Not Just A Hat Rack

LeBron

Not long ago, this space menioned that nothing excites me about the NBA. Not even LeBron. Tonight's game may have changed that opinion.

I tuned in with three minutes left in regulation - he scored EVERY Cavaliers point for the rest of the game AND both overtimes. He scored every one of their last 25 points. This was 1-v-5 basketball. Four Cavs' teammates hid on the offensive end of the court, and no one on Detroit could stop him. It was Jordan-esque (and I thought it long before Marv Albert said anything on the broadcast). He hit a three-pointer, he had back-to-back dunks, he went left, he went right and his last basket was an underhand scoop that belied his size and bulk. It was impressive. It all would have gone for naught if the Cavs hadn't won (which they did) the critical game five in Detroit. We'll see if LeBron can carry them to five more wins this year and an NBA title.

We're off to Burley, Idaho for the first VikingMan triathlon on Saturday. (Mrs. 'Hat Rack, not me, is competing.) I'm looking forward to seeing the Snake River, the site of Evil Kneivel's 1974 jump, buying a winning lottery ticket, the Skandi Dag Scandinavian festival (featuring Irish dancing as part of the entertainment, maybe their named the O'Peterson Dancers?) and giving the kids a chance to cheer their mom home after a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and 13.1-mile run. Think positive thoughts!

So I guess I won't see RSL live on TV on Saturday night. To quote "Marking the Referee"... "meh."

Postcard in the Mail

Dear Stevie, We are spending a few days near Genoa with a friend from the US. Saw this card on the card rack and thought of you. Is (this) a favorite team of yours? All our love, Grandma & Grandpa

The oversized postcard front shows 11 players from the AC Milan soccer team lined up for a traditional team photo before a game. The card is postmarked September 18, 1976. There are 200 lire of stamps on the card, which was mailed from Italy to my family's "APO" address in New York. (APO is a government system intended to expedite and secure mail to US government employees abroad.)

It is written in my grandmother's hand - and I would have been seven years old when it arrived home in my father's briefcase to our home in Lisbon, Portugal. It probably took several months to get to me - maybe it arrived within days of 8th birthday that November.

I received it in the mail again this week, when my parents sent it to me as part of their housecleaning in San Francisco. At first I was half-inclined to dismiss it as another old "souvenir", but the fact that is is from my grandmother actually gives it great meaning. She passed away unexpectedly less than three years later - long before I really got to know "Florence."

As much as I traveled as a kid (lived in Venezuela, Mexico, Portugal and Colombia before I was 12) and as much as my cousins traveled (Kenya and Nigeria) - I remember my grandparents at the real travelers in the family. They went to Russia and Poland when they were under Communist governments. They traveled all over Western Europe and Africa. They split their time between our American home, San Francisco, and their retirement home, the village of Marino in the hills above Rome. We received lots of postcards, most of which are long gone. For some reason, this postcard survives 30 years later.

My grandfather, Steven Adolph, passed away about ten years after Florence. I knew him better. I have memories of him working in the garden... helping us grow apples trees in Virginia... his moustache... holidays and presents and wine and ravioli... a couple San Francisco Giants' games. But Florence lives on mainly in a few old photos and tricky flashes of memory.

I lived in the Marino apartment for a summer after college. The smell was familiar. The tile on the patio that wrapped around the building felt the same on my bare feet. The building still offered a stunning view of Rome on the occasional smog-free day. There were still bricks under the legs at the head of the bed -- they thought this improved circulation or something. The books, the African art, the tableware all brought back glimpses of a grandmother I barely remember.

That memory is a warm place. Though we all traveled, and were rarely together in my childhood, the postcards, care packages and visits every other year or so were all I knew. And it was enough. Well, maybe I didn't think so then. But now, when a 30-year-old message arrives, it's enough. It's the thought that counts.

Dear Grandma and Grandpa, Thank you for the postcard from Milan. Milan is not one of my favorite teams - Grandpa (or Dad) said I should root for Lazio because of Giorgio Chinaglia. See you soon! Love, Your Grandson.

The Milan roster featured Albertosi, Scala, Bet, Maldera 3, Rivera, Bigon, Benetti, Turone, Gorin, Sabadini and Chiarugi. I don't have a scanner - so here's an image from the 76-77 team (courtesy: ACmilan.com):

Letters Live On

Matt La Plante scores again in today's Salt Lake Tribune. The very dependable national/political/war reporter writes a front-page article on letters from servicemen who were killed in Iraq in honor of Memorial Day. It's the type of story that brings honor to its subjects, is uniquely personal and can be politically influential. These are some of the charactersitics of writing that first pulled me towards my degree in journalism.

