It’s been a while since I’ve posted to this site, primarily because most of you have become accustomed to reading my stories on the various sites I write for these days such as Examiner.com and Inside Sports. But this is the appropriate place to publish the following in response to a recent situation that has occurred.
The following is an email sent by me on Sunday to the Dodgers organization in an attempt to apologize for the opinion piece I wrote on Friday on the Examiner website about the recent assault at Dodger Stadium. I felt it was important to share this with my readers, whom I’ve encouraged to come here to read as opposed to on the Examiner site itself, as the original story has thankfully been removed from the site:
To those in the Dodger organization,
It is with a great deal of humility and regret that I type this email in response to the article I attempted to write on Friday evening regarding the state of security surrounding Dodger Stadium and concerning the unfortunate events that occurred on Thursday. Please allow me the opportunity to apologize to you both individually and as an organization.
On Friday, I posted an article concerning the security issues at Dodger Stadium that came to light yet again following a post-game incident involving a parking lot assault of Giants fans by two men who were purportedly Dodgers fans. The hope was to shine some light on an issue that was seemingly being hushed by the media both locally and nationally.
But in trying to state my opinion, I went so far over-the-line in lacking professional integrity and judgment that I’m surprised I can find the line again. A lesser person in my position would try to blame this on a variety of factors including: a recent introduction of medications stemming from a recent hospitalization for a pulmonary embolism; personalizing the story due to a familial relationship with the young man who was tragically murdered eight years ago at Dodger Stadium; and wanting to express a growing concern of several Dodger fans I had heard from in the hours leading up to the story expressing the exact same sentiments about a perceived lack of empathy and activity regarding this story.
However, through eleven years as a journalist and blogger, I have on occasion demanded that athletes, coaches, agents, owners, media, and fans of sports teams hold themselves accountable for their actions. Therefore, I accept full responsibility for these actions without excuse and offer my sincerest apologies. It is with a great deal of regret that the article was published, and the borderline inflammatory language contained within. I have a great deal of respect for the Dodgers organization, and have for many years. The PR staff has been above reproach in how they have handled providing me and fellow 'bloggers' with access to the team over the years, and my hope is that this incident will not damage those efforts.
As I had originally stated in the original piece, even if it is now at an arms-length: I would appreciate the chance to help the Dodgers present their side of what they are hoping to accomplish in terms of making fans feel safer at Dodger Stadium. This is an important issue, and I owe it to not only the people I work for and with at Examiner that are standing by me, but to those loyal readers that root for one of the best organizations in sports.
My hope is that this email will also be forwarded to Frank McCourt, Ned Colletti, and all those within the Dodgers organization that would find it useful and pertinent. Thank you for the time to read this today. I will be sharing this email apology with my Examiner audience as well.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
1982 NFL strike schedule stuff
So recently I was thinking about the 1982 NFL season, which was shortened to just nine games due to the first ever in-season NFL Players strike, which forced the cancellation of seven weeks of the season.They actually played weeks 1 & 2 before th walkout. Then they resumed with weeks 11-16 and added in one extra week which was a mixture of games from the cancelled weeks.
But to my surprise, there wasn't any place on the Internet to find access to the actual schedule games blown by the strike. The NFL doesn't provide access to them anywhere, as if they never were schedule at all.
Well, thanks to a buddy I met on-line, I now have the solution. You see back in the day, Fleer (one of the card trading companies) would produce a set of stickers that had team information on the front and the schedule on the back. he was able to scan them and send them to me. So I have created a space for them here for display for one simple reason.
I've created a Wikipedia page, and they are going to need to verify this information. So that is the purpose for this posting with these sticker images. Many many many thanks to Jon Helfenstein for his diligent work in scanning all of these in. Enjoy:
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