Happy George Washington Day, everyone!
That’s how we do it in Virginia.
I think.
I don’t even really know anymore.
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Much has been made recently concerning the great Tom Brady and his potential status as the Greatest of All Time. (Henceforth known as GOAT.)
Brady’s got seven Super Bowls and three MVPs. He’s the greatest football player of all time.
But in all sports?
Consider the following.
Wayne Gretzky finished his career with 2,857 points. That’s 936 ahead of the man who’s number two. (That would be Jaromir Jagr.) For those of you who appreciate the math lessons I try to bring to this blog, Gretzky’s career points total is 48.7% higher than Jagr’s. That is, nearly half again as much.
Doesn’t sound impressive yet?
If Barry Bonds beat Hank Aaron’s career home run record by the same factor he wouldn’t have finished with 762. He’d have finished at 1,123.
Pete Rose wouldn’t have 4,265 hits. He’d have 6,233. Kind of like completing a Hall of Fame career… twice.
If LeBron James wants to take over the NBA’s all-time scoring lead some day he’ll have to score 3,482 more points. To top Kareem Abdul-Jabbar by the Gretzky factor he’ll have to score 18,703 more than that.
That’s eight and a half more years, 82 games a season, at his career pace.
And Tom Brady?
Well, if he plays next year (I have no doubt he will), in a few games he’ll pass Drew Brees on the all-time NFL passing yardage list.
All he’s got to do then is pass for 39,154 more.
Lost in the shuffle of Super Bowl discussion was the very real fulfillment of the “Tampa Bay double,” referenced several times in various incarnations on this site.
The city of Tampa holds the two coveted trophies in sports right now: Super Bowl and Stanley Cup.
The Los Angeles double? Baseball and basketball? That was so October.
And to think it was nearly a triple, courtesy of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Wow.
Tampa Bay?!
As a matter of fact it wasn’t just my local Food Lion. It was an ill-designed logo seen everywhere that looked like a Roman numeral 54 instead of a 55.
They say there’s no “I” in team.
There should be one in an LV either.
And the game itself was just about as interesting.
One of the more amusing aspects of the S—- B— each year is the way retailers refer to “the big game” without actually mentioning its copyrighted name.
Most amusing this year has been my local Food Lion, who is offering great specials for those looking to celebrate the playing of said game #LIV.
Let the record show this year’s edition is #LV.
Actually I’d love to see LIV again.
Better yet–let me place a wager on the thing!
Dear Groundhog,
Never mind six more weeks of winter. Just tell me how many more weeks of coronavirus.
Not counting the 47 weeks we’ve had already.
Any time I say something is “Binghamton-like” it’s never a good thing.
Weather in Virginia today is a little Binghamton-like.
#smh
Big news on the homefront. Well, homes front.
As of yesterday my current home, [REDACTED], has been my place of residence for eight years and 11 days, moving into second place on my all-time list. I moved into my current address on January 17, 2011.
A previous home of mine, [REDACTED] in [REDACTED], was my place of residence for eight years and 10 days, from December 12, 2003, to December 22, 2011.
All-time leader? That would be my childhood home at [REDACTED]. I lived there for 18 years and 343 days.
You might be wondering when my current address breaks that record.
And I already did the math for you.
December 27, 2030.
It’ll be a Friday, so I’ve pretty much got my blog post ready for that day.
The best seats I ever had to a sporting event were at EagleBank Arena for a George Mason basketball game. Season tickets, actually, and I was in the second row right behind one of the baskets.
Okay, I was a cardboard cutout, but still…
Not too terribly excited about the Bucs-Chiefs Super Bowl to be honest.
One note, though, and you heard it here first.
We still might witness a Tampa Bay double in 2020.
(See here.)
If the home team (that would be the Tampa Bay Bradys) wins on February 7, that would mean the city of Tampa Bay would hold the Stanley Cup and Super Bowl championships simultaneously. To my count this has occurred exactly one time, in 2009, when the Steelers and Penguins brought home the arguably two most famous trophies in sports.
Bounce here and a bounce there for the Rays and it could have been a Tampa triple, no?
Gotta go back to pre-Super Bowl days to find one of those.
Lions, Tigers, and Red Wings, oh my!
That was Detroit in 1935-36.
Just a few years ago.