Saturday Night Nostalgia

 

In honor of 70’s night at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, I dip into the nostalgia bank for a few thoughts:

1)    That goal Ante Razov just scored against NY Red Bulls was classic “poacher” Ante – but when you’ve scored 111 goals in MLS history, that’s a compliment.  The Red Bulls’ left back passed it just as Andrew Boyens put his head down and started running to midfield.  The alert Razov pounced on it and slotted it under Jon Conway and in the back of the net before Conway could even get his 6-foot-6 frame to the ground.  If you’ve watched much Chad Barrett, Kei Kamara, (insert any RSL striker here), etc., it was great to see a no-hesitation, no-stopping-him finish.

2)    Speaking of the Chivas USA game – anyone else catch the bilingual Toy Story Mania halftime “special moment” on tonight’s broadcast?  Disney obviously paid a pretty penny to have their green plastic soldiers parade around the field and across the broadcast?  Ugh – too much corporate overkill.  But since we’re on the topic, did anyone else think one of the soldiers looked like Brian Dunseth?

3)    How does Joe Cannon do it?  He comes up with big saves – and shutouts – with amazing consistency, especially considering how bad that team is in front of him.

4)    Speaking of olden days – what was with the horrendous format (square, with black lines on all four side) of the RSL broadcast on KSL 5.3, aka the local weather channel.  The picture looked like 1977.  I had to switch to the Wizards broadcast and inject coffee because their two announcers (Williams? And Gansler) were lifeless.

5)    So my friend Hannah, of the Orioles’ reference earlier this week, reminds me that it was 20 years ago – twenty – that we sat at center court for the rain-delayed Monday morning final of Wimbledon and watched Stefan Edberg defeat Boris Becker.  I was only 19 at the time.  It was 20 years ago.  Not sure how I feel about that.

6)    So, a year ago, I entered the Wasatch Iron Pen writing contest – held in conjunction with the Utah Arts Festival.  The topic “honeycomb” stymied me.  My submission was horrible. I didn’t win. This year, I was well on my way to a scintillating story about a salt shaker, but I fell asleep last night.  Mrs. ‘Hat Rack is away, the kids required my attention, were up early… oh well.

7)    I went to my second Arena Football League game today.  What did the 1987-ish Washington Commandos game have in common with today’s Utah Blaze game? Two things: Army commandos descending from the rafters and a Northwestern player on the home team (Mike Witteck, way back then, and big Dwayne Missouri on the Blaze today).  I left after three quarters.  The Blaze lost. The sport hasn’t gotten any more interesting.  My boys loved the BMX bikes at halftime – and little else. My daughter slept through most of the game – who knew AFL could be so relaxing?

8)    And finally, congrats to John Ellinger, who’s back on an MLS bench with FC Dallas.  I haven’t talked to him since the hire, but I’m rooting for him and Schellas.