With world at coronavirus standstill, some sports images from a well-traveled iPhone
Stranded in the suspended animation of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, many of us have more time on our hands than usual.
Combine that with the sheer unease of the shutdowns all around us and anguish over those who are suffering, and it all makes for a compelling case to pause and take inventory.
If you’re like me, you might tend to appreciate the little pleasures to which we can become oblivious: from the chirping of birds to the clacking of dogs’ nails on sidewalks to long-neglected music to the infectious joy of hearing children play.
And you might look to friends and family, whether they are nearby or far away or a daily presence or long out of touch. Whether directly by phone call or text or Facebook message, etc., or indirectly in who and what we follow on social media — where the better angels of its nature are providing some heartening diversion right now.
And you may make lists, maybe of your favorite things or stuff we need to do or songs that apply to the current climate.
All of this became fused together for me in a Twitter question posed by Ryan Fagan, senior MLB writer for Sporting News/DAZN:
“What’s your favorite sports picture on your phone?”
The question evoked a lot of terrific responses on Ryan’s Twitter feed. And it also moved me to take stock of some amazing memories of people, places and moments that I keep right there with me — snapshots that serve to remind me both how much there is to value in sports and what a privilege this job is.
So with a nod to Ryan and my great friend Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for nudging this idea along, here’s hoping these offer a pleasant respite … and perhaps encouragement to take time to savor some of your own such treasures.
For the most part these are my own crudely engineered photos, but this collection includes the admirable work of photographer colleagues I’ve asked them to send me in the past.
Bittersweet
That man with the glow is Edinson Volquez, near the pitcher’s mound at Citi Field after Game 5 of the 2015 World Series. This scene to me stood for so much of why we love sports. Not just because the Royals had just won their first World Series in 30 years but because of the almost unbearably moving backstory with Volquez.
Seconds before, the trophy had been handed to him by Mike Moustakas, with whom he shared the poignant bond of having recently lost a parent. In the case of Volquez, it had been a matter of days since the death of his father, Danio. That night by the mound, Volquez said, he was buoyed by an unexplainable energy that he felt “coming from the dirt, from the grass, all the way to your head.”
Hoch’s moment
From that same night, this is Luke Hochevar in a photo taken by The Star’s Jill Toyoshiba that mesmerized me. More accurately, it made me mist up. Still does. From being labeled a bust to suffering injuries, Hochevar had been through so much. And now here he was, overcome, the winning pitcher in the clinching game of a World Series — and the symbol of resolve and the embodiment of a beautiful team that was so much more than the sum of its parts.
Family
This photo is from last August, when the family of Joe Delaney met Delaney Neath — who was named in honor of the Chief who died trying to save children from drowning in 1983. The picture was taken by Delaney Neath’s father, Mark, when they all met up before the Delaney family attended a Chiefs game for the first time in years. Something chokes me up every time I think about Joe and his family and the diver who tried to save him, Marvin Dearman, with whom I’ve become friends these last few years. Thirty-seven years after No. 37 died, Marvin is making great progress towards having a monument built in his honor at the site of his death in Monroe, Louisiana. Some day, here’s hoping there will be something of that nature right here in Kansas City.
More family
Here are J’den Cox and his mother, Cathy, singing together shortly before he went to the 2016 Rio Olympics and won a bronze medal in spectacular fashion. … and where my colleague Dave Eulitt took incredible photos that I don’t happen to have on my phone but that you can easily access with a Google search if you aren’t reading this online and able to open the link attached.
Cox, who grew up in Columbia, Missouri, and went to Mizzou, is one of those people from whom you can learn every time you speak. In fact, I don’t believe I’ve read or heard any athlete be more thoughtful about the implications of the coronavirus than he has been. We sometimes look at athletes as one-dimensional, and to me he is an inspiring reminder of how misguided that is.
About time
Here is Chiefs’ great Johnny Robinson in Canton, Ohio, after a private party in his honor the day he was at long last inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Johnny and his family have a special place in my heart.
