Insight: Age before beauty II

By Ed Pierce
Managing Editor

Now that Adam Vinateri and Tom Brady are officially retired from professional football, the courtesy title of the National Football League’s oldest player has been passed on to offensive tackle Jason Peters, 42, who appeared in eight games last season for the Seattle Seahawks. In Major League Baseball, the oldest current player is pitcher 41-year-old Justin Verlander of the Houston Astros and professional basketball’s oldest player still suiting up is LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers at 39.

It tells me that in professional sports, age doesn’t matter if you can help a team win games. It’s a philosophy I developed years ago while watching professional football with my father on television.

Nobody personifies that concept for me more than George Blanda. He started his career as a quarterback with the Chicago Bears in 1949 but by 1959 he was 31 years old and was out of football and wondering what to do next. Then in 1960, a new pro football league was launched called the American Football League and Blanda signed on to be the signal caller and placekicker for a new team called the Houston Oilers.

For seven seasons, he guided the Oilers and was the league’s Player of the Year in 1961, yet at age 39 in 1967, Houston wanted Blanda to become a fulltime kicker and he balked at that, instead signing with the Oakland Raiders as a backup quarterback and kicker. That decision produced immediate results. In his first season in Oakland, Blanda led the league in scoring with 116 points and kicked two extra points for the Raiders in a 33-14 loss in Super Bowl II.

By 1970, Blanda’s heroics during a five-game span for the Raiders at the age of 43 cemented his legacy as one of the greatest players of all-time. Coming in to replace injured starting QB Daryle Lamonica, Blanda threw three touchdown passes against the Pittsburgh Steelers, then booted a 48-yard field goal with 3 seconds left to forge a tie against the Kansas City Chiefs. Against the Cleveland Browns he came off the bench to throw a late TD pass to tie the game and then kicked a 53-year field goal with 3 seconds left to hand Oakland a victory. Against the Denver Broncos, Blanda again came off the bench in the fourth quarter and ignited a comeback win with a touchdown pass and followed that up a week later by kicking a field goal as time expired as the Raiders defeated San Diego, 20-17.

At age 48, Blanda’s last game was in the AFC Championship Game in January 1976 between Oakland and Pittsburgh. He kicked an extra point and a 41-yard field goal in that game as the Steelers beat the Raiders, 16-10, closing out Blanda’s remarkable 26-season career. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981.

Lefthanded pitcher Jamie Moyer played 25 seasons in Major League Baseball and made his debut for the Chicago Cubs in 1986 at the age of 23. By the end of the 1991 season, Moyer had pitched for the Cubs, the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals, who released him that October. But Moyer persisted and pitched 19 more seasons in the big leagues, winning 269 games and appearing at age 45 in the World Series as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008.

Moyer’s final season came in 2012 for the Colorado Rockies where he was 2-5 at the age of 49.

Seven-footer Kevin Willis grew up in Detroit, Michigan and didn’t start playing basketball until his junior year of high school. He started his college career at Jackson College in Michigan and transferred to Michigan State as a sophomore. When he was drafted in the first round as the 11th overall pick in 1984 by the Atlanta Hawks, Willis never dreamed he would establish records for longevity in his NBA career.

He played with the Hawks for 10 years before being traded to the Miami Heat in 1994. Then in 1996, Willis was traded to the Golden State Warriors and signed as a free agent with the Hoston Rockets later that summer. After two seasons in Houston, he was traded again, this time to the Toronto Raptors. In 2001, the Raptors traded Willis to the Denver Nuggets who traded him in September 2001 to Milwaukee. Without ever playing a game for Milwaukee, the Bucks traded Willis back to the Rockets.

Willis signed with the San Antonio Spurs in 2002 and was part of their NBA championship roster in 2003. He returned to the Atlanta Hawks in 2004 as the oldest player in the league at age 42 and closed out his time in the NBA in 2007 at age 44 as a member of the Dallas Mavericks. During his career, Willis tallied 17,253 points, grabbed 11,901 rebounds and recorded 750 blocked shots.

For young sports phenoms such as the NBA’s 20-year-old Victor Wembanyama, 23-year-old MLB shortstop Gunnar Henderson and 23-year-old NFL tight end Kyle Pitts, the future may be bright, but aging does catch up with everyone eventually.

As Mark Twain once said, “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, if doesn’t matter.”

Andy Young: Whatever the level, it's baseball season

By Andy Young

One of the most irritating trends ever to infect adolescents was the infuriating habit of, while walking away, haughtily dismissing someone older with a backhanded wave and a single word: “Whatever.” (Historical note: on occasion this phrase consisted of two words, as in, “What ever!”) I recall it being pervasive during the 1990’s, and maybe the first few years of the 21st century, but whenever it was, the sheer impudence of this brazenly contemptuous act made my blood boil.

That particular habit didn’t exist during my childhood, since addressing any adult in such a disrespectful manner back then would have had quick and dire consequences. As a parent myself I was fortunate that this scornful, one-word phrase went out of fashion before my own children reached their teens. But I observed it all too often during my early years of teaching at a local high school, and on those occasions when some young person directed it at me or one of my colleagues my blood pressure would jump to…well, whatever blood pressure reading is off the high end of the charts.

Fortunately there’s no reason for stratospheric blood pressure readings at this time of year, since a new season has begun. I refer, of course, to baseball season. Which is, for those of us who grew up with the game, a reliable blood pressure lowerer. Like many people of my generation, I’ve been fascinated with the national pastime since the first time some adult I looked up to brought it to my attention, even though I was probably shorter than one of Willie Mays’s Louisville Sluggers at the time.

