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John Saunders first sat down with us to host The Sports Reporters in the fall of 2001. Adidas Clark Gillies Jersey . The great Dick Schaap had been hosting the show for the 10 years or so before that. But Dick had just undergone hip surgery that went tragically wrong, none of us knowing at the time that he would never come out of the hospital.I knew full well about Johns body of work at ESPN all the way back to 1986, about his talent and versatility, his friendship with Jim Valvano, the tireless work John had done for The V Foundation for Cancer Research as a founding board member. But I was about to learn, starting with that first Sunday and then across all the Sundays, about all the good in him, all the humor and intelligence and immense decency. Most of all, I would learn about his gift of friendship.If you have ever watched The Sports Reporters, you know that we have long been having the kind of conversations about sports that they now have about politics all over the television dial on Sunday mornings, with Mitch Albom and Bob Ryan and Bill Rhoden, with Jemele Hill and Howard Bryant and Israel Gutierrez and all our other panelists.And what I knew by September 2001, after all my Sundays with Schaap, was how easy he made hosting the show look. What no one knew at the time was whether John would even want to be the full-time host, be part of the conversation on a permanent basis, be working with grown-ups so often acting like great, big kids. Or people talking sports at the end of the bar.But John was great from the start.He was tremendous and generous, allowing the rest of us to look good -- sometimes no small feat, believe me. But he really was that good at this kind of television. Best of all, people liked John Saunders. Somehow he had the gift that the very best broadcasters have, in that the people who watched him felt as if he were their friend, too. He made them feel like they were part of our conversation.I go through airports, John said, and people are always telling me the same thing, that sometimes theyre talking right along with us.Later I would tell him that, because of his grace and charm and ability to keep the whole thing under control, he was like Sidney Poitier in To Sir, With Love, bringing order to the kids in the back of the classroom.After the first show, I thought to myself, What in the world did I get myself into? John said once, laughing.My dear friend John Saunders died suddenly on Wednesday at the age of 61. He was a husband to Wanda and a father to two daughters. His brother Bernie, his best friend, was a hockey player, just as John was. We used to joke that John was another guy who came down out of Canada and didnt just take up one good job in television -- it was as if he wanted to take up all of them. He was a brilliant studio host, he could do play-by-play and he could somehow navigate, with his usual grace, all the housekeeping of the championship ceremonies after the last game of the college football season.He made it all look easy, Mike Breen, the voice of the NBA on ESPN and ABC, said on Wednesday morning. I used to marvel at the way he made all his jobs look that easy, even though those of us in the business know they werent.John had all the best stories about Valvano, and not just the funny ones, but about all the times, at the end of Valvanos long, terrible season battling cancer, when he would hold Valvano in his arms as a way of stopping the chills, even in the hours before Jimmy stood up and gave one of the most moving speeches in the history of sports, his Dont give up, dont ever give up speech at the ESPYS.Seeing how weak he was, I still dont know how he gave that speech, John would always tell me. I dont even know how he was able to stay standing. That was about his heart.Johns heart understood Vs. John had a ton of heart himself. He was an ex-hockey player, and he underwent so many surgeries because of his hockey career. He also suffered from diabetes, and there were some Sunday mornings when we would all see how weak he was when he showed up in our green room, his hands shaking, drinking orange juice, just trying to feel well enough to do the show. But he always did. And he would, because of his great heart, make it look easy again.He had a terrible fall one Saturday when he was hosting his college football shows on ABC. Another time there was a car accident, one John was lucky to survive. Of course, he came back from the accident and came back from the fall and, before long, was back in his chair on Sunday morning.There was a Sunday morning when he wasnt feeling particularly well, so right before he started talking at the top of the show, I leaned over and tapped him on the knee. He got through the show, of course. But it became a tradition with us, or a superstition. I did it every Sunday after that, all the way to our last show together a couple of weeks ago. That day he was telling me again how people were always asking why Lupica was hitting him every Sunday just as the show started.John laughed, again, and said, I tell them that your hitting me on one of my bad knees was just your way of showing how much you love me.There was no way to properly express, or explain, the love that I felt for John Saunders, who loved Wanda and his girls; who loved that he had lived long enough to see Barack Obama become president of the United States; who loved hockey, and his work, and the life his work had given him once he got to this country, permanently, from Canada. And you should know how much he loved doing his parting shots on Sunday; they were beautifully written, passionate when they had to be, funny when they had to be. But always smart.We have had two permanent hosts on The Sports Reporters: Mr. Schaap and Mr. Saunders. Ive had the uncommon good fortune to sit with both of them more than anybody in the history of the show. It should have been a hard thing for John to follow Dick. It became one more thing that he made look extraordinarily easy. In another time in sports, often the highest praise for professionalism was to say this: It was like watching Henry Aaron hit. Sitting next to John Saunders was like that. It was exactly like that.He is survived by his family, and his friends, and by this network, and by his business. John made his living with words. So many of us do. This is my own way, with memory and profound sadness, of saying one word I never expected to say this soon, not to the big man on my right for all those Sunday mornings: Goodbye. Adidas Matt Martin Jersey . The Olympic champion curler and TSN curling analyst immediately went online to look at the Halls long list of honoured members. Thats when the enormity of the honour sunk in. Adidas Bryan Trottier Jersey . 