Norm Benning - Modern Day Last American Hero?

NASCAR returned to dirt track racing for the first time in over 40 years on Wednesday night at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. The night was a huge success for NASCAR in terms of fan excitement, ticket sales, television ratings, social media output, etc. I don’t have the exact numbers, but I’m willing to bet this race was the most-watched race in the almost 20 year history of the Camping World Truck Series.

The race itself was entertaining and surprisingly low on carnage, with the truck series regulars picking up the art of racing on dirt without having too many wrecks or cautions. Unsurprisingly the race was won by one of the so-called “dirt ringers,” though one who also had much experience and success in the truck series, 2011 series champion Austin Dillon.

However, the most exciting part of racing on the dirt at Eldora came before the main event, during the qualifying race called the LCQ or last chance qualifier. Only 30 trucks would make the main event. Twenty-five had already locked themselves in via owner’s points and five heat races. That left 10 trucks fighting for the final five spots into the race. This lead to one of the most epic racing battles I’ve ever seen in NASCAR period, and believe it or not it wasn’t for first place, but merely fifth place – the last position that would qualify a driver into the main.

The battle was between two guys who regularly compete in the truck series, but with underfunded equipment that is often forced to start and park and almost never can compete with the big boys of the series. Those drivers were 61-year old veteran Norm Benning and 29-year old Clay Greenfield. The battle lasted basically the entire 15-lap LCQ, but really got exciting in the final few laps with Benning realizing he had to hold off Greenfield to make the show and Greenfield doing everything he could, included potentially wrecking Benning to also make the show. The two rubbed and scraped and made so much contact that their trucks would almost be spent by the end of the LCQ, but it didn’t really matter because the winner would go on and the loser would go home. It’s an image and excitement that my words can’t truly describe, so you must go to YouTube and watch it for yourself. 

Benning eventually held off Greenfield in one of the most riveting final laps of racing I have ever seen and again it was only for fifth place to make the big race. His intensity and hard driving in the LCQ just goes to show the casual NASCAR fan that even these guys who struggle to make races and compete with higher funded teams are true wheelmen. Norm Benning is the true American underdog story who has worked his butt off for years to simply get to where he is now. He may have only finished 26^th out of 30 drivers in the main race, but he put on the best show of the night just getting into it. He also got his name trending nationwide on Twitter … not bad for an old vet who most had never heard of going into the night.    

ESPN Blatantly Stumping for Yasiel Puig to Make All Star Game is Wrong

Media are supposed to be objective. They aren’t supposed to take sides on news stories or events when giving straightforward news. There, of course, are editorials in which media can give informed opinions on such topics. Sometimes the line between being objective and editorializing is crossed though by media.

ESPN, the nation’s biggest sports medium, has crossed the line lately by appearing completely subjective in its attempts to get Los Angeles Dodgers phenom rookie outfielder Yasiel Puig into next week’s Major League Baseball All Star Game.

Last Saturday the All Star Game rosters were announced and Puig was left off of the initial National League roster, but was selected as one of five players in the Final Five vote by N.L. skipper Bruce Bochy. Despite playing in only 34 games this season, even less at the time of the roster announcement, it seemed like Puig would be a lock to win the Final Five vote over arguably more deserving players like Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman, Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, Washington Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond and San Francisco Giants outfielder Hunter Pence. However, after the first few voting totals came in Puig was ranked second in the voting behind Freeman.

Puig has quite possibly been the best player in all of baseball since he entered the league just over a month ago. He’s hit a whopping .407 with eight home runs and 19 RBI. He would probably be mesmerizing to watch play in the midsummer classic, but does a small sample size of 34 major league games warrant him being an all star over someone like Freeman who has more experience, not only this season but career-wise, and has all star worthy numbers in his own right with a .305 average, nine homers and 56 RBI, which is good enough for ninth in the National League ahead of all stars like Pedro Alvarez, Troy Tulowitzki, Buster Posey, Andrew McCutchen, Joey Votto, David Wright and many more.

Do to Puig only playing in about half the games that guys like Freeman have and to the fact that the MLB All Star Game is merely an exhibition game the question of which one of these players should make the game really is a subjective one. However, it should be a subjective one made by the fans. They should be the ones deciding whether or not they think Puig should make the game or should not, because he may not have enough time in the league in their opinion. Thankfully, they get to choose.

