The Wire Creator David Simon on the Orioles’ Playoff Run: A Scarred City has Something to Believe In
Tom Verducci Sits Down with the Nationals’ Rogue Genius Manager Davey Johnson
Washington, D.C., Threatens to Break Out As a Sports Giant, and RG3 Is Rallying the Redskins
Upon Further Review, It’s Clear That the Replacement Refs Are Inferior
Manti Te’o is the Center of Notre Dame’s Resurgence
(NEW YORK – September 26, 2012) – What are Baltimore sports fans to make of the Orioles’ miraculous run? Years of futility had trained them to wait not for a pennant race in September but for the Ravens’ opening kickoff. Even though there are still empty seats in Camden Yards, a city of scarred baseball fans is finding a way to root for the team that has given it so much heartache (page 68).
Guest writer David Simon, creator of The Wire, has a special place in his heart for the Orioles, having lived in Baltimore since 1983, and his reflection on the team’s improbable postseason run lands the Orioles on the cover of Sports Illustrated for the first time since catcher Matt Wieters appeared on March 15, 2010. As a lifelong cynic, Simon writes, “For Sports Illustrated to call the bullpen of Baltimore writers and ask for Simon to get loose is a twisted little joke…I grew up hating the Orioles…I am from Washington. And I was born a Senators fan. Does the darkness make sense now? Does it? You sick bastards.”
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RIGHT MAKES MIGHT – TOM VERDUCCI
Over the last decade, two of Nationals manager Davey Johnson’s children have died and he almost lost his own life from a ruptured appendix, but today he is the oldest manager in baseball guiding the league’s second-youngest team to its first postseason. Johnson hadn’t managed in the big leagues in more than 10 years when Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo called him in June 2011 to take over the team. Since then, the Nationals have been run the way Davey chooses and his players are thriving (page 60).
Johnson is described by utilityman Mark DeRosa as “Unfiltered”. This demeanor comes out when asked if the Nationals could have handled their situation with Stephen Strasburg the same way the Braves have handled their young ace Kris Medlen. He said, “No! It’s a crock of s— what they’re doing with Medlen. It ain’t anywhere close [to Strasburg]. They’re trying to act like geniuses. Here’s the deal. And their whole life they’re raised to go through a certain process at certain times of the year. And ballplayers go through them in the spring. Now you take Doc Halladay or anybody, and if you start varying that—don’t let him [pitch] for a month? You don’t what’s going to happen.”
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HAIL TO THE CHIEF – S.L. PRICE
It’s alive again. The cocky vibe, the capital pulse. From the Maryland and Virginia burbs to the heart of D.C., the Redskins are exciting again, and Washington fans have waited 20 years for a good football team. Just the idea of RG3 is enough to make D.C. natives happy. Four years after President Obama came into town with ideas of hope and change, here comes another black man to lead the melting pot of Washington believers – and last NFL team to integrate – to a brighter future (page 52).
Even former D.C. mayor Marion Barry is onboard, saying, “I think they’ve been cursed, until this year.”
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THEY’RE REALLY THAT BAD – L.JON WERTHEIM (@jon_wertheim)
The replacement officials, collectively, are the headache that won’t go away. Thanks to a labor standoff, the NFL has been using replacement refs who so far have shown themselves to be alarmingly mistake-prone, star-struck and shaky on the rule book. It’s easy to pick on the scabs and any casual viewer can snicker at the comedy of errors. But are these guys really that bad (page 48)?
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THE FULL MANTI – PETE THAMEL (@SIPeteThamel)
Three days before Notre Dame played Michigan State, star Irish linebacker Manti Te’o’s grandmother and his girlfriend died in one six-hour period. While their deaths took an obvious emotional toll, Te’o found refuge in practicing and playing, and helped Notre Dame defeat the Spartans with 12 tackles. Yet Te’o’s influence extends off the field, where he’s helped create a brotherhood among teammates and links the Irish’s glorious past and promising future, especially after spurning the NFL for the chance to complete his senior season (page 42).
Says Father Paul Doyle, the rector in Te’o’s former college dorm: “There’s a lot of emphasis on greatness at this level, but Manti is also focused on goodness.”
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SCORECARD: THE BIG MATTER OF SMALL MARKETS – STU SIEGEL
No league has locked out its players out as often as the National Hockey League – 1,698 regular-season games lost over the past two decades, more than major league baseball, the NBA and the NFL combined. The lockout is a players-versus-owners battle, but it’s just as much a war between the high-revenue clubs and the teams that are losing money. It may be tough to muster sympathy for multimillionaires, but when most of these owners say they’re losing money every year, they may be telling the truth (page 17).
POINT AFTER: LOSING ISN’T EVERYTHING – PHIL TAYLOR (@SI_PhilTaylor)
If you’re into eating salads six times a day, like hitting people and weigh no more than 172 pounds, then the Princeton Sprint Football team might be the one for you. Then again, if you like winning, you may want to rethink signing up. The Princeton Tigers’ losing streak: 12 straight seasons without a win – that’s right, since 1999. But these Tigers aren’t discouraged, they’re just happy to be on the field (page 76).
Says assistant coach Ned Moffatt, “It’s all for the chance to keep playing football, or to play it for the first time.”
THIS WEEK’S FACES IN THE CROWD
- Derrick Henry (Yulee, Fla./Yulee High) – Football
- Julia St. John (Dublin, Ohio/St. Brigid of Kildare Middle School) – Synchronized Swimming
- Nathan Chen (Salt Lake City/Homeschool) – Figure Skating
- Louisa Boddy (Derbyshire, England/University of Connecticut) – Field Hockey
- Andrew Harte (Downers Grove, Ill./Montini Catholic High) – Football
- Katie Fuller (Olvenhain, Calif./USC) – Volleyball
To submit a candidate for Faces in the Crowd, go to SI.com/faces. Follow on Twitter @SI_Faces.
INSIDE THE WEEK IN SPORTS:
- MLB (page 31): The Case for . . . American League MVP – The Miguel Cabrera vs. Mike Trout debate stems from the classic argument of traditional and new-school stats. Cabrera may dominate in the batter’s box, but he’s not an overall best player like Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella or 21-year-old Los Angeles Angel, Mike Trout. (@joe_sheehan)
- NFL (page 36): Tape Crusader – Everyone talks about breaking down film, but what can such study really do for a player? Ask Maurice Jones-Drew, the NFL’s resident film geek. (@SI_JimTrotter)
- College Football (page 34): Surprise, Surprise – The preseason is all about predictions; the actual season is about how those predictions get turned upside down. (@SIHolly)
-SI-
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