Author: boom booms room staff

Phone A Friend

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Twenty years and 363 shows and counting Who Wants to be a Millionaire? keeps on putting out content that keeps viewers wanting more.  It’s won 7 daytime Emmy’s and is ranked as the sixth most popular game show in viewership in TV history.

Falling just shy of that is boomboomsroom.com (BBR).  It’s getting close to one year on Al Gore’s internet and is now over 275 posts.  We’ve won no awards and aren’t ranked on any list of popular websites.  YET!

Our reader feedback has been way more good than bad while still in our infancy.  We are learning every day and hopefully in your eyes getting better every day.  We feel like our content has now earned us the right to grow our readership.  And, we are politely asking for your help to do so.

If you think a friend, biz associate, or family member would like to read what we write please invite them to join our small, but growing community.   It’s quite easy of course.  You can send them a link, and tell them that we post most every Monday thru Friday.  Or, you could ask them to subscribe as you might have at the bottom of the home page.  Or, if they agree, you could just send us their preferred email (easy peasy) and we’ll handle the rest ASAP.  Some of you have done this more than a few times and we are grateful.

Remember, it’s just an email a day to them at 9 AM CST only on days that we have new content.  It’s free to subscribe/read, has no ads, and no spam.

And, most importantly, the website is far safer than our Russian interfered with election process.  Ask Mueller.  Never mind.

So please do two things for us.  One, phone (or text) a friend or ten and get them on board with us.  And, two, have a super weekend.

 

 

I Have Yet Another Story and a Moral Thereof

Posted on by boom booms room staff

BBR’s staff is taking a trip down memory lane in the mid south of the U.S.  Last night we decided to rest our dogs in the downtown Marriott Little Rock Hotel (formerly well known as The Excelsior Hotel).  The Excelsior is infamous as it was the hotel where Paula Jones claims then Arkansas Governor William Jefferson Clinton forced himself on her on May 8th, 1991.

But nearly six years prior on November 18, 1985, in the same hotel, another event lead to an infamous moment or three all be it on a smaller scale.  This writer was checking in on that Monday evening on business.  Earlier on the way to the NOLA airport, on 50,000 watt WWL 870 a local sports radio host spoke, as he did every football season Monday, with Las Vegas football betting guru Tony Salinas.  Tony’s Monday call in reviewed his picks from the week prior.   Late in the ’85 college season he was 25 of 33 against the spread on his announced on the show picks.  At 50k watts the channel had a big, multi state following.  It only grew larger as his picks hit and hit and hit.

As I entered the airport Salinas signed off and would be back for his usual Thursday spot to make his three weekly picks.  After a flight and a connector flight and a rental car I was checking in at the empty front desk of the hotel.  It was empty until a guy put his gaudy metallic silver briefcase on the counter down a ways from me and announced that he was checking in.  “Your name sir?”  “Salinas.”  “Tony Salinas.”  I swung my head to the left.  With a Dallas Cowboys Starter jacket, a metallic briefcase, and a watch bigger than his wrist stood Tony Salinas.

I had to, I just did.  So I did.  I introduced myself and explained how I knew him and had just listened to him a few hours earlier.  He laughed and said that we should meet for a drink and watch the second half of the Monday Night Football game as he had another radio gig till then.  “Sure.”

The Washington Redskins were playing the New York Football Giants.  I explained to Tony how big a fan many of my friends, biz associates, family members and other gambling degenerates were and that hung on his every word of gambling advice.  “Theismann, back to pass….”  SNAP.   Lawrence Taylor broke Theismann’s leg like a match stick effectively ending his career.  Wow.  “I took the Giants on the halftime line,” he boasted as Theismann was carted off.  Wow.

“Tony, before I go, can I get the best of you best picks this week?”  “Walt, not only will Pittsburgh cover the seven, they are going to beat no. 1 rated Penn St. straight up.”  Wow.   I couldn’t wait to share this scoop with one and all.  Tony actually shared the story of us meeting in Little Rock on air as he made his picks on Thursday to the “common people,” not “insiders” like me.  I was riding high on what is called today “street cred.”

