It's no secret why Triple Crown sweeps are almost nonexistent

Anyway, I always think of Nutsy Fagan when I see how some sports handle their schedule. For example, the most important NASCAR race is the Daytona 500, the

Frank Deford | Apr 30, 2008

It's no secret why Triple Crown sweeps are almost nonexistent /

Anyway, I always think of Nutsy Fagan when I see how some sports handle their schedule. For example, the most important NASCAR race is the Daytona 500, the first big race of the year. It would be as if the NFL started with the Super Bowl and worked backwards from there.

The two most different surfaces in tennis are clay and grass, but as soon as the French clay championships end, they immediately switch to grass with Wimbledon just two weeks later. Only Nutsy Fagan could have dreamed that up.

College football teams finishes its regular schedule in November, maybe early December, and then the two championship contenders take off a whole month (or more) before meeting for the national title in January.

Nothing, though, is as dopey as the way horse racing conducts its premier event, the Kentucky Derby, which is run this Saturday by custom -- the first Saturday in May. In how many ways can they screw it up? Let me count the ways.

First of all, the Derby is run at a mile and a quarter, which is a long distance for 3-years-olds to cover. Thoroughbreds race a lot less now, and they're bred more for speed, too. And as if running the mile and a quarter in early May isn't asking too much, the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness, will be conducted in just two week's time. And, not only that, the Preakness is shorter than the Derby. So, they run the longer race first, and then rush into the second shorter one.

Then, just three weeks later, is the Triple Crown finale, the Belmont Stakes. That means the three races are jammed together in only five weeks. Big Brown, the probable Derby favorite, has, so far, raced only three times in his entire life. The Belmont is run at a mile and a half -- a distance virtually no racehorse in America runs anymore ... except, of course, at Belmont. But, to make it sound special rather than idiotic, a mile and a half is always called a "classic distance," which is true enough if you think classic means out of fashion. The Belmont is classic, just like the set-shot in basketball is classic. But nobody in basketball is dumb enough to use the set-shot anymore.

Moreover, to start the Triple Crown off at the Derby, 20 horses are allowed to run, which is far too many. The most important race in America is determined more by luck than skill as the thundering herd blasts out of the starting gates. No wonder no colt ever wins the Triple Crown anymore.

So Saturday, when the band starts playing My Old Kentucky Home and the thoroughbred stampede comes onto the track, I will raise my mint julep, and say, "You did it again, Nutsy Fagan!"

Published Apr 30, 2008

FRANK DEFORD

Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. His work has appeared in virtually every medium, including print, where he has written eloquently for Sports Illustrated since 1962. Deford is currently the magazine's Senior Contributing Writer and contributes a weekly column to SI.com. Deford can be heard as a commentator each week on Morning Edition. On television he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. He is the author of 15 books, and his latest,The Enitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in 2007 to exceptional reviews. He and Red Smith are the only writers with multiple features in The Best American Sports Writing of the Century. Editor David Halberstam selected Deford's 1981 Sports Illustrated profile on Bobby Knight (The Rabbit Hunter) and his 1985 SI profile of boxer Billy Conn (The Boxer and the Blonde) for that prestigious anthology. For Deford the comparison is meaningful. "Red Smith was the finest columnist, and I mean not just sports columnist," Deford told Powell's Books in 2007. "I've always said that Red is like Vermeer, with those tiny, priceless pieces. Five hundred words, perfectly chosen, crafted. Best literary columnist, in any newspaper, that I've ever seen." Deford was elected to the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. Six times at Sports Illustrated Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review. Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles; a Christopher Award; and journalism honor awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University; and he has received many honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "The world's greatest sportswriter." In broadcast, Deford has won a Cable Ace award, an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award for his television work. In 2005 ESPN presented a television biography of Deford's life and work, You Write Better Than You Play. Deford has spoken at well over a hundred colleges, as well as at forums, conventions and on cruise ships around the world. He served as the editor-in-chief of The National Sports Daily in its brief but celebrated existence. Deford also wrote Sports Illustrated's first Point After column, in 1986. Two of Deford's books, the novel, Everybody's All-American, and Alex: The Life Of A Child, his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis, have been made into movies. Two of his original screenplays have also been filmed. For 16 years Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he remains chairman emeritus. He resides in Westport, CT, with his wife, Carol. They have two grown children – a son, Christian, and a daughter, Scarlet. A native of Baltimore, Deford is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught American Studies.