Crackpottery for Tuesday, but Remembering the Incomparable Secretariat

 Peter Singer never should have been allowed in the United States to teach at Princeton, let alone be traveling everywhere peddling his "animal liberation" and euthanasia (for humans) bullshit.

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Another crackpot throws his hat into the ring running for president although he is going the third-party route.

West goes out of his way to piss people off.  It is to be hoped people simply ignore him.

Ditto for fellow crank RFJ, Jr.

By the way, West has been married five times and divorced four.  Like the crackpot Peter Singer, West taught at Princeton.  He also has an MA and Ph.D. from there.

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Later this week will mark the fiftieth anniversary of Secretariat winning the 1973 Triple Crown in his otherworldly performance in the Belmont.  This article in the Blood Horse marks it and CBS announcer Chic Anderson's legendary call of the race.  It might have been the best sports call in history.

It makes sense.  The greatest horse of all time winning the greatest horse race of all time and the greatest performance in sports history with the best call in sports history--a perfect combination.

Sadly, nobody remembers track announcer Dave Johnson's call of the race.  If you were at the Belmont track on June 9, 1973, you heard Johnson, not Anderson.  

Dave tried, though, despite not being a Chic Anderson.  He is 82 now.  Anderson was only 47 when he died from a heart attack in 1979.

Snip from the Johnson article:

"At the time in 1973 as a track announcer, you were paid to say what you see," Johnson said. "I had to shut my microphone off with about 70 yards left and I could not call the finish. We were told to keep going through the whole field and the only time you could call the finish was when it was on television or radio."

Due to those restrictions, Johnson's call was much more straightforward than Anderson's. For instance, while Pvt. Smiles, who was never a factor and disappeared from Anderson's call after the first six furlongs, Johnson's duty to his on-track listeners required him to still mention the well-beaten 14-1 longshot in the stretch .

Yet even with those shackles, Johnson still managed to capture the magnitude of what was happening as he spoke louder and quicker and with more emotion during the final stages.

Johnson was a good track announcer, but at that race he was 31 lengths behind Anderson.

Johnson's call can be found here. 

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