Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Lucy's Ghost Invades Sportswriter's Soul
-From "The Sporting Scene " in this week's The New Yorker.
Dave Zirin must have been hitting the ol' Vitameatavegamin.
Labels: The Sporting Thing
Thursday, October 21, 2010
I Heart Oswalt
Cody Ross, part of Halladay's Perfect Game while with the Marlins is hitting up a storm with the Giants, who picked him up off of waivers. For all of us who've been rejected at least once in our lives, who can't but cheer (even quietly) for this guy?
Then there's Roy Oswalt. Last night he offered up his services as a relief pitcher even though he'll be starting in the (hopefully to happen) 6th game of the playoffs. This guy's a kid in love with the game! earlier this year he offered to and eventually played left field against his previous team, the Houston Astros, in a game where the Phillies bench was bare....and he accorded himself rather well.
Truth be told, I had my doubts before the Phillies brought him over from the Astros. He did not want to come to the Phillies, preferring to stay in the Mid-West and away from the fairly blood-thirsty press corps that devours its athletes in Philadelphia. But, he eventually came over and the Phillie Phans took to him instantly. His humour, his hunger, and his abilities almost made pholks forget about the Cliff Lee deal that the Phils did NOT make at the end of last year. But, it soon became apparent that Mr. Lee and Mr. Oswalt are cut from the same cloth; they both are killers on the mound and they both want a World Series ring.
So, whatever happens tonight, I'll think that the Phillies had a successful year. If only Mr. Halladay can extend the series one more game and allow Mr. Oswalt to take to the mound.....
Well, then it may just turn out to be a fabulous year.
Go Phils!
Labels: Philly, The Sporting Thing
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Sad Day in Philly
A few days after making national news with threats of taxing/licensing bloggers, Philly's enforcement agents (which specific agents they were seems to be in question...see the link) seized the goods and the truck of The Cupcake Lady on Tuesday, August the 24th.
That night, in Citizen's Bank Park, a minor league umpire, Scott Barry, decided that Philly seems to be the place to exercise excessive vested power. He ejected Ryan Howard, Philly's top power hitter, in the bottom of the 14th inning of a tense and interesting game against Houston. The Astros, loaded with ex-Phillies, went on to win 4-2 in 16 innings. Howard's ejection left a Phiilies bench bereft of position players so Roy Oswalt, a Houston Astro..make that a disgruntled Houston Astro just a month ago, went out to left filed for the Phils. Being there last night was testament as to how much more a live game carries for the fan than simply watching it on the tube. The crowd's incredibly loud serenading of Oswalt as he sauntered out way past his usual pitching mound territory toward left field left no doubt as to which team has the game's best fans.
Tonight, Roy Halladay, Phillies' Cy Young Contender, against Jay Haap, a Phillie a scant month ago. The fans will be vocally armed and dangerous, waiting for just one slip from the umpiring crew that has now cost them the last two games. At least 2 members of the 4 man crew will probably be eying where the nearest exit is at all times.
That night, in Citizen's Bank Park, a minor league umpire, Scott Barry, decided that Philly seems to be the place to exercise excessive vested power. He ejected Ryan Howard, Philly's top power hitter, in the bottom of the 14th inning of a tense and interesting game against Houston. The Astros, loaded with ex-Phillies, went on to win 4-2 in 16 innings. Howard's ejection left a Phiilies bench bereft of position players so Roy Oswalt, a Houston Astro..make that a disgruntled Houston Astro just a month ago, went out to left filed for the Phils. Being there last night was testament as to how much more a live game carries for the fan than simply watching it on the tube. The crowd's incredibly loud serenading of Oswalt as he sauntered out way past his usual pitching mound territory toward left field left no doubt as to which team has the game's best fans.
Tonight, Roy Halladay, Phillies' Cy Young Contender, against Jay Haap, a Phillie a scant month ago. The fans will be vocally armed and dangerous, waiting for just one slip from the umpiring crew that has now cost them the last two games. At least 2 members of the 4 man crew will probably be eying where the nearest exit is at all times.
Labels: Philly, The Sporting Thing
Saturday, September 12, 2009
A World of Confusion
From today's NYT, a short little piece tucked away announced that Cater Semenya, the world champion runner from South Africa, has withdrawn from a weekend race amid speculation about her sex.
