Points East
WHEN I left Hawaii a year ago physically (my heart will always remain there), I said aloha, y'all. I guess the same is appropriate now. Good to be back, even
if only in wordsIt's good to be back home, even if it is only in this space of the Star-Bulletin sports section.
After a year here, I've found Gainesville similar to Honolulu in that both cities have small-town personality and heart.
And it's reflected in their sports figures.
You know well how athletes and coaches in Hawaii give back to the community in many forms -- and despite the occasional jock showing up in the police report, even the most cynical fans have to admit the impact is overwhelmingly positive.
Same here. The norm is star wide receiver Travis Taylor giving his cap to a kid in a wheelchair squinting through the sun at practice the other day -- not guys getting monthly envelopes from agents before they turn pro (although that, too, appears to have happened here).
From afar, via arrogant soundbites, Florida football coach Steve Spurrier can certainly seem the jerk, especially when juxtaposed to grandfatherly Bobby Bowden at Florida State. But Spurrier is revered in Gainesville for his good community works as much as for bringing the state a national championship.
OK, that was a reach. Almost as much.
Yes, fans here are spoiled; especially the young ones. Now, nothing short of an SEC title will do, whether it's football, basketball, volleyball or tiddlywinks.
Spurrier is trying to convince anyone who will listen that the No. 5 Gators can sneak up on people after missing out on the national championship game by a few plays last year. Now that's a funny one.
One last note about Florida football for now: Remember where you first read the name Earnest Graham. Think Emmitt Smith.
Sorry, but there's little sympathy from this corner for the major league dumbpires who lose their jobs next month. The entire fiasco only illustrates that collective bargaining is unsuitable for certain professions. Now the umps will have to stay in shape and call the correct strike zone to keep their jobs year-to-year.
And, please, enough of the sob stories about the poor families. Lots of people lose their jobs and make mid-life career adjustments (including big-league baseball players). Hate to lump 'em all together, but, in a nutshell: Worse things have happened to better people.
There's a local connection in the recent 3,000-hit bonanza other than a much leaner Tony Gwynn toiling for the Islanders in 1982. Carlos Ledezma, the Islanders' equipment manager 1983-86, now helps take care of Wade Boggs' precious lumber in the same capacity for the Devil Rays.
Something you'd only see in the congenial world of college volleyball: Hawaii's Jenny Roberts, whose family moved to Orlando in the offseason, worked Florida camp this summer -- this a few months after the Wahine's tough-to-swallow five-set loss in the NCAA Regional Final to the Gators.
After Benny Agbayani helped beat the Cubs at Shea Stadium on "Merengue Night" recently (a thinly-veiled "Sammy Sosa Night" that irked Mets manager Bobby Valentine), Agbayani-bud Mike Piazza suggested a "Hawaiian Night."
Next time: Boog Powell barbecue from Camden Yards.
Dave Reardon, who covered sports in Hawaii
from 1977 to 1998, is a sportswriter at the
Gainesville Sun. E-mail reardod@gainsesvillesun.com
