FA Cup semifinal update

And in other fighting news, yesterday's FA Cup semifinal match between Wigan and Millwall featured a battle between Millwall supporters and police, with predictable reactions from the press. I'm not sure who will end up being the poster child for this particular outbreak of fan violence-- the frightened girl or the grinning man fleeing with the police officer's hat.

Picture of the day

This is Nesta, but the reporter thinks it is Inzaghi

In May of 2007, Milan defeated Liverpool 2-1 in the Champions League final in Athens. The hero of the match was Filippo Inzaghi, who scored both of Milan's goals. Afterwards, reporters were eager to ask Inzaghi a few questions.

An official announcement from AC Milan

After Milan's 1-1 tie versus Atalanta yesterday, rumors spread that the club had ordered players not to speak to the press. Today, the club made the following announcement:

A.C. MILAN OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

10/5/2009

AC Milan announces that it never stopped its members from doing interviews in yesterday's game at Bergamo and restate that both the assistant coach Mauro Tassotti and some players gave declarations which appeared in the media.

What I have been reading lately #32

Eight is Enough by Tom Braden

I just finished reading Tom Braden's autobiographical book about parenting, Eight is Enough. Tom Braden was a newspaper columnist and publisher and also had a large family, including eight children. The book is about Braden's experiences being a father. The book served as the basis for the popular television show of the same name that was on the air in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Above: Tom Braden and his real-life family

Below: The Bradford family from the television show

While the book is very similar to the television show, there are some important differences:

• In the television show, the family's last name is changed from Braden to Bradford.
• In the book, the family lives in Virginia, Maryland, and southern California. In the television program, they live in Sacramento, California.
• In the television show, the mother (Joan) dies and is replaced by a step-mother (Abby). This was due to the unfortunate death of the actress playing the mother during the first season of the show and did not happen in the book.
• In the television show, Tom Bradford is pretty much a regular guy working as a columnist for a Sacramento newspaper. In the book, we find out that Tom Braden and his wife Joan were friends with such noted people as Robert Kennedy, Jack Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, Jack Valenti, Yitzhak Rabin, William O. Douglas, Edward Bennett Williams, and Henry Kissinger.
• In the book, Braden is critical of the Nixon administration and tentatively accepts many of the counter-cultural changes that took place in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The television show generally steered clear of such potentially controversial topics.

Above: Robert Kennedy

Below: Yitzhak Rabin

Below: Henry Kissinger talking on the telephone

One thing that is not mentioned in the book is the fact that Tom Braden was at one point a CIA operative and participated in anti-communist efforts as a journalist during the Cold War (including once publishing an article in the Saturday Evening Post entitled "Why I'm Glad the CIA is Immoral").

Below: The opening of Eight is Enough from Season Two. Notice that they have started using the signature theme song yet.

Update on the beer-throwing Cubs fan

As reported earlier, on Wednesday night a Cubs fan threw beer at Philadelphia Phillies centerfielder Shane Victorino. Another fan was blamed for the incident, which allowed the real culprit to escape. Later, however, he turned himself in to police and now faces some kind of criminal charges.

The fan's name is Johnny Macchione, and he has been very apologetic about what happened. At least one public relations expert thinks that Macchione has done a very good job at handling the incident. The fan who was inaccurately blamed for the incident is actually the cousin of Macchione's friend. Both men have subsequently spoken to Chicago media about what happened.

A Sad Death Goes Practically Unnoticed

Last month, St. Louis Steamers' superstar goalie Slobo Ilijevski died while playing in a men's over 55 soccer tournament in Bellingham, WA, an hour north of Seattle. Slobo was playing in the United States Adult Soccer Association (USASA) Veteran's Cup for the Kutis team, which represented Missouri in the tournament. Slobo began to suffer pain after making a save and doctors discovered he had ruptured the wall of his aorta. He died several hours later.

I have many fond memories of the Steamers, St. Louis' franchise in the MISL (Major Indoor Soccer League), as do many, many people from St. Louis. With Slobo as goalie, the Steamers reached the MISL finals three times ('81, '82, and '84) and were consistent fan favorites. I am sure Slobo will be sorely missed by his numerous family members, friends, and fans.

One disturbing aspect of this sad event, however, is that it received absolutely no mention outside of the St. Louis media (for an article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, click here : http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/othersports/story/1D15C6881E34DEB38625748700558F82?OpenDocument.) Neither of the daily Seattle newspapers (the Times and the Post-Intelligencer) nor the Bellingham Herald mentioned the event, and, perhaps most bizarrely of all, the official website of the United States Adult Soccer Association made no mention at all of the fact that a player in one of their tournaments (who was also an MISL superstar!) had died while playing in a match.

Even if many choose not to acknowledge the untimely death of this outstanding goalie, we here at Ape Canyon News Service would like to take a moment to recognize the passing of a St. Louis sports legend.