Not almost heaven

I had not seen the West Virginia Derby since 2003, when Soto held off Dynever in a thrilling stretch duel in pouring-down rain.

That was also the last time I’d seen horses go around a racetrack with my own eyes.

That’s right. I once made my living by watching nine or more races each day, but grown-up responsibilities have limited my racing enjoyment to simulcasting at OTBs—and even then, only twice a year (the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders’ Cup).

But when I found out that Mine That Bird was running in the West Virginia Derby, I had to go. I pulled all the racetrack memories out of the recesses of my brain and couldn’t recall ever seeing a Kentucky Derby winner who wasn’t on TV.

So Jamie and I made the trip to Chester, W.Va., to Mountaineer Park to see the West Virginia Derby. Mountaineer is allegedly a 30-minute drive from Pittsburgh, but construction and (I think) a major accident made the trip almost two hours. By the time we got there, the fourth race had just been run. Bear in mind that there was a time when I would have gone into a Rain Man-style fit of rage if I missed the first race of a given program. Nowadays, it’s more like, “Wow, that New Cumberland sure is a pretty town.”

We’d been to Mountaineer before (one of our first dates was there), but we were not prepared for what we saw. There were cars parked along the far turn, along the backstretch, and into the casino area. People were walking frantically from the casino lot to get to the track. A guard told me the parking lot was full, but he let me drop Jamie off at the front gate and turn around. I wound up parking by the three-eighths pole.

Inside, we found places to sit on a bench in the grandstand, which was a throwback to the days when the track was called Waterford Park, the home of the $1,500 claimers. The area where we sat was next to a section that was (albeit lamely) roped off due to construction. That area had the first few rows of benches missing, with several ladders lying on the floor. Mountaineer Park is apparently going into the home repair business as a sideline. People cut through the area all afternoon, and one man almost fell.

I headed for the concession stands, only to find a line stretching all the way across the grandstand (50 feet, maybe?). I found the vending machines, only to find they were out of Coke and Sprite, so I headed back to the Home Depot Annex with two Vaults and a bag of pretzels.

The heat started to be too much for Jamie, so she went inside to play the nickel slots (only to be chased out by cigarette smoke later). I waited in line for 10 to 15 minutes before each race to make my bets, but I hit a couple of exactas and began to feel as if I were a kid hanging out in the Beulah Park grandstand again.

Then it was time for the West Virginia Derby. Jamie and I went down to the rail—I should say near the rail, as we couldn’t get down to it. Jamie took some pictures of Mine That Bird with her cell phone (I had been told, apparently wrongly, that cameras were not allowed) and the crowd cheered as he walked by. With horse racing being eclipsed by other sports and forms of gambling, it’s reassuring to hear people applauding a champion.



He did not win. My guess is that Mike Smith got scared when Big Drama stole off a big early lead and made his move too soon. Mine That Bird is a deep closer and just can’t be rushed. Soul Warrior became another one of many longshot winners of this race.

I didn’t have Soul Warrior, but I still had some tickets and vouchers to cash in. The lines back at the grandstand windows were too long, so I looked for any other window—past hundreds of slot machines, up and down three flights of stairs (the elevator was broken), and finally wound up in the clubhouse dining room, where I found a window with no line.

Maybe Mountaineer wasn’t expecting Mine That Bird to enter the race and didn’t have time to prepare for a crowd of over 20,000. Maybe they just don’t care about the racing end of the facility anymore.

In any case, the track needs to get its act together the next time a Kentucky Derby winner pays a visit. With the West Virginia Derby purse now at $750,000, it will happen again.

Nice decision, Hossa

A One Man Band

The entire Cleveland Cavaliers team owes LeBron James an apology. Including, and maybe especially, Mike Brown.

That young man did everything he could to put the city of Cleveland on his back and drag it, singlehandedly, to the NBA finals. Shame on the rest of the team, and shame on Mike Brown for his ineffective and lazy coaching. LeBron deserves better.



I'll start the movement right here. Fire Mike Brown.

Lord Stanley's Cup

It's a million little things.

It's the work in the corners. The backchecking. The sparks of inspiration at the right time. The deals for just the right players. The pain of last year. The hope of this year. The love of the fans. The hate of the opponents. The tradition of hockey and of sportsmanship from time immemorial.

It all starts, and finishes, tonight.

GO PENS!

The real winner?

The history books will say that Mine That Bird won the 2009 Kentucky Derby and Rachel Alexandra won the 2009 Preakness, but that might not prove to be the real story.

The real winner could be horse racing itself.

This is the first time in a few years that I’ve seen the sports world this excited about horse racing. Mine That Bird’s 50-1 victory put him on the cover of Sports Illustrated and jockey Calvin Borel on The Tonight Show. Rachel Alexandra’s game win was the top story on SportsCenter and has a nation anticipating a rematch in the Belmont.

For all the recent talk about horse racing’s decline—and its many problems that have not gone away—the rumors of its death may be greatly exaggerated.

There was another time when horse racing was on a downward arc. General anti-gambling sentiment hit America around the turn of the 20th century. Many tracks closed. Churchill Downs went bankrupt, and the Kentucky Derby was a relatively minor stakes.

Key to the Derby’s resurrection—and the sport’s in general—were wins by a longshot and a filly.

First there was Donerail’s victory at 91-1 in the 1913 Derby—still the longest shot to win the race. Then there was Regret, who was undefeated when she became the first filly to win the Derby in 1915. These were the first in a series of notable wins in the 1910s and 1920s that brought the Derby back into the national spotlight and helped to make horse racing one of America’s most popular spectator sports.

Other sports have gone through down cycles, too. SI ran an article declaring the NBA dead—the year before Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were drafted. The NHL was off network TV for years, but now it’s on NBC and several cable channels. And, while I don’t really consider it a sport—but it proves my point—professional wrestling was late-night TV filler before the Wrestlemania phenomenon of the 1980s.

Could we be seeing the beginnings of a Thoroughbred renaissance? Can horse racing be the top story on SportsCenter more than twice a year? Will we soon see Calvin Borel stickers next to NASCAR decals on people’s cars?

Stranger things have happened….

One for the ages

The best NHL playoff series I have ever seen ended in ignominy for the Capitals, who, frankly, deserved better. They didn't deserve to win, not the way they played, but they deserved a close game. But as ever in the sands of time, the Penguins have the Capitals' number, again and again and again. And I will not complain.

In an epic win, one big statistic stands out. The Pengins did not take one single penalty. Not one. I wonder what the stat miners will make of that?

On to the Eastern Conference Finals, versus either the Hurricanes or the Bruins. Bring 'em on.

Pre-game jitters

What a great kid Geno Malkin is. Can you imagine a young hot-shot player in any other sport (and even most other hockey players) saying so sincerely how much he loves his dad? And his parents are likewise awesome.

Tonight's game six against the Capitals could be decisive. The Penguins took a while to find their stride this series, but they appear to have settled in well with Saturday's win at Washington. They were able to mostly contain Ovechkin and Varlamov, the exceptional rookie goaltender, is showing a great deal of vulnerability. Most impressive of all, though, is the way Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi are matching up against Ovechkin's line.

The team is keeping mum about Sergei Gonchar's injury for now but I'm really hoping it's not that serious, and thinking it probably ended his season. I'm sure I'm being a total homer here, but to me, that was a fineable, suspension-worthy dirty hit. There is no other reason he had to stick out his leg that way except intent to do harm.



I plan to try to get back to blogging here more often again but for now life is kind of in the way. In the meantime, GO PENS!