Two out of four ain't bad

[captainsblog]

We had our usual runs of Things Gone Missing over the weekend. Emily mislaid her glasses (eventually found inside the well of her bedroom windowsill, where she'd left them before we lowered the windows to put the @#$ AC on at some ungodly hour on Saturday morning), and then I managed to misplace my So Electric Blue You CAN'T Lose Them™ pair of headphones (unless you file them away with a client's paperwork, which is what I did). Before finding them, I was so certain I'd left them in the car, I boldly went places I never usually go to look for them in there, including the pull-up back seat to check out all the interesting stuff that's fallen down there lo these past four years since we bought the car.

No headphones,  but a rifle. Or rather, an ad for Winchester rifles, which was on the back page of a December 1969 Sport magazine, one of my sister's many yard-sale finds that she'd picked up for me because it had an article in it by Met legend Tom Seaver.

I'll spare you that article (I may comment on it elsewhere), but the fun part was the cover story of that issue on the cusp of those rockin' soon-to-be 1970s. The magazine (now defunct, but then a formidable competitor to Sports Illustrated and considered by many to be the more serious publication at the time) asked up-and-coming icons in each of the four major sports to write about their expectations for their respective games in the coming disco decade.

Take a look at who they chose:



On the top and to your right, they didn't do too bad. The designated b-baller is Wes Unseld, hardly the most famous of his generation, but a stand-up guy (hard not to be at 6'7") who anchored the Baltimore Bullets winning teams of the late 1960s, won Rookie of the Year and MVP in the year of this magazine issue, and went on to make the NBA Hall of Fame and, more to the current point, to have a productive and positive career post-athletics, running a school for preschool to eighth grade in Baltimore where he, his wife and daughter are all teachers.

To his left is Bobby Orr- to this day perhaps the finest offensive-minded blueliner in the history of hockey. Plenty of Cups, plenty of accolades including Hockey Hall of Fame membership, but also a role model in his post-sport life, as he has shunned the limelight and, despite having two kids, he has reportedly discouraged them from going into the sport themselves on account of his reputation.

----

While this issue gave Tom Seaver a separate article, and while he arguably had his best season ever in 1969 (winning 25 games and a World Series), the magazine chose another representative of the sport to speak for the next decade. That's him on Wes's right, the last pitcher to win more than 30 games in a season, one Denny McLain.

Sport was adulating him with this honor in late 1969, but at almost the same time, its competitors at SI were breaking news about him: McLain had been involved in a bookmaking ring during the 1969 season, and he began the decade of the 1970s under a suspension from baseball's commissioner for his role in the gambling (apparently not bets on baseball, which would have permanently banned him from the game). His Wikipedia entry continues the bad news:

McLain was suspended later in the season for dousing two sportswriters with buckets of water (Jim Hawkins of the Detroit Free Press and Watson Spoelstra of the Detroit News). And just when he was about to come back from that, he received another suspension from Kuhn (for at least the rest of the season) for carrying a gun in violation of his probation. McLain's 1970 season ended with a won-lost record of only 3–5. Later that year, despite being the first $100,000 player in Tigers history, he was forced into bankruptcy.

He wound up in prison later in the 80s for drug trafficking, went back in the 90s for embezzlement, and has been arrested as recently as 2008. But nobody has won 30 games in a season since he did. With that as the downside, who'd want to?

Well, OJ  probably would, except he broke football's single season rushing record. And that's all I have to say about HIM.

Comments

[alchemi.livejournal.com]

Neat old magazine. Interesting to think Unseld was so well thought of - I knew he was the ROY and MVP, but I would have assumed they would have picked Lew Alcindor (who would debut in '69) or would gone for someone young and established like a Rick Barry.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

I suspect it's because magazines, then as now, tended to publish way before their cover dates, and because the NBA season didn't start as early as it now does. Alcindor was certainly a projected star even then, but he'd maybe had a week of court time by press time.

[cafemusique.livejournal.com]

I had yet another event of "Let's Lose Stuff," although fortunately it was quickly discovered. Went to buy bus passes today and realized I had no debit card in my wallet. While it wasn't in the place I thought it might be at home, I immediately had my wife call the last restaurant where I'd used it, and they confirmed that they have it in their office. Is only the second time the card's gone missing since March (although the first time it was missing with my entire wallet).