Avalon Tuna Club

Catching is always more fun than just fishing, but fishing at Avalon is special at the Tuna Club of Avalon.

Where rod-n-reel fishing started, and the landmark building that housed these wealthy sportsfishers.

                          

Back in the day, before Brooklyn became a borough of its own, New Yorkers called anyone from Brooklyn a “trolley dodger,” because of the myriad street cars running through the borough, with kids and adults dodging them to play on the city’s streets.

The team was originally called the “Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers.”

That was soon shortened to Dodgers.

On April 15, 1947, after much trial and tribulation, Branch Rickey‘s courageous endeavor came to fruition when Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play for a Major League Baseball team, playing his first game as a member of the Brooklyn team.

The team moved to Los Angeles in 1958, settling into their Chavez Ravine digs at the beginning of 1962. Dodger Stadium became the home of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Maury Wills, Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, Rick Monday, and many others. Not to mention, Vin Scully, the voice of Dodgers baseball.

This season’s Dodgers are the National League West Division Champions, with a National League-leading 95-67 record. Players like Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Juan Pierre, Rafael Furcal, Orlando Hudson, and Clayton Kershaw have made the Dodgers pennant contenders.

Check out the 2009 Postseason Schedule here.

THINK BLUE!

                          

September 21, 1970 was the first episode — 39 years ago tonight. Keith Jackson, Howard Cosell, and Don Meredith were the originals, with Frank Gifford replacing Jackson in 1971.

Take a look at this classic original footage of the 1978 Monday Night Football “Pro Bowl” episode.

Or the groovy headphone check from a 1973 MNF introduction to the game. Here as the YouTube video:

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Anyone who’s ever been to a ball game knows its call to stand and give praise to
Old Glory:

O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

195 years ago today, Francis Scott Key wrote a poem describing the U.S. flag still standing after a British bombardment. It was during the War of 1812, and Mr. Key had been watching the Battle of Fort McHenry from the British confinement he was being held in for one night. When the sun rose, he saw the flag had survived.

On any day, the same freedom that allows someone to burn a flag also necessitates their need to give thanks for that same flag.

In a nation that allows someone to speak to the eminent figure of U.S. government in slander (You Lie!) in front of 50-million people, what’s the essence of this freedom if not the emblem of this freedom?

The Star Spangled Banner is more than an anthem to commence an athletic event, it’s a testament to American liberty and the idea that, no matter how tough things get, that flag will still be there. Regardless of race, creed, religion, gender, politics, age, or income, the flag flies.

Jim Hendrix saw the Star Spangled Banner as a protest song. Makes sense, as the freedom it personifies requires active participation.

Watch Jimi protest his liberties and freedoms by letting his “freak flag fly” here:

                          

“In our blessed and mostly peaceful society we’re not as familiar with courage as we once were. We ascribe the virtue to all manner of endeavors that only really require skill, fortitude and a little daring, the qualities Pat Tillman showed on the football field. Pat’s best service to his country was to remind us all what courage really looks like, and that the purpose of all good courage is love.“
– Senator John McCain
Pat Tillman’s memorial service, May 3, 2004

Pat Tillman was an excellent football player. He was also an heroic soldier. He gave his life for a cause most Americans still can’t quite comprehend, except to say there are bad people who wish our nation harm, and men and women like Pat Tillman have a desire to defend everything this nation represents.

Every once in a while, an “Outlier,” a 1%er, a SuperGOOD person comes along, and their exceptional character necessitates their destiny. For Tillman, it was a sad ending to an otherwise extraordinary life. Only now, after years of cover-ups and back-room bureaucracy, have the facts surfaced about his death. Like much of war, they are not pretty.

Pat Tillman, Sr., in a letter written in 2005 to The Washington Post, stated that supposed “mistakes” by Army higher-ups were part of a pattern of conscious misconduct:

“With respect to the Army’s reference to ‘mistakes in reporting the circumstances of [my son's] death’: those ‘mistakes’ were deliberate, calculated, ordered (repeatedly), and disgraceful — conduct well beneath the standard to which every soldier in the field is held.“

Writer and “New-New Journalist” Jon Krakauer has a new book, “Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman,” which attempts to expose the facts behind the Pat Tillman tragedy.

Whatever the truth may be, Pat Tillman will always be a hero. On the 8th Anniversary of 9/11, Digital Ink Los Angeles remembers the people who’ve sacrificed everything for the love, not the glory.

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Steroids have been a part of professional sports longer than anyone would care to admit. Ask Governor Schwarzenegger, he’ll give you some details about his experience with “Pumping Iron.”

Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, Jason Giambi, Manny Ramirez, Jose Canseco, and on and on…

The question remains, do these guys get into the National Baseball Hall of Fame? Do they merit the same accolades and awards of players like Willie Mays, Lou Gehrig, Bob Gibson, Roberto Clemente, or Ted Williams?

What is in question is not the issue of whether they used supplements or performance-enhancing drugs to increase their stats and achievements, but whether they’ll ever admit to it.

It’s a classic catch-22 conundrum — admit to it, and face a ban from Cooperstown, or lie and take their chances. Barry Bonds will be the first put to this test when a Federal prosecutor brings his perjury case to trial.

The Los Angeles Times‘ sportswriter Bill Shaikin wrote an article recently that discusses in detail the subject of steroids as it currently rests, and the policy of partial-disclosure that Major League Baseball is wrestling with.

View the August 22, 2009, piece: “Book Still Open on Steroid Era.”

                          

Burl Toler was the first black official in professional football, and any professional sport for that matter. His story is one of courage and profound passion for the competition and camaraderie of the game of football. But the real story begins with the college football team and the players he played and competed with.

The University of San Francisco Dons football team was undefeated in 1951, going 9-0. The following is an explanation for the dilemma faced by the team, when they had to decide whether they would go to a bowl game without their two best players — All-American Ollie Matson and Burl Toler, who were both black.

The following is taken from the USF sports information website:

“The announced reason for rejecting USF was its weak schedule, but San Francisco sportscaster Ira Blue reported that he was told by Gator Bowl president Sam Wolfson that the Gator, Sugar, and Orange Bowl committees had all decided to avoid teams with ‘Negro’ players.”

“There was also an insinuation that had the Dons been willing to play without Matson and Toler, they might have been granted a bid. Without hesitation, the players decided they would never play in a bowl game or otherwise without Matson and Toler.”

“The school needed the financial reward a trip to a bowl game would reap, in order for the football program to be sustained. The sport was costing the University nearly $70,000 a year, a deficit the school couldn’t endure any longer.”

“On December 30, 1951, the Reverend William J. Dunne, S.J., then USF’s president, announced that the school would no longer field a football team because of the financial burden. The school’s best football team was to be its last Division I team.”

Pete Rozelle — who would lead the NFL as its commissioner for three decades — was the team’s sports information director, and he proclaimed their accomplishments as his proudest moment in football.

Three players from that team went on to gain NFL Hall of Fame honors, and Burl Toler was elected to the Hall of Fame as an official with more than 25 years of dedication to the game.

In remembrance to Burl Toler, who died August 16, 2009, check out the YouTube video of the Fox Sports special during the Fiesta Bowl about the magical season of the 1951 University of San Francisco Dons, and their willingness to go beyond the game and embrace their “Negro” teammates.

Special people do special things.