In fact this was so big that a Saturday night party was in order to watch the game and celebrate our winnings.  Come one, come all.   Bets for big dollars (back then) were placed with great confidence by one, by all.  The anticipation of big winnings, laughter, and the smell Salem Lights and Jack Daniels filled the house.

Penn St. blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown late in the first half to go up 21-0.  “Don’t worry, Pitt will come back.”  At least thrown popcorn and peanuts don’t hurt much.  Ten more points in the second half  added to the drubbing that the Nittany Lions put on the Panthers.  The final was 31-0.  I considered entering the witness protection program if only it could be offered to me.  My fifteen minutes of fame was long gone as was my street cred.

Oh.  What’s the moral of the story?  There is no sure bet, so don’t.   And, if you do, pay off your gambling debts so that no one snaps your leg in two like Taylor did to Theismann.

 

 

 

Whining about Reclining

Posted on by boom booms room staff

As the dog days of summer bark well into the still bright evenings, the “where culture meets sports” press is always looking for something to heat up their clicks, views, page visits, and readership.   Apparently, forty eight hours ago the Louisiana State University’s football operations remodel unveil gave them all of the  Kibble’s and Bits that they needed.  And, the feeding frenzy is on.

If you haven’t seen any photos or video hype pieces of the new digs you must have stepped out of the social media sun and missed the shade that has been thrown at it.   No less than ESPN, CNN, SI, Busted Coverage, and The Big Lead have weighed in.  That is in addition to the numerous local tv channels near Baton Rouge and far.  Here is a two minute video that captures the hype and some of the opinions of it if you haven’t seen it.

Is the locker room itself new, innovative, opulent, decadent, and a bit over the top?  Yes.  Is it more opulent, decadent, and over the top than numerous other Power 5 schools’ locker rooms?  No, it’s just the latest.  Take a look at Oregon, Alabama, Texas A&M, Clemson, and Georgia to name just a few.  This LSU upgrade is just the latest to stir up the discontent and misunderstanding across America and the academia world of how all of this works.

Lots of the conversation has immediately centered on 1) our library flooded and it needs an upgrade, and 2) our professors need a raise, and 3) what about our  math building, or chemistry building, or, and 4) they do all this, why can’t they pay the players, and 5) kneel down Eric Reid, former LSU and NFL player, lamenting that the money donated could have gone to scholarships to need based kids.

What it hasn’t centered on is that the remodel also includes a big nutrition center for the players and is open to ALL students as well.  It features fresh food and  caters to specific dietary needs of all who want to participate.  It also redid the coaches offices.  If you are going to work 70 hours a week, why not have some creature comforts?  Or, you can just focus on reclining locker seats that look like first class airline modules and shake your head.

This project was 100% funded by private donations through the Tiger Athletic Foundation(TAF).  It’s private money, therefore it’s individuals who choose what to support.  A few years back the business school was funded in the exact same way.  The LSU sports programs collectively fund themselves and have GIVEN back to the university over 12 million dollars a year for the last five years.   Football on this and almost every campus is the moneymaker that funds other sports and still can provide the giveback.

Paying the players versus building new offices, nutrition centers, and locker rooms have little to do with one another.  If America wants colleges to play the players its a decision that is independent of how they eat and where they get dressed.  If you side on the paying them side, then you should side on the “in the meantime at least we can make their lives better with these alternatives.”  However, if you believe in paying, good luck with the “how.”  Title IX changed the college sports landscape forever.  But we digress.

One LSU professor tweeted that he saw all of this while sitting in his dirty office that he had to buy a Dirt Devil to clean himself.  LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, not short on moxie, tweeted back.  He asked why this professor thought he was entitled to the fruits of the team’s labor?  The tweet is deleted, but the screen shot lives on in infamy.  It looks like Joe thinks capitalism is alive and well.  If the professor feels like he deserves a cleaner office, he should get one at LSU or he should move on to, say, Harvard.  If he feels like he should be paid more, perhaps he should consider coaching football.

