Emails, some wise, some not
Great week of emails. NBA team name. Baseball’s lack of joy. OU football. All kinds of cool topics. Let’s start with the renaming of the Sonics.
Matt wrote, “I’m writing to ask what is wrong with being an Okie? Lately, the Oklahoman has been … polling people about the name for the (NBA) team. I believe the two teams we have left (Outlaws & Thunder) do not represent Oklahoma much. The best name for a team in Oklahoma is simply Okies. The name wasn’t considered in the tournament, which I do not understand. How is being called an Okie a bad thing? I am proud to be an Okie. In today’s paper, there is a title (headline) about women’s softball that reads ‘Okies give Hogs big lift.’ So about a week ago, it was a bad thing to be an Okie. Now it’s OK. I just don’t understand.”
Well, The Grapes of Wrath might shed a little light. Oklahomans of a certain age have no affinity for the term Okies. Dewey Bartlett’s campaign in the 1960s lessened the sting of the term, but still. Two things: 1. No reason to alienate a big chunk of your potential base. And 2. Oklahoma City Okies is the goofiest name I’ve ever heard.
That wasn’t the only vote for Okies I received. Jim in Konawa wrote, “Those names Thunder & Outlaws could be anyone’s name. The one thing we are and are damn proud of it (although I am a native Texan) is OKIES. Think of it, everyone nationwide would know Okies, a totally unique identity. Yankees, Packers, Okies. Good one-name company. That name is derogatory to no true Okie. The marketing would be phenomenal.”
Yankees, Packers, Okies? How about Yankees, Packers, Laughingstocks? Yankees, Packers, Gooberheads? Besides, look at it this way. True Okies are the ones who left the state. Sort of the opposite of the Sonics.
The whole notion of relocation doesn’t set well with Tim from
Now do you get a sense of what the NBA has been dealing with lo these many years? This dispatch misses the mark almost everywhere, beginning with the kids. If you want to talk about kids, explain why kids with the Seahawks and the Mariners need the Sonics? As for Oklahoma City waiting for a franchise, the NBA has 30 teams; 13 have moved cities. And nothing against the Sonics or their fans, but this is one of the great franchises and fan bases in the league? One title and three finals in 41 years? Neglect and apathy from the city? I’ve only got one thing to say: Shed no tears for Seattle.
Edgar detected hijinks in the name-the-team contest. “Call in whatever markers at hand. Can see the deck is being stacked for Barons. Who did the half-ass effort on the T-Birds jersey. Don’t think the heart was in it. Barons. Please. Oilmen currently share equal status with the guy stealing elderly ladies’ purses. Do you really want to remind people it cost $50 to fill up the Bronco? Frankly didn’t see for quite some time how Baron was apt. Dictionary definition No. 1: low ranking member of the British peerage. Perfect. Lying oil baron, robber baron. There will be plenty of derogatory spinoffs, don’t you know. Thunder is OK, a bit cliche’, not as obvious as Twisters, but Thunder around these parts is the hated Wichita Thunder. They got the market. Seatle’s hockey team is the Thunderbirds. They can accuse OKC stealing the moniker as well.
T-Birds! T-Birds! T-Birds!
On to baseball and its lack of joy. Budd wrote, “Good piece on baseball players screaming about professionalism. Particularly when so many of our newly or recently anointed millionaire heroes got there on steroids and other goodies. There’ll never be a ‘House that Barry Bonds built.’ And Babe Ruth trained on beer. DiMaggio, and later Mickey Mantle wet their depression at the big curved bar in Toots Shor’s. I know because I enjoyed a few tastes there, too.”
Once in New York City, a group of us went walking around, looking for Toots Shor’s. We never found it and ended up having lunch at a deli. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Sharon wrote, “I thoroughly enjoyed your article (on baseball’s lack of fun). I have to admit I don’t always agree with you, but I certainly do on this one. If some of these guys had been one of our sons several years ago back in the little league days I would have told them to just get over it, you do your job and get on with the game!”
Next time you’re at the ballpark, tell them anyway.
Bill wrote, “Your comments about baseball becoming the new No Fun League reminded me of an exchange with Willie Stargell that Tony Dungy described in his book, When Tony was with the Steelers, the team shared Three Rivers Stadium with the Pirates. He’d schedule off-season workouts (for) when the baseball players arrived for games. The carefree environment of baseball contrasted so much with the serious attitude in football locker rooms that Tony mentioned the difference. Stargell flashed a big smile and said that in all the years he’d played, the umpire always began each contest with two words: Play ball. Never once had he said ‘Work ball.’ From top to bottom, professional and collegiate, baseball would do well to hear what Mr. Stargell observed and shared three decades ago.”
Here’s what’s nutty. Football teams seems so serious all the time, except during games, when some of them can act absolutely silly. Baseball teams can be so carefree, except during the games, when they act like they’re at the Paris Peace Talks.
An Episcopalian reverend wrote, “You are my sports writer of choice at the Oklahoman. That being said, I thought you went too far this morning comparing the negative attitudes toward celebration & fun in baseball with the church, her monks & the passion of clergy. You lumped us in with Spock, iceman and androids. Come to our church sometime. We’re really not a lame as you think.”
