training events in the life of an Army unit.  During our time on the defense I was inspecting the far end of our positions which happened to be the right flank of the company at dusk.  Now dusk at Fort Lewis in the summer comes pretty late and it was close to 2100, or 9:30 PM to civilians and those in the Air Force.  With dusk approaching I wanted to make sure that the flank was secure.  I walked out a bit further staying concealed as I checked things out a couple of hundred meters past our farthest position.  At his point I saw a tall man in uniform waiting down a trail that could be a high speed avenue of approach.  I took a position to surprise him and when he came in range I ordered him to drop his weapon and surrender, using some colorful euphemisms in the process.

The man didn’t stop and turned toward me and said: “Son, you can calm down, I’m Brigadier General Carpenter the Assistant Division Commander.”  I had never met a General before and certainly never spoken to one in that manner, but General Carpenter took it in stride.  As I popped smartly to attention and gave a snappy salute he introduced himself, asked my name and thanked me for my vigilance.  With that he allowed me to lead him of a tour of the platoon’s positions and pass him off to our adjoining platoon whose platoon leader took him on from there.  The company commander had a good laugh that evening as we met to plan our “withdraw under pressure” that would take place in the early morning hours.

So that is my connection with an Army legend and great man.  However the fact that I had met Army’s “Lonely End” did not convert me to the cause.  When I entered the Navy it was like coming home.  My Army friends were almost always incredulous that I could root against the Black Knights of the Hudson.

Padre Steve Navy

Today’s victory against Army was not the blowout that I thought it would be though it easily could have been.  However it paid an unexpected dividend in that it brought the UCLA Bruins to a Bowl Game.  I can’t remember the last time they have been to a bowl game and their record was not very good this year either…I wonder how any team that 6-6 record rates going to a bowl, but heck if the University of Florida and Notre Dame can go why not UCLA?

Now Navy plays Missouri in the Texas Bowl on December 31st.

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