TunneySide of Sports

On the TunneySide of Sports August 5, 2019, #755 A Tribute To My Brother!

After further review… Tomorrow, August 6^th, my younger brother, Peter, will be 81. While I  often don’t write about my family, I think Pete deserves this special recognition. Our family moved into our new home at 439 N. Daroca, San Gabriel, CA. on August 5, 1938. Pete was born the next day. I was 9 and didn’t fully understand that my mother, Kay, was in immediate birth mode as dad and I moved in the furniture. It is a blessing for me to have such a wonderful family.

My younger sister, Josie and I were the only two children at that time, later to be joined by Pete and then Loretta. Our new home was FHA financed as our dad, Jim Tunney, Sr., was a high school teacher and coach. He had a third job as a basketball and football game official as well as the playground director in the City of Alhambra. Kay was a wonderful homemaker and mother.

As a kid in San Gabriel I was on the Washington Grammar School playground – nine houses away – until dark each day. I wanted to be the best athlete in our family. As I got older, I learned that dad was quite an athlete himself. He attended Loyola High School in Los Angeles which was on the same campus as Loyola College – taught by the Jesuits. The college is now called Loyola-Marymount University, is coed and located in West Los Angeles. When he was a high school senior, dad played on the college team. During his four-years at Loyola College, he was captain of the football, basketball and baseball T*E*A*Ms— all four years. After learning that, I now became the second–best athlete in our family.

Brother Pete was nine years younger, so I would get him to do chin-ups on our clothesline poles in the backyard and race other kids who were 9 and 10. Pete was 6 and beat them all! In his youth, he played on that Washington schoolyard as I had. He went to Alhambra High School, as I had, and was the best football player each of his four years. He was captain of the Moors in his senior year as they won the CIF football championship. Pete also ran track at Alhambra – the 100 and 220. I now became the third-best athlete in our family.

Pete was recruited by Occidental College where he played football and ran track, posting a consistent 100-yd dash time of 9.7. His 4×440 yard relay team still holds the Oxy school record of 40.7. His football days have taken its toll on my brother. But if you asked him today how he’s doin’ “Fine,” he’d say. An injury in his senior year detoured him from Pro football, as well as his athleticism the rest of his life. However, his 40-year career in management of California’s Thoroughbred Racetracks (Hollywood, Del Mar, and Golden Gate) is second-to-none!

Will you comment on someone in your life who deserves to be recognized for athletic abilities?

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Jim’s thirteenth book and the third in a series ‘Yet Another 101 Best of TunneySide of Sports’ was published July 1^st. To order a personally autographed copy with free shipping, please send a check for $20 to Jim Tunney Youth Foundation P.O. Box 1440 Pebble Beach, CA. 93953 or use PayPal.

This offer is available to the continental United States only.

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 To contact Jim, go to JimTunney.com or email Jim@JimTunney.com. Jim’s books are full of inspiration and interesting stories. Please visit his online store to learn more. Be sure to get Jim’s book ‘Another 101 Best of TunneySide of Sports’ by clicking this link or using the email above to contact Jim directly. These TunneySides take issues from real-life situations and relate them as inspiration for the betterment of others. Jim is available for speaking engagements on leadership and T*E*A*M Building. His books are available for $20 which includes shipping and tax. The Tunney Bobblehead is available for $30. Please visit JimTunney.com. Thank you!

On the TunneySide of Sports July 29, 2019, #753 “Robot Umpires”

After further review… Well, you knew that the “Robot Umpires” topic would appear in the TunneySide, didn’t you? The Independent Atlantic League, an American professional baseball league located primarily in Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, used robot umpires in their 2019 All-Star game. Follow to that All-Star game, the I.A.L. announced it will use TrackMan, the Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS), for the balance of the 2019 season. Would you bet that once installed, it’s here to stay?

Lots of questions:

• Do these robots have to take and pass the rules examination required by (even) Little League Umpires?
• What happens to the traditional “Kill the Umpire” (never did like that) that fans scream when a ball/strike call didn’t go their way? Does “Kill the robot” make sense?
• Will this robotic system find its way into the “big show?”

Wimbledon tennis championships use technology for balls landing on or out of the tennis lines. Tennis balls are hit with speeds of over 100 MPH, but then, a pitcher in baseball can achieve that velocity as well. Hmmm!

Let’s look at some history: For many years the National Football League heard from fans, owners, coaches, and others that the league should use “Instant Replay” to determine several plays on the NFL field that game officials were not calling correctly. In 1978 I officiated a Buffalo Bills at Dallas Cowboys pre-season game where the NFL office, accompanied by others, were in a booth at Texas Stadium experimenting with replay. That experiment was delayed for approval until 1986 – 8 years later – since many were uncertain. It was a good thing.

