From profootballhof.com a picture of the late, legendary Gino Marchetti, presumably on the day of his induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Marchetti died on Monday at the age of 93.
He played for the Baltimore Colts from 1953 to 1964, “retired” and then came back to play in 1966. His pro career actually started for the Dallas Texans in 1952; the Texans folded in the middle of that season and the franchise, what was left of it, was moved to Baltimore for 1953.
Here is a Gino Marchetti story by way of his coach Weeb Ewbank that I recounted in my football book, the one for which Mel Kiper wrote the forward:
“We were having trouble once with a young player from Kent State. He was lining up against Gino in practice and Gino was just going boom, boom—right by him. He told the kid, ‘You’re up too high. Get lower.’ The guy got lower and Gino, with that powerful torso of his, gave him a fake and a shove and knocked the kid down and went by him. The coach told the kid to get even lower. This time Gino went straight at him, put his hands on the kid’s shoulders and leap-frogged over him. The kid said, ‘Now what do I do?’ John Unitas was standing there watching. He said, ‘You just applaud, that’s all.'”
Marchetti was a member of the NFL’s 50th anniversary all-time team, which was announced in 1969. Next season will be the NFL’s 100th, an event the league is hyping to no end. Forrest Gregg, Packers Hall of Fame offensive tackle who passed away very recently, said this about Marchetti, “You ask who was the best … just my opinion, Marchetti was the best all-around player I ever played against. Great pass rusher. Great against the run. And he never let you rest.”
I haven’t mentioned that Marchetti enlisted in the U.S. Army after graduating from high school and fought in the famous Battle of the Bulge during World War II as a machine gunner. The petulant, coddled, moronic pro athletes of today—who seem to be too numerous—should take a lesson from Marchetti’s life.
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In large part due to Bill James’ tweeting the main link to this blog (thanks again, Bill; you can tweet/re-tweet links to the blog anytime), April set a “record” for views in a month. March and April set a “record” for most views in a two-month period. Thanks for reading.
22% of all views in April were on the day of Bill’s tweet and the day after. (OK, not supposed to start a sentence/paragraph with a number; in all honesty I think many people’s eyes would glaze over at “twenty-two.”) In fact, about two percent of all views since I began writing Disaffected Musings occurred on the day of the tweet. This is post number 429 and day number 476 for this blog.
As I note at the end of virtually every post, if you like this blog please keep reading, please let your friends know and please share the blog URL (https://disaffectedmusings.com). Thanks.
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A picture I took of a beautiful 1942 Cadillac Series 62 convertible. Trying to tie this back to Gino Marchetti, 1942 was the last model year for US automobile production until after the end of World War II as manufacturing of cars ceased in February, 1942. Only 308 of these cars were built; about 3,100 were made in 1941.
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A postscript to the portion of yesterday’s post about awful customer service in America: my wonderful wife was not having a good work day, either, so she asked me if I wanted to get The Red Rocket titled in our state and get plates. Actually, *plate* is more accurate as, thankfully, only one plate needs to be displayed on cars where we live.
We have all heard horror stories of trips to the DMV that take hours and hours. We were in and out in 20 minutes and I have never spent more than a half hour at any DMV center in this state. Be thankful for small favors, I guess.
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