Bottom of the Bird Cage 6/1

It’s the 152nd day of the year. The Chiefs will have their first training camp practice two months from today in River Falls Wisconsin.

On this day in 1792 Kentucky became the 15th member of the United States of America. Tennessee joined on this day four years later, become state No. 16. On this day in 1926, Andy Griffith and Marilyn Monroe were both born. On this day in 1965 the great Packers coach Curley Lambeau died.

And on June 1, 1925 that Lou Gehrig played the first of 2,130 straight games for the New York Yankees. The man who would become “The Iron Horse” actually started that day as a pinch hitter. It was the next day, when Gehrig was in the starting lineup at first base for the slumping Wally Pipp.

Gehrig did not leave the lineup until May 2, 1939, when he pulled himself from the lineup. By then he was suffering from the effects of ALS, which ultimately killed him two years later. It was on July 4, 1939 that they held Lou Gehrig Day at Yankee Stadium and he reluctantly spoke to the crowd. Here’s part of his speech:

“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

“Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky … When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies, that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter, that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body — it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed â€” that’s the finest I know.

“So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for. Thank you.”

His record for consecutive games played lasted 56 years, before Cal Ripken, Jr. broke the mark in 1995.

Here’s a combo platter of assorted football notes columns that I found interesting from the weekend. Enjoy.

From the Cleveland Plain-Dealer: Eric Mangini: full-time head football coach, part-time music DJ.  The Browns’ coach has loud music played intermittently during every practice. Not only does Mangini select the playlist — with input from others — he controls when the music is played. An aide manning the sound system never loses sight of Mangini and follows his signals from the field.

“The criteria is clean,” Mangini said of how the songs are selected. “Ideally we would like to see some movement from the players, to create a little bit of reaction. Dancing isn’t necessarily bad.”

But, like everything Mangini does, there’s more to the playing of music than meets the eye — and the ear. He actually intends to try to duplicate the songs scheduled to be played in the stadiums in pre-game warmups on game days.

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From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Joe Greene cannot predict if he ever will try on all six of his Super Bowl rings at the same time. After all, he never tried on all five when the Steelers won that “one for the thumb” three years ago. “I knew they wouldn’t fit,” Greene said.

Greene is the only man who played for the Steelers who will have six Super Bowl rings when they’re presented at a private June 9 ceremony at Heinz Field. He could update that long-ago Pittsburgh Press photo of himself flashing four rings on one hand, as well as upstage a similar Sports Illustrated photo of Rocky Bleier doing the same in 1980.

Greene won his past two as a special assistant scouting college and pro players for the Steelers the past five years. Yet last week was his first visit to the White House with the Super Bowl champions. He and his wife Agnes visited once before at the invitation of fellow Texan George H.W. Bush for lunch, but missed his team’s first invite as champs by Jimmy Carter in 1980 and again in 2006 by George W. Bush.

The Hall of Fame defensive tackle — considered the rock in which not only a Super Bowl dynasty was built but a player who set the tone for a complete makeover of a franchise — was not going to miss this trip to the White House.

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From the Boston Globe: When some owners said recently that the NFL’s injury rate doesn’t increase at the end of the season – a point made in support of increasing the number of regular-season games from 16 to 18 – it was a real head-scratcher. If they believe that, they haven’t walked in one of their own locker rooms in late December.

Owners should forget the flawed study they’ve been presented by the NFL regarding injury information, and simply talk to players – past and present. Or they should just come clean by saying: We’re playing 18 games, we understand players are more at risk to injuries, yet it’s a decision we’re making based on finances.

As momentum builds toward an 18-game season – a plan the owners are trying to frame as a restructuring rather than an expansion – anything less is borderline disingenuous. The players’ voices should be heard loud and clear, especially those who are no longer in the game, because they won’t be affected by such a change.

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