Millions and millions more people watched Rafer Johnson light the torch in Los Angeles than win the gold medal in Rome. He was feeling excruciating pain. He was 86 years old. LIVESTREAM AUTHOR EVENT OVERVIEW: Rainy Day Books, Penguin Random House, and Mid-Continent Public Library present A Conversation with John Grisham and Joe Posnanski in support of Sooley, the New Novel by John Grisham. He was elected class president in high school. Johnson would spend a lot of time at the Kennedy house, talking with Robert, playing with the kids, discussing how things could change and how America could be a better place. Result: Johnson led Yang by 144 points (6,281-6,137). Joe Posnanski is on Facebook. As soon as Johnson crossed, he put his head on Yang’s shoulder. And that is when the AAU — the Amateur Athletic Union — stepped in and said that if Johnson played in Spartacus, he would be considered a pro and would be ineligible to compete in the Olympics. Yang had won four of the five events. He did not win. Rafer Johnson was 9 years old. And this, from 2003, is one of my all-time favorite stories. Soon after, he went to another Special Olympics event, and found himself coming even more back to life. Both competitors knew that Yang was the better at the 1,500 — the final event — so there was intense pressure on both men… on Johnson to build his lead, and on Yang to keep the score close. That happened in 1968, of course. Was I thinking about whether I might trip or fall? A story about The Torch: More people these days remember Rafer Johnson for lighting the torch in 1984 than winning the decathlon in 1960. “You have to stay in contact with him,” Drake said. He managed to pound Jimmy’s chest enough to get him to spit out water. * * * On the road to Villa Vasquez, Tony Peña cried, not for the first time that day and not for the last. No. It’s rare when a decathlete is good enough at any single event to compete with the world’s best. And one of the great duels had begun. -- The overwhelming feeling is that we have been here before, exactly here. “No,” he said. A story about the father: In 1944, Lewis Johnson moved his family to a small California city called Kingsburg. When he crossed the finish line, Campbell ran over and covered him in a blanket. On his final jump, Yang looked to clear 14 feet, 9 inches — what would have been his personal best. By Joe Posnanski Jan 28, 2020 242 Starting in December and ending on Opening Day, Joe Posnanski will count down the 100 greatest baseball players by publishing an essay on a … Result: Yang led Johnson by 128 points (5,515-5,387). Posnanski is NBC Sports national columnist. The coach told Johnson that he had to stick with Yang no matter what. The pole vault was coming — Yang’s best event — and they both knew that if Yang could keep his lead going into the pole vault, he was going to win the decathlon. Johnson had qualified for the long jump competition in addition to the decathlon, but the injury forced him to pull out. Joe Posnanski. “It was basically a tie,” Johnson would say many times after that. And when asked afterward about his injuries, Rafer Johnson waved off the questions. A former senior columnist for Sports Illustrated (where he wrote a blog, Curiously Long Posts) and columnist for The Kansas City Star, he currently writes for The Athletic and his personal blog, JoeBlogs Three of them — Curt Schilling, Greg Maddux, and Pedro Martinez — are of recent vintage. Yes. He ran a good 100-meter dash, and won the long jump. This is for the gold medal. Starting in December, Joe Posnanski began counting down the 100 greatest baseball players. There are no words strong enough to … Rafer saved his brother’s life. Being there to watch his friend and hero die was too much for Johnson. Every week, someone mentions it to me. That simple. Yang competed in the decathlon for the ages. Place the team above yourself, always…. There was no great plan, no grand design. 625 talking about this. This friendship was very different from Johnson’s friendship with Bobby Kennedy — Ali and Johnson could not have been less alike. He was a good student, a good athlete, a good person. He was not going to win the decathlon. Posnanski is NBC Sports national columnist. Then, it was many years later, 1996, just before Ali lit the torch at the Atlanta Olympics. It was one of the great scouting calls in Olympics history. You have given too much to let him get away.”, And when Yang came over, Drake said simply: “He has never beaten you before. When I see them run, it’s like I’m running. A story about losing: In 1956, Rafer Johnson was the favorite to win the Olympic decathlon. Be quick but don’t hurry…. “If he goes, you have to go. Con argument: Relatively low win total; he has offended many people. Dick Trickle, though, did start racing NASCAR when he got into his late 40s. Rain fell and postponed the final two events of the first day until well in the evening… which gave Johnson and Yang