Bits and Pieces
The Facts About Oakmont
Oakmont is a tough golf course, the toughest of all in America if you read Lazarus. That fine. It is also home to the US Open from time to time, and that is the topic of this Lazarus' book. It focuses in on the 1973 Open. Miller beat Palmer, incredibly, with a 63, the lowest score in Open history. Lazarus makes clear that (Lazarus, 353): the sprinklers didn't slow down the course that much, especially on Saturday night; the rains on Saturday should have slowed down the course and made the scores lower - they didn't; Miller's 63 should have been joined by lots of others if it was so ordinary - only four players broke 70, even with the rains; Nicklaus said the course played "normal"; Miller wasn't stressed so he could "go low" - actually he was a stressed as could be, so says, Lazarus.
Lazarus uses four criteria (Lazarus, 356) to label Miller's accomplishment real: this was the lowest score in a championship; this was the US Open, always the toughest; there were real champions in the mix, none of whom overtook his lead; Miller's hot putter kept him on track - he had to be hot, crucially, all through the tournament.
Those are the facts about the 1973 US Open. Took a whole book to get them out in the open.
Steelers/Cowboys
The Steelers and Cowboys were the best they had ever been for Super Bowl XIII. The Steelers won in a hard fought game. That's the story. The book (Millman) tells the story differently using the decline and ultimate failure of the steel industry in Pittsburg as a backdrop for the story. We could linger on the stories about the growth of the Cowboys - America's team from day one - and the fact that the ascendency of the Steelers occured during the decline of the steel industry, a not very pretty picture. Millman takes the time to frame the steel industry with a picture of the steel worker's union and the people who grew it and, as is normal for a union, especially a steel workers union, fought for its control. Pat Coyne's mom died. Pat was a battler for the union. Art Rooney Sr., the Steeler's owner showed up like he showed up at lots of funerals and wakes around Pittsburg. He liked people; he showed up to show it. The folks at the funeral? They smiled for the first time that day (Millman, 237). Art was giving out Steelers tickets to the kids. That's what Steelers football was really about.
Highlander Folk School and the Citizenship Schools
Setima Clark refused to quit the NAACP (Schiff, 277) even when her teaching career of forty years was threatened by her employer's (the Charleston public school system) demand following Brown vs Board of Education that all employees list their affiliations. Members of the NAACP were fired. Clark ended up at Highlander Folk School where ultimately she became education director. Her most famous student? Rosa Parks. Her most important topic? Citizenship and how to be a good citizen in the face of adversity.
Teddy Roosevelt at His Best - or Is It His Worst?
Winston Churchill had, if I remember correctly, moods that he called "The Black Dog," a time of depression that usually followed one of his many political downturns. His solution was to return to his country estate and build things, usually out of bricks and mortar. Teddy Roosevelt did the same thing, but is a different way. Sickly as a child (Millard, 15), Roosevelt's father had "sat his son down and told him that he had the power to change his fate, but he would have to work hard to do it." Work hard he did, in a life-long effort to use exertion and risk-taking as a way to bounce back from defeat. Perhaps Roosevelt's worst defeat was his loss during the presidential campaign in 1912. Post-election, Roosevelt sulked at his estate for months until one of his old friends came to him with a proposal that they explore an Amazon tributary, a journey that became the last - and toughest - jouney of exploration in Roosevelt's eventful life. Changing his plans at the last instant, Roosevelt abandoned his simple plan to journey down already explored rivers for a much more audacious plan to explore a totally unknown river that was, inevitably, rife with plant, insect, mamalian, reptilian (crocodilian, really) and previously unknown - and clearly unfriendly - human life that would just about kill him. This was a savage trip as dangerous as the other journeys of exploration in the early twentieth century (to the poles, for instance). Interestingly, Roosevelt's journey isn't well known, nor do we realize how close to death he came. Millard cunningly scares us with an amazing story. Roosevelt's father's words are the best part, however. You have the ability to change your fate. We all do. We still do. We can.
GxE - Genes Times Environment, Not Genes Plus Environment
The old notation, if there really was one, said that we are the sum of our genes and environment. That's all wrong. We really are not the sum of genes and environment, but the multiplicand of genes and environment. Genes are a good start, but they are not the whole story. The explanation is simple: genes are not just switches to be turned off or on by their presence. Think of them differently. They are really part of a control board, as it were, of switches that "can be turned up/down/on/off at any time - by another gene or by any minuscule environmental input" (Shenk, 7). This isn't genetic predestination. This is genetic variablily to the maximum degree. Roosevelt could change his fate. So can we. Our experiences shape our genes in ways we are just becoming to understand. Some of those experiences we get to choose. Our schools, the music we listen to, our friends - we have choices. Other experiences happened way before we had a choice. Our mother's selection of activities for instance and what she ate and when effected us. So do, and this is even more amazing, our grandmother's selection of activities and experiences. I sometimes use as an example of a strategic choice certain Chinese families which were experts at producing the best in ceramics. One generation would properly store clay for future generations to use to make fine, fine vases for, for instance, the Imperial family. Those strategic choices were good business choices, yes. They were also, probably, good environmental choices that ultimately multiplied the effects of genes in generations unborn.