One can see how the use of replay in today’s NFL game has grown. I was in favor of replay  in 1986, but its expansion in today’s game has taken a lot of game-responsibility out of the hands of on-field officials. If this robotic experience appears that it is getting balls and strikes called correctly 100% of the time and it is adopted by MLB, well, as my late friend and baseball announcer, Dr. Dick Enberg, used to say, “Oh, my.”

Sports are games played by human beings, not robots!  Madden 2020 is doing well, but that’s where video games ought to stay – on the screen in your game room! Games of sport are played by people and people, you don’t need to be reminded, are not robots!  People, being human, will make mistakes. If you want to watch something or someone who doesn’t make mistakes, avoid sporting events.

Will you log-in your thoughts about the use of robot umpires?

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Jim’s thirteenth book and the third in a series ‘Yet Another 101 Best of TunneySide of Sports’ was published July 1^st. To order a personally autographed copy with free shipping, please send a check for $20 to Jim Tunney Youth Foundation P.O. Box 1440 Pebble Beach, CA. 93953 or use PayPal.

This offer is available to the continental United States only.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

 To contact Jim, go to JimTunney.com or email Jim@JimTunney.com. Jim’s books are full of inspiration and interesting stories. Please visit his online store to learn more. Be sure to get Jim’s book ‘Another 101 Best of TunneySide of Sports’ by clicking this link or using the email above to contact Jim directly. These TunneySides take issues from real-life situations and relate them as inspiration for the betterment of others. Jim is available for speaking engagements on leadership and T*E*A*M Building. His books are available for $20 which includes shipping and tax. The Tunney Bobblehead is available for $30. Please visit JimTunney.com. Thank you!

On the TunneySide of Sports July 22, 2019, #753 To the Moon and Back!

After further review… During this recent July week (July 20^th to be exact), most of us in the United States of America took a leave from all the political bashing going on in Washington D.C. to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of America’s first Moon landing, Apollo 11, with Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. For many, it recalled what happened in 1969. Sports celebrities, Jim Nantz, Verne Lundquist, Al Michaels, Bob Costas, among others, remembered where they were and what they were doing at that time.

For me, I was principal at Fairfax High (Los Angeles). It was summer school and remember it well.  Most adults remember the excitement of that landing.

The follow-up honor for me was the friendship I was fortunate enough to have with Astronaut Alan Bartlett Shepard in the 1980s.  Commander Shepard was the fifth person to land on the moon with Apollo 14 in 1971. Not only did Shepard walk on the moon, but he also hit four golf balls with a 6-iron he had snuck on board.

In the mid-1980s, I was invited to speak at a Positive Thinking Rally (as it was called then) in Fresno, California. It was a day-long program with some dozen speakers. I was slated to be the second speaker in the morning session. Commander Shepard and his wife Louise were seated in the second row with his presentation scheduled right after the luncheon. It was an honor to be on that program — Dr. Ruth Westheimer was scheduled to follow me. The highlight of the day was George H.W. Bush, the 41^st President on the United States, but at the time was the sitting Vice-President. The final event of the day was singer-dancer-actor Debbie Reynolds. She was terrific.

Commander Shepard and I connected after that since we were both members of the Monterey Peninsula Country Club. We hit balls together on the driving range and even played a round or two. One evening at our country clubs’ special event, we happened to be sitting at the same dinner table. Would you like to have dinner with an Astronaut? Alan was generous with the answers to questions from his table companions. By some coincidence, the four of us, Alan,  Louise, my wife Linda and I walked to the parking lot at the same time.

It was one of those beautiful evenings in Monterey, California and as we reached the parking lot, we were struck by how gorgeous the full moon appeared. Commander Shepard, with no prompting, looked up and said, “Every time I see that I think ‘how could I ever have walked on that son-of-a-bitch.” Typical Alan, who died 21-years ago yesterday. I still miss him.

This is one of my favorite pictures of me together with Alan Shepard.

Will you log-in your memories of the Apollo missions “To the moon and back?”

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Jim’s thirteenth book and the third in a series ‘Yet Another 101 Best of TunneySide of Sports’ was published July 1^st. To order a personally autographed copy with free shipping, please send a check for $20 to Jim Tunney Youth Foundation P.O. Box 1440 Pebble Beach, CA. 93953 or use PayPal.

This offer is available to the continental United States only.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

 To contact Jim, go to JimTunney.com or email Jim@JimTunney.com. Jim’s books are full of inspiration and interesting stories. Please visit his online store to learn more. Be sure to get Jim’s book ‘Another 101 Best of TunneySide of Sports’ by clicking this link or using the email above to contact Jim directly. These TunneySides take issues from real-life situations and relate them as inspiration for the betterment of others. Jim is available for speaking engagements on leadership and T*E*A*M Building. His books are available for $20 which includes shipping and tax. The Tunney Bobblehead is available for $30. Please visit JimTunney.com. Thank you!