Follow-up foursome
Checking in on 99.99-year-old Jimmy Carter, my free throw shooting godfather, my two failed attempts to see the White Sox make history, and another memorable Jon Bon Jovi moment.
As we reach the end of 2024’s third quarter, it’s time for a follow-up of prior Inside Edge columns across four fronts:
Jimmy Carter at 99.99
Seven months ago, when I was working on the draft of my visit to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, I wondered if Carter would pass away before I pressed “send” to subscribers.
As I wrote back then: “The weekend of my visit Carter was marking the first anniversary of his going into hospice care—which came several years after treatment with a cutting-edge immune-boosting drug helped him beat brain cancer.”
If you’d asked me the likelihood that he wouldn’t make it to his 100th birthday on October 1st, I’d have put it at 99.99%. Today he is 99.99 years old and I’m not the only one who is taking notice. Check out this JC100 Fun Run poster.
One of Carter’s goals is to live long enough to vote for Kamala Harris in the Presidential election, as multiple media outlets, including People, have reported.
With the Peach State among the hotly contested swing states, wouldn’t it be poetic if Carter’s vote made the difference?
`Free Throw Shooting Godfather’
Exactly 52 Saturdays ago, I wrote about Tom Steury, whom I dubbed my “free throw shooting godfather.”
How I ended my column:
“His 1 millionth make was by no means a finish line—it was just a step along the way. He’s now setting his sights on a few new goals: lifting his cumulative accuracy from 92.86% to 93.0% and making his 1,100,000th free throw. Based on his recent pace, he may well achieve both over the next 18 months.”
Well, Tom’s still going strong at the free throw line---if anything, he’s grown stronger. He went 286 consecutive days shooting free throws before taking a four-day break in late July.
He surpassed 1,100,000 makes in May and surged over 93% cumulatively in June. His current tallies: 1,148,927 makes out of 1,234,700 attempts.
As my awareness of those data points would suggest, we’ve kept in touch through e-mails—plus Tom has given me access to his spreadsheet, which I check occasionally.
He continues to serve as an inspiration to me—last night I made 369 of 400 attempts right-handed (92%) and 130 of 150 left-handed (87%) as I close in on my 200,000th attempt1 since I began my ambidextrous free throw stat tracking in 2007.
Sox stave off history…for a few days
In last week’s column, I mentioned my rather odds-defying streak of seeing three straight Chicago White Sox home wins over a three-month span.
As the city’s South Side team was knocking on the door of most losses in a Major League Baseball season since 1900, I concluded that I should attend at least one of the games against the Los Angeles Angels this week.
Maybe the team would keep up its winning ways with me looking on? Or, more likely, they’d set the modern-era mark for futility by losing their 121st game.
I attended their first two games—both narrow victories, including an extra-inning affair on Wednesday night. Below, check out the team’s fireworks-aided celebration after Andrew Benintendi drove home the winning run for the team’s 38th win against 120 losses.
That meant five consecutive victories with me in attendance. When you consider they’ve won one-quarter of the time, the likelihood of winning that many in a row is about one-in-1,000 (one/fourth to the fifth power is 1-in-1,024).
Thursday, without me on hand, the Sox managed to sweep the Angels in a 7-0 rout.
Last night, though, they finally succumbed to what had felt increasingly inevitable. By losing to the resurgent, playoff-clinching Detroit Tigers, the White Sox are now 39-121.
Given my undeniable good-luck charm status, if only I’d made the trek to the Motor City, maybe they’d have matched the 1962 New York Mets’ 40-120 record.
Jon Bon Jovi Rocks
In June, sparked by Jon Bon Jovi’s appearance on the cover of AARP the Magazine, I flashed back to 1987, when I shared a fleeting moment with the rock ‘n’ roll star at a Chicago concert.
Though only a casual fan of Bon Jovi’s music over the years, I’ve always had an appreciation for how he’s carried himself and that view only rose a few weeks ago when a friend tipped me off to an incident in Nashville. Bon Jovi and a colleague, during a video shoot, went to the aid of a woman who appeared to be considering jumping off the bridge.
Here's an Associated Press account. It includes a soundless 52-second video, apparently from a surveillance camera. I defy you to watch the clip and not have it tug at your heart strings.
A final note: on the question that I posed last week—is there more that unites us than divides us in the U.S.—the reader response was light. Over the past 18 months, my polls have gotten upwards of 20 to 25 replies. The latest poll has prompted only 11, although I was encouraged to see eight clicked “yes,” there’s more that unites us than divides us.
If I had offered “I don’t know” as an option, perhaps that (understandable) uncertainty would’ve won in a landslide.
Overall, I am 165,494-of-195,118 (84.8%). Closing in on 30,000 misses!
One of my grandfathers lived to 106, but I try not to make a statistic of a man's lifespan, or regard his approach of an age milestone as a game (not that you were doing that). But yes, when I ordered the biography of Carter, I thought people would think I was doing it because he was soon going to pass away, or would think I had started it only after he had passed away (which I assumed would happen before I finished the 670-page book, which I had slated for only occasional evening reads). In truth, I ordered the book not for the moment, but just because I was interested by Carter and Jonathan Alter. As it has happened, I have finished the book, and I enjoyed it immensely. Carter, of course, is still with us.
That Jimmy Carter run is truly in his honor. The Alter book says he did middle-distance runs at a clip of 6:30 miles while in the White House in his mid-50s. That's really, really good, particularly for somebody who went decades without running. He also got his resting pulse down to 40 (his running ability and low pulse are a couple of the very few things I was able to identify with Carter on). Ironically, Carter became known as a hapless runner because he assigned to himself a race over a brutally tough course, and passed out (or close to that) without finishing. Indicative of some of his larger public relations troubles, one might say.
In regard to free throws. Maybe the NBA should mimic MLB's designated hitter and use a designated free thrower. That would open up some nice lucrative jobs for folks like you and Mr. Steury who seem to have an exceptional but singular talent.
In regard to the White Sox pitiful performance. The 1962 NY Mets (of whom I witnessed live at Shea), were an expansion team. So they had an excuse. Plus, they had an amusing cast of characters such as the great former Yankee manager Casey Stengel (now the manger of the Mets), and Marvelous Marv Throneberry (who famously was known for being beaned while trying to catch a simple pop up at first base). Of course Casey was known for his famous "Stengelese" as well. Anyway perhaps one of Casey's iconic questions regarding the "Amazin' Mets" is also appropriate to the not so amazin' Sox: "Can anyone here play this game?"