The year before, amid a movement to finally get him his due launched by AFL Historian Todd Tobias and engaged by the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee, I drove down to Louisiana to see Johnny and learn about the remarkable Boys Home he’s run for nearly 40 years now.
In the process, I came to understand all the challenges he has faced and that his life’s true calling was, in fact, that home. And while getting into the Hall of Fame was meaningful to him, he would be most defined by what he’s done after football.
“Johnny has never dwelt on (the Hall of Fame); he’s a peaceful man and never talks about it,” his wife, Wanda, said. “He was the best, and I think he should be in the Hall of Fame. But he can be content. A lot of people can’t be.”
Still, it was wonderful news when Johnny got the call. And it was great to hug him after this photo was taken.
Offseason outreach
This is Royals’ general manager Dayton Moore, speaking to a prisoner at the Ellsworth Correctional Facility in December 2018. A moment later, Moore put his hand on the man’s shoulder and prayed with him. It was just one way he seemed to connect with the audience that day, a trait I’ve observed in him many times in many situations. He has an uncanny ability to relate and be relatable, because he is sincere. I believe him to be among the most honorable people I’ve ever known, and I hope Kansas City understands what a treasure it has in him.
Shared sorrow
This is a scene in Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic, during the funeral procession for Yordano Ventura days after his death in a car accident in 2017. I’ll always remember this sight along the way to the graveyard, the feeling of worlds joined by tragedy. It was an unreal experience, being there with Star photographer John Sleezer to document the whole day. As noted with Dave Eulitt’s photos in Rio, I’d urge anyone reading this in print to Google the essential images of the day made in a Herculean effort by John — which included his truly amazing grace in being intimately present yet incredibly respectful of personal space.
We were embedded with the Royals from the early morning through a long bus ride into the funeral in a small room in a house Ventura had built and through the procession itself and back. I’ll never forget a nearly convulsed Jarrod Dyson burying his head in Moore’s shoulder, or the comfort Moore lent the family when he took hands and said “we’re proud and honored to share in this sorrow and pain with you.” And what Moore told me when I thanked him for letting us travel with them (a request made through my brilliant colleague and friend Sam Mellinger on the day of Ventura’s death when Moore spoke with Sam in his Atlanta hotel room, a telling point in itself):
He understood that Kansas City needed that day brought to life and documented as much as possible to help heal.
Nice penmanship
Held by its artist, Don Wakamatsu, this is the ornate lineup card for the 2015 All-Star Game in Cincinnati. Wakamatsu was then the bench coach for the Royals, and he took great pride in the impeccable writing inspired by the penmanship of his grandfather and the way he was raised: Whatever you do, do it with care and make it have meaning. That ethic was informed at least in part by his father, Leland, having been born in a California detention camp where his own parents were among the more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans incarcerated after Pearl Harbor. “I like telling this story a lot just for the fact that people aren’t aware of it,” he told me in a 2015 interview. “Let’s not forget what happened.” I think of that, too, when I see this picture.
Presidential moment
This is at the White House when Kansas City native Josh Earnest was press secretary to President Barack Obama. I keep this for a few reasons. First, the inspiring dignity and intelligence and wit of the aptly named Earnest, a longtime Star reader and Chiefs and Royals fan who made a point of seeking out Star sportswriters the fall before when the Royals were at Baltimore for the American League Championship Series. Then he invited the five of us (Sam, Dave, Blair Kerkhoff, Terez Paylor and me) for a lunch and a tour when the Chiefs played at Baltimore in 2015, and who gets to do that?
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But I also keep it because it’s a great reminder of the pure and sustaining thrill of working with the people I get to work with and the adventures we get to share. May you all be so lucky as to have partners like these and so many other exceptional people I’ve gotten to work with.
Golden moment
Speaking of cherished teammates, current and former, here is Dave Eulitt’s photo of Helen Maroulis after she won a wrestling gold medal in Rio. There are a few stories behind this one.
One is that I was at another venue that day when I heard from Dave, who was so moved by her emotional victory that he urged me to try to find a way to write about it. As it happens, the USOC soon announced it would bring her to the Main Press Center for a news conference.
