When i was a kid, i loved Bo Jackson. He was the first dual-sport athlete and not only did he play 2 sports, he dominated them. In one season he was voted MVP of both the MLB all-star game and the NFL all-star game. Imagine being that good at both sports. He was also the first sport celebrity. The “Bo Knows” campaign preceded all Jordan’s Nike coverage and set the standard for all the mass-marketing we see today. The room i grew up in with had over 30 posters and after Michael Jordan (5 posters) Bo had the most coverage (3).
Given all that, you can imagine my delight when I saw this great article (click here) in the Kansas City Star about Bo. It brought back all the memories. The article filled with great anecdotes. Some of my favorites:
Bo said he was just another guy. He wasn’t some sort of folk hero, like John Henry or Pecos Bill. No, he hurt like other players. He made mistakes like other players. He struck out a lot. He wasn’t forged out of steel, and he couldn’t outrun locomotives, and he couldn’t turn back time by flying around the world and reversing the rotation of the earth.
“I’m just another player, you know?” he said.
Then the game began, Royals vs. Yankees at Yankee Stadium.
First time up, Bo hit a 412-foot homer to center field.
Second time up, Bo smashed a 464-foot opposite-field home run. Longtime Yankees fans said that ball landed in a far-off place where only home runs by Ruth, Gehrig and Mantle from the left side ever reached.
“Colossal,” teammate George Brett would say. “I had to stop and watch.”
Third time up, Yankees manager Stump Merrill walked out to the mound to ask pitcher Andy Hawkins how he intended to get Bo out this time.
“I’ll pitch it outside,” Hawkins said. “It better be way outside,” Merrill replied.
Hawkins threw it way outside. Jackson poked the ball over the right-field fence for his third homer. The New York crowd went bananas.
Some other good little notes in the article are below. Seriously if you knew Bo or you didn’t, you should read this article, he was a total freak
- Bo Jackson’s first major-league home run flew 475 feet.
- July 29, 1988: Bo Jackson was facing Baltimore’s Jeff Ballard. He called timeout and stepped out of the box. He adjusted his batting glove when he realized that the umpire did not actually grant his timeout, and Ballard was throwing the ball. Jackson jumped back into the box, swung that bat and … yeah. He hit a home run.
- July 11, 1989: All-Star Game in Anaheim. Bo Jackson led off with a monstrous 448-foot home run to straightaway center field — it cleared two fences out there. “Unbelievable,” Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn would say. “I got a piece of it,” Bo would say. The next inning, he beat out a double-play grounder by running to first in 3.81 seconds — one of the fastest times ever clocked for a right-handed hitter. He stole second base (becoming only the second player to hit a homer and steal a base in an All-Star Game, with Willie Mays). He scored the game-winning run. He was selected MVP.
I wrote a few weeks ago (
In the first and 2nd movies the super-hot Kiera Knightly is the daughter of Weatherby Swann, the Governor of Port Royal, a British base in the Caribbean, and seems destined to marry a bland british dude. At the age of 12 she removes a key from a shipwrecked Will Turner (protecting him from being accused of piracy). Today, at the age of 20, in Port Royal, she is kidnapped by the pirate Barbossa because it is believed her blood can free Barbossa and his crew from the curse of the Black Pearl. And she truly loves the young swordsmith Will Turner. Her boyfriend Will, with the help of Jack Sparrow track her down, rescue her, release the curse and then kill Barbossa, and then return home.
We first see him stranded on an island and learn that he has a deep hatred for Capt. Barbossa (Rush), who led a mutiny aboard Sparrow’s ship, The Black Pearl. Seeking revenge, Jack steals a ship and finds a new crew of his own, including Will Turner, to pursue Barbossa. With the help of Elizabeth and Will, he both releases the Barbossa’s curse and then kills him. After killing Barbossa, he escapes the island and is shortly after captured and taken hostage by cannibals on a remote island.
Will is a young swordsmith in Port Royal. His dad, “Bootstrap Bill” was a pirate on the Black Pearl with Jack Sparrow and Barbossa. As pirates they stole a chest of gold and spent it. This brought on a curse that left all of them as Undead until each coin and a drop of blood from each pirate is placed back into the chest. After Barbossa abandoned Jack, Bill complained so Barbossa killed him. Before Bootstap Bill died he gave one of his pieces of gold (the medallion) to Will. Jack figured this out brought Will to Barbossa as his blood could be used in lieu of Bill’s. Will manages to wriggle out of the trap and returns his medallion and gives his blood only after Barbassa has been shot, so he the curse will be released, he will be mortal and thus actually die. Will then returns home with his true love, Elizabeth.
He and the crew of The Black Pearl stole a chest of ancient gold. He first led a mutiny aboard The Black Pearl and leaves Jack on a deserted island. It turns out the gold is cursed and it turned the entire crew into the Undead. By day they look like normal if dissolute humans, but by the light of the moon, they’re revealed as skeletal cadavers. Because they’re already dead, they cannot be killed (however they continue to fight people throughout all of the first film – don’t ask me why). To reverse the curse, they need to place all the coins back and a drop of blood from each pirate into the Dead Man’s Chest. Bill Turner is already dead, but Elizabeth says her last name is turns so Barbossa kidnaps her. Barbossa tries to use Elizabeth, but Will rescues her. Jack then informs Barbossa who Will is and during the fighting Will and Jack end up killing Barbossa.
Cursed to roam the sea for centuries, Jones has a serious score to settle with ol’ Jack Sparrow — and he has a pretty nifty arsenal at his disposal. In addition to his undead ghost ship and a bunch of amazingly nasty sidekicks, Jones keeps a multi-tentacled water pet which can engulf any ship on in a spectacular fashion. Jones was once in love with a woman but she was lost to him. Because this pain of lost love became too much to bear, he carved the heart from his chest, and buried it in a secret location. Whoever possesses the heart controls Davy Jones, thereby controlling the world’s oceans. Jack wants to control the heart so he doesn’t have to spend 100 years on the Flying Dutchman. But, the heart falls into the hands of the British and Jones chases down Jack. Not able to take over The Pearl, he summons the Kraken who takes Jack down to the depths of the ocean.
I saw the new Pirates movie last night and was somewhat skeptical going in as the 2nd installment was more bloated than the first and just ok (do we really need a ferris wheel chase in a pirate movie?). The new one, however, packs much more of a punch. This quote by one of my favorite critics Michael Wilmington says it best:
the Web. In fact, I made some quite conscious decisions about which way to take my life. These I would not change – though i am making no comment on what i might do in the future. What does distress me, though, is how important a question it seems to be to some. This happens mostly in America, not Europe. What is maddening is the terrible notion that a person’s value depends on how important and financially successful they are, and that that is measured in terms of money. That suggests disrespect for the researchers across the globe developing ideas for the next leaps in science and technology. Core in my upbring was a value system that put monetary gain well in its place, behind things like doing what i really want to do. To use net worth as a criterion by which to judge people is to set our children’s sights on cash rather than on things that will actually make them happy.
