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Health & Fitness

A's, Indy 500 make memorable Memorial Weekend

  It was a memorable Memorial Day weekend all the way around for this veteran of the Vietnam War with the Navy.
  We stopped several times to remember those who have served our nation so much throughout our history, helping make it possible for us to savor the liberty we treasure.
  As for liberty, this former sailor has always tried to enjoy being at liberty on any holiday weekend. These four days in particular were filled with great sports memories for this lifelong sports journalist, starting with the Oakland A’s.
   They won four more games in a row. It began Friday night in Houston when Chris Young, back in his hometown and dining on mom’s Texas barbecue, bopped a three-homer in the ninth to bring Oakland from two runs behind to a one-run victory.
   The A’s weekend was capped back home in Oakland on Monday afternoon with a 4-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants in the opener of the four-game Bay Bridge Series. Connie and I were there down the left-field line by the A’s bullpen enjoying the festivities.
  Of course, the Indianapolis 500 has long been a part of my agenda for the Memorial Day weekend, and it dates from long before I began covering the motor sports beat in 1980 for the Oakland Tribune under late sports editor Bob Valli.
   Even on my first day on my first job after graduating from North Texas in 1966, the assistant sports editor in Abilene, Texas, took me with him to a theater in downtown about a block from the Reporter-News, where we witnessed a first-lap crash that knocked out 11 cars from the 33-car field.
  I remember some drivers blaming Gordon Johncock, who went on to become a great racer, for the crash, and the sight of Texan A.J. Foyt, jumping out of his crashed car and dodging flying debris and tires and climbing the safety fence toward safety.
   I don’t remember who won the race (a Web search reveals it was Graham Hill) because my supervisor and I scampered back to the office, and he banged out something on the big crash for the final afternoon edition. I rushed on into my $90-a-week job. Rent was $9 a week, and gas was about 25 cents a gallon. And life was fun. Still is.
   This year’s 500 was one of the best ever, but at our house in Castro Valley it was a real stinker – because of a drain blockage that messed up all our plumbing. We had to call someone out, and luckily he was able to swing by within a short time and within minutes had the problem cleared up. Also luckily we have a DVR.
   With a record 65 lead changes and 14 different drivers in the lead, the Indy race was one of the best ever. And for a journalist who had covered racing in Northern California off and on from 1980 to 2012, the event was filled with many interesting stories. I had covered and interviewed so many of them over the years whether at Sonoma Raceway at Sears Point, Laguna Seca Raceway near Monterey Peninsula or at the short-lived San Jose Grand Prix a few years back.
   Tony Kanaan, who won the 500 for the first time, is a popular driver who loves coming to the Indy Car race at Sonoma Raceway each summer and has been interviewed many times by us in the Bay Area media corps.
   An interesting side story for me is that part owner of Kanaan’s team is Jimmy Vasser, who is from Morgan Hill. I first interviewed Vasser when he was a young racer back in the 1980s and I was the sports editor of the Morgan Hill Times. He recalled playing football for the Live Oak High Acorns.
   A.J. Allmendinger was raised in San Jose, born in Los Gatos. On Sunday he raced to the lead repeatedly while driving for owner Roger Penske, who had given him a chance for redemption after Allmendinger had a drug suspension last year while racing in NASCAR.
  The South Bay driver underwent rehab, was cleared by NASCAR to return to racing, but he lost his ride in the No. 22 Shell car to Joey Lagano.   
  Allmendinger wound up in seventh place at the finish. He suffered a strange bit of bad racing luck. His safety belt came loose, and he was forced to pit several laps before his next scheduled stop, and it put him at a disadvantage the rest of the race.
  J.R. Hildebrand, from Marin County, had lost the Indy 500 two years ago when he crashed into the wall coming out of the final turn with the lead in the U.S. National Guard-sponsored car.
  Many vets were pulling for him again on Sunday, as he was back in his car sponsored by the National Guard, but he lost control and crashed less than 30 laps into the 200-lap race on Sunday.
   Still, it was, all in all, a Memorial Day weekend, like so many that came before, that I won’t be forgetting any time soon.

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