I had known a little about her from some pre-Olympics events. But since she wasn’t local and I wasn’t currently working on anything about women’s wrestling, my “knowledge” was pretty superficial.
It turned out, though, that her story wasn’t just about upsetting Japan’s three-time Olympic champion and 13-time world champ Saori Yoshida — considered by some the best in the history of the women’s sport.
It was about a shy and tentative little girl who couldn’t seem to find herself in other ventures like ballet or diving finally finding her way through all her doubts and self-consciousness and realizing her identity through wrestling ... improbable as that might sound to some. And it was about offering even more meaningful perspective with her triumph:
“Yoshida is an incredible, incredible athlete; the more I studied her, the more it was like, ‘She is not my enemy, no one here is really my enemy,’ ” she said. “God taught me that these are women who want the same thing that you do and are sacrificing the same things that you are.
“It is not about hating that person you are going against, but it is about respecting that person so much that you are going to give your all.”
Visitors
From the fall of 2018, Patrick Mahomes and Chiefs quarterbacks visiting cancer patients at the University of Kansas Medical Center. This was just another way Mahomes has given hope to so many … all the more so since.
Caretaker
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick imparting wisdom and joy on an NLBM tour.
RIP, friend
The late Bryan Burwell, my effervescent colleague at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Respect
From the office of the awe-inspiring Jackie Stiles at Missouri State, a letter to one Kansas legend from another: former K-State football coach Bill Snyder. Before Stiles, one of my favorite athletes and people, moved on to Oklahoma, I took this during a visit to her office in the months after she was recovering from ocular melanoma.
Meeting of minds
Speaking of Jackies … here are Olympic marvel Jackie Joyner-Kersee with Missouri basketball coach Cuonzo Martin at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center in East St. Louis on a day I spent retracing Martin’s childhood.
Selfie
This is Royals catcher Sal Perez taking a selfie before American League Divisional Series playoff game against Houston in 2015.
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Laughs
And here is Perez doing what he did so often: ceaselessly messing with former Royals outfielder Lorenzo Cain, in this case at the 2015 All-Star Game.
Sammy in the Hole
This is my excellent friend and colleague Sam McDowell, in the trenches for the Chiefs’ final game in Oakland last fall.
Blair and Biles
Here is Blair Kerkhoff, a friend and colleague I’d follow anywhere, among media speaking with an emotional Simone Biles before U.S. Gymnastics Championships last year at Sprint Center.
Work ethic
Presenting the Post-Dispatch’s beloved Jim Thomas, who was covering Mizzou when I was in grad school and made me (and many others) feel like I somehow belonged. His work ethic is unparalleled, and his spirit for the work infinite. I idolized him then. I still do.
Duff Man
The Royals’ Danny Duffy, then and now, in pictures presented by his family on a trip to his hometown of Lompoc, California. A real and wonderful guy who comes from real and wonderful parents who know that dogs make the world a better place.
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Lil’ Whit
The Royals’ Whit Merrifield, then, in a picture presented by his family on a trip to his hometown of Advance, North Carolina. And I hear an echo: A real and wonderful guy who comes from real and wonderful parents who know that dogs make the world a better place.
The Comet
The great Gale Sayers, at his home in Wakarusa, Indiana, in 2017 as he battles dementia. One of the saddest stories I’ve ever encountered, but it was important to the family to clarify what had been happening with Gale and to try to create awareness. I think often of Gale, the “Kansas Comet,” and his wife, Ardie.
The runner
My wife, Cindy, in her marathoning prime. Seeing her in the first one she ran, Chicago 1999, was one of the best days of my life. Screamed her name like Rocky calling for Adrian as she came down the stretch.
Special day
My wonderful parents, Clare and Vartan, fall of 1982 on senior day at Penn, where I was a seldom-seen wide receiver nonetheless proud to be part of something bigger than me and still gratified by all the ongoing friendships. This week would have been my parents’ 60th anniversary. My mother died in 2018, but I still feel her looking at me this way most every day.
This story was originally published March 27, 2020 at 5:00 AM.