Monthly Archives: October 2017

The Passing of a Legend – Y.A. Tittle

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NFL Hall of Famer and former 49er’s and Giants quarterback Y.A. Tittle passed away on Sunday.  Tittle was born and raised in Marshall. Tittle idolized his neighbor Sammy Baugh and practiced relentlessly to become a quarterback.  He starred for Marshall High leading them to an undefeated season his senior year.   He chose LSU over Texas for his college where he set career records that were not broken until the 1970’s.  As a junior in 1946, Tittle led his team to the Cotton Bowl.  The notorious game against Arkansas was played in freezing conditions on an icy field and became known as the Ice Bowl after ending in a 0-0 tie.

Tittle began his pro career for the Baltimore Colts in the All-American Football Conference in 1948.  When that club folded, he was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers where he was named All-Pro and played in four Pro Bowl games.

In 1961, the 34-year old Tittle was traded to the New York Giants whom he led to three consecutive NFL Championship games.  The Giants lost all three, but by then Tittle was a folk hero to Giants fans.

In 17 seasons, YAT completed 2,427 out of 4,395 passes for 33,070 yards and 242 touchdowns and another 39 rushing TDs.  The only blemish on his statistical record are his 248 career interceptions.

Photo of Y.A. Tittle the first professional football player to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.  November 22, 1954

Red’s NFL Picks – Week 6

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Last week Red was 3-3 again.  For the season Red is 18-12.  On the money line, it wasn’t so great a week:

Packers covered the spread and Red made good on the over – $ paid

Bengals covered the spread (barely) – $ paid

Buccaneers failed to cover the spread (barely) and missed wildly on the over – Bust

Giants/Chargers blew through the over – Bust

Answer to Last Weeks Trivia:  The final score was Bears 73 OTNAs 0 in the 1940 NFL championship game which set multiple records including largest margin of victory.  No other NFL team has hit the 70’s.

This Week’s Trivia:  Which player scored the most points in an NFL game?  Hint: You have to go back a long ways to find this one.

Your Chicago Connection Pick of the Week –  Bears over Ravens. Well, after more or less stating that he would never pick the Bears (as they keep finding new and imaginative ways to lose), Red is stretching this week to find an upset.  Ravens are favored by 7.  The 1-4 Bears need a win badly.  The 3-2 Ravens are surprising a lot of analysts (Red including) by not sucking.  Red will likely regret this one, but at least he won’t lead you down the wrong path by recommending any bets here.  Chicago 17 Baltimore 16.

Your Second Chicago Connection Pick of the Week – Buccaneers over Cardinals.  Jameis Winston seems to show up for work every other week.  Meanwhile, Carson Palmer seems to have gone into early retirement.  Well, early retirement would have been 3 years ago, but CP seems ready for the rest home now.  Bucs’ offense struggled against a weak Pats defense last week.  Look for a break out game against the ragged remnants of what used to be a top tier NFL defense.  Amazingly, the Cards are favored by a whole point!  Red thinks the Bucs cover that rather easily.  Tampa Bay 28 Arizona 17.   

Your Throw Down a 40 Pick of the Week – Saints over Lions.  See below re: Lions.  Saints have to win a few games this season.  Why not this one?  Saints are getting 4 points at home.  Take that and the under at 51.  New Orleans 20 Detroit 17. 

Your Extra Point Pick of the Week – Texans over Browns.  It was a sad Sunday night for Texans fans.  The majority of the mourning was for the loss of JJ Watt for the second season in a row.   Watt’s first 5 seasons in the league are the stuff of legends, but losing most of a second season in a row is putting what seemed to be a certain Hall of Fame career in doubt.  As longtime sports radio host Charlie Palillo says, “Attendance is part of the grade.”  Red was in the vast minority by being more upset about the loss of Whitney Mercilus.  WM is actually the more versatile player if not as disruptive as JJW.  Watt can be “replaced” with a defensive lineman.  Mercilus is a tougher proposition as he lines up in multiple positions.  Well, the tonic for tragedy is the Browns.  Texans are a heavy favorite, but Red is skeptical of giving up 12 points ever.  He is also skeptical of ever betting on the Browns to cover.  However, the over at 44 looks tempting given the number of points the Texans are putting up since Deshaun Watson took over – Dude is a scoring machine and he will have to be if the Texans are to win games with the loss of their top two defenders.   Houston 39 Cleveland 21.

Your Stanford Connection Pick of the Week – Titans over Colts.  Red is so far rather highly disappointed with the Titans who he picked to go 13-3.  Well that obviously aint happening.  And who gives up 57 points to the Texans anyway?  The defense righted the ship allowing only 16 points last week.  But the offense without Mariota is a rudderless wreck.  There is no line yet because of that unknown factor.  If Mariota is back, the Titans should roll.  If not, all bets are off.  Tennessee 21 Indianapolis 14.

