On the eve of Mother’s Day, I appreciate learning from the Master.
Mom passed on lots to me—my love for people (especially kids) ,my height, my sensitivity and most of all an unmatched enthusiasm for things big and small.
Yes we would get excited about simply sharing a dessert but she also passed down to me the fine art of throwing birthday parties where she had no peer.
Whether it was my “Fonz” party in elementary school or countless ones thereafter—my birthdays were a big deal to her and I always knew it. Funny, she would only let me eat sugar cereals on my birthday–so I still think it’s a big deal to buy them at the grocery store to this day…..
April always runs the spectrum when it comes to birthdays as my youngest daughter’s is on April 2nd and then you have my Dad on April 29th. Both are just as important yet obviously very different.
When do you have your last birthday party? When are you too cool to plan them anymore? For my oldest the swan song happened when she was 13…..I know I’ll miss these days….
I’m hoping since my youngest (seen here) just turned 13 this won’t be it—but I get it and fully expect this could be the last time we sing Happy Birthday and blow out the candles. Call me dorky, it doesn’t matter—if this was it, I’ll be sad—hopefully one day they include the ole man in their plans for the grandkids.
A lot can happen with teenagers especially once they turn 13–so I’m not sure what the future holds. Dad isn’t as cool as he used to be and neither is blowing out candles or buying balloons or deciding cake or cookie……
I’ll be on standby if she’s game–but am fully preparing for this being our last birthday bash. We had a tremendous run though, one I enjoyed to the fullest in large part because of the great Mom I had–I’m thankful she passed on the Birthday gene to me.
Birthday parties our first stop in another trip around the Naborhood–as always thanks for stopping by.
DRAFT LEFTOVERS: Another NFL Draft is history and I once again loved it. How could you not love UCF’s Shaquem Griffin making it to the big time, so many great stories.
It’s such an interesting experience where so many people are wrong about so many athletes.—especially the quarterbacks. Teams are so desperate when it comes to that position, they take way too many chances hoping this could be the guy to turn it around–it’s tempting yet often misguided.
I love the Baker Mayfield story—how could you not? The guy wasn’t recruited by anybody after a great prep career in Austin, Texas yet still walked on at Texas Tech and Oklahoma and becomes a starter at both schools then wins the Heisman. Former Sooners Head Coach Bob Stoops didn’t know Mayfield was on campus for months?! I’ve never seen anything like it and I’m pulling for him—yet I wouldn’t have drafted him number one overall.
If I’m Cleveland and had their history of Quarterbacks—I sign a proven veteran like Case Keenum and then with the top pick and the fourth overall–go with the likely “sure things” in Saquon Barkley and Bradley Chubb.
Which leads us back to sure things—that’s the tricky part of this NFL Draft. How many times have we heard this will be a “generational player” only to have them not panning out. I covered Reggie Bush when he was supposed to be a “generational player” for the Saints back in 2006—he had a good career but not a great one.
Barkley may be different but here’s the thing—nobody knows. The Browns drafted Georgia running back Nick Chubb at the beginning of the second round—it will be interesting to see whose career is better.
That is the fun part of the NFL Draft. For every Mayfield you have a Jake Locker, a Blaine Gabbert or a Christian Ponder—or maybe just maybe–Mayfield will be the next Drew Brees.
The odds are against him, but he’s beaten the odds his whole life….this is why the draft is one of my favorites.
CADDYSHACK BOOK: It’s a classic movie which like many had a terrible sequel but the book should be a big hit. The upcoming release of “Caddyshack, The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story,” by Chris Nashawaty is interesting on a lot of levels.
Reading an excerpt in a recent Sports Illustrated article—you found a lot of fun nuggets, I can only imagine how good this book is. Here’s a few:
*Don Rickles was considered before Rodney Dangerfield for the part of Al Czervik. I love Rickles but Rodney made this movie. The crew will tell you that Dangerfield couldn’t play a lick of golf and quit after one lesson. He also did a lot of drugs and didn’t know how to act. Legendary Director Harold Ramis would often instead of “action” before a scene say “Rodney, do your bit,” as Dangerfield had no idea what he was doing. At the end of the day, Dangerfield was unhappy saying he lost money where he could have made more in the gigs he cancelled in Vegas while shooting the movie. The truth is this gig restarted his career.