Hmmm.
O.K.
Here's the lines that threw me for a loop, though.
"Arne Ljungqvist, the former medical commission chairman for track’s world governing body, would not comment specifically on this case, but he cautioned that a person’s sex is not always easy to define.
“There is no simple, single lab test that can tell if you are a man or a woman,” he said. "It is not black and white.""
Arne, come on! You have got to be kidding me?!? Is this how stupid PC behaviour has made us? Lab tests? What's happened to simple use of 20/20 vision?
Hmmm.
O.K.
Here's the lines that threw me for a loop, though.
"Arne Ljungqvist, the former medical commission chairman for track’s world governing body, would not comment specifically on this case, but he cautioned that a person’s sex is not always easy to define.
“There is no simple, single lab test that can tell if you are a man or a woman,” he said. "It is not black and white.""
Arne, come on! You have got to be kidding me?!? Is this how stupid PC behaviour has made us? Lab tests? What's happened to simple use of 20/20 vision?
Labels: Humans, The Sporting Thing
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Canada, Philly Says, "Yo! Thanks!"
For Game #4 of the NLCS, Philly gives you a pop on the shoulder for this guy.
The moment, explained.
Phillies 3 games
Dodgers 1 game
Only one to go
For the Biggest Show.
The moment, explained.
Phillies 3 games
Dodgers 1 game
Only one to go
For the Biggest Show.
Labels: Canada, The Sporting Thing
Monday, October 06, 2008
Small Bear Blues
Well, the Phillies came through yesterday on Pat Burrell's untimely bat. Having eliminated the Brewers, a Jekyll-Hyde opponent if there ever was one, they're up onto the next rung of the World Series playoffs. The Phils resume play on Thursday at home at Citizen's Bank Park against Manny, Donny, Larry, & Joe. Not Manny, Moe, and Jack but familiar enough faces for baseball fans out here on the much hated East Coast.The Phillies-Dodgers series may provide for an interesting turn of events as the previous Philly manager and much-beloved ex-shortstop Larry Bowa takes the field as LA's 3rd base coach or when Manny and his Hydra-Hair comes to bat. Maybe it's a good time for the Philly grounds crew to be working on that moveable outfield fence we've heard about.
Since the Dodgers are still alive, their previous opponent is obviously.....
not. The Cubs, again, are out in 3 games, this year being a more painful exit as their false-promising 97 wins was the best in the National League this past year. I, for one, will miss their participation, if only for no longer being able to read Cubby-Blue, the brilliant blog written and drawn by Mr. Tim Souers.
Still, Cubby-Blue is worth any serious baseball fan's return visit, despite the Cubbies' early exit. The Blues are a musical idiom thick with sadness, regret, and life's bitter pills. Combining the blues with the Cubbies is akin to putting a hemi on your gut-bucket feelings. You can't get lower, faster.
My condolences go out to Tim. Wait 'til next year. Go, Cubbies!
Labels: The Sporting Thing
Friday, October 03, 2008
99 Taboo Skidoo
She's back.
From a long, long voyage.
And she starts off with a just piece to get you back in the rink-think.
The season's on!
From a long, long voyage.
And she starts off with a just piece to get you back in the rink-think.
The season's on!
Labels: Hockey, The Sporting Thing
Walking the Dog
Brett Myers, a Phillies pitcher, has a .069 batting percentage. 0.069! His average is so low, he makes the Mendoza line seem almost Gwynnian. But last night, apart from his (post 1st inning) fabulous pitching, his at-bats will be the stuff of legend. In the second inning, after going into a 0-2 hole against the monster CC Sabathia, he worked a walk against the Milwaukee ace with two outs. To boot, he drained 9 pitches out of Sabathia's limited pitch supply. When have you ever seen 45,000 people raise a ruckus and wave their rally towels for a walk? Why, last night in Philly, of course. Of the 98 pitches the Brewers' workhorse pitched last night, 19 were to Myers. That's 19.4%! To an opposing pitcher! To someone that should be an automatic out, 3-4 pitches max! The Phils won 5-2 to go up 2-zip against the Brew Crew. What will be remembered from last night will not be Victorino's grand slam homer in the 2nd inning (the first grand slam of his career and the first grand slam in the post-season history of the Phillies (who have been around since 1883!) but Myers' unearthly at-bat to earn a walk in the same inning.Labels: Philly, The Sporting Thing
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Falling Classically
It's barely started and I'm already succumbing to the inevitable funk.
