Feel Good Sports Stories

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by mytreds

Man has a home run ball for his son taken away by a fan. Miami and Philly both make it up to them..

https://www.mlb.com/amp/news/harriso...-run-ball.html

One day I hope science is able to ID the genetic defect that creates a Karen.

[Cobra Mgr]

S.Korean boxer gives Roy Jones Jr the gold he should have had in 1988.

[mytreds]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

One day I hope science is able to ID the genetic defect that creates a Karen.

I admit many things about baseball today has jaded me. But seeing both franchises going out of their way, to go above and beyond to right a wrong made me smile.

[Cobra Mgr]

Kenny Lofton helps Vietnam vet get final signatures on his 1995 Cleveland Indians bat.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Kenny Lofton helps Vietnam vet get final signatures on his 1995 Cleveland Indians bat.

Feel goods:
--------------

1) Mr. Prohaska got his wish, thanks to

2) Kenny Lofton helping him out. (The last two signatures were those of Orel Hershiser and Tony Pena.)

3) It's nice that they got it done in time for the 30th anniversary celebration of Cleveland's first AL pennant in 41 years.

4) Kenny Lofton looks darned good for 58 years old.


Not so feel goods:
-----------------------

1) The 1995 Cleveland Indians were 30 years ago! And Kenny Lofton is pushing 60! Where does the time go?

2) Mr. Prohaska's time in Vietnam could not have been later than 1970, or 55 years ago. Again, where does it go? (This is the war that I sometimes feel that "I should have been there" but I wasn't because I drew a high number in the draft lottery. Not that I wanted to be there, but I should have been there.)

3) Mr. Prohaska does not look well in the video and, sure enough, he was in the hospital when the newscast was made and could not make it to the celebration. Still, he has had his dream project fulfilled.

4) The Indians lost the 1995 World Series. They also lost in 1997 to the Florida Marlins (the first wild card team to ever win the World Series) and in 2016 to the Chicago Cubs (who captured their first World Series championship since 1908, ending the Curse of the Billy Goat). They also lost in 1954; their last championship was back in 1948.

[Cobra Mgr]

SYFL - Snoop Youth Football League

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

SYFL - Snoop Youth Football League

Snoop Dogg's the man.

"I got 20 nominations for Grammys, zero wins. But I got 40 something kids in the NFL. I won it all."

[Westheim]

DTM isn't what it used to be. 2000s' retirement home for F1 stars (Hakkinen, Alesi...) technically still has former F1 drivers, but that's now down to Timo "Is that ...?" Glock and one-and-done Jack Aitken. Most of the field are no-names.

No-names like Ayhancan Güven, a 27-year-old Turkish driver that spent most of his early 20s with oddball assignments in forgettable and sometimes short-lived series before stumbling into the DTM gig in 2022. But even then, prior to this season, he had never won a race, and had not finished higher than 15th in the championship.

This year was different though. Güven in the venomous green #90 Porsche won early, won often - four times ahead of the final weekend in Hockenheim - and was right in the thick of a *really* thick championship battle, with nine drivers in the 24-strong field entering the final two races with a mathematical chance for the championship. Seven remained in the race on Sunday, and six after a first-lap tussle eliminated a few cars. Güven entered the finale 5th in points, on outside pole, and soon took the lead from the Aston Martin - not in the running - that sat on pole. And as the race shook out, the W would give him enough points ... but he needed the W. Finishing second would give the title to the Mercedes of Lucas Auer.

Enter my longtime favorite, Marco Wittmann in the #11 green BMW, 2-time champion from long ago, and eliminated on points on Saturday. Skip to 4:15 for the final lap battle.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Westheim

DTM isn't what it used to be. 2000s' retirement home for F1 stars (Hakkinen, Alesi...) technically still has former F1 drivers, but that's now down to Timo "Is that ...?" Glock and one-and-done Jack Aitken. Most of the field are no-names.

No-names like Ayhancan Güven, a 27-year-old Turkish driver that spent most of his early 20s with oddball assignments in forgettable and sometimes short-lived series before stumbling into the DTM gig in 2022. But even then, prior to this season, he had never won a race, and had not finished higher than 15th in the championship.

This year was different though. Güven in the venomous green #90 Porsche won early, won often - four times ahead of the final weekend in Hockenheim - and was right in the thick of a *really* thick championship battle, with nine drivers in the 24-strong field entering the final two races with a mathematical chance for the championship. Seven remained in the race on Sunday, and six after a first-lap tussle eliminated a few cars. Güven entered the finale 5th in points, on outside pole, and soon took the lead from the Aston Martin - not in the running - that sat on pole. And as the race shook out, the W would give him enough points ... but he needed the W. Finishing second would give the title to the Mercedes of Lucas Auer.

Enter my longtime favorite, Marco Wittmann in the #11 green BMW, 2-time champion from long ago, and eliminated on points on Saturday. Skip to 4:15 for the final lap battle.

"The uploader has not made this video available in your country"

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

"The uploader has not made this video available in your country"

[a singular expletive]

Well, I tried.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Westheim

[a singular expletive]

Well, I tried.

Don't feel bad, Westy. You have given me an opportunity to play one of my favorite games; a puzzle really: Decipher the post! Let's begin.

"DTM" came easy; this is Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters "a sports car racing series based in Germany, with rounds elsewhere in Europe".



Mika Pauli Häkkinen is a Finnish former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1991 to 2001. Nicknamed "the Flying Finn", Häkkinen competed in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters from 2005 to 2007 after retiring from Formula One.

Jean Robert Alesi is a French former racing driver who also competed in Formula One from 1989 to 2001, after which he competed in DTM from 2002 to 2006.

