Sunday Morning Coming Down

Friday evening, June 29, 2018 will be the last time you will see the dog racing at Flagler in Miami.  I've lived in Miami for almost fifty years and have been going to the dog races for almost fifty years first with my father and then by myself.  Gambling on dog racing in those fifty years hasn't changed that much, however the number of folks following has plummeted.  While there were several dog tracks in South Florida in the 1970's it doesn't look like there will be live dog racing in South Florida after the last race at Flagler. The Dining Area was full.  There was a special meal.  The servers and lead outs wore tuxedos and the races were run.  Natural State won the 8th and final race, paid $9.00 to win.  Handle was about $100,000.

I watched the replay of  Phil Mickelson swat at a putt that he made that was still moving in the U.S. Open yesterday.  The golf game that was televised on Saturday was not particularly good television and the golf tournament that is the most major of the majors in North America has a serious blemish after three days. Lefty took a two stroke penalty for hitting the ball while it was still moving.  He might have been trying to make sure didn't roll further.  What he did wasn't the most professional I've ever seen on a golf course but it is hardly a hanging offense given the rest of stuff that has taken place all week.  He might have been disqualified if his name wasn't Mickelson, but that is for another day. Even the USGA is going to try to slow the greens for the Sunday Round.  Golf is supposed to be fair but what happened to golfer that had later tee times wasn't fair to them when compared to the scores of players that had early tee times. I don't hav...

I've lived through some natural disasters and now what looks like another on a list of immigration disasters.  Hurricanes and immigration disasters have caused serious dislocations in Miami that have had folks living in tents for extended periods of time. The Mariel Boat Lift resulted in long term tent encampments.  The relocation of these Cuban refugees was difficult.  "Under the new resettlement agreement, volunteer agencies are responsible for housing, feeding, clothing, training and finding jobs for the refugees for three months. The Tent City residents, most of them young males, were found homeless, jobless and hungry in the streets of Miami this summer. Officials said many had been abandoned by the sponsors who got them out of the military-base camps that were the first home of the more-than 120,000 Cubans who came to the United States on the refugee sealift. Miami first opened the Orange Bowl as a temporary refuge, but set up the tents under Interst...

The  Belmont Stakes will be run on Saturday.  Justify has a chance to be the second Triple Crown winner since American Pharoah in 2015.  Bob Baffert might have scared off some horses, but there are nine other entries in the race. Baffert seems confident.   "All my horsesI brought up here floated over the track, and he just looked like he was just getting over it really well. He was a little aggressive, a little fresh today, but he couldn't have looked any better today coming around there. I was very happy that he looks like a horse who is flourishing and doing very well. It was nothing for him."  This quote is from the Blood Horse Daily. Hofburg and Bravazo may challenge Justify late.  Who knows?

Being part of the Class of "69" was big, but not huge.  I was able to go to college and avoid being drafted and that was large.  I always thought my draft number was different from what it actually was.  It would be interesting to see all my classmates but it will also be a production to travel to Besenville for the weekend.  If I still lived in the Mid-West my attitude would be different. Trains, planes, automobiles and timing are considerations in this decision and there is a lot of time to change my mind.

 Malcolm Gladwell spoke at the University of Pennsylvania about coal mining and black lung disease along with football and CTE.  The title of Gladwell's talk was about the "Burden of Proof.  It is part of his podcast Revisionist History. Black lung disease is CWP or Coal Worker's pneumoconiosis which come from repeated long term exposure to coal dust and is similar to the long term effects of smoking tobacco.    " Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy ( CTE ) is a degenerative brain disease found in athletes, military veterans, and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma. In CTE , a protein called Tau forms clumps that slowly spread throughout the brain, killing brain cells. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy ( CTE ) is a degenerative brain disease found in athletes, military veterans, and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma. In CTE , a protein called Tau forms clumps that slowly spread throughout the brain, killing brain cells." Both C...

Justify is unbeaten in five races and needs only to win the Belmont Stakes to be second Triple Crown winner in four years.  Reading Chad Brown's account of the race it was clear he only wanted Good Magic to be off the pace and they try to run down Justify in the stretch.  Instead it was more like a replay of Affirmed and Alydar and those match races with company in 1978.  Those two just duked it out and Justify won in a hard fought race. All week folks have been asking me who I liked in the Preakness.  Two weeks after the Derby it was clear in my mind that Justify was the horse to beat and I said so.  It would only be question who would finish for the "minor awards". And then I went a step further.  I asked Dan if he wanted some action on the Belmont.  Dan likes action, he will bet on golfers making putts, pitchers throwing strikes, batters swinging etc.  He says it makes things more interesting.  I gave Dan the field in the Preakness an...