The End of Innocence.

 

By Harry Cummins

     The official end of my childhood came this week with the announcement that Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association are ending their licensing agreement with Topps Trading Cards and forming a new alliance with Fanatics.

     The move came as suddenly as a pop from a wad of bubble gum and likely will signal the end of the most beloved brand of collectible baseball cards for the past 70 years.

     Just when mothers everywhere were nearly forgiven for tossing all those pieces of cardboard from the 1950's, and just when a 1952 Mickey Mantle Topps card sold for 5.2 million a few moths ago, The future of Topps is now in question in a sometimes merciless world of business.

     I am not sure what I will do with all those boxes of cards in the back of my closet.  First Corinthians 13:11 tells me that I no longer should reason like a child. It is good advice when dealing with childish things.  

     However, just in case, I am attaching a note to the Topps rookie card of modern day centerfielder Luis Robert of the Chicago White Sox.  "Whoever finds this, DO NOT throw this card away."

hcummins@aol.com

Knowing One's Place

 By Harry Cummins

     I believe there are nearby places and landscapes we do not really see simply because we are so familiar with them. In our incessant desire to expand our horizons, we often miss our own back yard.

    Sitting in the time-worn green wicker on the side of my house, it becomes apparent to me that unless I can actually sense and comprehend what this particular place means every day,  how could I ever expect to assimilate what is happening in a wider world?

     We go down so many roads in this life, seeking and seeing so many things.  Do you ever feel these are simply representative of the things we could have seen at home all along?

     Pull up a chair and feel the home field advantage!  All the things we need to know are within easy reach thru a conscious awareness. What a day for a daydream!

     

hcummins@aol.com

     

"Mile of the Century" Celebrated

 

 By Harry Cummins

     Sixty-seven years ago today, before a packed stadium of 35,000 in Vancouver, Canada, they held a foot-race that captivated the world.

     Billed as the "Mile of the Century", it matched the two best milers in the world before there was Mondo track surfaces and 'super spikes' When it was over, Roger Bannister of England edged John Landy of Australia 3:58.8 to 3:59.6.  It was the first time in history that two men broke the hallowed 4 minute barrier in the same race.

     Today, as the world still revels in the Tokyo Olympic mile feats of runners like Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Timothy Cheruiyot, Josh Kerr, and Cole Hocker, history will remember fondly the Miracle Mile of 1954.  For Bannister, the first man to break the 4 minute barrier, it was his second, and last, sub-4 minute mile he ever ran.

     Many will remember that Landy had led for most of the race.  At the final turn, he looked over his inside shoulder to check where Bannister was and was suddenly passed on his right.  A bronze statue of the exact moment Landy glanced back now stands outside the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver.

     Landy once joked that while Lot's wife was turned in to a pillar of salt for looking back: "I am probably the only one ever turned into bronze for looking back."

     For the rest of us mile junkies, there is no such risk looking back to August 8, 1954.  

 

Tokyo Track and Field Hurdles Into History

Sydney McLaughlin just one on a growing list of 'generational talents' to emerge from these Olympics 

                                                         

By Harry Cummins

     In a series of performances so stunning as to render a singular summation nearly impossible, the track and field portion of the Tokyo Games nears it's conclusion.

     To prepare a list of individual accomplishments from these Games is not my intent.  Nearly every event final on the track, and in the field, produced moments full of drama and courage that will be remembered for a long, long time.

     In a sport defined by numbers, none stand as tall as the 45.94 gifted to the world by Norway's Karsten Warholm in the men's 400 meter hurdles race.  Or the 51.46 laid down by a 21 year-old Jersey Girl named 'Syd.' in the same discipline.

     The new lightning-fast track surface, however, that produced so many eye-popping records in Tokyo, also yielded an alarming numbers of leg injuries that dashed the dreams of far too many athletes. Perhaps a bit more study is needed from the folks at the Mondo Factory in Italy who manufactured the new surface. One suspects this rash of injuries may be more than over-training or the pursuit of fast times.

     Track and Field does face a bright future propelled by fresh new faces, but still must wrestle with  lingering questions surrounding doping and drug testing and just how much assistance athletes should be allowed thru advanced technology.

    Former double Olympic Gold Medalist Caster Semenya said it best a few years back when she responded to to an interview question with the words "when I come to a hurdle, I simply try to jump it."

     It is the perfect metaphor for a sport ...and a world... suspended in uncertain flight.  

hcummins@aol.com

 

Saturday Night Fever - Centro To Attempt Record Run In The Mile

Will the 14 year-old American Record Fall tonight?

 By Harry Cummins

     Shortly after 9:00 pm Pacific time tonight, reigning 1500 meter Olympic champion Matthew Centrowitz will step onto a local high school track in Portland, Oregon in search of the one thing that has alluded him over the course of an illustrious career.

     The 31 year old Centrowitz, just days before he is set to defend his 1500 meter title in Tokyo, will attempt to break Alan Webb's 3:46.91 American mile record set in 2007 in a small meet in Brasschaat, Belgium.

