gatortalk: [gatortalk] The rest of the story...

Monday, September 12, 2016

[gatortalk] The rest of the story...

Oops, I left out over half of the article.

Here’s the rest…

The resulting reaction reminds me of the time back in 1991 -- when I became the sports columnist of the Gainesville Sun and took over for a scribe who had a penchant for picking UF to win no matter who the Gators happened to be playing. In the first big game of the year -- against Tennessee-- I picked Florida to lose and was inundated with real letters (this was before the Internet) from outraged fans who demanded that I be fired.

One Gator fan even took a copy of my column, used it as toilet paper and then stuffed the poop-stained article in an envelope and mailed it to me. His message: "If I have to put up with your crap; you should have to put up with mine."

This is when I knew I found the right vocation. Sports fans care deeply about their teams, which is a passion you don't really find in other areas of journalism. This is why I've never, ever wanted to write about anything other than sports.

It's also why I'm going to penalize myself for the inane prediction that Kentucky would upset UF. When college athletes do something stupid, I often write they should be suspended for a week so they can sit on the bench and think about what they have done.

I don't want to be a hypocrite, and this is why I'm self-imposing a one-week suspension on picking football games. This is going to be tough because I've been making weekly pigskin predictions for 25 years. In short, I have become a football-picking junkie.

As radio caller Buckeye Rob told me on our show, I need to treat this as an alcoholic would treat a 12-step program. The first step is to admit that I have a problem.

My name is Mike Bianchi, and I picked Kentucky to beat Florida.

Email me at mbianchi@tribune.com. Follow me on Facebook here and Twitter @BianchiWrites. And listen to my Open Mike radio show every Monday-Friday from 6-9 a.m. on FM 96.9 and AM 740

Oliver Barry, CRS, GRI

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From: Oliver Barry [mailto:barryo@realtracs.com]
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2016 11:06 AM
To: 'gatortalk@googlegroups.com'
Subject:

So, he wasn’t hacked! Shame on you Mike Bianchi!!

Didn’t he graduate from Florida and work for the Gainesville Sun? Bad Mike! Bad!!

Orlando Sentinel columnist suspends himself after picking Gators to lose to Kentucky

Shortly after the Florida Gators closed the book on yet another victory -- the 30th straight -- over the pitiful, pathetic Kentucky Wildcats, I got an email from a reader.

"Talk about a wrong prediction," the electronic dispatch read. "Stop Gator hating and kill yourself."

I wish I could say the reader was out of line, but -- in the pantheon of picking football games -- he was right. I committed suicide by predicting the abysmally awful Kentucky Mildcats would beat the Florida Gators.

Don't ask me why I made this preposterous prediction. I thought I had a premonition and a hunch, but obviously I just had a temporary brain infarction.