Spokane7
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November 9, 2004 in City
This father’s a real champion … hands down
We’ve seen this script in a dozen corny movies.
It’s the one where the once-great athlete feels the itch to compete again. Then – overcoming all common sense and dramatic subplots – he claws his way back into the game and…
(Cue the “Rocky” theme.)
…opens up a can of whup-ass!
Welcome to the real world of Mike Beggs.
The 46-year-old Spokane strongman climbed out of retirement to capture a gold medal and three silvers at the World Wristwrestling Championships that were held in a Nevada casino over the Halloween weekend.
OK, so this news is not quite on a par with the Red Sox breaking the Bambino’s voodoo.
But it’s impressive all the same. Beggs didn’t get his 50-inch chest and 18-inch biceps by sitting on a sofa watching “Trading Spouses” while cramming Cheese Doodles down his pie hole.
This guy won a world championship in his weight division in 1996. He has national titles and has some 2,500 matches under his belt.
Trouble is, Beggs’ name hadn’t graced a wrist-wrestling roster since he called it quits four years ago. Oh, sure, he still tortures himself daily by pumping weights and pulling on cables. But Beggs thought he was far from ready to take on some of the world’s toughest tendons.
“I hoped I could at least win a match,” he says. “I ain’t kidding you.”
His kids got him back in the hunt.
Six weeks before the event, Beggs’ sons, Tony and Andy, called him and said, “Hey, dad, let’s go to the world championships.”
This is one fierce family. Tony, 23, has won a world title. Andy, 21, has a number of impressive tournament finishes. Then there is Tammy, Mike’s wife and the boys’ mom. Though not competing these days, she has four world titles.
The Beggs family has a collective seven world titles and 10 national titles. Mike and Tammy work in Spokane as traffic control flaggers.
When it comes to sporting events, arm grappling is about as primitive as it gets.
A bout consists of two humans locking sweaty palms with their elbows dug into a table top. A ref says go. First one to pin the other’s hand wins.
There’s usually not a lot of suspense. Most matches are over in a couple of blinks.
Not that a match can’t get exciting. Once every so often a contestant’s arm will snap like a piece of dry kindling.
“It’s a weird sight,” says Beggs. “All of a sudden the arm flops down.”
Bummer. Nothing that interesting happened when I covered the 1976 World Wristwrestling Championship in Petaluma, Calif.
I was an underpaid sportswriter with hair back then. The most exciting thing I got to see was Billie Jean King, who was announcing the event for ABC’s “Wide World of Sports.”
Thirty years later, alas, the sport has sunk to somewhere on a popularity scale between line dancing and full contact karaoke.
Beggs, however, believes arm wrestling is in the midst of a comeback.
Thank God. After the elections America could use some intellectual stimulation.
Beggs can talk like a physics professor about moves and counter moves and how to apply them to your advantage.
Ever since he began entering tournaments back in the 1970s, he’s had to be a student of his sport to make up for his physical limitations. Although I wouldn’t say it to his face, for a champion arm wrestler Beggs has the daintiest wrists and hands.
To make up for that, he’s worked like a maniac to develop Popeye forearms and upper arms like grain silos.
“I think that’s the only edge I got,” he says. “I outwork these guys.”
Being naturally ambidextrous, Beggs competes both left-handed and right-handed. His gold medal came in the 199-220-pound (age 40 and over) masters division. Right-handed. The other medals came in masters and amateur divisions.
“He has a will not to lose,” says Tammy.
He is something. Yanking his way to glory took 32 matches. It also took its toll. Beggs is still sore from the ordeal.
Son Tony came out of the event with a second place in the amateur 154-pound division for righties and a fifth in another category. Andy had a pair of sixth-place finishes.
No doubt about it. The Beggs Bunch wins the Spokane arm’s race.
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