They both played Left Field and First Base, had the same first name and went to the Hall of Fame 2 years apart with a 81.4% and 82.4%
That was a recent Final Jeopardy (Sports Edition) answer. Tough one. I couldn’t come up with it in time and neither did any of the 3 contestants on the shows.
What is the question to that answer?: Willy Stargell and Willy McCovey
Very much a Baby Boomer type question. I went blank on giving an answer because I had no idea Stargell also played left field for a time.
But, watching a few episodes of Sports Jeopardy on Crackle TV, which is hosted by my favorite Dan Patrick, I had to admit that I probably would do well on this show once I get through the nerves on being on that stage. I answer about 60% of the questions right away, plus I’m a long time fan of the original Jeopardy and I know what strategies to use when Daily Doubles come up.
I also downloaded the APP and have whipped the computer competition. Baseball and Football I’m a master at as I’ll answer 90% of any of those sports related questions. I’m better at Hockey than I thought too. I just need to get better at Basketball and any of the fringe sports like Volleyball, Horse Racing, Olympic events etc… that always come into play in every game.
I have realized that I know a lot about sports. Too bad most of the knowledge I have is really pointless and there’s really no use for it in today’s world. Except if you’re a contestant on Sport Jeopardy.
Filmmaker of over 20 short films and TV episodes, Matthew Toffolo is the current CEO of the WILDsound Film and Writing Festival. He had worked for the organization since its inception in 2007 serving as the Short Film Festival’s moderator during the Audience Feedback sessions.
It was a trying time in Buffalo Bills land between Christmas and New Years as in that same week our starting quarterback retired unexpectantly, then our head coach resigned due to a buyout clause in his contract. So after a promising 9-7 record, with a strong chance to finally make the playoffs in 2015, we lose our QB and coach right after the season ended.
But if there was ever a time to use the term “It was all a blessing in disguise”, this is the time.
Kyle Orton, was a career backup who wasn’t going to bring any team to the promise land riding his QB coattails. So whatever. My opinion all along was to give EJ Manuel some more time in the starting gig. I believe that the Bills would have gone 8-8 if Manuel started all the games this season, plus he would have garnered tons more experience. Instead, we gave most of our reps to a guy who was set to retire at seasons end. If there was ever a wasted season….but perhaps all of this needed to happen to set up our future.
Doug Marrone wanted a winning record on his resume this season because I feel with all my instincts that he was set to leave Buffalo as soon as the team was sold to the Pegula family and he could exercise his opt-out clause. A winning record in Buffalo, his agent told him, would set him up for another head coaching job of his choice. So when Marrone resigned, I’m certain he and his agent thought they would have gotten one of the opening jobs in Atlanta, Chicago, Oakland, or the NY Jets. They probably even had some inside sources on the matter too.
But, much to the happiness to many Bills fans, Marrone didn’t get a head coaching job and in fact wasn’t really in the running for any of them. Now he’s the Offensive Line coach for the worst team in the league in the Jacksonville Jaguers. So despite Marrone’s “positive outlook” on the events that occured, there is no way he’s a happy person. For some reason that makes me smile. Good on him for disrespecting our team.
And now Rex Ryan is our coach. And I guarantee that 90% of Bills fans are happier with Ryan in the head coaches seat than Marrone.
2014 was a year of bad things that occurred in my life that turned into great things in hindsight. Sometimes we just need to have patience and let things proceed as we keep moving forward. Marrone is the key example. See you later coach. I guarantee we’ll never see you again. Have fun with your extreme demotion.
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Matthew Toffolo
Filmmaker of over 20 short films and TV episodes, Matthew Toffolo is the current CEO of the WILDsound Film and Writing Festival. He had worked for the organization since its inception in 2007 serving as the Short Film Festival’s moderator during the Audience Feedback sessions.
It was 15 years ago that the Buffalo Bills, my team, hit their misery tipping point. We had a great team in 1999, headed for the playoffs with a better than average chance for us to FINALLY win the Super Bowl. For the first 15 games of the season, they were led by 5’8 quarterback Doug Flutie, a man who always played great and won at every level he played at. Despite all of his accomplishments, he was always ridiculed by pundits for not being tall enough. He was a man who did not look like what a quarterback was supposed to look like according to the journalists who wrote about the game, and the people who paid money to watch it, including myself.