Your Unparalleled Excellence Pick of the Week – Eagles over Panthers.  After encountering the high-powered Eagles offense last week, the once-vaunted Cardinals defense was carried off the field in a basket.  Meanwhile the Panthers were efficient in dispatching a Lions team unlikely to beat any team with a winning record at season end.  Expect the Panthers to put up a better fight than the hapless Cards, but the Eagles offense has Carson Wentz in full control and is averaging almost 400 yards per game.  Somehow the Eagles are getting 3 points.  This may be the betting opportunity of the season.  Double up on the Eagles and the over at 45.  Philadelphia 35 Carolina 24. 

Quote for the Day

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“I think that your successor 500 years from now is going to be writing about us the way that we write about the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. It’s just so corrupt, in the same way that they were selling bishoprics and indulgences to shorten your time in purgatory. We’re selling votes. We’re selling amendments. We’re selling democracy, and it’s absolutely disgusting. But what makes it even more fucked up is that everybody knows that it’s happening, but it’s just what has always happened for so long now that it’s all-encompassing in the system. No one seems really willing to do anything that will compromise their ability to be successful in that system by stepping out of it.”

Rep. Beto O’Rourke, candidate for U.S. Senate

Read more about O’Rourke’s campaign in the Texas Tribune.

Today in Texas History – October 9

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From the Annals of the Eighth Wonder –  In 1999, the Houston Astros played their last game in the Astrodome. Predictably it was the last game of a divisional series loss to the Atlanta Braves.  After winning the first game in Atlanta, the Astros lost 3 straight to Braves.  The Braves held a 7-0 lead after a 5 run 6th inning.  The Astros rallied to score 5 runs sparked by a 3 run homer by Tony Eusebio in the 8th inning.  The Astros had a chance to tie in the bottom of the 9th.  As Jeff Bagwell came to the plate, Red’s buddy the Big Dog remarked, “This is kind of a career-defining moment for Bagwell.”  Bagwell failed to deliver.  The Astros still had a chance with Ken Caminiti at the plate.  Caminiti, who had carried the Astros in the series with 8 RBI’s and a .471 average, hit a long ball to the warning track in left field and the Astros run in the Eighth Wonder of the World was over.  The blame largely fell on future Hall of Famers, Bagwell and Craig Biggio who combined for a total of 4 hits while batteing .154 and .105 respectively in the series.

Today in Texas History – October 6

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From the Annals of the Freethinkers  –  In 1877, Dr. Levi James Russell was whipped for being an infidel and free thinker.  Originally from Georgia, Russell had mined for gold in California, later graduated from the medical school of Pennsylvania College, returned to gold mining in Colorado and eventually moved to Harrisville in 1868.  There he farmed and practiced medicine while also serving for several years as the chairman of the committee on medical botany of the Texas State Medical Association (now the Texas Medical Association).  He also helped found the Little River Academy and in a move that would lead to his whipping became a charter member and president of the Association of Freethinkers of Bell County a group of agnostics, atheists and non-theists.   As a result, he was expelled from the Masons and Knights of Pythias and ultimately assaulted for being an infidel.   Undeterred, Russell continued his medical practice and his natural-science collection until his death in 1908 at Temple.

Today in Texas History – October 5

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From the Annals of the Undeclared Wars – In 1964, Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson first began to come under pressure for his plan to escalate the undeclared war in Vietnam.  Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-Wisconsin) began to speak out against preparation for additional troops in Vietnam.  Nelson claimed that Congress did not intend the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to endorse escalation into a full scale war in Vietnam.

The GOTR had been passed on August 7 in response to North Vietnamese patrol boats allegedly firing on U.S. warships in the waters off North Vietnam on August 2 and 4.  Whether there was an attack and if so, whether it was provoked has been much debated, but the incident prompted Congress to pass the GOTR with only two dissenting votes in the Senate.  The GOTR gave Johnson power to “take all necessary measures to repel an armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.” Johnson apparently viewed the resolution as giving him a free hand and began a major escalation of the conflict which ultimately cost the U.S. 58,220 lives and achieved nothing.

America’s True Love Affair

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It wasn’t always this way.  You used to have a rifle and maybe a shotgun for hunting.  Some folks had a pistol – usually a revolver.  Boys had a .22 to shoot bottles and vermin.  Maybe a few guys bought a gun that their wife didn’t know about and hid it in the attic. A few “collectors” had some rare pieces. You might have some extra ammo around.  No one had an arsenal.  No one kept 1000’s of rounds of ammunition in their garage or basement.  Some men and a goodly number of women liked owning a gun, but it didn’t go much beyond that.

