Wet, wet, wet
A brief, hydro-powered "sports" newsletter.
Well, that was a long, long weekend and due to circumstances well beyond my control, I barely watched any sport other than a few random plays from yesterday’s AFC and NFC championship games1.
I won’t bore you with weather-related details because by the standards of thousands of other Aucklanders we got off extremely lightly, but following a three-hour trip from the CBD to my home on Friday (it normally takes 25-40 minutes depending on traffic), I arrived home to the sight of a river running down my driveway, the source of which was my garage/ basement area, and my daughter and neighbours manfully trying to redirect the water.
Since then it has been a case of drying out - not easy when the rain won’t stop - and biffing stuff into a skip. Thankfully, we’ve lost nothing we need, but this preamble is really just my way of saying I took my eye off the ball, the court, the field and pretty much anything else to do with fun and games this weekend. From Friday through till now, I barely watched any live sport, I didn’t engage with sports journalism, with highlights packages or with podcasts. There was enough actual toxic sludge in Auckland without having to take in more on Twitter.
I did read though, finishing an entire (unauthorised) biography in one sitting on Sunday night as I couldn’t sleep, frequently getting up to see if the rain had again breached our brick-and-tile defences. It hasn’t yet (fingers crossed). I suppose I could have been watching the second T20I between India and the Black Caps on the “shocker of a wicket” at that time, but after a couple of overs I realised my heart wasn’t in it and went back to the book.
I plan to do a lot more reading. One of the reasons I was in the CBD on Friday was to visit Unity Books, which was already my favourite Auckland bookshop and is even more so now after meeting owner Jo McColl.
With Jo’s help, I’m going to soon revive Midweek Book Club and the first subject for review will be Alan Shipnuck’s rollicking read on Phil Mickelson, one of golf’s most polarising figures.
P.S. Many thanks to the brilliant Brett Phibbs for the lead image.
The Big Issues
There are some sports stories I would be remiss to ignore though. At the top of the list is tennis, and I’m not necessarily talking about Aryna Sabalenka’s breakthrough or Novak Djokovic’s record-equalling redemption tour.
Djokovic’s game is so much ahead of any of the young contenders, with the exception of the absent Carlos Alcaraz that this was a one-sided procession. Still, the tournament as a whole left me cold, which is a shame as it’s my favourite tennis fortnight of the year.
The biggest tennis story of the week for Aucklanders was mayor (and I use that title under caution) Wayne Brown being unable to make his match because of “media drongos” and that pesky flooding. The story did at least throw up this droll tweet.
Campbell Johnstone revealing that he is gay was interesting and perhaps it is a positive indictment on where we are as a society in that it wasn’t quite as “interesting” as it would have been a few short years ago.
“If I can be the first All Black that comes out as gay and take away the pressure and stigma surrounding the issue it can actually help other people,” Johnstone said. “Then the public will know that there is one amongst the All Blacks and it could be one of the final pieces in the puzzle sports-wise that gives everyone closure.”
As a little backstory, about five or six years ago, the New Zealand Herald was getting ready to write the same Johnstone story that TVNZ last night broke. It wasn’t my yarn so I don’t know the details about why it fell over, but I’m guessing the former All Black prop had a change of heart and the fact it has taken so long for him to feel comfortable about going public shows what a momentous decision it is for sportsmen.
It’s an important day for Johnstone, it’s an important day for New Zealand rugby and, hopefully, it’s just another step on a path towards this sort of news not being news at all - much like womens sport where there have been many openly gay athletes across a wide range of sports.
On a related topic, one of the more interesting feature pieces I worked on at the Herald was a deep dive into the life of Pat Vincent, a former All Black captain, one of the most influential figures in US rugby history and, by all accounts, an extraordinary man. Here are a couple of paragraphs of that feature that seem more resonant today.
Although this interest [in Vincent’s sexuality] might seem prurient, it is not. The fascination belongs in the fact that despite there being close to 1200 All Blacks throughout history, none have been openly gay.
It is statistically improbable for that to be the case, so you look at the reasons why, despite New Zealand being proud of its diverse, inclusive society, its most iconic sporting brand remains without a gay male totem. You also can’t help but wonder if the “normalisation” of homosexuality in New Zealand would take a great leap forward if it was acknowledged that there have been gay players in their past and, undoubtedly, in their future.
After the storm in a tee-cup, of course the Dubai Desert Classic had to come down to a battle between the LIV’s Patrick Reed and the PGA’s Rory McIlroy. Great passive-aggressive winner’s quote too.
“I’m going to enjoy this. This is probably sweeter than it should be or needs to be,” McIlroy said.
Because nobody asked for it…
Here are my Top 5 rain-songs playlist:
1. “Rain”, The Beatles (1966)
The gold standard from which all other songs about precipitation will be judged. Never made it to a studio album and was in fact the B-side to the inferior “Paperback Writer”, which just goes to show how the Beatles could pull great songs out their backside when required. “Rain” features Ringo Starr’s best work.
Key lines: If the rain comes/ They run and hide their heads/ They might as well be dead
2. “Purple Rain”, Prince (1984)
God knows what the song means but it sounds great and has added poignancy as the last song Prince performed live before his death in 2016. To show there is no justice in the charts, it was kept from No1 by Wham!’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”.
Key lines: Purple rain, purple rain/ I only want to see you bathing in the purple rain
3. “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”, Bob Dylan (1963)
Pretty grim fare this, as you can gather from the lyrics. Robert Zimmerman was 21 when he wrote this!
Key lines: Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son?/ Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?/ I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’/ I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest/ Where the people are many and their hands are all empty/ Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
4. “Fool in the Rain”, Led Zeppelin (1979)
Most Led Zep fans would vote for 1973’s “The Rain Song”, but I prefer this Samba shuffle from their final studio album, In Through the Out Door. They never played this live as the song is held together by John Paul Jones’ piano and bass, and he couldn’t play both at the same time on stage… oh and because drummer John Bonham died a year later and they broke up.
Key lines: I’ll run in the rain till I’m breathless/ When I’m breathless I’ll run ’til I drop/ And the thoughts of a fool’s kind of careless/ I’m just a fool waiting on the wrong block
5. “Rain”, Dragon (1983)
Played so often at New Zealand sports grounds by DJs with no imagination that it’s reached ubiquity levels, but that shouldn’t detract from the fact it’s a great melding of thumping Oz Rock with ’80s synth pop.
Key lines: Is it any wonder, the streets are dark/ Is it any wonder, we fall apart/ Day after day straight rain falls down
Honourable mentions: “Dry the Rain”, Beta Band; “November Rain”, Guns and Roses
Dishonourable mentions: “It’s Raining Men”, The Weather Girls; “Rain Must Fall”, Queen
Hone Tuwhare poem Rain should be up there somewhere I recall reading someone had done as a song................!?
Sunday Rain by Foo Fighters deserves a mention. The late, great Taylor Hawkins handles vocals while his drum throne is kept warm by a surprisingly able Sir Paul McCartney