L.A. (as in Dodgers) v. The BoSox. Call it the Manny's Revenge World Series. Joe "I'll Be Back" Torre returns to Boston to set things straight; the Sox don't win another World Series in 50 years.
Yeah, Philly's ahead in the best of five divisional series, 1-0, but Lidge is morphing into Mitch Williams and WHERE THE HELL ARE THOSE BATS!?
For masochistic relief, I go read Tim Souers' Cubby-Blue. Now, there's a guy who should not have any seat in the upper decks. And if he does, I hope friends have brought rope along to tie him to his seat. Yesterday? Not an auspicious end to the curse.
L.A. (as in Dodgers) v. The BoSox. Call it the Manny's Revenge World Series. Joe "I'll Be Back" Torre returns to Boston to set things straight; the Sox don't win another World Series in 50 years.
Yeah, Philly's ahead in the best of five divisional series, 1-0, but Lidge is morphing into Mitch Williams and WHERE THE HELL ARE THOSE BATS!?
For masochistic relief, I go read Tim Souers' Cubby-Blue. Now, there's a guy who should not have any seat in the upper decks. And if he does, I hope friends have brought rope along to tie him to his seat. Yesterday? Not an auspicious end to the curse.
Labels: Philly, The Sporting Thing
Monday, July 14, 2008
Packing Packer
The witch is (metaphorically) dead!
Billy Packer, the CBS analyst who put a whole new spin on what it means to be a homer will not be heard during next year's NCAA B'Ball tournament. Looks like a lot of folks are still incredulous. Is this some cruel joke on CBS' part to attract attention to one of the only sports must-sees that that station still has? Billy Packer, the guy who never saw a bad ACC team, will take his act somewhere else.
Yes, yes there is a TV God somewhere.
Billy Packer, the CBS analyst who put a whole new spin on what it means to be a homer will not be heard during next year's NCAA B'Ball tournament. Looks like a lot of folks are still incredulous. Is this some cruel joke on CBS' part to attract attention to one of the only sports must-sees that that station still has? Billy Packer, the guy who never saw a bad ACC team, will take his act somewhere else.
Yes, yes there is a TV God somewhere.
Labels: Effluvia, The Sporting Thing
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
......a l m o s t .......
With a depleted squad against a powerful foe, Turkey lost 3-2 to Germany in the 90th minute. A bummer!!! Well, you know things were not going well when Turkey's Ugur Boral scored the first goal in the game. 1-0, Turkey. Things were going to go downhill for the Turks from then on. Per the descriptive, the Germans were outplayed by their under-manned opponent. It's a shame Fatih Terim's boys couldn't pull out another win.
There's always the World Cup in 2010. GO SPAIN/RUSSIA!
There's always the World Cup in 2010. GO SPAIN/RUSSIA!
