The way things are going, you’ll be a franchise player before you know it. Let me hear you say, “Would you like fries with that?”
THE WEEK THAT WAS
A look back at the winners and losers in the world of sports over the last seven days:
Winners of the week:
– Gary Bettman, NHL commissioner: With Disney offering a huge TV deal and the NBA season in peril, Bettman must be grinning like a butcher’s dog.
– Bryan Cox, Jets linebacker. Gets a chance to resurrect his career under the watchful eye of the always-benevolent New York media.
– The New York Yankees: Could lose every game for the rest of the season and still finish above .500.
– Ed Lynch, Cubs GM, and Jim Riggleman, Cubs manager: Get their contracts extended for 1999 season. Maybe by then they’ll figure out how to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks.
– USA basketball team: Proving once and for all that we don’t need a group of overpaid, overhyped NBA stars to beat Italy and South Korea.
Losers of the week:
– David Stern, NBA commissioner: Negotiations with the players’ union are at a standstill, and Michael Jordan is leaning toward re-retirement. It won’t be long before Stern pulls the ripcord on his own golden parachute.
– Michelle Smith, swimmer: Three-time Olympic gold medalist from Ireland gets four-year ban for supposedly pouring whiskey into her urine sample to mask drugs.
– Jose Mesa, San Francisco Giants reliever: Joins new team and promptly walks in the winning run twice in three games.
– Kerry Wood, Cubs phenom: Ssshh! His arm isn’t dead. It’s just sleeping very soundly.
– Jaime Navarro, White Sox punching bag: Do we really need to explain?
TWO OF A KIND
They were two men who, on the surface, were as different as night and day.
Yet they were both known by their voice, they both came of age in broadcasting’s infancy and they both gave definition to a new medium while setting standards for generations to come.
One was a skinny kid from Peoria, the other a skinny kid from Hoboken, N.J.
It is fitting, in a way, that we lost Jack Brickhouse and Frank Sinatra in the same year, both at age 82. These two voices of a golden era now echo together in silent harmony.
Chicago was grateful to be their kind of town.