This type of story is also very challenging to research and report. These families willingly shared their stories, letters and emails from someone they recently laid to rest. Maybe they saw the honor in telling their story. Maybe it was painful but ultimately rewarding. Or maybe it was agonizing to crack open the past again like a Pandora's Box. This rationale pushed me away from journalism. How do you straddle the fine line between those who want their story told, and those who don't - if a reporter, editor or publisher deems a story "newsworthy"?

"Please explain to the boys that I tried to be a good father and that I will always love them and I will always be proud of them," Gregson Gourley wrote in 2003. (His wife gave birth to a baby girl shortly before his second deployment.) "Please never let them forget who their dad is."

Elsewhere in the Tribune, the editorial board used the same Abraham Lincoln quote (from his Second Inaugural Address) that I based my college application upon. I can't find it on their website, but it's reads like this:

"With malice towards none, with charity for all, with justice in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in."

Those words helped get me into Northwestern... and have been a guide for me throughout my personal and professional life. Unfortunately I was unable to finish the work I started here 2 1/2 years ago. Oh well, I move on.

Speaking of Northwestern, congrats to the Northwestern Wildcast Women's Lacrosse team... they won their third straight NCAA title this weekend. Dynasty and Northwestern are usually only paired in debate and journalism references - nice to have a sports dynasty in place!

'Cats Three-Peat!!! has all the details.

Plus, the softball team is making its second consecutive appearance in the College World Series in Oklahoma City - follow all the action on ESPN and ESPN2 apparently, beginning Thursday. Go Cats!

Hot Fuzz

Go see this movie.

Mrs. 'Hat Rack and I make it to about three movies a year. We'd love to get to more - but it just doesn't happen. But tonight we saw the side-splitting farce that is Hot Fuzz (currently playing at the Broadway.) It's definitely British humor. It's pretty intense. It mocks every cop and sherriff movie ever. And whoever wrote and produced it has to be completely insane. This movie is over-the-top.

It's the only movie earning four stars from City Weekly right now - and I think each star is well-deserved. So there.

Go see this movie. Tell your friends the 'Hat Rack made you do it.

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Couple notes...

I never followed up to let those of you in the other 49 states know that Utah is still intact after the Schwarzenegger/Sharpton dual visit on Monday. Believe it or not, neither was the top story on the evening news - they were buried 4-6 stories in on every newcast.

There was a story earlier this week that a Utahan was off to the hospital after opening his car door to look under his car... and falling out and running over himself. That's not easy!

I'm a TRAX fiend - three trips in two weeks. Love it.

NBDL - Utah Flash have a coach. Ho hum.

This just pisses me off... The family of Cardinals' pitcher Josh Hancock, who died when driving drunk (almost double the legal limit) last month, is suing the bar that served him the alcohol? And the tow truck that Hancock swerved to miss causing his accident? Give me a break.

Utah High School 4-A and 5-A Boys' soccer finals tomorrow at Juan Diego. If you haven't watched the teens play, you should check them out.

And finally, BIG NEWS, pizza has arrived in Utah. REAL PIZZA. It took us months to get there but SetteBello on 2nd West is worth the hype. The pizza tastes just like in Italy. For this reason alone, the chance of me staying in SLC just got a little better.

Would You Take Jeff Cunningham to Mars with You?

I feel like Mr. Irrelevant. That's the award given to the last guy picked in the draft (Jeff Parke of the Red Bulls, I think, for example). Several people asked me for my opinion on today's blockbuster trade between RSL and Toronto FC, and all I could really do is shrug and say, "RSL will do what they want to do."

I have no inside information. I haven't talked to Jason Kreis or any player since my last day. I haven't talked to John Ellinger in probably two weeks. I'm just another citizen checking books out of the public library as Deuce witnessed today. But since some people have asked, here are a few thoughts - mostly in the form of questions.

1) I have no inside information. Any player moves John and I may have been working on are completely moot in the Jason Kreis era. I can't tell you if there are more moves coming or not.

2) it's a cop-out and I want RSL and the inviduals I know there to be successful... is this a trade that may work out for both teams in the long run? I think TFC gets the better half of the deal now, but that first-round pick and the allocation $$ could have a big impact in the long run.

3) Did you realize RSL has taken 201 career MLS goals (Kreis 108, JC 93) off the field in the past month... and the remaining 23 players on the roster have 157 total career goals? There are nine players on the roster who have scored for RSL in their career (30 goals total out of 82 scored by RSL in its short history).