a lot of time to think about the significance of those final two events. National Columnist for MLB.com Contributor to MLB Network Author at Simon & Schuster A story about Spartacus: After the Olympics, Rafer Johnson would play in numerous movies and television shows. A story about a Hall of Famer: Once, when they were both young, Rafer Johnson and his brother, Jimmy, were playing near an irrigation ditch when Jimmy fell in and hit his head. All around were shrieks. This was before Jackie Robinson had integrated Major League Baseball, before Rosa Parks remained seated, before Martin Luther King graduated high school, before 13 parents — most prominently a welder and part-time pastor named Oliver Brown — sued the Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., for their children’s rights to attend all-white schools. And as my anniversary gift to you, here is a rundown of the five baseball forfeits of the last 50 years…, On Twitter, pals and co-authors Tom Tango and Mitchel Lichtman had a fun little argument about two interesting baseball statistics, OPS (On Base Plus Slugging Percentage) and wOBA (Weighted On Base Average). To watch him climb those stairs, the choir singing around him, then to reach the top, hold out the torch to the crowd, light the cauldron and then stand there under the burning Olympic rings… well, you didn’t have to know the stories to know that there was something extraordinary about the man and his life. He had injured his knee during training — badly enough that he needed to have it drained on a regular basis — and then aggravated the injury in Melbourne during pole vault practice. The great decathlete and humanitarian Rafer Johnson passed away on Wednesday. Much of Rafer’s childhood was haunted by Lewis Johnson’s alcoholism and the violence that his drinking inspired. Those following closely may have been surprised that Yang had built a sizable lead after two events, but Johnson was not. We asked our intern, Erika Spicer, to attend Joe Posnanski’s talk Friday at the HUB. Rafer Johnson discovered that he could endure as much pain as necessary to triumph. A former senior columnist for Sports Illustrated (the place he wrote a weblog, Curiously Long Posts) and columnist for The Kansas City Star, he at present writes for The Athletic and his private weblog, JoeBlogs. And he could get no momentum; he clipped the second hurdle and almost fell. The great decathlete and humanitarian Rafer Johnson passed away on Wednesday. By Joe Posnanski ... Email. Decathletes will argue about which event is most devastating to the body… is it the 400-meter run at the end of the first day, or the 1,500-meter run at the end of the second? The entire story of baseball rings through a countdown of 100 greatest players in history, with a foreword by George Will and published in partnership with The Athletic. Campbell put up a spectacular time in the hurdles — running a 14 flat. And Yang knew the strength of his friend’s heart. He kept telling himself that pain was temporary. He then would play himself in the movie The Bob Mathias Story. This week, for the 30th time, he will be in Hershey, Pa., to be spokesman for the Hershey’s Track & Field Games to promote youth physical fitness. – Elvin Hayes (1st in rebounds and 2nd in points in the tourney) is an obvious choice, and who I thought Joe was talking about before reading the article. Even many of those not predisposed or raised to respect or admire anyone with dark skin found themselves respecting and admiring Johnson. Join Facebook to connect with Joe Posnanski and others you may know. With his knee and stomach both searing, the 400-meter run was almost unendurable. Rafer had not seen his brother fall into the water, but a moment or two later he saw Jimmy bobbing up and down, drowning. Rain had started to fall in Rome, and Johnson — like so many great athletes before and since — found that tough conditions favor tough athletes. A story about Bob Mathias: When Rafer Johnson was 16 years old — this was 1952 — his track coach, Murl Dodson, drove him the 25 or so miles to Tulare, Calif., the hometown of the great decathlete Bob Mathias. Yes, you want to let the stories unfold, except that there are too many stories on Rafer Johnson’s life, too much to get into, because even if you tell all those stories, you are still leaving out what he whispered in the ear of Muhammad Ali, and the love affair with Gloria Steinem, and the friendship with Tom Brokaw, and the time he played in a James Bond movie, and the other time he saved Lassie and…. 298 talking about this. “Was I concerned about making it to the top of the stairs?” Johnson would write in his autobiography. The image of a shaking Ali lighting the torch would move the nation. He had set the world record in the decathlon and won a silver medal at the 1956 Olympics. 