*The movie was supposed to be shot in Illinois but the studio wanted it shot in the fall, so they looked into California before finally picking the Rolling Hills (now Grande Oaks Golf Club) in Davie Florida.
*I mentioned Dangerfield wasn’t a golfer, no one was in this cast save Bill Murray. Chevy Chase preferred tennis and the actor who played young Danny Noonan, Michael O’Keefe who beat out Mickey Rourke played golf every day for six weeks before filming to get his game right.
*Bill Murray brought his golf game and his improv game where he did his entire “Cinderella story” scene in one take. Impressive.
Interesting stuff—can’t wait to read the entire book. Caddyshack, the gift that keeps on giving.
PGA’s “SPAULDING” : 
Speaking of Golf—the PGA tour finally has something they’ve needed for some time now and no I’m not talking about Tiger Woods winning a major.
They have their Spaulding— their villain—every sport needs one and the PGA has it in Masters Champ Patrick Reed .In a field of endless and often nameless bland personalities, Reed brings the kind of swag this sport has lacked for a long time. Ok, Spaulding had zero swag but bare with me. Nascar still misses Dale Earnhardt and most recently Tony Stewart but now the PGA has their own in this guy….
Why do we love our new villain??? Let us count the ways.
Reed has the confidence to join Tiger and wear red shirts on Sunday, he was cocky enough to say he was a top five golfer after only winning a handful of tournaments. Reed has a Spaulding like physique, one which makes Phil Mickelson look svelte–how can you not like a PGA golfer who takes pictures in a Chick Fil A Drive Thru….
Reed has his share of bad boy baggage–he was kicked off the Georgia golf team for numerous rules violations and was almost shown the door at his second stop at Augusta State where he wasn’t popular with teammates. Several reports have him not getting along with family members too.
He’s not perfect but golf needs Patrick Reed—now if we can only get him in the final round with Tiger—that would be PGA gold!
SHAQ’S EMPIRE: You hear so many stories about athletes losing their fortunes—well leave it to Shaq to come out bigger than most once again. In a great story recently on HBO’s Real Sports, it gave several examples why to his credit, Shaq is bigger than ever—at least monetarily.
The most Shaq made in an NBA season was 30 million dollars–well these days he’s one of the few athletes who is making more thanks to his entrepreneurial ways. He’s done it by investing in many ways and picking his spots where he insists they are all products he enjoys.
For instance, he bought a Krispy Kreme in Atlanta and plans on opening up more around the country. In a telling investment, Shaq wanted to buy a security system for his house but when they charged too much, he partnered with a much smaller company, “Ring” which he then endorsed and preceded to buy a share of the company. They have since been purchased by Amazon for over a billion–nice move.
From teaming up with Carnival Cruise Lines to children’s books and countless others–the story also chronicled how O’Neal bring all his business interests to Atlanta every year for a “Shaq Summit” where he meets with the CEO’s and sales representatives for all the products he owns.
That’s a different road post sports and a smart one, give credit to the Big Man who could have dribbled away with his TV job and never looked back, clearly he wanted more.
NOBODY ASKED ME, BUT : Speaking of creating options. I have one foot in my reporting and the other in my production company, Nabors Media Group. We are constantly trying to create new options and one area where our world’s have collided is the formation of a brand new website: pewterpirates.com which covers the Tampa Bay Bucs in an innovative way.
Many sites have mostly written and brief video content but we are the other way around. With the ever changing media landscape where newspapers are nearly extinct and local, regional and national TV outlets are suffering countless cutbacks–we want to give the fans what they crave. Extended Vlogs which recap the Bucs in a fashion the diehard fans can absorb providing extended sound from players and coaches along with deeper analysis from my partner longtime Bucs beat writer Roy Cummings.
Our ability to produce most recently seven shows around the Bucs’ NFL Draft along with our extensive coverage year round is something the fans deserve and we’re excited about giving to them.
If you want to subscribe to pewterpirates.com how about this–it’s free–just log on to our site. We appreciate your support.
EXTRA POINT: So the Karate Kid is back….this could be entertaining…..?!
UNTIL NEXT BLOG,
Mike Nabors
@mikenabors
PHOTO CREDITS: Orion, The Film Spectrum, IMGflip, TV Tropes, coloringmesh.us, USA Today, SNY, NBC Sports & WSB-TV