July 27, 2004
HE CAN'T EVEN GIVE A STRAIGHT ANSWER TO A SPORTS QUESTION (via Glenn Dryfoos):
10 Burning Questions for John Kerry (Jeff Merron, ESPN.com)
1. What's been your favorite sports moment as a fan?Oh, God, there've been so many it's hard to pick just one. Bobby Orr in [the] 1972 Stanley Cup playoffs. Adam Vinatieri, last-minute kick, Super Bowl. The famous snow game with the Raiders. The most recent [Super Bowl] victory, which I watched in Fargo, North Dakota, on a cold night.
Lance Armstrong. The extraordinary last-minute victory of Greg LeMond when he won it the third time. [LeMond's "last-minute" victory, when he came from behind to beat Frenchman Laurent Fignon by eight seconds, came in LeMond's second Tour victory, in 1989.]
Great Olympic moments, I can pick so many. Franz Klammer winning the Olympic gold medal in skiing when he was recovering from a near-disastrous fall, going all-out, breakneck speed. Tiger Woods. I don't know, I like a lot of different sports. Different sports, different great events. McEnroe and Jimmy Connors facing off. There's just so many.
Obviously one of the greatest sporting moments ever witnessed, I thought, was the Miracle on Ice. I mean, the Miracle Team in '80. I remember watching the 1960 one, too, which was huge. I remember that very distinctly. The Cleary brothers -- it was a great year.
Anytime you watch Wayne Gretzky or Jaromir Jagr and some of the great U.S.-Russian hockey games of the past ... big, open, wide skating, stick-handling, passing -- beautiful game.
Never mind how Blue State his answers are (bicycling, tennis, the Olympics and hockey?), as Dryfoos points out, it's almost like he's going through a check list to make sure he doesn't miss any of the ones his aides told him to mention. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 27, 2004 8:45 AM
I suppose since he first made his name in the national spotlight at the time the Boston Bruins were winning their two Stanley Cups in the early 1970s, but to their fans, 32 years since the Brusins' last title is not winning the Stanley Cup "in the last years."
Anyway, since it is ESPN, I will forgive them for not even mentioning Kerry's two gaffes with his favorite former Red Sox, Eddie Yost, and the player he's most excited about not, the team's superstar hitter, Manny Ortez. Obviously, Kerry's trying to follow the lead of his mentor, Ted Kennedy, with his famous Sammy Sousser and Mike McGwire line six years ago (ESPN gets the pass in part because both those howlers were published earlier by Peter Gammons on his column page on thre website).
Posted by: John at July 27, 2004 8:56 AMPathetic. Just pathetic. He couldn't even pretend to say what he really felt instead of just going down a prepared checklist.
Posted by: andy at July 27, 2004 9:49 AMWhat else would you expect ?
This is a guy who professes to listen to 50 Cent.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at July 27, 2004 10:08 AMIt's answers like these that betray how contemptuous of us politicians are. Does he really think that he would lose votes by saying his favorite sports moment is Fisk's home run in the 6th game of the 75 series? Or just picking one of the Patriot superbowl victories? How dumb does he think we are?
Posted by: David Cohen at July 27, 2004 10:49 AMI think you guys give Kerry too much credit. Do you actually think he has a favorite sports moment? I don't think he can make up his mind on that any better than he can make up his mind on anything.
Posted by: Timothy at July 27, 2004 11:02 AMKerry's favorite sports moment was when he got to pumice Tereza's bunions for the first time. He is not a GUY, he does not care about sports.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at July 27, 2004 12:18 PMGood Lord, OJ, how could you possibly NOT include his own moment of personal sport triumph:
"On a personal level, getting a hat trick against Harvard in soccer [in 1965] was good fun."
The man was playing soccer(!) back in 1965.
Of course, this explains why he throws like a girl.
Posted by: H.D. Miller at July 27, 2004 2:02 PMAs a Democrat he blew the answer. The proper pander response was Arthur Ashe winning the U.S. Open, Greg Louganis winning Olympic gold, and Martina beating Chrissie at Wimbledon (Martina's a pander twofer).
Posted by: Fred Jacobsen (San Fran) at July 27, 2004 3:17 PMI was going to comment until I read the Robert Schwartz comment. Pumice Tereza'a bunions!?! That's laugh out loud funny! Pure greatness!
Posted by: G. Eugene at July 27, 2004 7:07 PMDavid--how dumb does he think we are? About as dumb as most other politicians. And sadly, they're often (mostly?) proven right.
Posted by: jsmith at July 27, 2004 11:46 PMWe all know the only honest answer was Michael Jordan carrying his entire team while suffering from stomach flu against Utah.
The Ronald Reagan of Basket ball.
But then, I'm from the Chicago area....
Posted by: BB at July 28, 2004 12:24 AM