“WE CAN COMPLAIN THAT ROSES HAVE THORNS, OR REJOICE THAT THORNS HAVE ROSES!” —Alphonse Karr — A Tour Round My Garden.
It’s all good. How often have Kansas State AND Kansas both won at Iowa State?
Not in recent memory until this year. Combine that with the lofty ranking and results of Wichita State and our Sunflower State has just got to be the premiere basketball state in the country!
Yes, our cold windy weather is a “thorn on a rose” but it warms the heart to notice the ads in area newspapers advertising tryouts soon for various summer baseball teams. Regardless of what that groundhog says, better days, warmer days — baseball days — are just around the corner.
The San Francisco 49ers shocked the football world last week by making Jimmy Garoppolo the highest-paid player in the history of the National Football League. That’s a career backup quarterback! After being traded from the Patriots to the 49ers and making just five starts (all victories), Garoppolo signed a five-year, $137.5 million deal with $74 million guaranteed!
Too much for a backup you say? Nobody’s worth that? No wonder a hot dog costs $10 at an NFL game?
I say, “It’s all good.” Hooray for Garoppolo. If he can get it, more power to him. Better he have those millions than sitting in some trust account for the 49er management!
Meanwhile Chiefs fans are salivating to get Patrick Mahomes on the field as the savior of the guys from Arrowhead. Of course, we’ve yet to suffer the first fumble, the first interception, but those are “thorns on our roses.”
This for you anti-Oklahoma fans — “Do you know what Mars and OU have in common? Red dirt and no intelligent life!”
Just one week left in the regular season of high school basketball and then substate action completes most teams’ seasons. The No. 1 ranked Central Plains boys and girls remain favorites to win the big hardware in 2A. 1A teams should be wary of coach Clint Kinnamon’s St. John Tigers. They are battle-tested in the ferocious Central Plains League and are state tournament veterans of recent years. They will be a tough out for 1A teams.
“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring” — Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby.
After a week of viewing, I am sure all of you can pronounce PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA fluidly. This yuppie’s New Years Eve party in the snow has produced a whole host of names and sports that we westerners knew little of.
In all, 102 events in 15 sports, but all of that has taken a backstage to the media’s love affair with North Korea and the sister of Kim Jong-Un. That North Korea and South Korea decided to field a unified women’s hockey team seemed to enthrall the media. Personally, I am enthralled that there were enough women in either Korea that WANTED to play a game with sticks while sliding around on a frozen pond!
So while all of us are trying to figure out the rules in “big air snowboarding,” and “mixed doubles curling” (sounds like a hairdresser’s convention to me), just know that I am totally confused about the “Half Pipe.”
I thought that is what Crazy Horse smoked just before they attacked General Custer at Little Big Horn!
My favorite thought about the Winter Olympics comes from 2010, when Olivier Jean, short-track skater and gold medalist in the 500 meter relay said, “In the end, I am just a guy wearing a Spandex that turns left really fast.”
So much for being made into a hero!
Buddy Tabler is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune and his views don’t necessarily reflect those of the paper. He can be reached at budtabler@gmail.com.