Labels: The Sporting Thing
No Fatih Fatigue
It's Turkey, this year's miracle team, against Germany toady in the semi-finals of Euro 2008. The winner gets to face either Spain or Russia, who play tomorrow in the other semi-final. My choice is a Turkey-Spain final, although it'll take a Miracle of Major Consequence for this event to take place. Russia looked especially good against a solid Netherlands team in the quarter-finals and the latter lost 3-1 against the young Russkies. Spain finally won against Italy after 1,000 years of football frustration (please note that all writing on football (soccer) is assumed to be fueled by the need for exaggeration and the dearth of facts), so the Spanish lads will be too drained from their quarter-finals to be able to do much else except to show up on Thursday evening (Swiss time) and take a shellacking from the Russians. Besides, Putin allegedly has the hit sign on for some of the Spanish players, so personal safety, not scoring goals will be on their minds. Just kidding?!!? Maybe.But Turkey? Well, after they let the
Croatians think they won the game in the last 20 seconds of overtime, only to score with 1/1,000,000 of a second left to send the game's result into penalty kicks, when they then smacked Croatia's football program bacwards a few decades with a 3-1 edge in penalty shots, I switched from the departed Team Hrvatska to their conquerers, Turkiye Futbol. I enjoy their style of play, their mix of wily veterans and bumping-chest young punks, and, most of all, I love watching their coach, Fatih Terim, go through his dramatic game performance. He runs the gamut from A to Z (or whatever the first and last letters of the Turkish alphabet are), of joy, anger, sadness, frustration, elation, depression. He starts out in sartorial splendour, pressed suit and shirt and gradually transforms himself into a barely clothed man on the edge of a psychological breakdown. His players obviously love playing for him as he so obviously loves his players.I wish them well, but I feel their time may be up. Besides playing against Football's version of the Evil Empire, Germany, the Turks have to deal with not having quite a few important players available, due to injury and the deadly double yellow and red cards (Red and yellow cards will keep goalie Volkan Demirel, attacking midfielders Arda Turan and Tuncay Sanli and centre-back Emre Asik in the stands, while defenders Servet Cetin and Emre Gungor and midfield men Emre Belozoglu, Ayhan Akman and Tumer Metin are all facing a race against the clock to be fit. Definitely out of the running to feature in the semi is skipper and main striker and groin injury victim Nihat Kahveci, who will be badly missed.)
For a multitude of reasons, I've despised the German football team, relishing every time any other team beat or tied them. It's all a subjective thing on my part. The simple matter is I can't stand them. So candles will be burning and fingers will be crossed for today's match between the Young Turks and the Evil Empire.
Labels: Reviews, The Sporting Thing
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Fly, Iggles, Fly on the road to...
Just arrived late Sunday night from another great trip to Allegheny County and Pittsburgh. Lots of topics to blog about shortly, another visit to the Warhol Museum, my favorite museum to build up one's bile, the First Bhangra in the Burgh, the Duquesne Incline, and some great little eateries.But for tonight, some sad news for most Philly sports fans.
The Igglez are going down tonight in a big way. 21-7 at halftime? QB McNabb playing like a rookie? Terrell Owens just scoring in the first minutes of the second half on a 45 TD pass to make it 28-7? It will be a long and brutal night....
...and a joyfully miserable mourning tomorrow on Philly sports talk radio. Misery is not woven into a better-fitting garment of malaise than in the city of Brotherly Love.
And that's why I love the Igglez. There is no team in Philly that causes as much heartburn, heartbreak, and (I'm sure but w/o stats on this one) heart attack as the Birds. They are going through the beginning of the worst of times, a temporal period that tends to span decades in the City by the 'Ware.
Philly fans use the baseball, hockey, and basketball seasons to tune up or keep their lungs healthy and capable of expelling choice verbiage at ear-deafening volumes. The ever-loving wife, on a trip North recently, had the good fortune to be sitting across from a dapper ex-Long Islander now living in Philly. A long time and current fan of the other NY baseball team, he shook his head as he explained his view of the Philly fan.
"You know, it's not that the Philly fan wants your team to lose. That would be understandable. What the Philly fan wants you to know is that not only will your team lose but that your team sucks. In fact," he twisted his tie off and continued, "the Philly fan wants to be sure that you know that you, as a human being, also suck."
He looked up at my wife, shaking his head," I've been here (in Philadelphia) for 15 years and I still don't understand the vitriol." (note here: My wife, not an Igglez fan, understood that last word; I won't vouch the same for your avg Igglez fan).
It's now 35-10, the 'Boys. While I too can't stand the Dallas team, this (soon-to-be) embarrassing defeat will mean a lot of crocheting of the misery afghans. If you are one who is interested in public displays of pain for all of the wrong and inane reasons, life is good.
Later, but not too later, da Boys are up 38-10. I would strongly suggest that if you own a Cowboys baseball cap not to wear it tomorrow, unless the check for your life insurance premium has been cashed.
