The Aftermath (July 17-22)
A distillation of the previous week
Catching you up on the week that was…
And a new title for the recap posts.
We had stories of baseball legends, a football star, the British Open, a movie star, and a famous novella that became a movie. Also, some well-received advice came my way a couple times during the week.
Rehabilitating the reputation of a legend
This man reportedly had some business dealings with my family back in Tennessee at one point, but we’re talking about 90+ years ago as far as I can tell.
The narrative since the 1960s about Mr. Cobb has been utterly destructive to who and what the man was during his life.
I’m sure he had problems and foibles like the rest of us, but the manufactured legend of a psychopathic racist who killed black people for sport couldn’t be further from the truth.
I made a resource page for some of the books that are best to read if you want to get into a deep-dive on the subject like me.
You’ll miss the most important shots
Recap of the back 9 on Sunday from the Old Course.
It's nice to get sound advice
I get good ideas from talking with people. Shocker, I know.
We’re trying to grow our subscriber base, and this was primarily a call-to-action for our fans to subscribe if they haven’t and to share our newsletter with people that you think may enjoy it.
A few days later, another email newsletter I subscribe to had as its call-to-action a link to a new site called The Sample. I signed up immediately.
This is a great idea for some of our readers who I know read multiple email newsletters per day…Sign up for The Sample and you get a different newsletter in your inbox every day (or weekly if you prefer that option).
You can rate the newsletter so that you get more or less of that type of content. Thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Binary rating system, which is really the best kind.
You can also subscribe to the newsletter they give you, if you want, with 1-click.
I’ve already used it to subscribe to a new newsletter in the few days I have been using the service.
Oh, and The Sample is free.
a blatantly untrue statement that still occasionally applies
I never got the idea that if you meet your heroes, they will automatically disappoint you. Temper your expectations, folks. Sports heroes are heroic on the field of play, not in society in general.
If you’re expecting a sportsman to approach the legendary status that dim-witted sportswriters project out there to the public, then, yes, you’ll probably be disappointed.
I don’t run in circles of famous sports stars or famous people in general, but I’ve met and known a fair share of them in my life, Hall of Famers even.
I’ve had great experiences with most of the “stars” I’ve met over the years. I chalk it up to having low expectations, perhaps because I dealt with the situation so early in my life with Mr. Feller.
Bob Feller wasn’t even a hero of mine. I was eight and perhaps knew of him a little bit. Like I mention in the story, he was kind of a jerk that day, but he turned out to be the kind of jerk I grew to respect over the years.
Reminds me of an exchange John McClane once had.
Bottom line: Feller was a huge benefactor to the game of baseball, and I respect that.
"One boy fighting for one girl"
Movie starlets and a country music hit all packaged into one.
I did get confirmation that the once and future starlets indeed swam in the river. Sounds like the days of innocence weren’t all that innocent.
that came to a tragic end
There is more in-depth treatment of this story in the book Football: Great Writing About the National Sport edited by John Schulian. About a 10-page article.
And do my best to take advice from friends
Some feedback from an old friend got me thinking about a favorite movie and book.
I also stumbled upon some biographical information on the Maclean brothers I never knew about.
Start with this article from the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine
then go to our resource page
We will be updating these resource pages as we get time, more resources, and an increasing willingness/ability to do work as a web designer.
Brian O’Leary