Worst Sports Break-ups

[MisterCreosote]

Tyson and Jacobs didn't break up as they were close friends. Jacobs died.

Cayton was more of a business partner and not as close personally with Tyson. Don King took advantage of Jacobs' death and swooped in, with predictable results. Cayton faded into Bolivian.

Now, if you want to talk about bad breakups, there's Tyson and Robin Givens. What always bugged me about that time was how Givens' mother was always crashing the party. I mean, couldn't the Baddest Man On The Planet tell his mother in law to take a hike?

The breakup that cost Tyson the most was the one with Kevin Rooney. It's kind of amazing how quickly he fell apart as a boxer after Rooney was forced out.

 

[Huggy]

Tyson and Jacobs didn't break up as they were close friends. Jacobs died.

Cayton was more of a business partner and not as close personally with Tyson. Don King took advantage of Jacobs' death and swooped in, with predictable results. Cayton faded into Bolivian.

Now, if you want to talk about bad breakups, there's Tyson and Robin Givens. What always bugged me about that time was how Givens' mother was always crashing the party. I mean, couldn't the Baddest Man On The Planet tell his mother in law to take a hike?

Agreed, I was thinking more about how Cayton and Jacobs built Tyson into one of the most recognizable - and wealthiest - athletes on the planet, making boatloads of money fighting and though endorsements and how a split from them - well, Cayton at the end - pretty much eventually brought that all crashing down.

 

[swingline]

I think Tyson's fall as a fighter began when Cus died.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

My main recollection of Givens the elder is that she and Dave Winfield litigated a case of the clap.

Ha! I remember this too.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

He technically was HC of the NYJ twice.

The first time was when the Jets were trying to get Parcells, who was still under contract as head coach with the Pats. So the Jets hired Belichick head coach and Parcells was going to be a "consultant". Pats screamed foul, and the Jets gave them some draft picks.

Second time was when he was hired and quit at the press conference.

One of the true FOMO moments of my life. I was doing what amounted to GA work at a long-gone dot com so I'd go to stuff even if I didn't have an immediate assignment. I went to Parcells' presser the day before and decided not to go to Belichick's (since he was, you know, a dreadful bore). Was on the phone w/my editor and he yells "I gotta go, Belichick just quit!"

 

[Spartan Squad]

 

[HanSenSE]

Milwaukee and the Braves. Especially the lame duck season.

 

[Starman]

Milwaukee and the Braves. Especially the lame duck season.

The account in "The Hustler's Handbook," Bill Veeck's second book, of the process of the Braves shuffling out of town is equal parts hilarious and infuriating, including the parts about a shifty young auto dealer, Bud Selig, being part of an investment group Veeck called "The Carpetbaggers" whose entire goal was to extort cities into building them new stadiums at taxpayer expense. (Milwaukee County Stadium, of course, was a stadium built at public expense in the early 1950s to lure the Braves from Boston).

Long story boiled down to a decent length, the Braves had been making noises about moving to Atlanta for several seasons, as early as 1963 (they had been drawing massive crowds in Milwaukee as recently as 1961 before attendance started to slide) and then it became public prior to the 1965 season that they planned to move for 1966.

Milwaukee media then organized a full scale boycott of the Braves as punishment against the owners. At that point Selig (and the others) started to argue publicly that Milwaukee fans should still flock to Braves games to prove the city's continuing viability as a MLB market for another team.

"The identity of the mysterious strangers who were so interested in moving a team into Milwaukee wasn't really clear," Veeck wrote. "It wasn't the Carpetbaggers. They were the ones planning to move the team out."

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

DeShaun Watson and Houston?

 

[Starman]

(Paul Harvey voice)

AND NOWWW ... the RRRREST of the story...

As we know, in 1969, Bud Selig broke away from the Braves group and bought into the Seattle Pilots, which in 1970 ....

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

(Paul Harvey voice)

AND NOWWW ... the RRRREST of the story...

As we know, in 1969, Bud Selig broke away from the Braves group and bought into the Seattle Pilots, which in 1970 ....

He was awful, and yet immeasurably better than Manfred. Baseball really is like America.

 

[Woody Long]

He was awful, and yet immeasurably better than Manfred. Baseball really is like America.

I've been saying for years that someone needs to go full Caro and give Selig the Power Broker treatment.