The Popcorn Stand: A two for one — taking shots at Tiger and ESPN
The Popcorn Stand is periodically featured (actually whenever Recorder sports editor Charles Whisnand feels like writing it) on the Recorder web site. It features Whisnand’s musings (actually whatever he feels like writing about). The column is named in honor of one of Whisnand’s favorite sports writers, Red Smith, who once dubbed one of his columns, The Popcorn Stand.
In today’s musings, we take shots at two of our favorite targets, Tiger Woods and ESPN.
Has anybody noticed that when Woods pulls out of a tournament due to an injury, he’s always like a zillion shots back and playing poorly as was the case in Sunday’s Cadillac Tournament? You would think that Sports Illustrated’s toughest athlete as it once named Woods could have played through a mild achilles strain for a few more holes to finish the tournament.
Add physicality to words such as athleticism, bracketology and Heismanology (the last two courtesy of ESPN) that I could do without in sports.
Good news for the Porterville Unified School District. The track that was damaged at Rankin Stadium when the fieldturf was installed is now being repaired. And it looks like it’s really being more than just repaired as it appears there’s at least one portion of the track that’s being completely replaced. So it looks like there’s more than just patchwork being done, which is really, really good news.
Is it just me, or does it seem that the California Interscholastic Federation gives in to private schools like Oaks Christian? There’s no way the Strathmore girls soccer team should have had to play Oaks Christian of Westlake Village in the Southern California State playoffs. Anybody who knows anything about Oaks Christian knows it doesn’t belong in Division III. Oaks Christian outscored its three state playoff opponents 15-0 on its way to winning the SoCal title.
If I ever do an all-name team for the area, Porterville High basketball player Porf Bueno, Monache volleyball player Vy Vu and Lindsay boys soccer coach Fode Doumbia will definitely be on it.
Which reminds me, one of my all-time favorite names in sports is Chris Moneymaker in poker, although it’s debatable that poker’s a sport. I don’t know if that’s actually his real name, but he almost inspired me to change my name to “Charles Sportswriter.”
And while we’re on the subject of names, Lynn Swann was a doozy for football. “My name is Lynn Swann and I play pro football” could have been the title of a Johnny Cash song.
It’s time to stop writing this so I can make my picks for the NCAA Tournament. I have to review my bracketology to see which teams have the most athleticism and physicality. Darn that ESPN!
