By: Bill Doolittle and Russ Brown
Photos By: Matt Johnson
BILL -- Well, Russ, it’s August. Summertime, and the livin’ is easy. I’ve been going out to the creek to cool my feet -- worrying about nothing. Not worrying about college football. Not worrying about the Reds. And certainly not worrying about NIL money for basketball players.
What are you not worrying about?
RUSS -- That’s a good question, Bill, and I am glad you asked it at this point in July before my brain is overwhelmed with college football and basketball stuff, starting with the ACC Football Media Days, followed by UofL Media Day and the start of “fall camp” on July 31.
My most important worry at the moment is trying to determine how long it will take to reach Scottsdale, Arizona via Route 66, the Mother Road, which my wife, Mary Jo, and I will join in St. Louis. Of course, not all the road remains as two-lane; significant sections are part of the Interstate system.
There is plenty to see along the way. Some of the more intriguing stops or detours in my opinion anyway – include Ted Drewes Frozen Custard in St. Louis; Shelly’s Route 66 Café; Arnold’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers, Tulsa (are you noticing a trend here); the Jesse James Wax Museum in Stanton, Mo.; Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park, Foyil, Ok.; Heart of Route 66 Auto Museum, Sapulpa, Ok.; American International Rattlesnake Museum, Albuquerque; and my favorite: Standing on the Corner Park in Winslow, Ariz., where I am really looking forward to a girl in a flatbed Ford slowing down to take a look at me (with apologies to the Eagles, who by the way I will see in Las Vegas in Oct.).
Back over to you Bill. Are you planning your annual trip to southwest Colorado for a week of card-playing, beer-drinking and other questionable activities?
BILL – Well my travel plans are not set, but one stop I like to make is Gray’s Coors Tavern, in Pueblo, Colorado. It’s been there in downtown Pueblo since the 1950’s, a place everybody goes for a Schooner and a Slopper – which is a burger with green chili on top and maybe some other stuff, also on top. And that’s a frosty “schooner” of regular Coors, which is the Coors beer brewed in Golden, Colo., that Burt Reynolds, Sally Field and Jerry Reed were bootlegging in Smokey and the Bandit.
RUSS – There’s certainly a multitude of interesting places in the West, which has been my favorite domestic destination for decades. During the 70s, before Coors beer became available east of the Mississippi River (in the early-to-mid 80s), I even ran a version of “Smokey and the Bandit” bootlegging operation. On my frequent summer trips, friends and relatives always asked me to bring back as much Coors as I could cram into my car. Fortunately, I never had to outrun the law, which is good because I didn’t have quite the horsepower as Bandit’s 1976 gold and black Pontiac Trans Am.
BILL -- I think I will take a wide path around your rattlesnake museum, but like you I am interested in off-the-beaten path places, like Ennis, Montana, which has a sign on the edge of town that brags, Ennis, MT: 11,000,000 trout, 660 people. Ennis is on the Jefferson River that flows out of West Yellowstone and gets together with the Madison and Gallatin to form the Missouri River. The best thing in Ennis isn’t the trout, though. It’s the cakes. Not talking about icing-dripped birthday type cakes, but pancakes, which they call “cakes” at the Sunrise Café.
RUSS -- If you like Ennis, my recommendation is to check out tiny Polebridge, Montana, home of Polebridge Bakery and Mercantile, the best cinnamon rolls in the Rockies and 31 residents. It’s about 25 miles of mostly gravel or dirt road from Glacier National Park and well worth the trip. But get there early if you want a roll or a huckleberry bear claw because they go fast.
BILL – With our out-west trips to look forward to, you can see why I’m not worried about August sports in Louisville. I imagine UofL football coach Jeff Brohm is using August pre-season practice to work on some tricky “schemes” with new quarterback Tyler Shough -- pronounced like Julianne Hough, but with longer legs. The big question, to me, is whether the Cardinals will have better pass catchers than last season. Like Louisville-quality receivers.
RUSS – My story in this issue on the 2024 version of Louisville’s offense should ease your concerns about the Cardinals’ passing attack, which will be much improved over last season due to the arrival of quarterback Shough, a transfer who has been a starter at Oregon and Texas Tech. He’s much more talented than his predecessor, Jack Plummer, whose passing limitations forced Brohm to rely more on a running game. Brohm has also beefed up the receiving corps considerably, so fans are going to see a more explosive and productive offense this fall.
BILL – I’ll hold you to that, Russ.
Meanwhile, Cincinnati Reds fans have been blown away by new hitting hero Rece Hinds, who was called up from the Louisville Bats in July pretty much to temporarily fill in a spot on the Reds roster, and, instead, set the National League on fire. In 7 games before the All-Star break, Hinds whacked 11 hits in 26 at bats – almost all doubles and homers … except for a triple.
It surprised me. I mean Hinds looked like a fine athlete when he arrived this spring at AAA Louisville -- up from Chattanooga, where he’d hit for power and led the Southern League in RBI. A sleek looking, muscular guy – 23 years old, 6-4, 215, with speed. But I saw him pretty often , and he just didn’t hit much for the Bats. Could hardly get over .220. Then he goes up to Cincinnati and I guess he saw Elly De La Cruz, and decided he could be an All-Star, too.
RUSS – I grew up a Reds fan and a highlight of my childhood was trips to Crosley Field in the 1950s to watch sluggers Ted Kluszewski, Smoky Burgess, Wally Post, Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson and Louisville native Gus Bell attack the fences, providing plenty of run support for their pitchers. And sometimes I was lucky enough to catch Joe Nuxhall on the mound. But the team I follow most closely now is the Dodgers, especially since two of their current players are former UofL Cards -- catcher Will Smith and pitcher Bobby Miller. So it’s good that you can keep us up to date on baseball.
Miller has been struggling and was sent to AAA Oklahoma City, but could soon be back in La La Land.
BILL --- Speaking of the golden west, the Golden State could be on my travel itinerary. I’ve got a gig in LA, and would love to swoop south to Del Mar, the beautiful summer track north of San Diego, “Where the Turf Meets the Surf.”
The reason I bring this up is Del Mar in August is where trainer Bob Baffert annually brings out his 2-year-old stars, with an eye on the next spring’s Kentucky Derby – and you may have heard that Churchill Downs has lifted its three-year ban on Baffert. If he’s got his usual hot stable, Baffert could be back for the 151st Derby.
Baffert was first barred at Churchill Downs for a medication violation in the 2021 Derby. The ban had stretched to three years because he wished to fight Churchill Downs over it. Somehow, the Hall of Fame trainer managed, with the help of his lawyer Clark Brewster (who went before about five judges and didn’t find an Aileen Cannon among them), to turn a simple 60-day suspension into a three-year ban. Churchill, meanwhile, wished to make a point, and certainly has.
Anyhow, as we predicted, this would be the summer all parties would finally spread out the blankets and smoke the peace pipe.
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