1 New York Times best-selling author, winner of the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame’s National Sportswriter of the year and two-time winner of the Associated Press Sports Editors National Columnist of the Year. He was in a Bob Hope movie and an Elvis movie. Live coverage of the 2018 Hall of Fame announcement begins Wednesday at 3 p.m. For instance, you don’t want to say, “Oh, I’ve got this hilarious joke I have to tell you.” Let the joke breathe. Yang had outscored Johnson by 183 points and taken a substantial lead. It was Rafer Johnson who wrestled Sirhan Sirhan to the ground and, with the help of football player Rosey Grier, pried the gun from his fingers. I'm expecting the baseball 100 to be good even if it doesn't finish or gets interrupted (which is totally what I expect to happen) - Vegas odds on Joe leaving The Athletic for a new site before this series finishes currently at -120. had become like my brother,” Johnson would say. The high jump was Johnson’s weakest event — even when he set the world record in Eugene (and when he set the world record the first time in 1958 in Moscow) he failed to jump even 6 feet. When he got to the track, he did not feel up to his normal warm-up routine. The shot put was already Yang’s weakest event, but the rain preyed on his timidity. But there was something else in that smile. Yang’s best event — an event in which he was actually considered a threat to someday clear the world record height of 15 feet, 8 inches (he would qualify for the actual pole vault at the 1964 Olympics and finish 10th). A story about Muhammad Ali: They were two of the biggest stars of the 1960 Olympics and they became friends. SURPRISE, Az. As I’ve written about at some length on Patreon, I think this will be way better for many different reasons. Johnson would exchange letters with Carmelita for a while, but it was Ali who seemed to have the last word: One day, years later, he saw Johnson at a dinner and said: “Carmelita’s my girlfriend now.”. This was in the days before Dick Fosbury had introduced the flop and forever changed the form and possibilities of high jumping. The fourth…. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. About 60% of you have come over, which is great. This is it.’ This was an event where I could be the best that I could be.’”. The Orioles enter the 2021 season with minimal fanfare, as the team's rebuilding process continues. This is the beauty and ordeal of the decathlon. By Joe Posnanski Mar 16, 2020 486. 1 New York Times best-selling author, winner of the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame’s National Sportswriter of the year and two-time winner of the Associated Press Sports Editors National Columnist of the Year. He still would have won a bronze medal. And still, he found himself playing over the day all night. Here, Rafer Johnson roared. When Johnson appealed, making the very reasonable claim that getting a movie part should have nothing at all to do with his athletic status, he was told that the only reason he got the part was because of the fame he had earned as an athlete. Day 2 of the Hall of Fame ballot: Aubrey Huff and Hideki MatsuiIn 2004, Aubrey Huff hit .297 with 29 home runs and 104 RBIs for the Rays. The idea took hold a few months ago. They started the race… and Rafer Johnson stayed with Yang in the early part. By Joe Posnanski Oct 16, 2013, 4:17 PM EDT. Johnson believed that he would win — after the first day he trailed his American counterpart Milt Campbell by 189 points, which was not too much to make up. Many have tried. Bobby Kennedy ran for president. His numbers through 162: .292/.402/.519, 36 doubles, 2 triples, 31 home runs, 107 RBIs, 107 runs. I know every thought, but I have had those thoughts. Together with Tom Tango (though he might not want credit), I developed a WAR ranking system that is adjusted by era and the quality of competition. Juan Soto played his 162nd game on Wednesday … that’s one full season’s worth. “I was a high jumper, too, but I don’t think I ever jumped higher than 6-foot-3.”, But Dodson had a feeling that the challenge of 10 different events would move Johnson, bring out his best. There was nothing hackneyed about it for Rafer Johnson… the words had power. But Johnson would say that he never even considered it… he ran his best time through some of the most staggering pain in his life (“I really didn’t know if I could make it,” he said), and took home the silver. The former pro football player Woody Strode ended up playing Draba. And Yang jumped about 6-feet-3 inches (1.90 meters to be exact) which allowed him to cut into Johnson’s lead… but not quite as much as he might have expected. Rafter jumped in, grabbed him, pulled him out and tried some sort of respiration thing based on what he had seen in the movies. It was built, instead, on his hunger to achieve. “I might have had a much better road in Hollywood had I played in Spartacus,” Johnson would say. Johnson whispered something in Ali’s ear and Ali laughed and laughed. This was the moment of Rafer Johnson’s sporting