College baseball’s season has been underway for over a month now for teams representing Maine institutions of higher learning including UMaine-Orono, UMaine-Farmington, USM, Husson University, and St. Joseph’s, Colby, Bates, Bowdoin, and Thomas Colleges.

Local high school baseball teams are eager to start their seasons as well, and after some indoor practices (and outdoor scrimmages, when weather permits), the games that count will begin this week. This spring’s contests will be particularly intense and meaningful for high school seniors, since for most of them these are the last organized baseball games in which they’ll ever play.

But while some players’ careers are nearing their conclusion, others are just beginning. Youth baseball is gearing up as well, with play slated to start late this month. I’m particularly looking forward to Little League baseball; it’s where my own involvement with the game began more than five decades ago. I still umpire at that level from time to time and enjoy being a small part of something that will, for some lucky young people, be the beginning of their own lifetime love affair with the game.

And for those who enjoy seeing the pros, the Portland Sea Dogs open their home season on Friday, April 8. Youth, high school and collegiate games can all be enjoyable, but the fact is the level of play on display from the aspiring major leaguers at Hadlock Field is light years ahead of even the most skilled collegians.

Unfortunately, there won’t be any Major League Baseball this year. The billionaires who own the 32 MLB baseball teams have, in an effort to maximize their already-excessive profits, locked out their youthful, handsomely paid athletic chattel. And since neither the powerful Major League Baseball Players Association nor the owners appear willing to compromise, there isn’t going to be a 2022 season.

Oops.

Wait a minute.

I’ve just been informed that the labor impasse has been resolved, and that there’s going to be Major League Baseball this summer after all.

Oh.

Whatever. <

Insight: Cutting the cord opens a world of discovery

By Ed Pierce

Managing Editor

For those thinking about cutting the cord and reducing their monthly bill for television service, I salute your bravery. 

About seven years ago my wife and I were faced with a similar decision, and I wasn’t exactly sure I could live without a daily dose of breaking news, live sports and the array of hundreds of channels offering the finest in programming from around the globe.

But in letting go of our dependency and living in an area that was impossible to receive television reception without a radio broadcast tower type of antenna, we were stuck. And to make matters worse, my favorite baseball team was playing in the American League Division Series in the Major League Baseball playoffs that same week.

Rather than resort to going to a sports bar to watch the games, I tried to sign up for a televised packet from MLB which would allow me access to stream the live games from my computer to our television in the living room. It ultimately didn’t work because I needed to provide MLB with the name of my cable television provider, and I didn’t have one.

So as my team advanced through each round of the playoffs and was one step away from competing in the World Series, I was still scrambling for options. Turns out, the games were broadcast on the radio, and I sat at my desk listening to the games on my computer as my team was defeated in the American League Championship Series.

A few days later I discovered a replay broadcast of a first-round playoff game on You Tube and was able to relive the excitement and energy of that contest, even though I knew how the final score would turn out.

You Tube quickly became much more than an outlet for watching sports replays for our family. We found we could stream old episodes of our favorite television shows from the 1960s, along with old game shows and documentaries. It seems every Family Feud show ever made has been aired repeatedly since the inception of You Tube and that created a debate in our household as to who really is the best Family Feud host, Richard Dawson, Ray Combs, Louie Anderson, Richard Karn, John O’Hurley or Steve Harvey.

We found that most music can be found on You Tube, including videos of performances of long forgotten classics such as Nancy Sinatra’s “Sugar Town” or “Suspicion” by Terry Stafford. You can watch full episodes of “The Carol Burnett Show” or cute videos of babies playing with cuddly cats or Pembroke Welsh Corgis romping through fields of wild petunias.

I also was able to watch a how-to video about what I needed to do to raise the height of my lawn mower when I somehow misplaced the instruction manual.

The fact is, if you’re in the mood, there is very little entertainment, information or news that you can’t find today on You Tube. It opened my eyes to the fact that our family could indeed survive without paying hundreds every month for being hooked up to cable television.

Streaming turned out to be pretty easy once we got the hang of it. We purchased a streaming device at Walmart for $35 and plugged it into our TV. Then using a laptop and smart TV, we have streamed for the past seven years and haven’t missed a beat.

Through Netflix and other streaming content services, we watched every season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and many other popular television programs. And in the past five years, local television stations began airing nightly newscasts so we can stay aware of developing storms and other happenings in our community.

Then another marvelous event happened when we purchased a new smart television earlier this year. The model we bought came loaded with our favorite streaming services, so I no longer have to use the laptop or smart phone to cast our selections to our television set, just use the remote.

In addition to having built-in streaming services on the smart TV, we also could add other free streaming services like Pluto TV, which has hundreds of channels, although there are commercials. And the smart TV also came loaded with built-in news, entertainment, movies, and sports channels, so with just an internet connection and a modem, we’re right back to where we were seven years prior without the expense.

On occasion I get mail or phone calls from the old cable provider wanting me to return and typically with some fabulous offer. I politely decline and remind myself of how long it took us to cut the cord and eliminate that monthly bill from our household budget forever.

The kaleidoscope of free programming which is available and out there if you search for it will amaze and astound even the most devoted cable television fan. Cutting the cord was not a decision our family took lightly but it opened our eyes to a world of discovery and has proven to be one of the best things we’ve ever done. <