Tyrann Mathieu, who donated one cool million, commented on Eric Reid’s thought.  The Honey Badger told Reid that he should give all that he wanted to for scholarships.  Oh, and Tyrann also let him know that he had done that in addition to the TAF donation.  It’s your serve Eric.   Stop protesting and get up off of your knees and dust off that checkbook, er, Venmo account.  Your pal said that it’s time to pay, pal.

All of this, unlike the hot summer sun, will burn for only about 24 more news hours.  But, before you know it fall will arrive.  It always does.  And when it does 100,000 football starved fans will pay big money to fill Tiger Stadium and stadiums across the land to get their annual football fix.

But, if you want to fix what’s wrong with college today, please do.  Nice (ok, opulent) locker rooms aren’t part of the problem. They are actually part of the solution.

 

 

 

 

 

Rumors of His Death……….

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Way back in 1876 Samuel Clemens, under the pen name of Mark Twain, penned the American classic novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  Tom was an irascible one, just ask his Aunt Polly whom he lived with.  One day for his misdeed(s) she punished him making him whitewash(paint) her picket fence.  Tom convinced his friends to do it for him selling it as a privilege to do such work and admire it as an accomplishment.  And paint it they did.  It’s an amazing accomplishment unto itself, even if it is fiction.

If you jump to 2019 in the adventures of Donald Trump, himself a bit irascible, it looks like he too has passed out the paint brushes.   It looks like the President has convinced his “friends” on The Squad ( Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan) to do his work for him as well.  The Squad has repeatedly attempted to paint Trump as a racist among other non flattering accusations.  Meanwhile the media cannot get enough of the four congresswoman giving the feud much air time.   He has portrayed them on the canvas as the new faces of the ever further leaning left Democratic Party.  Green New Deal, free healthcare, free tuition, and a free for all are promised.  He purposely helps them get even more oxygen.  Aunt Polly, aka Nancy Pelosi, is beside herself.  She can’t decide if she wants to punish Trump, or her freshman legislators, or both.

Meanwhile the 2020 cattle call of 23 Democratic hopefuls to gain the nomination has far too little oxygen in the room.  Each candidate is trying to find their way.  In the crowded herd one has tried to go further left than the next.  Free this and free that is promised for all but the wealthy.   For the wealthy pay for this and pay for that is promised.  Heck, Cory Booker piled on over the weekend and told America that Trump was even worse than a racist.  “The reality is, this is a guy who is worse than a racist,” the Democratic presidential contender from New Jersey told Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “He is actually using racist tropes and racial language for political gains, trying to use this as a weapon to divide our nation against itself.   We aren’t sure what that is called.  Is that a racist’s racist?  Booker took a harder left turn than The Squad.

Trump has made the race (at least for now) a binary decision.  Vote for me, or vote for the new Democratic Party, the face of which is The Squad.  He has plenty of paint brushes to go around.  And, he has plenty of Democrats and media folks lining up on the drop cloths.

Is there one person left in America who hasn’t come to their own conclusion as to whether Trump is a racist (whatever definition of racist one may have) or is not?  And, isn’t this the theme every four years?  Reagan, Bush, Dole, Bush, McCain, Romney, and Trump have all been painted with the same whitewash.  Isn’t it time to let the paint dry and move on to another chore?  Infrastructure, medical care reform, drug costs, and immigration come to mind.

Tom Sawyer went missing in another stunt that Aunt Polly didn’t approve.  Eventually town members had a funeral, for he was presumed dead.  Tom got wind of this and decided to show up at his own funeral.  “Rumors of his death,” he said, “were greatly exaggerated.”

Try as the Democrats might, rumors of Trump’s political career being dead are greatly exaggerated as well.

And, he gave out plenty of paint brushes to eager “friends” as proof.