No wisenheimer response here. I apologize. I apologize. I apologize. I didn’t know a reference to monastery monks was indicting all Anglicans, but let me repeat. I apologize. I would like to attend an Episcopal service. Which reminds me of a story. The only time I remember being at an Episcopal service was in 1985, for the funeral of Harold Belknap, who was my publisher at the Norman Transcript. We went to the funeral as a grop from the newsroom, and a city-side reporter led the group as we got to the church. He cut across the grass, which I remember thinking was probably not too cool at a funeral. Anyway, we’re sitting in the sanctuary, the funeral is going on, and I smell something foul. I look down, and my shoe is ringed with dog poop. I had stepped in it cutting across the grass. So the Episcopals really didn’t get my full attention.
Ed, who loves history, wrote, “Where are Casey Stengel and Jimmy Piersall when we need ‘em? And Dizzy Dean.”
Rube Waddell is my favorite. Some old-time baseball guys swear he used to chase fire engines.
Proving that hard-core OU football fans never sleep, Mike wants to know, “Does OU have a shot at the lockdown corner Gabe Lynn and how do you think OU’s defense will do this year?”
Easiest questions of the week. And your answers: 1. Who the heck is Gabe Lynn? 2. Fine. Just fine.
Frank wrote, “Could (Kid) Nichol be a good fit at Tulsa? A great number of their QBs have had good NFL exposure. And if he really felt comfortable in Norman, why not TU?”
Let me put my Sherlock Holmes hat on. Kid Nichol is from Michigan. He leaves OU because too many quarterbacks in front of him. He’s a run-pass guy. Michigan U. has hired a new coach, Rich Rodriguez, who likes to use a dual-threat quarterback and has slim pickings in Ann Arbor. Can anyone say hail to the victors?
Jo, who dogs Bob Stoops like Jean Valjean, wrote about OU quarterbacks. “The opinion is out there by lots of people that (Jason) White coming back for his sixth year set the whole quarterback rotation back at least a year, plus Stoops had another Thompson in Nichols, only Thompson stayed. But in reality, he was a square peg in a round hole, Chuck’s offense, like Nichol was in Wilson’s offense. Thompson would probably have fit well in the West Virginia offense. Why does he recruit quarterbacks that even a blind man could see, doesn’t fit his offense? How did Switzer go through all those seasons with little to no quarterback controversy, and Stoops has had nothing but turmoil at that position, with people leaving, getting money under the table, falling out of pick-ups etc. How were Switzer’s quarterbacks able to be tackled 10 to 15 times a game andBradford gets tackled one time and is out for a game and a half?”
The guy from Seattle made more sense than this. If this is the best ammunition you’ve got against Stoops, the guy is bulletproof. Let me get this straight, a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback RETURNING is a bad thing? Paul Thompson, who had some mobility but very little running ability, would have been a better jockey than a West Virginia quarterback. OU doesn’t recruit QBs to fit its offense? OU recruits offenses to fit its quarterbacks? Switzer didn’t have quarterback controversy? Blevins-Lott. Phelps-Shepard. Holieway-Thompson. No quarterback ever left? The Sooners had Troy Aikman and let him go. And finally, Sudden Sam Bradford was injured not while being tackled, but while making a tackle.
Commenting on my belief that high school players should be allowed to turn pro, Bob wrote, “I normally of course agree with you, but I like the mandated year in college ball and would like to see it extended, honestly. It hurts no one and helps a number of people. If you go straight from high school, where does it end? Can a kid go pro after his sophomore year in high school? How long before agents start messing with that game if we are not careful?”
Where does it end? How about the U.S. constitution? And agents started messing with high school kids about 20 years ago.
Boyd wrote, “Could Billy Ball be back? Ford sounds like Tubbs reincarnated.”
If Travis Ford is the next Billy Tubbs, Mike Holder is a genius.
Mike, not Holder, wrote in with a bright idea. “On a recent trip for work in England I was able to watch an interesting thing. They were having the finals for the local/national rugby clubs. From what I could figure out, the Rugby teams from the top division down to the bottom were involved in a playoff. The bottom team in the top division would be moved to the lower division the next year. The top team from the lower division would move up. They actually had a match to see which team would go to whatever division. Kind of the play-in match the NCAA does for the basketball tourney. This might make an interesting debate for NCAA football. Let’s say Appalachian State gets to move up to Division I. Now the bottom of the barrel Division I team, Baylor, Buffalo, etc has to move down out of their conference to play in the vacated spot.”
This reminds me of a good scene from the Cosby show. Early in the series, Theo was just a goofy 13-year-old. He was slacking off in school, and his dad got on him pretty good. So Theo gave an impassioned speech about he was his own person, just because his sisters excelled academically didn’t mean he would, too, and that he wished his dad could love him just for who he was. One of those speeches a real kid never would say, but the live studio audience thinks is supposed to be really touching, so it breaks out into applause. After the applause quieted down, Cosby says in a very soft voice, “Son…” Then his voice started gaining volume. “THAT’S THE DUMBEST THING I’VE EVER HEARD.”
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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