The Best Sports Writing
I noticed somewhere a comment that the best short story on a sport topic was written by John Updike for The New Yorker magazine. Apparently, Updike's story, Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu, was written quickly, after an afternoon at the park. It ended up being Updikes sole sports story. Good to know. I dug up the Adieu in Remnick's anthology. A fine piece of work. But there's more in the book, some of it better, in my estimate. John McPhee wrote a story about Bill Bradley, A Sense of Where Your Are (Remnick, 99). He wrote it in 1965 as, much like Updike's story, a farewell to a fine player. Well he got things wrong. Bill Bradley was supposed to never play again, as he accepted a scholarship to Oxford - a Rhodes scholarship, if fact. We all know what happened. Bradley finished his school work and returned to the New York Knicks and a long and wonderful career. That's the sports part of the story. It details the practice, practice, practice that it took for Bradley to make it at Princeton and, later, at the Knicks. His work ethic and his interest in people made coach after coach suggest that Bradley was destined for good things, most likely the governor of Missouri. Well, they got it a little wrong. Bradley ended up being a member of the US Senate. Close to governor, but better, maybe. The point is interesting. Reading this story, I've come to wish that Bradley's determination had led him to the White House. If I remember correctly, he had a couple tries. This story, at least from the determination and leadership side of things, gives evidence that Bradley would have made a fine president. Basketball gives you the opportunity to showboat if your coach will let you get away with it. Bradley didn't showboat. In fact, his Princeton coach had to remind him from time to time that he could shoot, especially when they were behind and needed points that their only All American could provide. Shoot. Now. We need you. Teamwork is great. We get it. Leadership also requires showboating, too. Don't forget that, especially when your star performer is holding back, trying to be a member of the team, especially when you don't need a team member but a performer in the clutch. There are times when you need to say to your best folks, "Stop playing. Shoot. Now." It's OK for you to say that. That's what CEOs do.
Ads on the Freeway
Some time back, I spent a Saturday morning out on the freeway taking pictures of the LapBand billboards. You've seen them, I am sure. One of the local doctor's groups is advertising like crazy. Obviously, there is lots of money in obesity. Allergan, headquartered in Irvine, makes the lapband. They like products like that. Allergan also makes Botox. Both the LapBand and Botox are sold to folks concerned about their appearance. I guess obesity and laugh lines are a little bit different, but they are evidence of the market today - and its changes from even a decade ago. Botox targets folks who want to improve their appearance. Their president talks about a near addiction that folks who try Botox end up with. Once you start, you want to keep erasing those crows feet, no matter how often you have to return to your dermatologist. Razors and blades without the need for a razor, if you get my gist. Wonderful strategy. This craze of appearance has its downsides, as some of the solutions to better looks aren't really that good for you. Anti-aging, the new science, probably had its start here in Southern California. The problem is, not all the science is convincing. Some of it is down right scary. My advice is, "Put up with a few of those lines." Some of the solutions (not Botox, necessaryily. Think human growth hormone and other similar products) out there really aren't solutions at all (Weintraub, 27). They're just a way for some doctor to make more money. Ultimately, the expenses you pay for short term fixes aren't just financial - they're medical, as well.
References
Lazarus, Adam and Steve Schlossman. Chasing Greatness. Johnny Miller, Arnold Palmer, and the Miracle at Oakmont. New American Library. 2010.
Millard, Candice. The River of Doubt. Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey. Anchor Books. 2005.
Millman, Chad and Shawn Coyne. The Ones Who Hit the Hardest. The Steelers, The Cowboys, The 70s, and The Fight For America's Soul. Gotham Books. 2010.
Remnick, David, Editor. The Only Game in Town. Sportswriting From The New Yorker. Random House. 2010.
Shenk, David. The Genius in All of Us. Why Everything You've Been Told About Genetics, Talent, and IQ is Wrong. Doubleday. 2010
Schiff, Karenna Gore. Lighting the Way. Nine Women Who Changed Modern America. Hyperion. 2005.
Weintraub, Arlene. Selling the Fountain of Youth. How the Anti-Aging Industry Made a Disease Out of Getting Old-And Made Billions. Basic Books. 2010.