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The Daily Dose/March 1, 2010
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from around the Human Experience...
ONE FOR THE AGES: We didn't really see the point to getting too worked up Sunday's gold medal hockey game between Team Canada and Team USA at the Vancouver Games because it was a foregone conclusion the Canadians would win and that Sidney Crosby would win the game in overtime and that the game would go down as one of the great games in sports history.
There was simply no other way it could have gone.
Veering Off Track Slightly: Which brings up an interesting debate: The Miracle of Ice at Lake Placid in 1980, also on the short list of the greatest moments in the history of sports, was in a different era, when countries like American played by rules and sent amateurs to the Olympics while those goddamned Communists in the Soviet Union sent players who were amateurs in name only. They did not get paid for playing hockey per se, but rather were commissioned into the Red Army where their assignment was to play hockey.
There would be no miracle Sunday because not only were the players all professionals, but it was plain Canada and the USA were the two best national hockey teams in the world.
Which it made it equally stunning to watch.
Can We Get Back On Message Here? There was simply no other way for this game to end than by Crosby winning it in overtime.
Sidney Crosby, one of most exalted first round draft picks in NHL history, christened The Next One because he is expected to retire as the best ever, was double burdened because not only did he carry the weight of his country's hopes for their team, but also his country's expectations for him.
So the Americans, as good and hardworking as they were, were obliged to settle for the runner up spot because Team USA simply was not
1) going to beat the Canadians twice in one Olympiad, and
2) going to beat the Canadians in their national sport in an Olympics held in their country and certainly not in the biggest game any Canadian will likely ever witness.
Too bad, too, because the Americans honored their game and themselves by keeping up their end of the bargain and turning in a performance deserving of one of the greatest games ever.
Uh-Oh: History almost screwed up the work order, though. A 2-1 Canadian win in regulation would have gone down as one of the great Olympic hockey games ever but, honestly, probably would not have made the short list of the greatest games in any sport at any time. So History, scrambling late in the game, had Zach Parise score the tying goal with 24 seconds left so Sir Sidney could fulfill his duty and win it in overtime.
The game was that good.
Look What We Did…Not Bad: Also that good was Mike Emrick, who had the call for NBC Sports. The very best way to put it is Mike Emrick is as good at announcing hockey games as any other human being has ever been at any other field of human endeavor. As good as Da Vinci or Michelangelo were at painting. As good as Edison was at inventing things.
His partner, Ed Olczyk, who spent most of the past fortnight blabbing incoherently, elected to go for quality instead of quantity Sunday and did a very nice job of staying out of Emrick's way.
Going Back, A Way Back: Rio de Janiero, Brazil is founded by the Portuguese on this date in 1565.
We The People: The Continental Congress of the United States adopts the Articles of Confederation on this date in 1781.
FunFact: The Articles were officially known as the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union.
Dry, Technical Matter: Ratification actually began in 1777 when the Virginians ran it up the flagpole and saluted, but assorted bickering among the several states insured that ratification would take well over three years.
They were bickering right to the very end, too, with Maryland, the last holdout, not on-boarded until both Virginia and New York agreed to drop land claims in the Ohio River Valley. The Articles of Confederation would remain in effect until the United States Constitution was ratified in 1788.
We Interrupt This Broadcast To Bring You This Breaking News Story: Charles Lindbergh, Jr., the 20-month old son of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne, was kidnapped from the family's New Jersey home on this date in 1930. He would be found dead off the side of a road four miles from the home by a truck driver who had wandered off the road looking for a place to relieve himself.
Not Getting Your Money's Worth: This despite the fact a $50,000 ransom had been paid. A long investigation would result in the arrest, conviction and execution of Bruno Hauptmann, who maintained his innocence until the end.
Viva Las Vegas: Hoover Dam was completed on this date in 1936. Atypical of a government contract, it was actually finished a couple of years ahead of schedule. It contains enough concrete to pave a two-lane highway from San Francisco to New York City.
Traffic And Weather Together: What is now WSM-FM signs on in Nashville, Tennessee on this date in1941 as W47NV, the first FM radio station in the United States.
Trivia and the Thought for the Day will return next time.
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