Ten Piece Nuggets-Sports

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Good Monday morning.  It’s hot across the US in late July.  Record high temps were recorded near and far yesterday.  But, have no fear, the nuggets below are just the right temp for you to start off your week.

  1.  Across the pond the 148th Open, held at Royal PortRush in Northern Ireland, concluded yesterday with Ireland’s own Shane Lowery hoisting the Claret Jug.   It was quite the story for him, the region, and his legion of family and friends.  He practically went wire to wire over the 72 holes posting a low 15 under par, six strokes better than Tommy Fleetwood’s second place finish.
  2. The “hometown boy made good” story was a great one, but it also was the only one NBC was able to sell in an otherwise forgettable Open.  Lowery started Sunday up by four and finished up by six.  How did he sleep on the lead Saturday night after he threw darts earlier that day for a 63?  Does “like a big baby” sound appropriate?
  3. Something NBC did sell a lot of was commercials.  If they weren’t going to a full commercial break every five minutes, they were going to a “playing through” split screen commercial break.  Does “we are Farmer’s, dah, tah, dah, dah, DAH” sound familiar?  The contrast of the NBC/Open presentation to how CBS and Augusta National insure how The Masters is viewed has a wider gap than Lowery opened over the field itself.   And, we don’t need a recap coming out of the split screen view.  We just saw it.  Isn’t that the sales pitch of “playing through” to begin with?
  4. And the then there is Paul Azinger who is through playing and trying to fill the golf shoes of lead NBC golf analyst/commentators that have spoken before him.  We marked down a double bogey on his card.  On camera his facial expressions are curious and that’s being kind.  When talking through the golf that is either about to be played or was just played he is Captain Obvious.  His nasal whine on the mic reminds us of our second grade teacher explaining how verbs are conjugated.  Where have you gone Johnny Miller?
  5. One Irish bloke put $150 on Lowery at 105-1 to win before the tournament started.  He won 16 grand.  Pints for all.  Those odds seem high for Lowery.  He entered 2019 ranked 75th in the world golf rankings and rose to 33rd entering The Open.  This morning he finds himself perched at 17th.
  6. The Houston Astros hit back to back to back homeruns Friday night at home v. the Texas Rangers.  We couldn’t find how many back to back to backs have ever been hit in MLB.  But we did see that back to back to back to backs have been jacked only eight times ever.  The last was in 2017 by the Washington Nationals.  Todd Kalas was on the Astros call Friday night.  It was three home runs on four pitches in two magical minutes.  You can see it and hear his great call of the final bomb launched by Yordan Alvarez here.
  7. The Milwaukee Brewers are chasing the Chicago Cubs for the Central Division lead and are very much in the thick of the wild card race as well. Their chances took a hit yesterday.  Their ace, Brandon Woodruff, is headed to the 10 day DL with a strained oblique.  Woodruff has been Milwaukee’s best pitcher this season, earning his first NL All-Star nod. He entered Sunday’s game 11-3 with a 3.53 ERA and had allowed three earned runs in 20 1/3 innings his previous three starts.  Obliques and pitchers mix like oil and water, that is, not so much.
  8. How fitting was it that Mariano Riveria “closed” the MLB Hall of Fame Cooperstown induction ceremonies for six former players yesterday?  He finished his career with a record 652 saves. He pitched 19 seasons in the major leagues, all with the New York Yankees, and retired with 952 games finished — also a record. A 13-time All-Star, Rivera helped the Yankees win five World Series titles and seven American League pennants.
  9.  Another closer who was finally inducted was Lee Smith.  When he hung up the cleats in 1997 he was the career leader in saves at that point with 478.  He brought heat for 17 seasons and was a 7 time allstar.  If you never saw him pitch, think Aroldis Chapman from the right side.  His fastball had purpose and an occasional brush back pitch also had a well placed purpose.
  10.  Are you ready for some football?  The NFL training camps for rookies are mostly underway and all veterans will have reported by this Friday as well.  Guess who has the shortest odds to get to Super Bowl LVI?  New England?  Nope.  They are second.  The Kansas City Chiefs are +600, or six to one.  The Patriots are +650 followed by New Orleans at +850.  The Indianapolis Colts surprise as the fourth lowest odds at +900.  Are you interested in a long shot or five?  The Bengals, Redskins, Giants, Lions, and Dolphins are all +10000, or 100 to one.