However, the media shouldn’t be trying to influence their opinion on shows like “SportsCenter,” ESPN’s answer to the nightly news, which should remain objective for the most part. On editorial shows like “Pardon the Interruption,” “Around the Horn” and many others on the ESPN networks trying to influence opinion isn’t really wrong, but the way the network/shows sometimes go about it, especially of late, is somewhat infuriating and biased.

However, there is a difference between editorial shows showing bias and straight news outlets like “SportsCenter” showing bias. When “SportsCenter” stumps to get Puig into the All Star Game as they’ve blatantly been trying to do for some reason (most likely ratings) much of this week it truly borders on journalistic malpractice. “SportsCenter” shouldn’t have a rooting interest in who wins the National League Final Vote, and notice they only care about the National League vote and where Puig is in relation to the leading vote getter in the category. The show shouldn’t care if the winner is Puig or Freeman or any one of the other three players in the category. It’s the show’s duty to report the winner of the vote, not influence it.

The Final Five vote will come to an end later this afternoon and it wouldn’t surprise me if Puig has surpassed Freeman in the voting by then to take the final slot on the National League roster. If he does ESPN should pat themselves on the back, because they would have played a big role in getting Puig on the team, after all, all we’ve heard about for half a week now is how Puig should be on this team and not Freeman, Gonzalez, Desmond or Pence.        

Dwight Howard Haters ... Why the Hate?

Dwight Howard announced late last week that he would be signing with the Houston Rockets to join an up and coming team that, while likely not the favorite going into the next season, will certainly be a team that can make waves and have a shot at the title. I know that in the last season or two Howard has seemingly replaced perennial MVP LeBron James as the most hated player in the NBA and that hatred has only been magnified by Howard opting to leave the Lakers, the most popular team in the NBA. 

However, I’ve got to ask the haters. Why are you hating on this guy? This is probably going to be a controversial statement, but Dwight Howard has been one of the NBA’s five best players of the last decade. He’s a triple-time NBA Defensive of the Player of the Year Award winner and likely isn’t finished with that award; he’s a perennial All-Star and a guy who probably should’ve won a previous Most Valuable Player Award. He’s the best center in the game, bar none, and probably has the best personality of any generally hated player I’ve ever seen. Those are all reasons why you should respect Howard, but not really reasons why you shouldn’t hate him. After all, people hate great players all the time.

Here are the two main reasons you shouldn't hate him:

The biggest reason people seem to loathe Dwight Howard is because of his indecisiveness. The guy has shown a big propensity to not be able to clearly make up his mind. But, my question to his haters is … can you? Most of the people I know, particularly of my generation – which makes up a large number of today’s sports fans, can’t make up their minds about the smallest of everyday things like what they want to eat or watch on television. Yet, many of these same people expect that Dwight Howard should automatically or quickly make up his mind on the biggest decision of his life? Come on, guys, you’re being a little bit too harsh on the big fella.

The second reason – or newest reason – many people seem to hate Howard is because he’s perceived to have jilted everybody’s seemingly favorite team the Los Angeles Lakers and Lakers fans are aimlessly offended that he’d do so – it is America’s team after all. But, here’s what Lakers fans and any other fans annoyed that Howard would leave L.A. are failing to realize … the Lakers are a sinking ship and one that’s sinking incredibly fast at that. This team is not going to be a playoff team next year – hell, they were barely a playoff team this year with Howard and a mostly healthy Kobe Bryant. It’s a team that there’s really no telling when they will be competitive again. And, if you’re a free agent looking to make an incredibly large sum of money and want to try to win a title at the same time, it’s simply not the place for you to be right now. Signing with the Houston Rockets was simply a good career move for Howard and if you can’t see that you’ve probably got your biased sports fan blinders on.

So, there’s really no reason to hate Dwight Howard based on his play (he’s one of the best in the league), there’s no reason to hate him for his indecisiveness (it really is rampant in this country among many) and there’s no reason to hate him for bolting on the Lakers (he made the smart move). So, again, I must ask the Dwight Howard haters … Why the hate?