Daily Dirt: Legendary Dickie V. battling another round of cancer

I sincerely hope we get to hear Dick Vitale again. He is the subject of the first of today’s three thoughts in Vol. 133 of the Daily Dirt.

1. For as long as I can remember, the start of the college basketball season meant hearing and watching longtime analyst and former coach Dick “Dickie V” Vitale on ESPN.

Not this year.

Vitale, 82, is battling cancer for the second time this year. This time he is confronting lymphoma after having undergone several earlier surgeries to remove a melanoma.

For decades, Vitale has been synonymous with college basketball. He was loud and opinionated, and I loved the college game. I loved watching him.

I truly hope we have the chance to hear him say, at least one more time, in that gravelly, strained voice of his, “It’s awesome, baby!”

Vitale has never been confused with a Rhodes scholar. In his own words, “I’m a basketball guy. No sitcom guy. I don’t care about all that jazz. I care about basketball.”

He has also cared about his fellow man, raising millions for numerous kinds of medical research. Ironically, one of his causes has always been finding a cure for cancer.

“One day to see that headline, not that someone won a basketball championship, but to see that a cure for cancer has been found will be a great day for mankind,” Vitale said.

I sincerely hope Dickie V. gets to see that day.

2. My favorite Aretha Franklin songs.

• 1. “Respect” (1967): About the same time Aretha’s version was out, a Michigan-based group called the Rationals also had a minor hit with the same song. Both were quality versions, but very few know about the Rationals’ release.
• 2. “Chain of Fools” (1967): Joe South, one of my personal unsung stars of the late 1960s and early 1970s, played guitar on this Aretha classic.
• 3. “Freeway of Love” (1985): This song kind of re-started Aretha’s career in the mid-1980s.
• 4. “Who’s Zoomin’ Who” (1985): This was from Aretha’s 33rd studio album.
• 5. “I Say A Little Prayer” (1968): Dionne Warwick had a hit with this song first, but Aretha made it her own.
• Honorable mention: “Think” (1968): This was recorded a week after Aretha sang at Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral.

3. Those shoe deals virtually every NBA player has with a manufacturer can be more costly for some of the companies. For instance, whoever supplied shoes for Shaquille O’Neal and Bob Lanier during their careers had to wince a little every time a new supply of sneakers for those two went out out the front door. Both O’Neal and Lanier wore size 22s, which are roughly twice the size of a “normal” sneaker. Among current players, the largest feet belong to the Lopez brothers, Brook and Robin, who both wear size 20s.

Steve Fact O’ The Day
Steve wears a size 101/2 sneaker.

Dick Vitale once said, “I feel like I’m 68; I act like I’m 12.” The same can be said about Steve.