4) Can you envision Dichio & Cunningham? Has there ever been such a combination of brute size and blazing quickness? If Dichio can keep himself in games... look out. Then again, Alecko & Atiba (the A-Team? A-Men?) are a combined 17 years younger than the TFC Tandem. Oh, what's Edson Buddle thinking?

5) RSL has two first-round draft picks in 2008. Last team I recall trading TWO first-round picks for a player was Chicago, landing DaMarcus Beasley before the 2000 season. (Review #1 again.)

6) The rank of the allocation - we'll never know - this is MLS :) - is almost as important as the $$ attached. The rank determines how returning US National Team players get assigned if multiple MLS teams are interested... (This is why Conor Casey went to TFC when Colorado really wanted him.) Could this allocation propel RSL to the top of the Beasley, Onyewu or Keller sweepstakes? (Please review #1 again.)

7) Anyone else notice no quote from the technical director in the press release?

Oh, back to my post title. Anyone know anything about this program... The Mars Society has a Mars-like habitat somewhere in the Utah desert and anyone can apply to spend two weeks inside. It's volunteer, but what else am I doing right now? It must be pretty competitive to get a spot as the resumes of past mission members look daunting. I need a mission but science is not my forte. "First Blogger in Simulated Space" probably doesn't cut it.

Anyways, I think my two weeks in a tin can in the desert would be far more interesting with Jeff Cunningham on board with me. Oh, the conversations we could have!

Good luck Jeff.

Remembering David Halberstam

A friend passed along the following tribute to Pulitzer Prize winning writer David Halberstam, who died earlier recently in a car accident. I haven't read nearly enough Halberstam, but I'm sure Grandpa 'Hat Rack has read virtually everything he wrote. You might recognize his incendiary book on the Vietnam War The Best and the Brightest, his compelling analysis of U.S media giants The Powers that Be or his recent classic War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton & the Generals. In this household, his sports history titles resonate. The Teammates, (about Red Sox teammates Johnny Pesky, Dom Dimaggio and Ted Williams), Summer of '49 (Red Sox vs Yankees) and October '64 (Yankees vs Cardinals) are three of his best-known baseball works, but he also wrote about the NBA, NFL, Olympic sports and more.

Thanks to Medill grad Matt Baron for sending this along. Read Matt's parenting blog Chicago Parent

But I've buried the lead too far. So, without further introduction, here's a recollection of David Halberstam by Michael Capuzzo, published in The Miami Herald. (Thanks, Matt!)

Mentor's gone; but I hear him more clearly now

I was a 23-year-old writer living in Key West in the long shadow of Hemingway, reporting for The Miami Herald from a small stucco building a block from the beach on the Atlantic side of the island. David Halberstam told me more than once that winter, ``This is the best job you'll ever have.''

He was right, of course. He was right about many things he tried to show me that winter when he became my mentor, right about so much I didn't grasp.

Apocalypse Comes to Our Metropolis

Mark the date. Shut the windows. Turn off the TV. Hide.

Tomorrow, Monday, May 21. Salt Lake City will be graced by the visit of two of America's premier politicians. On the same day. Bush & Clinton? Giuliani and McCain? Washington and Lincoln?

How about Sharpton & Schwarzenegger. The Reverend and the Bodybuilder!

The former visits LDS Church leaders to beg forgiveness for his "they don't believe in our God" comment (and needle the Church about not offering priesthood rights to blacks until 1978). The latter will confer with Gov. Huntsman on Utah's participation in the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative - a six-state effort to counter global warming and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Words fail me!

East Out.

East High School's defense of its state championship ended today as the Bountiful Braves (12-4-2) shut out the the Leopards, 3-0, in Class 4-A State Quarterfinals. For the Leopards (14-3-1), it was the end of the most emotionally challenging season of soccer some of them will ever experience. Coach "K" (as in Kernodle) passed away in the opening month of the season after a 20+ year career that culminated in the 2006 State title. Coach Rudy Schenk soldiered on with the assistance of former UYSA State President Paul Burke, among others, but a repeat title was denied by the Braves.

The flowers aren't mourning East's loss. They are from my afternoon run through Mueller park high above Bountiful. See more pictures here.

I did not run the Muller Park Trail described here as "easy even for (mountain biking) novices." I chose a trail called Kenney Creek. I would describe it as "narrow, rocky, barely maintained and remote." I crossed the creek in two places. But it was fun and no rattlesnakes found me.

Falwell, Romney & Roosevelt in the same entry!