Somewhere that changed.  Red can’t exactly pinpoint it, but maybe it was in the late 70’s that the gun lust started to build.

After college, Red was living in an apartment up in Northwest Hills with his friend Tom.  He didn’t own a gun, but there were some fairly well-to-do country boys who lived next door.  Red thinks they were taking the 5.5 year route to a degree at UT and enjoying their time in Austin before heading back to God knows where.  Tom was much friendlier with these guys than Red who was working pretty hard to make ends meet.  But when Red would go over to visit, the guns were always out.  And as Tom put it, these boys wouldn’t just handle their guns – it was like they were fondling them.  You almost expected them to put their lips up to a .45 and give it a long loving kiss.  It was a love affair. Red’s not sure but between the three of them, they probably had 20-30 weapons in that apartment. You’re probably wondering like Red did at the time, “why so many guns, gentlemen?”  Because other than that, they seemed like fairly normal country boys.  Except for this.  They were virulent racists.  As they more or less indicated, they were armed to the teeth because at almost any moment “the niggers in East Austin” were sitting there plotting how they were going to rise up, sweep into Northwest Hills (or any other white part of town) raping, pillaging, killing, looting and most importantly stealing all the guns.  They weren’t about to let that happen to their little corner of the world.

This was the first time Red encountered true naked gun lust.  Yes many of his friends had guns, but Red did not at the time.  Red’s daddy had been through the worst of it as a medic and ambulance driver in a battalion aid station in France, Belgium and Germany in WWII. Red could only guess at how many wounded and dying soldiers he had seen.  He wanted nothing to do with guns or hunting.  He did let Red have .22 and shoot bottles out at the ranch, but that was about it.

But still, the gun lust in Red started to grow.  He started hunting in his 30’s and found that it was an enjoyable experience.  Not so much the shooting and taking of game, but the outdoors experience and camaraderie.  And everyone had a nice deer rifle but Red.  So he bought one and then a shot gun and then he wanted more and more.  The lust was taking hold.  When Lil’ Red came of hunting age, he got a rifle and a shot gun (both nicer than Red’s by the way).  But was that enough.  The lust was strong and Red couldn’t even tell where it came from.  It made no sense really. Red believed that there should be some restrictions on gun ownership, that nobody needed a semi-automatic weapon or stockpiles of ammo, that there should not be loopholes for background checks and that some other ideas might be useful as well. Yet, the creeping lust was there. Red would always check out the gun counter at the local sporting goods store and think, “It would be nice to have one of those.”

Finally, Red said enough was enough.  He kept the two hunting rifles and shotguns because they were actually used for hunting and a .357 because his father-in-law gave it to him and sold everything else to someone in whom the lust was still running strong.  Yet, it still makes Red a little proud somewhere deep inside that he is a “gun owner.”

Today in Texas History – October 4

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From the Annals of the Insurrection –  In 1862,  insurrectionist troops under Confederate command surrendered Galveston to Union forces.   Commander William B. Renshaw led a squadron of eight ships into Galveston harbor to force surrender.  The rebel commander, Brig. Gen. Paul O. Hebert, had removed most of the heavy artillery from the island believing it to be indefensible.  As the squadron approached, the Fort Point garrison fired on the federal ships, return fire dismounted the rebel cannon. Col. Joseph J. Cook, in command on the island, arranged a four-day truce while he evacuated his men to the mainland. The Union ships held the harbor.  Union forces did not contral the town until the arrival of the Forty-second Massachusetts Infantry, led by Col. I. S. Burrell on December 25.  Union control was short-lived as rebel forces recaptured the island and drove off the Union squadron about a week later.

Today in Texas History – October 3

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From the Annals of the Republic –   In 1842, President Sam Houston ordered Alexander Somervell to organize the militia and volunteers and invade Mexico.  The call for volunteers was answered by about 700 men who were eager to avenge punitive raids made by Mexico earlier that year.  The expedition left San Antonio on November 25 capturing Laredo on December 8.   The expedition quickly began to break up as approximately 185 returned home.  Somervell continued on and with a little over 500 men seized Guerrero.   By December 19, Somervell realized that further action would likely be disastrous and ordered his men to disband and return home by way of Gonzales.  A large contingent of 308 men disobeyed the order.  This group commanded by William S. Fisher continued to Mexico on the predictably ill-fated Mier Expedition.  That raid ended with the capture of the majority of the expedition and execution of seventeen men.