In a meaningless final game, the Bills sat Doug Flute so he could “rest for the playoffs”. Rob Johnson was given the start. The 6’5 backup who looked exactly like what you think a quarterback should look like: handsome face, good hair, rocket arm, and the tangibles that scouts look for when finding their team’s franchise player. Johnson was supposed to be the team’s first string leader when the team formed this roster, but he got hurt in 1998, and when Flutie was inserted, he played so well it was impossible to replace him even after Johnson’s injuries healed.
So in went Johnson in the first game the Bills would play in the 21st century, a day after New Year’s. And play well he did. He had a spectacular game putting up amazing stat lines that any quarterback in the world would give anything to accomplish. What the stats don’t tell us is this was really a smoke and mirrors performance because the defense he was playing against, the Indianapolis Colts, played poorly on purpose. It was also a meaningless game for them as their own playoff spot was already determined, so they rested all of their best players. But they did something else too – they didn’t actually play any defense! The Colts assumed that in order for them to advance in the playoffs they would eventually have to face this Bills team again, so they decided not to show them any of their defensive tendencies. They played badly on purpose in order to make sure that the Bills had zero game film of them. Any professional quarterback would have played great under these circumstances!!!
And of course emotion can get the best out of us. After the game, the fans lined up to talk about Johnson’s performance on the talk show circuit and how he was the guy to take us to the promised land of the Super Bowl. The next day in the Buffalo newspaper there was a poll saying that 75% of fans preferred Johnson over Flutie to start next week’s playoff game. The local and national media also jumped on the bandwagon writing countless articles that Johnson was the better quarterback.
In hindsight this was ridiculous, but even I jumped on that stupid wagon and thought Flutie should be replaced. My friend WB was so angry at me for wanting Johnson in that we almost came to blows. This is how serious the Western New York/Niagara Region is about the Buffalo Bills, especially because of what we all went through with this team in the 1990s. Not only did we lose 4 straight heartbreaking Super Bowls, which is something so painful to go through I tear up even writing about it, but we also lost our hero, former Buffalo Bills great O.J. Simpson, to a stunning reality that he murdered two people in cold blood. To sum this up emotionally, that is like falling in love four times with 4 different people only to have them all dump you when you’re about to propose. Then to top it off realizing your father is really a murderer. Heartbreaking!
So by the end of the decade we were an emotional bunch. And the amazing thing is the worst hadn’t even happened yet.
Johnson did indeed replace Flutie in the playoff game against the Tennessee Titans because the owner, Ralph Wilson, ordered the coach to do it. He was paying Rob Johnson starting salary money and he wanted a return on his investment. Plus, the fans wanted Johnson over Flutie too and football is still in the entertainment business and you give the people what they want.
All I have to say it that if Doug Flutie was 6’2, this wouldn’t have happened. We live in a nation that’s prejudice against short men and this is case study #1 in understanding this dilemma!
What happened? Watch the Music City Miracle:
That’s what happened. One of the most bizarre, fluky, crazy plays in sports history. And do you know why it happened? Because karma. Doug Flutie is in that game and the Bills go to the Super Bowl. I know it in my heart and soul.
It’s the first week of the new century: January 8 2000. I just moved to Toronto from the Niagara Region. I am alone, a bit scared, and kind of feeing optimistic about my new city and life. I watch the Music City Miracle game all by myself and I miss my dad and friends who I usually watched the games with. I am in a tiny apartment and it’s freezing because I don’t know how to work the old school thermostat. So I am bundled up in a blanket watching my Bills pull off an amazing victory. Rob Johnson plays poorly, but our defense pulls its weight and we have won 16-15. I go to the kitchen to make dinner and I’m singing to myself in my just made up Bills victory dance:
Hail to my teammmmm. The Buffalo Billss….
Rob Johnson did it. He’s our qbbbb..
We won this gammme… I am so happy!
But there’s still 16 seconds left. Pointless because all the Bills needs to do is kick the ball on the ground on the kickoff and make a tackle. Game over. For some reason the kicker Steve Christie kicks it in the air so the Titans can set up their kickoff blocking. No….No….NOOOOOO! Tackle him. NOOOOOOOOO!