I'm realizing this blog is taking on more and more of a Utah spin with every passing week but, hey, the subject matter is plentiful. Two pieces on the Salt Lake Tribune's editorial pages caught me eye today.

First, the editorial board analyzes Jerry Falwell's legacy. The board ultimately concludes that Falwell's explosive mix of right-wing politics and religion was ultimately far more divisive than inclusive under the false moniker "moral majority."

In large part, Falwell's legacy was to cast compromise as a sign of weakness and to make the demonization of political opponents, based on "moral issues," a common, effective, often cynical, and utterly divisive, political ploy.

If America is not up in arms about Falwell's politicization of the religious right, then they are hypocritical to fear the potential mix of the LDS Church in Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. Retired East HS professor Q. Michael Croft writes about a dozen instances of LDS involvement in state and national politics in his op-ed piece today, ironically opposite the Falwell editorial.

Under LDS Church President Heber J. Grant, the church publicly endorsed, through the Deseret News, Republican presidential candidate Alfred M. Landon over Franklin K. Roosevelt. (Roosevelt still carried Utah.)

In 1960 church President David O. McKay personally endorsed Richard Nixon for president. Although he emphasized he was doing this as an individual citizen, his position as head of the church would certainly have an impact.

According to President Ezra Taft Benson, "Those who would remove the prophet from politics would take God out of government."

I say he's just stating the obvious. If you don't think the LDS Church is involved in (primarily Republican) politics, you're just naive. But the LDS church is no less guilty than the religious right.

Finally, this question: Does the structure of the LDS local church units (wards and stakes), presided over by lay people adding "ecclesiastical" duties to their business, family, community and political obligations - further the perception that the Mormon Church can't help but meddle in politics?

Jazz, yawn. MAC, Cool

Hooray for the Jazz. (Didn't that sound sincere?)

For years I've rooted against rival teams in town on the premise that any attention they get would take away from teams I worked for. Then again, I found it REALLY easy to dislike the Bears, Notre Dame and the Blackhawks in my Chicago years. The Bulls were an exception. They were so dominant in the Jordan era, you couldn't help being swept up in it. The Cubs presented a quandary. They had tradition, a great ballpark, Sammy Sosa and Mark Grace. However, once they beat the Giants in the one-game wildcard play-in match after the 1998 season, I had plenty of reason to dislike them while always cherishing time in the "biggest bar on the north side - Wrigley Field." As for the Sox, Trent, my marketing right arm for much of my time at the Fire, was a long-time southsider and former Sox employee, so his steely support of the black-and-white slowly won me over.

But back to the Jazz. I find myself liking them a little bit. I'm a Duke fan, so Boozer is a great player to build around. I like the Euros. Kirilenko, Okur and Giricek are well-rounded players - the type the NBA sorely lacks. They have two U of I guards in Williams and Brown (and I'm not even an Illini fan but several in the 'Hat Rack extended clan are). Plus, Jerry Sloan is a great coach with homespun Illinois roots, so there - I don't hate the Jazz!

But the last NBA team I actually cared about was the Warriors of the Run TMC era ... Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, Chris Mullin and the legendary Sarunas Marciulionis. When was that - mid 80s? How's that for an NBA fan drought. I honestly don't like the game. I liked watching the stars of the 80s and 90s - Jordan, Ewing, Robinson, etc. - but I don't get excited about LeBron, T-Mac, Yao or any of the 21st century generation. Forgive me for skipping the water cooler conversations (then again, no one talks NBA at my refrigerator water dispenser!)

I guess I'm rooting for the Jazz though, because little ol' Salt Lake actually has comething to get excited about; something to rally around. Events, people and teams that bring a community together are rare - and contagious. Fans who love the buzz in the air right now around the Jazz, might crave it again this Fall if RSL can make any kind of run in the postseason. That's all good.

On the flip side, there is a generation, no, four generations, that tolerate the Cubs not winning on the North side of Chicago. That's pathetic. The Cubs have become a caricature of themselves. Utahans risk the same in their aimless support of the Jazz, but it's better than not caring, I guess. If the Jazz go another 70 years without winning, though, they risk becoming the Cubs.

So, it's a tough call. Root for: "Jazz win, unite Salt Lake!" or "Go Warriors. Jazz fans crushed again!"

Hmm. Really tough. But I don't think it matters. Jazz will win tonight. Good for them. And then get crushed by the conference finals. Oh well!

Let's just get the whole thing done with so we can concentrate on MLS and MLB!

PS - This is my first entry composed on a new Apple MacBook. More on that in the days to come.