Get back to work.

56

Posted on by boom booms room staff

With so much attention being paid earlier this week to the epic Roger Federer v. Novak Djokovic Wimbedon final and the The Squad v. Trump Twitter war, a 78th sports anniversary slid by.   Do you know what happened on July 16th, 1941?  Joltin Joe Dimaggio singled to extend his hit streak to 56 games.  On July 17th he was hitless which ended the longest consecutive games hitting steak ever.  And “ever” then still means “ever” today.

The record stands at 56 games, and has now stood that way for 78 years and counting.  We aren’t here to debate if its the greatest baseball record ever for it’s hard to compare pitching feats to hitting feats much less one game to one streak to one season to one career records.  But we are here to say that holding a record for any stat for 78 years is a long, long time and that makes it a great, great accomplishment.

Many, many excellent “hit for average” and “contact hitters” and “line drive hitters” have come and gone in 78 years.  And no one, we repeat, no one has come close to The Yankee Clipper’s run.  Second best you ask?  Peter Edward Rose, aka Pete Rose, aka Charlie Hustle got a hit in 44 straight games in 1978.  That tied Willie Keeler who strung together 44 as well way, way back in 1897.

Ty Cobb had 40 and 35 games with at least one hit streaks.  George Sisler had 41 and 35.  Joe’s brother Dom Dimaggio hit in 34 consecutive games himself.  Paul Molitor reached 39.  Think of players like Ichiro Suzuki, Ken Griffey, Jr., Tony Gwynn, Rod Carew, George Brett,  Rogers Hornsby, and Stan Musial just to name a few.  None of them, in long and distinguished careers passed 30.

Rose’s 44 is 78% of Dimaggio’s 56 games 78 years later.  Suzuki had 262 hits in 2004.  That’s 14 years and counting for the most ever in a season.  He has just 64 years to go for the record to stand as long as Dimaggio’s.  Or, stated a different way, imagine in the year 2075 the closest someone has come to Suzuki’s record is 204 hits.

It’s such a feat that he caught Marilyn Monroe’s eye, and had a song written about him that is  big band, old school fun, and three minutes long here.   

Baseball is a game of numbers.  There are a lot of them above.  But, no matter which ones you are counting, there aren’t a lot that rise above 56.

Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity

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The Wall Street Journal reached out yesterday.  They asked us to comment on rumors that boomboomsroom.com, aka BBR, was contemplating going public.  We directly squashed the rumor.  We have no plans to IPO now nor in the future.

Our rationale is simple.  We want our sole focus on delivering the best content day in and day out.  To do so we need to hire the best people to do their best at the job that they are qualified to do.  Our deep and talented staff shakes it’s collective head at the daily outcry for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.  Don’t misread our position.   We are all for all people, regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religion, or whatever group we forgot, to succeed in the business workplace.  We just think that the best/most qualified should be the final determination.

When did hiring the best and most qualified go out of style?  It’s when political correctness became the style.  It’s when capitalism was first assaulted by socialism.

Take Uber. The newly public company released on Monday its latest diversity report, which included a breakdown of its US workforce by race or ethnicity and gender. White men still make up most of its staff (30.1%), a pattern that is even more evident in leadership, tech, and leadership in tech roles. Black women make up 5.3% of its overall workforce in the US, black men 4%, Hispanic women 3.7% and Hispanic men 4.6%.

Diversity is defined as each person is unique.  And, each person may have a different point of view that should be considered.  It certainly can be due to different upbringing, background, education, race, ethnicity, etc.  But, it’s about each individual.

