Falling from Grace

So I guess tomorrow is supposed to be the Kentucky Derby. The only way I knew was that Mike and Mike were doing a remote from Churchill Downs. Does anyone really care about the Derby? Seriously, anyone, anyone?

My parents grew up in the 1950's and 1960's when some things had relevance. Horse racing and boxing were a few examples. My mother grew up watching horse racing, along with golf, so she takes notice when the Derby is on television. Apart from that, you'll never see my mother at an OTB laying down some green on a horse for the fifth race.

Boxing is another sport fallen from grace. Does anyone really care about it anymore? Since Mike Tyson went insane, boxing has been a total mess. Don King kept ruining fights and fighters. Evander Holyfield seeming to keep popping up in the heavy weight champion stages ever few years (despite being too old to really seem logical).

Oscar De La Hoya's fight with Floyd Mayweather was being promoted by Sports Illustrated as "The Fight to Save Boxing". I don't honestly believe that would possibly happen. Especially since people tend to think of Mayweather as a soft person, "a bitch", to people who talk to the contributors to Sal's 401K. Then going to De La Hoya, apart from releasing an album and dressing in drag (wish I made that up), he's a shell of a fighter he was years ago.

Now, I don't watch boxing all that often, but many people bring up the same complaints that are really idiotic. Some non-sports guys usually rule that the only reason no one watches boxing is because it's two black guys slugging it out. First off, I didn't say this, so don't get mad at me. But if you really want to play the race card on this, you're stupid. Okay, so maybe no white American has been attempting to fight for the heavyweight belt, but let's grow up here.

The fact remains, boxing is dull because people don't like the sport. In an age where hockey violence is chastise, along with boxing for being too violent, people are turned off. Combine that with dumb pay-per-view packages that no one wants to pay for a three round knock out, no one feels that the fighting is worth the money and effort.

Now going back to horse racing. Seabiscuit was the horse that saved America from the Depression. I guess Babe Ruth did nothing of the sort from the 20's to the 40's. Of course apart from Secretariat, War Emblem and Zippy Chippy, who honestly remembers a horse. I hate, no abhor, horse names, they are so juvenile and pointless. Some day there might be a horse with 5-1 odds in the Derby names Seymour Butts. Maybe Matt Groening owns it, who cares, it's not the point.

I worked at a grocery store, along with zooberstar, during high school and college that was located near a race track. Seeing the clientèle of both establishments really makes you think of going to high school, graduating and then going to college. These people are not the types of people who go home and sip brandy, discussing economic structures of Europe. It's along the lines of drinking Milwaukee's Best and talking about which chick on Deal or No Deal has bigger tits.

And I'm going to safely bet, it's like that at every race track in America. People go to tracks with hopes of hitting it big, make some money. When they lose... and they do, they drown themselves in alcohol to dull the pain.

Then America wants everyone to take time and remember Barbaro, a horse that no one really knew, personally and shed a tear, because he "captivated America". I remember that race, I was home from college and my mom was a little shocked, but then she said, "Well, at least they didn't have to shoot him on the track."

Bravo.

Yes, I guess back in the day, if a horse came up limp and they weren't going to spend millions of dollars to rehabilitate it, like anyone else would have, they would just shoot the animal dead. Now, as a member of a family that shows no emotion, I could not find it in myself to feel bad for a horse. I really was amazed that one of my friend's had a roommate that cried for a week, when Barbaro went to the great racetrack in the sky. A week, seriously, she didn't know the horse. If your father dies, I could see shedding a tear for that, but not a horse, not even a Triple Crown winner (unless its Carl Yastrzemski).

So people I say to you, who really cares about horse racing or boxing? Discuss.

Sal Fasano says: He was traded to Elmer's glue after Barbaro died for a case of wood glue to save Rob Nenn's career.