Nobody asked me, but . . . my Guide to the U.S. Team’s Success in this World Cup:
Think of the teams’ skill levels in terms of A, B and C. The U.S. should be rated a B, even a B-plus.
The best skilled teams, come the World Cup, often fall into the understandable habit of trying to advance by trying not to lose, by playing too conservatively. Thus, lesser-regarded teams who play with audacity win games they ordinarily wouldn’t, couldn’t and shouldn’t.
That’s why widely disregarded Cameroon made it the quarters in 1990, beating, among others, powerful Argentina to get there. The “The Indomitable Lions” played to win, to score, to force better teams who chose to play conservatively to play defense, to become victims of their own blueprints.
Not only must the U.S. play with audacity — attack from even the deepest midfield possession — that seems the team’s strong suit. “Midfielders,” Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey are attack hounds, chance-takers.
And in center forward (striker) Jozy Altidore, son of both New Jersey and Haitian parents, the U.S. has an inside threat whom, though streaky — and with a recent ankle sprain — demands attention. He seems to play taller than his 6-foot-1 listing.
The U.S. opens this Saturday against England. Can the U.S. beat England in the Cup? She already has.
At the 1950 Cup in Brazil — 30 years before the home team U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets — the U.S. stunned the world, beating England, 1-0, on a goal by Haitian-American Joe Gaetjens, after a pass from Walt Bahr, who would coach Penn State’s soccer team for 15 years and father NFL placekickers Chris and Matt Bahr.
So what the heck. Sixty years later, unleash the underdogs! Attack, attack, attack. You can’t live forever! Why lose 1-0 when you can win or lose, 3-2.
Audacity is the key, so says me.
‘Alibi Ike’ a must-see for baseball fans
Years ago, come the spring, when Channel 9’s “Million Dollar Movie,” wasn’t showing “Mighty Joe Young,” it often would show baseball-themed movies, including the 1935 adaptation of the Ring Lardner tale, “Alibi Ike.”
Claiming to be inspired by the arrival in New York of Ike Davis, Warner Bros. Home Video has released “Alibi Ike” on DVD.
The movie stars comic actor Joe E. Brown, a great baseball fan who in 1953 took a shot at calling Yankees games with Mel Allen and Jim Woods on WINS. His son, Joe L. Brown, was the Pirates’ GM from 1955 through 1976, which includes the 1960 Bill Mazeroski homer to beat the Yankees in the Series.
“Alibi Ike” is the story of Francis “Ike” Farrell, who comes out of the sticks to pitch and hit the Cubs to the pennant — despite a run-in with gamblers. (A soulful kid pleads with Ike to tell him it ain’t so, that the rumor that he’s going to throw the big game is false, “because I bet my bike on you.”)
The movie’s loaded with character actors — William Frawley (Fred Mertz from “I Love Lucy” and Bub from the earliest “My Three Sons” TV shows) plays the Cubs’ manager. Even better, there are cameos by big leaguers, including Bob Meusel, who starred for the Yankees throughout the 1920s, and the Giants’ Jim Thorpe — yeah, that Jim Thorpe.
Cinematic newcomer Olivia de Haviland is Ike’s romantic interest. Four years later, she would co-star in “Gone With the Wind.”
At $20, “Alibi Ike” is a howl, and a lot cheaper than a throwback jersey. Warnerarchive.com to order.
Golf Channel has Tiger tunnel vision
So it’s the first round of the Memorial on Golf Channel, Thursday, and we keep hearing that the best players in the world are there to play in this, “Jack’s Event.” Yep, how do you say no to Jack Nicklaus?
But it’s all a con. After a weather delay, GC bolted the moment Tiger Woods putted out on 18.
Gee, from where does Woods get his inflated sense of entitlement? What makes him still think he’s bigger than the game of golf?
Well, you can start with TV, the Golf Channel.
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So now UConn’s men’s basketball turns up dirty. There’s a shock to the system.
Yet, it seems as if every newly named Division I basketball coach boasts of his close ties to AAU programs as a prime recruiting pool, as if that’s a good thing.
America’s urban, sneaker company-empowered AAU teams are the center of the high school-to-college netherworld. And no talented city kid is more vulnerable than one whose most influential adult in his life is an AAU coach with college orders to fill.
If ever a boast should be answered with an “Uh-oh,” it’s when college coaches brag that they’re well connected to AAU delivery men.
Incidentally, Mike Francesa now has to avoid asking his seasonal buddy, Jim Calhoun, tough questions about NCAA violations and sanctions the way he has had to avoid asking tough questions of his speed-dial pal, John Calipari.
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Because in TV, no bad idea is unworthy of duplication, Golf Channel has lifted a page from ESPN’s Big Book of Excessive, Obnoxious Self-Promotion. During Thursday’s PGA coverage, a crawl reading, “Program Alert: ‘Golf Central’ is coming up,” appeared, uninterrupted, 14 times.
Marv Albert‘s decision, late last week, to pack it in as Westwood One Radio’s Monday night football play-by-player is his business. But it’s our business that his calls, the last eight years, provided a logical alternative to much of the nonsense attached to ESPN’s MNF telecasts.
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From reader J.D. Gardner, Manalapan, N.J.: “History should salute Armando Galarraga as the first to pitch a 28-out perfect game.”
We always can rely on the NFL Network for the same tired stuff. The featured guest on “NFL Total Access,” Friday, was, yawn, Terrell Owens.
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Do pigs have hamstrings? Of course, that’s where pulled pork comes from.