The Sport's Page and life.....

We ogres dress in our beloved team’s apparel… Tailgate, be it at home or actually in the Parking lot of the stadium… GLUE’ed to the game, whether from the comfy chair/remote tightly held to check on other scores during commercials/halftime… or from Section 132...

Then - the next day we SPRING to the door the moment the paper pounces on the pavement… and reread inch by inch - everything we saw from the games(s) we saw from the day before…

Sports can really be ugly… the NBA ref betting on games. The NBA quarterback killing dogs.. The boxer taking a bite outta another’s ear.. Guns, weapons, drugs, booze, performance enhancers….

Then a day like today happens… I open the Sport’s Page… somewhere between the 3 pages written on my beloved Missouri Tigers loss… and the weather on the back pagea the sports - comes logic, reason.. And wonderment… Hey, here's a "Where are they now?" article...

Brad Budde… now 49... Is a local kid who made good.. He hadta.. You see his father is in the Chief’s Hall of Fame… was All-Pro this.. All-Pro that… He hadta follow in his footsteps.. He did so.. Kinda…From Rockhurst High School.. To USC.. And drafted by his dad’s team.. The Kansas City Chiefs.. He wasn’t All-Pro.. Never played in the Super Bowl like dad. Really, almost a 'pedestrian' career (Yet 7 years in the NFL is nothing to scoff at…)

Glancing back.. Re relates - life is made up of seasons…he’s now in the ‘season’ of being a physical therapist, father and husband.. “This is probably the happiest I’ve ever been. I’ve found tremendous value in giving my gifts away instead of my gifts serving me. There’s beauty in success and failure - and that’s how you discover your strength in your faith. If you have a good woman beside you and a nice family of support, it doesn’t get any better than that.”

Let’s see.. The Wizard’s score.. Holyfield loses.. Three kids from foreign countries playing at Blue Springs South… oh yeah.. Here’s one… Clint Hurdle..

Clint Hurdle.. Now manager of the Colorado Rockies.. A tough road to hoe he’s led.. Labeled “Wonder Boy” in the late 70’s - his baseball career fizzled.. After landing in 1978 on the front cover of Sport’s Illustrated (“This Year’s Phenom”).. he stuck around for bits and pieces of 10 years in the majors.. Mostly as a late inning replacement.. Pinch hitter.. Ne’er living up to phenom.

Bouts with alcoholism, two divorces.. He struggled… but… he worked his way back up.. Starting in the base level as a manager in the minors - advancing thru every level - to finally arrive as a major league hitting instructor a few years back… and now finally manager - leading his team into this years World Series..

Lessons learned along the way? “Baseball is a game, and I’ve learned that. Let’s keep it a game.”

A Denver TV reporter dropped the words “crushing” and “debilitating” on Hurdle after a recent loss.. Hurdle’s take? “Crushing was when a doctor told me my little girl was born with a birth defect.” (Five year old Madison… born with Prader-Willi Syndrome.. A rare and complex genetic disorder that causes low muscle tone, developmental delays, morbid obesity,and cognitive disabilities…) Crushing. "That very day" (of the reporter's words)I'd gotten a call from a mother at Children's Hospital that wanted me to come see her son before he was going to pass that night. That's debilitating."

Texas clobbers Iowa State.. William Jewell knocks off Culber-Stockton... Two area guys got hole in ones.. Forecast today 78...

I knew there was a reason I loved the Sport’s Page. Happy Sunday, love Victurd.