For the first time, Uber is setting some diversity and inclusion goals for 2022 that will be tied to the compensation of several of its senior executives — CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, chief financial officer Nelson Chai, chief legal officer Tony West, and chief people officer Nikki Krishnamurthy.  Chief People Officer!  What the hell?
Want to guess what percent of the US 2018 census best estimate of the American population is white and male?  It’s 37%.  Should they focus on hiring more white men?  It would be equitable, but not politically correct.
“While these numbers are an improvement, they are not where they need to be,” wrote Megan Rose Dickey of the Tech Crunch website.   Project Include’s Ellen Pao has previously said the numbers need to be at 13% black and 17% Latino in order to reflect the demographics of the U.S. population.   So, employee demographics need to match our population.  If everyone is employed (nearly the case right now) don’t they in the macro?
So, how do you get there?  Ah.  What isn’t being said is that nearly 33% of the Uber employees are of Asian decent.  So, is that good or bad?   Aren’t Asians a minority too?  Of course they are.  Every race is except white.  But apparently there are too many of them working at Uber for Megan and Ellen.  How else can you say it?  If you need to have more blacks and Latinos you must need less Asians.  Isn’t that racist?  Isn’t that prejudiced?
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in May that his league had done a poor job hiring females as referees.   Currently there are three female officials in the NBA, and he wants that number to rise.  “The goal is going forward, it should be roughly 50-50 of new officials entering in the league,” he said. “Same for coaches, by the way. We have a program, too. There’s no reason why women shouldn’t be coaching men’s basketball.”  Sounds politically correct.  Except, maybe they don’t want to referee in the NBA?
Someone should ask Adam how many female refs applied for the job in the last twelve months.  If it was way more than the three that they have whose fault is it that they only have three?  It’s the NBA’s.  If the number that applied is way less than men, how do you fix that?  Should you even try to fix that?
And, most of all, someone should ask Adam why there is such an imbalance in the league’s players. According to racial equality activist Richard Lapchick, the NBA in 2015 (the most recent info we could find) was composed of 74.4 percent black players, 23.3 percent white players, 1.8 percent Latino players of any race, and 0.2 percent Asian players.  If I were an Asian Uber employee I might declare my eligibility for the 2020 NBA draft.
Diverse?  Sure.  Inclusive?  Yes.  Equitable?  No.   The most qualified?  For sure.  Ah, now we are getting somewhere.

Till Monday

Posted on by boom booms room staff

It’s going to be 98 degrees today in H Town.  We’re getting out early for some exercise and then some golf.   Why?  Because Saturday and Sunday are forecasted to be 104 degrees.   It’s called climate change.  Today 98, tomorrow 104.  Change.  It’s going from damn hot to unbearable.   We’ll be back Monday with a blockbuster article.

Happy weekend!

Fore.

Boom Boom’s Life Lessons #16.

Posted on by boom booms room staff

One of the many gifts that Boom Boom gave us was the torrent of quips about how one leads one’s life.   He could say so much by saying so little.   A statement at just the right moment resonated in my young, eager eardrums.  How I interpreted or applied it was up to me.  No more words were spoken because no more words were needed.

One of the positive learnings that came out of being raised Catholic and attending Catholic schools was learning to give back, or to volunteer for worthy causes.  Back then an optional group for men to join in that effort at their parish church was called “The Holy Name Society.”  Members met one Sunday every month after church to discuss past, present, and potential future endeavors that they collectively voted on as worthwhile to help the a person, family, or community in some way.

From that was born “The Junior Holy Name Society.”  Young and eager to emulate Boom Boom, I joined the group the first year that you could at age 8.  All of the fathers and sons would meet as the main group, then the two would split to hold their own meetings for a few minutes.

Boom Boom rose to the level of President a couple of years later.  I was in awe that he could speak in front of a group of 40 or so, and led them through many charitable endeavors.  His sincerity, combined with his knowledge, captivated his audience and much good came from that.  I liked being in the big meetings more than being with the juniors just to watch him.

