maly, too: On Second Thought

Thursday, May 29, 2014

On Second Thought

By RON MALY

After giving the latest Manny Ramirez fiasco more thought, I've changed my mind just a bit.

I originally thought Ramirez, a baseball bum if I ever saw one, should be banned from Des Moines and the state of Iowa, if not the entire midwest.

I guess that's kind of harsh.

Now I think Ramirez should feel free to hang out at Sec Taylor Stadium, but only while being handcuffed to Mike Gartner. All he'll be permitted to do is play with Gartner's bow tie.

Just keep both of their asses [Ramirez's and Gartner's] off the field and out of the suburbs.

If the local Triple-A team lets Ramirez get anywhere near the Chicago Cubs' top prospects--if, indeed, they're still called prospects--Ramirez should be arrested and sent in a Polk County sheriff's car to Cedar Rapids so he can clean up the southeast part of town.

I still think Theo Epstein, the Chicago Cubs' president, is absolutely insane for sending him here to be a player-coach.

I wouldn't permit that clown to talk with anyone on the team, including the people who clean the restrooms in the clubhouse and the rest of the ballpark.

Ramirez apologized yesterday to the Boston Red Sox, one of his past employers, for his rotten behavior, and now he should apologize for being born.

By the way, the paper has changed its position somewhat on Ramirez, too.

When Ramirez's hiring was announced by Epstein, the paper was kind of giddy about the whole deal.

Not until the next day, after noticing that 99 percent of the people in America slammed the idea of Ramirez coming here, and that everyone else in baseball [other than those in the Chicago Cubs' front office] was laughing at the idea, did the paper say it's a risky idea.

How's that for taking a stand?

*

Speaking of the paper, Reid Allen [one of the best athletic business managers Drake University ever had] tells me something funny.

A while back, I ripped the idea of Des Moines building a new $9 million football stadium for its high school football teams.

Asking Des Moines taxpayers to finance a $9 million stadium for public high school teams that would be drubbed by most of this state's 8-man teams is among the stupidest proposals I've ever heard.

The paper wrote about the stadium idea, too, and [naturally] didn't take a position on it.

"Maybe you didn't notice it," Allen told me, "but the last part of that story in the paper was on the obituary page."

That's where the whole thing belonged.

Instead of building a new football stadium for the public schools in Des Moines, the school board should consider fielding flag football teams for both boys and girls. and playing the games at Waterworks Park.

That's about as competitive as the Des Moines schools are in football.

Des Moines teams are so bad that the games they play against suburban powerhouses turn into laughers.

Teams such as Dowling, Valley, Waukee, Johnston, Southeast Polk, Ankeny Centennial, Ankeny and Urbandale can run up 60, 70 or more points against the Roosevelts, Lincolns and Hoovers of central Iowa, clear the benches, implement the "mercy" rule, then get criticized by idiots in the opinion page department at the paper for running up the score.

*

So the old Register building at 8th & Locust might be turned into apartments, offices and a restaurant, huh? How many times have we seen that movie? How the hell many more apartments does downtown Des Moines need? Who's moving there, and why? I want to stay as far away from downtown Des Moines as I can get. You never know who's going to show up down there with a can of kerosene and a match. Ask 'em over there at the burned-down old Younkers building about that.

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.