Henry Woodbury » Basketball

Best Walt Whitman reference in a sports story

Henry — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:11:20 +0000

Dwight Garner gets the award for his review of Shooting Stars, the recently published memoir by LeBron James with Buzz Bissinger. No one deserves to be compared to Michael Jordon. But what about being compared to Walt Whitman?

Best all-around athlete

Henry — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:18:45 +0000

It’s a sports topic that comes up occasionally with answers that range from Jim Thorpe to Deion Sanders.

One dark horse I like to throw out is Danny Ainge, a poor major league baseball player but a very good NBA guard. He is also, from what I’ve heard, a superb golfer. Golf, see, is the oddball sport that distinguishes a great athlete with truly mystical body control from the average great athlete.

Add another name to the list: John Smoltz. According to Buster Olney, Smoltz is a friend of Tiger Woods and “Woods says Smoltz is the best golfer he knows who is not a professional.”

Nice signing by the Red Sox especially if it turns the hapless Brad Penny into a middle reliever.

Update (25-June-09): Now I’m listening to Smoltz’ first start for the Red Sox. According to the announcers, Smoltz is also indomitable in Ping Pong.

Great Moments in Color Commentary

Henry — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:52:57 +0000

I was listening to the WEEI radio broadcast of the Celtics-Cavaliers game last night and heard the following exchange between color commentator Cedric Maxwell and play-by-play host Sean Grande. It starts with Maxwell explaining Ray Allen’s shooting woes:

Maxwell: It’s like he has the whole weight of the world on his shoulders. It’s like Damocles over his head.

Grande: You mean the Sword of Damocles, right? It’s not like Damocles himself is over his head.

Maxwell: I mean like there’s a moon pie, up high in the rafters, going to hit him in the face.

Grande: A moon pie?

Maxwell: You know what a moon pie is, don’t you?

I’m writing this from memory, but I swear it’s close to verbatim.