Talkin' Sports NOW WITH PAT

Talkin’ Sports

With Pat

1.) Up until last night the Blackhawks had won all of their home playoff games.  Last night though Johnathan Quick, was that quick, keeping the Kings in the game especially in the second period when Chicago had a 2 on 1 advantage looking to make the score 3-0 in their favor.  But Quick made an outstanding play saving the Kings score one goal making it 2-1 then come out in the third and score 5 times to win 6-2 and even the series at 1-1.

2.)  The other day there was a fight between two teammates at the Dodger minor league team.  One of the players bit part of the other player’s ear off and he had too have plastic surgery to repair it.  Today the Dodgers released the player who bit the other player.  Can you believe that this was a grown man of 35 years of age?

3.)  Don’t know how many people know the name Wendell Scott, he was the first African American driver in NASCAR.  The first to win a NASCAR race.  He will be inductee to the NASCAR Hall of Fame this year.  His first race was in 1952.  He ran what was called back then the Dixie Circuit.  After he won some races on that circuit he took his car to Winston-Salam North Carolina.  But NASCAR officials refused to let him compete.  He would continue to race in Virginia and won his first race at Lynchburg, Virginia only 12 days into his racing career.  He said, “I found my calling.”  He was well respected not only as a driver but as an excellent mechanic also by the other drivers.  After a while some white drivers became his friends and acted as bodyguards.  By 53’ newspapers in the South were starting to write stories about him.  In 59’ he won two championships in sportsman class.  In 61 he moved up to Grand National (now sprint cup) in 63’ he finished 15^th in points and on Dec. 1 of that year driving a Chevy Bel-Air that he purchased from Ned Jarrett, he won a race at Jacksonville, Florida.  The first (and only to date) event won by an African American, Scott passed Richard Petty with 25 laps remaining.  Scott was announced the winner of the race at the time but due to the racist culture of the time, Buck Baker the second place driver was initially declared the winner but two hours later, officials discovered Scott had not only won the race but was two laps ahead of everyone else.  Two years later NASCAR awarded the win to Scott but his family never received the trophy he earned for winning until 2010, 47 years after the race and 20 years after his death.  He continued to race until injuries from an accident at Talladega.  He had 1 win and 147 top ten finishes in 495 starts.  He died in 1990 of spinal cancer.