One meeting’s main topic was the decision to rebuild a part of a widow’s house damaged by yet another strong summer southern storm.  There were some dissenters and disagreement voiced throughout the time spent on how to and the cost to do so.  Repeatedly Boom Boom called on others and others to voice their thoughts on specific parts.  We(he) even brought in a couple of construction guys to be able to answer some questions.

Through it all Boom Boom barely spoke.  He only asked questions along the way.  It seemed like an odd meeting to this 10 year old.  Driving home I asked, “Dad, why didn’t you talk more today?”  “I don’t know much about remodeling nor plumbing son.”  I sat clueless for a minute thinking about how this was different from his approach in the other meetings.  “Yes you do,” I thought and said.  “No, I don’t.  It’s important to know what you don’t know.”  

I didn’t know then that my dad didn’t know everything about everything.  But, now, looking back, I realize that he was smart even when he wasn’t.

 

A Real Instant Classic

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Great.  Greater.  Greatest.

It’s what we do as sports fans.  We have an insatiable desire to see greatness taken to yet another level.  We drink cold beers and debate who, what, when, and why he or she did this or that.  And because of that, whatever that is, they are great, or greater, or greatest.  At BBR we hesitate to instantly call a moment, game, or season, or athlete the greatest of all.  It’s hyperbole mostly.  And, it’s what ESPN incessantly drones on about.  Heck, they even have a show called ESPN Instant Classics.  Meh.

Well,  this AM we stick our toe into the conversation.  Did you see Novak Djokovic defeat Roger Federer to capture the Wimbledon Championship yesterday?  If you didn’t, you might have missed the greatest Grand Slam tennis finals match ever.  Don’t believe us?  That’s ok.  Former two time winner and now long time announcer John McEnroe asked that very question during yesterday’s broadcast.  It sounded like he sure thought so.

Consider these facts as we build a case.  It went five sets with three tiebreakers including the last set (forced by the new rules into a tiebreaker) when they reached 12-12 in games.  It was the longest final ever, lasting over five hours.  If you tuned in for breakfast at Wimbledon we hope you packed a lunch too.  Many rallies extended to 20 or more strokes.  The championship level of play started in game one and never relented.   The crowd was stoked by every stroke making the atmosphere all the more intense.

But most of all it was two titans of their sport giving it their all on the biggest stage that their sport provides-Wimbledon.  Roger Federer, at an amazing 37 years of age finished as the runner up.  Is he the “greatest” Wimbledon player ever?  He has more wins than anyone with eight.  He has finished second four times.  He has more Grand Slam titles than anyone with 20.

With the win Djokovic secured his fifth Wimbledon title.  That’s tied for third in Wimbledon wins with Bjorn Borg.  Only Pete Sampras stands between Djokovic and second all time.  Sampras won seven in an incredible eight year run.  Djokovic has a few years left.  Djokovic has 16 Grand Slam titles, good for third best ever.

If Nicklaus and Palmer started in the last group at Augusta and battled for 18 holes on Sunday to win the coveted green jacket would that compare?  Or, if you wish, Tiger and Phil.  What if they were never separated by more than a stroke and tied after 18?  What if they played the equivalent of an additional seven holes and remain tied all the while making clutch shot after clutch putt?

And who did Federer beat to get to the finals?  Rafael Nadal is who.  And he counts 18 Grand Slam trophies (second historically) in his case including an insane 12 French Opens.

And, when the match concluded yesterday both opponents spoke quite highly of their opponent.   Humbly, and privately, they may think what John McEnroe said publicly.

So does this make the case too that tennis, with three of the all time greats playing at the same time, is in an era heretofore never seen prior?  Perhaps.  And, perhaps “perhaps” is too weak of a word to describe the moment yesterday and the era in general.

It’s fifty or so days till the final Grand Slam final of the year, the US Open.   Our guess is two of the three will be in it.  That match may not be able to match yesterday though.

Yesterday was indeed an instant classic.