     Centrowitz will have help in his pursuit from fellow Bowerman Track Club members Amos Bartelsmeyer and Josh Thompson, who will serve as rabbits in the record attempt.  Centrowitz's fastest mile ever came over 7 years ago when he clocked a 3:50.53 in the 2014 Prefontaine Classic, a race in which Ayanleh Souleiman ran the fastest mile ever on U.S. soil. (3:47.32)

     As improbable as tonight's attempt may seem, one must assume the fitness level is there for Centrowitz.  One of the designated rabbits, Thompson, is coming off a troubled trip in the 1500 meter race at the recent U.S. Olympic Trials. Despite tripping over the rail and being boxed in for much of the race, Thompson was in contention to make the U.S. team entering the final straight. He finished 6th in a race decided by a final sprint by Cole Hocker and Centrowitz.

     If Centrowitz can add an American record to his glittering resume, he should be considered the greatest miler in U.S. history.  If not, the hastily-assembled crowd gathered at Jesuit High School in near 90 degree temperatures, should still experience a sizzling way to spend a Saturday night. 

hcummins@aol.com

     

Passion As A Pathway

Billy Mills - Lifelong advocate for social and racial justice

By Harry Cummins

 "The biggest lesson that running has taught me is to find your passion.  At some point in time, the  competitive running is behind you...so use running as a catalyst to seek higher ground."

  -Billy Mills

Billy Mills won the Gold Medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games in the 10,000 meter run.  To this day, on the eve of another Olympics set to begin in Tokyo, Mills remains the only United States Olympian to ever bring home gold in the 10K event.  

By a life well-lived, Mills has shown us that there is also a prize beyond all podiums.  

Guard and grow your passions well!!!

 

Multnomah Hoops Eying Herculean Turnaround

 

By Harry Cummins

     For most college basketball teams reeling from a recently concluded 1-24 won-lost season, this would be a woebegone autumn of commiseration.

     Instead, the pliable Multnomah Lions of the NAIA's powerful Cascade Collegiate Conference, are mere weeks away from unveiling the pieces of an entertaining jig-saw puzzle that if contoured correctly will represent one of the most enthralling comeback stories in small college basketball circles.

     Hope has replaced despair almost overnight at this small university situated on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon. Michael Anderson starts his second season as Multnomah's athletic director, willing to absorb the blows from a covid-riddled first season in exchange for laying down the building blocks for future success.

     Off the court, a nation-wide recruiting effort has yielded dividends in the form of a Texas/California harvest of  high school seniors and transfer athletes.  The new arrivals are highlighted by freshman guard Derrien Carter-Hollinger of San Diego's Foothills Christian High School, a 6'4 rim-slasher and disruptive defender.  Height has also been added to a traditionally undersized front court with the addition of 6'7 Terin Johnson and 6'8 agile post, Tyrese Taylor.  The revamped backcourt will feature a pair of 6'4" gifted sophomores in Neyland Block and Amande Uchime.

     In a corresponding development, 6'3 leaper Jaeden Ingram has transferred back to Multnomah for his sophomore season, after his breakout freshman season two years ago.  This impressive influx of new talent will pair with the nation's leading returning scorer in the form of Zach Richardson, who finished runner- up in the scoring race last year to graduating senior and NAIA Player Of -The-Year Kyle Mangas of Indiana Wesleyan.  Richardson has already posted career high games of 49 and 50 points as he enters his junior year of eligibility.

     The most fascinating piece of this puzzle will emanate from the coaching ranks, where two- time NAIA scoring champion Justin Martin returns to his alma-mater to accept the position of Lead Assistant Coach under veteran Head Coach Curt Bickley.  Martin, who once scored a record 74 points in a single game and 71 in another, will be charged with injecting some of that on-court excitement into his players. Martin is expected to also be handed an expanded role in play-calling and player conditioning.

     Coach Bickley is nearing two decades of coaching experience and is instrumental in putting Multnomah on the basketball map with their long-range shooting heroics that once netted an NAIA record 38 made 3's in a single game.  Bickley finally has the on-court personnel to shift some of the emphasis away from the 3 point shot, but always expect some new wrinkles from this innovative coach.

     Indicative of the sea-change afloat at Multnomah, the freshman basketball program has been jettisoned in favor of  a new Player Development League, designed to work as a permanent feeding network for the varsity basketball program.  It will be headed by Assistant Coach Jason Patterson, a  key builder of player relationships for years at the NAIA school.

     Also joining the staff at Multnomah this coming season will be 4-year former player Quinn Curry, who will oversee housing, academics, travel, community outreach and NAIA eligibility issues.

     Like any formidable jigsaw puzzzle, the best way to begin is by grouping similar pieces together, perhaps assembling the borders first, even if you're not sure how they all will eventually fit.  Multnomah University basketball has done just that. They now await shapes and colors to interconnect in forming a cohesive future.

     The 2021-22 season is set to begin in Pocatello, Idaho on October 30, as the Lions travel to meet NCAA Division 1 Idaho State University in an exhibition game.

Zach Richardson (27.6 ppg)  is the NAIA's leading returning scorer

     

     hcummins@aol.com