life. Yang was a much better distance runner. Result: Yang led Johnson by 86 points (1,034-948). Joe Posnanski: Dec 2, 2020: 44: 9: Share . He won the decathlon in 1948, he would win it again in 1952. By Joe Posnanski Oct 16, 2013, 4:17 PM EDT. He was a prodigy, but his genius wasn’t built on his extraordinary athleticism. In those days when track and field still played on center stage in American sports, he was a deity.Dodson thought that Rafer Johnson had that sort of brilliance in him, waiting to emerge. “C.K. He was not going to let his friend pull away. Yang had won five of the first six events, but field events were not his strength and here he had his second subpar performance — he could not even throw 131 feet. This is it. I don’t want to know your name.Spartacus: Just a friendly question.Draba: Gladiators don’t make friends. It’s one of the most personal stories I’ve ever written and — with Eliza my daughter about to become a senior in high school — I look back at and again I…, Of the 17 pitchers in baseball history who have struck out 3,000 batters in their careers, only four have also walked fewer than 1,000. He should feel better. He is a No. As the decathlon began, he kept telling himself that he could endure the pain. It was a confusing time. “But Woody was a better actor than me. He will turn 75 in two weeks. What Johnson remembered, though, were Wooden’s bits of advice, the small and carefully crafted mottos that encapsulated all that Wooden had learned about sports. That’s pretty special, particularly for someone who won’t turn 21 until after THIS season. And the 110-meter hurdles was his event, the event that felt as much a part of his life as breathing. He was class president at UCLA and a popular speaker for various causes and someone who bridged the gap, made everyone across all lines feel good about America. Copy Link. – Bobby Hurley (1 MOP, 2 natl champs, 3 final fours). He was in two Tarzan movies. His wife wanted him to get healthy so they could start a family. He was named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 1958. “People say that Rafer Johnson put Kingsburg on the map,” he would say, “but the truth is that Kingsburg put Rafer Johnson on the map.”. Yang sped up, Johnson sped up. He lives in Charlotte with his wife Margo, two … simonandschuster.com — A magnum opus from acclaimed baseball writer Joe Posnanski, The Baseball 100 is an audacious, singular, and masterly book that took a lifetime to write. He would say many years later that he was thinking about how he had gotten there. Both men went into the 1,500 believing that they were going to win the decathlon. He threw the shot almost 52 feet — the best performance of his life. The shame is that now those words sound hackneyed and self-helpish. All around was chaos. The words would become the title of Johnson’s autobiography, the focus of his speeches, the strength behind his message to children. About 10 years ago, I spent some time with him and it led to one of my favorite ever stories which I will reprint in full below. He simply looked out at the beauty of it all, breathed heavily, and thought about all those stairs and all that climbing and the stories of a remarkable life. Johnson’s close friend and training partner, Chinese Taipei’s Yang Chuan-Kwang — known internationally as C.K. Copy Link. He jumped 24 feet, 5 inches. I'm expecting the baseball 100 to be good even if it doesn't finish or gets interrupted (which is totally what I expect to happen) - Vegas odds on Joe leaving The Athletic for a new site before this series finishes currently at -120. All kidding aside, I've been enjoying his recent work at The Athletic as well as in his email newsletter. “Yes. By then, Ali had been ravaged by Parkinson’s Syndrome. Copy Link ... Email. Yang crossed the tape in 4:48.5… Johnson just behind him at 4:49.7. Yang ran a 48.1 — a fast time — but Johnson closed fast and almost caught Yang at the tape. Joe Posnanski's "The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds" can now be … He was looked up to in Kingsburg… which just might have been an extraordinary thing in those years. The vaulters were still using steel poles rather than the bendable fiberglass poles that would send the world record soaring to 18 feet by the end of the decade. Can you say it again?”, “No,” Johnson said. The Baseball 100: No. Result: Johnson led Yang by 143 points (2,830-2.687). “When I see a special Olympic athlete run,” he says, “I understand. But he just brushed the bar and knocked it down. This had never happened before… the two best decathletes competing at their best and separated by just two dozen points at the Olympics. He is a No. The challenge is to explain the greatness of Michael Trout. Johnson understood that he could not just beat Yang in the discus, he would have to bury him. 1 New York Times best-selling author, winner of the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame’s National Sportswriter of the year and two-time winner of the Associated Press Sports Editors National Columnist of the Year. At the time, Johnson had shown some versatility on the track… but that was about it. When C.K. He was often called the greatest athlete in the world. Johnson felt the pain that his father had helped him control, the competitive spirit that John Wooden had taught him, the strength of his hometown behind him. And they embraced. He would make five Pro Bowls and, in 1994, be elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.He would say his lifelong hero was his brother, Rafer Johnson, the best man he ever knew, and the man who saved his life. ... Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) ... Joe Buck’s homage to Dad using David Ortiz’s post-midnight homer in the 2004 ALCS. “Sometimes, you have that feeling: This is right.’ When I saw Mathias at the decathlon, I thought: ‘You can do this. The 50-year anniversary of his decathlon gold medal will be in the beginning of September. Posnanski is NBC Sports national columnist. It’s hard to say exactly what sparked it other than … well, have you ever been the parent of a 14-year-old girl? But he was also disappointed and discouraged by life. I can’t promise a response, but I’ll do the best I can. And Yang threw almost 224 feet. Result: Johnson led Yang by 55 points (4,647-4,592). “The question is, will you change your circumstances, change what you think, do what you must do to win the next race? The difference between victory and defeat is only a few seconds. In the end, both more or less accomplished what they needed. He played a good pirate — one of those great Hollywood inventions — in The Pirates of Tortuga. Fifty years later, Rafer Johnson would still regret that morning of the second day of the decathlon. Tony Posnanski was over 400 pounds for most of his adult life. But the icon in question was Joe Paterno, the Penn State football coach who was caught up in one of the biggest scandals in the history of college sports in the fall of 2011. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. His body ached. Posnanski: More of the same for Jacob deGrom, Joe Musgrove’s journey, Juan Soto strikes out against strikeouts By Joe Posnanski Apr 12, 2021 92 Baseball doesn’t stop for the weekend , … This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. You cannot let him get away. Posnanski is NBC Sports national columnist. He was in None but the Brave, which was directed by Frank Sinatra. Once he began to run, nothing felt right. His start was atrocious… he felt like the gun had already echoed before he took off. They pitched in a new game when hitters struck out unapologetically and ferociously. He had long believed the creed of the decathlete — that once an event was over it was OVER, there was no time to celebrate and no time to regret. By Joe Posnanski March 2, 2018 Facebook Share. 80.7 WAR, 54.1 WAA Pro argument: Had greatest strikeout-to-walk ratio in modern baseball history and was amazing in the postseason. He became despondent. The high jump was Yang’s opportunity to strike back, and both athletes knew it. But their different personalities blended — Johnson loved the way the young Ali (then Cassius Clay) predicted victory and celebrated himself and brought joy to people. Their triumph is my triumph.”. Joe Posnanski (/ p ə z ˈ n æ n s okay i /; nicknamed “Poz” and “Joe Po”; born January 8, 1967) [1] is an American sports activities journalist. OK, so if you want to send along a question or comment, you can email me here. My big concern in making this switch to Substack was that I was asking all of you to do the pain-in-the-neck thing of signing up with a new service and canceling your Patreon account. Result: Johnson led Yang by 67 points (8,056-7,989). He was elected class president in junior high school. Johnson did make up ground in the pole vault and discus, but he knew going into the 1,500 that he had no chance of winning. He knew that he had left a lot of points out there… especially because of his disappointments in the 100-meter dash and the long jump. I don’t want to get into the weeds here because the system is not…, This week marks the 45th anniversary of 10 Cent Beer Night in Cleveland, one of the banner moments of my childhood. 1 New York Times best-selling author, winner of the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame’s National Sportswriter of the year and two-time winner of the Associated Press Sports Editors National Columnist of the Year. I was only 7, but it left an enormous imprint on my life. While he was training for the 1960 Olympics, he became friends with the actor Kirk Douglas. The javelin was the best of Yang’s field events… and it was a special event for Johnson. The turnaround was dramatic and stunning. Tony Posnanski was over 400 pounds for most of his adult life. And they argued about which one she liked. 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