15 years and the Bills have still not made the playoffs. Only until every single living Buffalo Bills fan admits that Doug Flutie was supposed to be in that game can we break our curse. Only until we all admit that we are prejudice over shorter people are we able to go back to the playoffs.
At the beginning I said this post was for JB. JB is a family relative. Nicest guy you ever can meet. Great father. Loves his family and values the concept of family in general. He’s well educated and has made great strides in his chosen professional field. Can’t say a bad thing about the guy. He just happens to be shorter than the rest of our family and for that he gets ribbed about it. Ribbed a bit too much if you ask me. He’s too nice of a guy to play the fight back game. He can call people bad names….but he’s a better person than me and the rest of us. He just takes it in and doesn’t say a word.
This week he talked about how he wanted his son to be tall. And I told him that being tall is over rated. JB if your son grows up to be the same height as you or shorter but with all the character traits that you possess, then the world will be a better place. Who cares how tall you are: life is all about character.
I was wrong about Doug Flutie. Flutie has all the character in the world. Just watch his Football Life Special on the NFL network. This is a man who heard all the short jokes from the moment he started high school all the way to the end of his 20 year professional career. A man who has raised millions for the fight against Autism in his Doug Flutie charity organization. Who just gets it! And we benched him for a guy who looked how we wanted our leader to look like, but doesn’t have even 1% of the character that Flutie has or ever will.
I was prejudice about shorter people. I am now a better man for admitting that.
So hopefully the football gods are listening and they can now let the Buffalo Bills into the playoffs. Are you listening football gods? I’m sorry.
If only this could be the team that I follow. Even in years when they don’t make the playoffs, you know that they will be back because there is always a game-plan in place. Consistency of winning – that’s all we ask in our favorite sports teams and that’s what the Steelers have been for over 40 years.
Since 1972, they have made the playoffs an amazing 25 times, have been to the Super Bowl 8 times, and have won 6 times – the most Super Bowls over any other franchise.
Why do I have to be a Buffalo Bills fan? It is something that I can not stop doing. Changing your favorite sports team is like someone asking you to change your father – it just can’t happen. I’m stuck with my Bills until the day I die and hopefully, just hopefully they can pull out at least one Super Bowl win before I move on to another world or I am just dead forever.
Growing up as a kid, the Bills were the top team in the league year in, year out. Yes, they lost 4 straight Super Bowls, but so what, we were a winning team. It’s now been 15 years since we’ve made the playoffs. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.
Last night, Ben Roethlisberger threw 6 touchdown passes for the 2nd week in a row. I am reminded of the 2004 NFL Draft when the Buffalo Bills HAD to draft a quarterback. They could have traded up in the draft to get Big Ben, and relinquish the first round pick for next year, but they didn’t and they drafted J.P. Losman. They guy had LOSS in his name for pete-sakes!! I don’t have to tell you how that turned out. Nothing against J.P as he seemed like a nice guy, but if only we moved up and drafted Ben.
Everytime I watch Roethlisberger play, I am astonished and saddened at the same time. I love how he plays quarterback. But why isn’t he playing for the Bills?
Another film we showcased was a short film from Luxenberg called Serena (http://www.wildsoundfestival.com/serena.html). A film about a group of teenage kids who really have too much time on their hands and how violence occurs one night when their inner angst and insecurity finally reaches a boiling point.
Two films. One film about a group of kids who dress unconventionally, listen to violent music, and are practically outsiders to the rest of the community. But they stay out of trouble because they express their inner angsts with their music. The other film about a group of average, upper middle class white kids who seem to have every advantage in the world. They get into a very violent situation because they really don’t know what to do with their inner aggressions.
So what does this have to do with sports? Football. The secondary theme of the TV series Friday Night Lights. How young men need a place to channel their inner aggressions while also belonging to a community that has a forward direction.
In the beginning era where football is on the way out for future generations of boys because of the sudden medical breakthroughs on concussions, perhaps there is still a purpose for this sport. Even though I played the game and got a lot out of it, I still won’t let my kids play it. But for other kids in other neighborhoods, perhaps football still has a life and there is positive aspect to it.
Male kids need to express their feelings in some organizational fashion. Football did that for me like the Deathcore music scene does for the kids in the documentary.