1 position. The Mustangs (6-0), who beat Queens 50-31 last weekend, earned 17 first-place votes and 287 points in voting by the Football Reporters of Canada. Western was last ranked first in the country in October 2011.http://www.islanderssportsshop.com/adidas+mikhail+grabovski+islanders+jersey . Oaklands loss to Seattle clinched the ALs best record for the Red Sox with one day to spare in the regular season. "I think everybody was kind of watching," catcher David Ross said. "Demp (Ryan Dempster) came out before he went to the bullpen and was just yelling that they lost. WIMBLEDON -- This one had an uneasy air of inevitability.Californian Sam Querrey walked off Court No. 1 on Friday night with a stunning two-set lead on world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. But when they reappeared in the glaring light of Saturday afternoon -- as sometimes happens -- things looked a lot different.After a night to sleep on it, reality dawned and both players initially reverted to familiar form. But something funny happened on the way to a predictable Djokovic comeback victory.Actually, Sam Querrey happened -- in a spectacular way that he never quite has. For one day, anyway, he is Grand Sam.In a disjointed match interrupted four times by rain, Querrey stunned Djokovic 7-6 (6), 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (5). It was, by consensus, one of the greatest upsets in recent Grand Slam history. And in the process, it ruined a host of glorious possibilities for the Serbian star.Its incredible, especially to do it here at Wimbledon, Querrey said minutes after the victory. Im so ecstatic and happy.Thus, Djokovics streak of 30 Grand Slam match-victories comes to an abrupt end. There will be no fifth straight major title or a calendar-year Slam, either.The last time Djokovic went out in the third round of a major was seven years ago, at the 2009 French Open.The critical difference against Djokovic? Querrey saved 14 of 17 break points -- amazing, considering he was opposite against the worlds best return man.He also hit 31 aces and only two double faults. Thirty-nine percent of his serves went unreturned.He played a terrific match, Djokovic said afterward. He served very well, as he usually he does. That part of his game was brutal today. He made a lot of free points. He just overpowered me.Just like Serena Williams, who seemed to succumb to the pressure of chasing history at least years US Open, Djokovic seemed constantly out of sorts and out of character. Three of the last four points in the pivotal tiebreaker were unforced errors on his part.Yet he denied that he was feeling the pressure of the moment.I dont think it played that big of a factor, to be honest, he said. I knew it was going to be very close.I managed to win four Grand Slams in row in two different seasons, though. I want to focus on that, rather than failure.Djokovic said he wasnt 100 percent healthy but declined to elaborate.Not really, he said, but its not the place and time to talk about it. Just wasnt feeeling the ball as well as I wished. Adidas Anders Lee Jersey. But thats sport.The casual tennis fan wandering into Saturdays match might wonder just who is Sam Querrey?A brief biography: Querrey turned professional in 2006 at the age of 19 and, riding a big serve and forehand, has reached the fourth round at three majors. His best career ranking came in January 2011, and he has made a comfortable living, collecting seven titles and more than $6 million in prize money.When hes out hitting balls in practice -- you can hear the force of his shots by the sound -- there arent many guys hitting bigger, observed Patrick McEnroe, the general manager of USTA player development from 2008-14. But he hasnt always had the confidence in his backhand that he has in his forehand.I feel hes sometimes hesitant to play big-man tennis.To put it mildly, Querrey has, in the past, been less than his best in the crucible of the fifth set. Before Saturday, he had lost 10 of 14 five-set matches. But the only time he lost after winning the first two sets came earlier this year at the Australian Open against Dusan Lajovic. After Lajovic won the third and fourth sets, Querrey retired when cramps set in.But here in the first round, Querreys less-under-pressure narrative appeared to change. He dropped the first two sets to Lukas Rosol, then came back to win 12-10 in the fifth.He was playing with such confidence, McEnroe added. I think what we saw goes back to his first-round match.The last U.S. player to beat a world No. 1 at Wimbledon was recently turned American citizen (and South African native) Kevin Curren, who defeated John McEnroe 31 years ago in a 1985 quarterfinal. The last American to beat the No. 1 in a Grand Slam was Andre Agassi, when he upset Lleyton Hewitt in the 2002 US Open semifinals.Querrey reversed two disturbing trends with one victory. Hes now 1-8 against the No. 1-ranked player and 1-9 versus top-10 players at Grand Slams.As a result, the draw has suddenly opened up, and Querrey next plays No. 51-ranked Nicolas Mahut in the fourth round. In theory, he could face No. 6 seed Milos Raonic in the quarterfinals. Afterward, he didnt want to think about it.Im just taking it one round at a time, Querrey said. Im just happy with this, taking it from there.Cheap NFL JerseysCheap NFL Jerseys ChinaCheap Jerseys From ChinaCheap NFL Jerseys AuthenticWholesale Jerseys ChinaCheap NFL Jerseys ChinaNFL Cheap Jerseys ' ' '
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