Thus the reference to "retirement home" of the 2000s. How am I doing so far?

But now for a tough stretch. Timo, Timo . . . Oh, that's a given name, not a surname. D'oh! It is none other than Timo Glock, of the family that makes Glock Pistols, named by The Gun Zone (an American publication) as "best pistols for concealed carry"!

I jest, sadly. Timo Glock is yet another alumnus of F1 racing who came from there to DTM. (I am starting to detect a pattern here.) Unlike the others, Glock is still participating in the DTM.

It was at this point that I realized "Timo 'Is that ...?' Glock" is one man with an appellation separating his first and last names. I was thinking of this as two men, as if a comma was inserted: "Timo 'Is that ...?', Glock". So, "Is that ...?" refers to Timo Glock, not just somebody named Timo.

But I did find the source of "Is that ...?"! Here it is, from his Wikipedia article:

Infamous season finale moment

In the final race of the 2008 season, the Brazilian Grand Prix, Glock was seventh with a few laps to go when rain started covering the track. Glock remained on the track with dry-weather tyres, while most of the other drivers, including championship contender Lewis Hamilton, opted to pit for wet tyres. The decision to stay out moved Glock up the order, ahead of Hamilton on track. Starting the final lap, Glock was fourth but was struggling on his dry-weather tyres as the rain intensified. He was passed by Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in the final corners. Hamilton regained fifth place to win the 2008 Drivers' Championship and eclipsed rival Felipe Massa by one point, while Glock trailed behind in sixth. The incident led to significant backlash from many Brazilian fans who were in support of Massa, insinuating Glock was at fault for Hamilton's win. Glock revealed years later that he and the Toyota team members had a police escort them off the country to protect him from further abuse. During live ITV coverage of the race, commentator Martin Brundle shouted "Is that Glock going slowly?" during Hamilton's overtake on him, which would become an internet meme.

Next, Jack Aitken. This guy is significantly younger than the others, only 30 years old. It seems he has struggled to rise beyond F2 racing; he was in Formula 1 for a few years but only as a test and reserve driver. He had a serious accident in 2021 and has bounced around since then, appearing in DTM in 2023 and 2024, but not this year, hence the "one-and-done" appellation for him?

So now we arrive at Mr. Ayhancan Güven. Unlike the others, and despite being Turkish, he seems "home grown" in that he is not a refugee/retiree from F1 racing, but a rising star who "moved up [my bold] to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, where he would record one podium finish at the Sachsenring".



You adequately describe his exploits of this year and his chances for the championship. He needed to win this recent race to take the prize. Enter the villain, Marco Wittmann.

Now, like Cobra, I am an American and therefore precluded from viewing your video. If it was about guns, there would be no problem for us, I am sure. But I believe that I can piece together, if not what happened in that final lap battle, at least the result.

For, way at the bottom of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters page on Wikipedia, Mr. Ayhancan Güven is listed as the 2025 DTM Champion! And a bit more digging revealed the page for the 2025 DTM season itself. On that page is the race calendar for 2025 and the final entry is race #8, Hockenheimring which took place Oct 4-5. (Two separate races? The web site talks about "DTM Races 15+16".)

I think it was two races because the results page has Güven defeating his arch-nemesis Wittmann by +0.169 in RACE 2, thus winning the DTM Championship:



But what happened in that final lap? Will us Americans ever know?

I was not able to find any video of the entire race but I did find the post-race press conference on YouTube. (For some reason, the first 26 minutes of this video is "COMING UP: HOCKENHEIMRING" so skip to about 26:15.) At about 30:20, Güven is asked what happened in that final lap and he goes on at length in his response. Unfortunately, much of what he said is way over my head.

But, what ho! A bit more scrolling, and I found another video of at least part of the race, DTM 2025 featuring the duel between Güven and Wittmann, Güven's victory, and the aftermath. The first few moments of that video are intense, although I don't know if it captures the incident to which you refer. (Maybe around the 50-second mark? There was some contact there, I think.)



Well, that's that. So, how does all of this make us feel good? I guess, if you are a fan of Güven and DTM, you feel good. Me, I feel good just from having solved this puzzle!

Of course, without Wikipedia, I would be scratching my head and saying "Whatever".

[Westheim]

The NYT crossword puzzle has nothing on you, huh?

You erred only a couple of times. Aitken *was* driving this year, finishing 8th with some pretty legendary throwing-away of good positions that go beyond the scope of what I actually wanted to post (the final lap battle and ecstasy)

And no, I was rooting for Wittmann, and have for 13 years. Us Franconians have to stick together. And who knows how many wins he has left? He didn't win any race this year, with four second-place finishes, including the one here, which is what you get when you leave the door a mile wide open. And with door I mean the grass.

[Cobra Mgr]

Some real sportsmanship right here.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Some real sportsmanship right here.

My typing fingers are getting sore, so I will copy and paste a viewer's comment: "Great story. I wish that everyone will learn the true value of honesty and integrity."

[Cobra Mgr]

Those aren't real tears, it's just smoky in here.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Those aren't real tears, it's just smoky in here.

He reminds me of how my grandson acted when his parents got him his first phone for his birthday.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Some real sportsmanship right here.

When I was coming up, times were hard. My dad got me a glove for my birthday, when I REALLY needed one. Thanks for the memory!

[Cobra Mgr]

On the 1-10 cuteness meter this rates a 10 to the nth power.

[Cobra Mgr]

Vegas RB coach finds out father figure is biological father.

[Cobra Mgr]

BYU fans show empathy before game w/TexTech