Foxy Time: May the 10th be with you...and with your Spirit

New Derby Winner, New Pope, Same Poor to Middlin' Ball Teams

After watching Conclave, the amazing Pope movie starring Ralph Fiennes a few months ago, I was jacked for the next time the process happened in real life, while still wishing good health to Francis. Well, Frankie kicked off anyway, so I thought I was ready for a drama filled, knock down, drag out fight for the Papacy this week. Instead, after a day and half, we got our new pope - and he’s an American! Not just an American, but a Midwesterner. Leo, as he will henceforth be known, is from Chicago and is a White Sox fan, so I guess the Pope is fallible? Trust me, I grew up with good old Catholic guilt and being a fan of Mizzou sports: I know what long-suffering is all about. Also, for some reason as I write this, I think about how happy Chris Farley would be. He got famous as a comedian in Chicago and was a crazy devout Catholic. If it couldn’t be Ditka, I’m glad he’s from our neck of the woods, anyway.

AWWWW, Horse Feathers!

Every year, for 10 years on The Tom Bradley Show, we made a big deal about picking our horses for the Kentucky Derby. It was never huge stakes, maybe picking a meal or a six-pack of beer; but we took it very seriously. So, I had to text my former co-hosts with my pick(s) for this year. It was the hardest choice of any year for me personally. Normally, the names don’t impact me at all. First, I heard the front-runner’s name: Journalism. Are you kidding me? How can I not go with him? One problem: I hate picking front-runners. Part of it is being part of sports radio. From a content standpoint, picking the front-runner is the lowest common denominator. Also, the favorite very rarely wins the Derby. So, I looked at the other names: there was also a Publisher. Good God, I used my Journalism degree to get into self-publishing. Finally, being an X-Men fan since I was a kid, Final Gambit sounded bad-ass too.

So, I just took them in that order: Journalism to win, Publisher to place and Final Gambit to show. That’s the way I would have bet. Lucky for me, my state is dragging its feet in implementing sports betting. This was all before the race. Then, I saw them trot out and got a look at the horses for the first time. I said, out loud, so my family can attest, ‘good God, Sovereignty LOOKS like a champion horse.’ I didn’t change my pick, but I should have. Sovereignty came back to beat Journalism and the rest is history. There is a lesson here, which I will never learn. Even though I don’t know a salt lick about horse racing, how a horse looks sauntering into the gate may not mean everything about chances to win, but it means a hell of a lot more than a name some dumbass human gives it.