With a Lombardi Trophy living at One Buccaneer Place, now the Stanley Cup in jubilant Tampa Bay grasp, as we await some sign of extreme Devil Rays success, my mind simmers with thoughts of summer, rumbling on toward football fall ...
Sadly, his favorite baseball team since Illinois boyhood, the Cubs, could never win just one World Series for the Gipper in Ronald Reagan's lifetime of 93 years.
No matter what U.S. blokes suit up for Athens Olympics basketball, spare us fraudulent "Dream Team" labels, because there'll never, never be replication of Bird, Magic, Jordan and the unforgettable Barcelona others.
CBS should dislodge the predictable, unexciting, not too likable Lanny Wadkins as golf analyst alongside play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz, elevating the glib and offbeat Gary McCord.
Let's hope Wimbledon and the U.S. Open sizzle after the French Open, with premature departures of Agassi, Henin-Hardenne, Roddick,the Williamses and Capriati, became - for a majority of American followers - the poorest, dullest and weakest marquee Grand Slam conclusion ever.
Too often we hear of African-American youths from single-parent homes where stuff has gone wrong, so give a happy roar for Michael and Marcus Baker, recent Hawthorne High grads who completed 13 years of school without either missing a classroom day. Hurrah for mom Marilyn, with Mike headed for Webber International University and his brother to the Florida Gators as a football receiver.
Baseball is a love of mine, the NBA soap opera is intriguing and the Stanley Cup final was five-star fab around here, and I can't wait to get to Long Island this week for U.S. Open golf; but there is another itch spreading in the heat of June ... yearning to expedite the steamy journey to football season.
We can at least talk game, perusing an early preseason Top 20 from Athlon magazine that puts defending national co-champ USC at No. 1, followed by Oklahoma, Georgia, Miami, West Virginia, Texas, Michigan, co-king LSU, Florida State and Ohio State. Florida is 15th. My first question would be "West Virginia?"
Most fascinating new '04 coaching chances to observe will be Notre Dame flameout George O'Leary (UCF), Raiders bustout Bill Callahan (Nebraska) and back-from-retirement Bobby Ross (Army), who'll need far more skills and luck than when he earned a share of a national championship at long-shot Georgia Tech or made a Super Bowl with the ever-struggling Chargers.
Lou Holtz's victorious, stimulating start at South Carolina has sank to wobbly Columbia mediocrity and you wonder if this won't be the last season of sideline pacing for the old quipper from William & Mary, Arkansas, N.C. State, Notre Dame, Minnesota and the Jets.
USF, in its final C-USA lap before elevating to the Big East, is picked by Athlon to lame-duck into sixth place behind TCU, Memphis, Southern Miss, Louisville and UAB. Jim Leavitt is too solid a coach not to be stoked and seeing red at his Bulls being ranked so low.
Oh, brother, does Tennessee have rare competition for starting quarterback, featuring C.J. Leak (sibling of Gators' dazzling sophomore Chris Leak) going against Rick Clausen (whose older brother, Casey, just finished a memorable run as coach Phil Fulmer's ace QB).
Assessing schedules, it's clear UF's traditional early season exam against Tennessee, this year in Knoxville, will be larger than ever amid an unusually friendly Gator agenda in September and October ... a win against the Vols should lead to a 6-1 or 7-0 start, depending on a Gainesville chance against co-national champ LSU, heading for Jacksonville and a November classic against prodigious Georgia and those Bulldogs the Gators have so owned since 1990.
FSU's docket is more laden with claws, beginning with what has been a 'Noles miserymaker against the Hurricanes in Miami with other road games coming against N.C. State and Maryland plus heavy Tallahassee challenges against Clemson, Virginia and UF.
Jon Gruden stoked the offseason fire beneath his own hot seat, but my upbeat guess is that his Bucs will efficiently move on from the controversial sendoffs of John Lynch and Warren Sapp and, with incoming talent quickly winning a wealth of Tampa Bay applause, will produce a record no worse than 10-6 that, if sweet bounces outnumber sour, could be as strong as 12-4.
- Hubert Mizell can be contacted at mmizell02@earthlink.net[Last modified June 12, 2004, 23:37:23]