Labels: NaBloPoMo, Philly, The Sporting Thing
Monday, October 29, 2007
Evil Empire Moves North
As global warming or worldwide warmth or whatever the heck the au courant expression is for the condition that has me sweating in late October is upon us, forcing us northward in search of temperate climate, so has the Evil Empire picked up its stakes from the land of Trump, Steinbrenner, and Giuliani and headed up in the general direction of Canada. Boston is looking at itself in the mirror and is answering the question, "Who is the enemy now?".MVP of the series, Mike Lowell, acknowledged to be a great guy as well as an excellent 3rd baseman, will be counting some heavy change now that the Series is over and he is a free agent. Couple that with Mr. Alex Rodriguez's and his agent's, Scott Boras (who is never a bore but is most certainly an as_), announcement that they will be shopping elsewhere than the Bronx for the platinum coinage needed for Mr. October Fade's services and you have to laugh at some Bean Town fan's prediction of a Red Sox Dynasty.
Come on! Hubris is being doled out in Boston along with cases of Samuel Adams. You just know that the Red Sox management trust will bite on Boras' bait. The Sox almost had Rodriguez before; hubris will drive them toward mussing the Yankees hair and getting him this time around. There are very few professional teams in the world that can afford the regular season services of the walk-on-pre-playoff-waters of Mr. Rodriguez. As far as I know, one of the only other teams than the Red Sox, Manchester United, doesn't believe his striker skills are adequate and his big-game cojones are oout on loan. So the Sox will sign Alex, ignore the Good Guy Lowell, the better choice, and head immediately back to where their existence is more appreciated as the Tortured Soul of Baseball, namely the Cubbies Division. Sorry, Tim!
Then, in a "Planets and Stars Alignment" 2008 season (something the Rockies had for 170 games this year), the Phillies acquire Mr. Lowell and perhaps his ex-Marlin teammate Mr. Dontrelle Willis, who is so happy to be re-united with Mr. Lowell that he proceeds to go out and have a 21 game winning season. Oh, and Joe Torre, in mid-2008 season, drives down the NJ Turnpike to the City of Brotherly Love where he begins part of his Year of Charity program by taking over from Charley "Mumbles" Manuel and managing the Phighting Phils to the World Series against the Indians of Cleveland.
The Sox and their fans will be back in their 12 Stages of Misery with their new 3rd baseman, Alex "Cloak of Playoff Invisibility" Rodriguez, while the Yankees struggle with the Sons of Steinbrenner and the unlucky manager succeeding Mr. Torre. Yes, all will be right with the universe come the 2008 season; the Sox will be in their most comfortable melieu, the Misery Métier.
Cheesesteak, anyone?
Labels: The Sporting Thing
Monday, October 22, 2007
Back on the Endangered List
This, (from the excellent ink, drawing, and word site of Cubby Blue. Please visit early and often. Very illuminating place to visit and I'm not just referring to his unique illustrations.)and this bit, from McSweeney's just about synopsizes the season, going forward, for the Eagles.
Not enough mirrors to disguise the confusion, injuries, and consistently poor coaching for this year.
The good news?
The sports radio talk shows have a mastodon of a topic, the Eagle's demise, to chew on for the next 2 months.
Labels: Philly, The Sporting Thing
Friday, October 12, 2007
Hockey is Not War....
..and that's where the problem lies.
"Let’s pretend we’re somewhere else.
Let’s pretend its 3:17 AM on a Tuesday, and we’re sitting in a bar. Not a club or anything fancy, just a very ordinary neighborhood tavern type thing (if your neighborhood bar isn’t open at 3:17 AM on Tuesdays, you live in the wrong neighborhood). Let’s pretend we’ve been drinking quite a bit for quite a while and chatting drunken-style about all sorts of things. Maybe I serenaded you with my very moving version of Rex’s Blues, and you were (being drunk) appropriately appreciative. Now it’s very late and things are getting pretty quiet and we’re not in Montreal because I’m smoking and staring at the smoke in that vaguely perplexed way that drunk people tend to stare at cigarette smoke. And after a longish silence, in which you were beginning to think about heading home, I say the following:
Sometimes…
[Pause. Deep breath.]
Sometimes I think that watching hockey makes me a bad person."
So, Ms. E over at A Theory of Ice begins her entry, On Watching. I've effused about her site quite a few times. This last entry seems to be something she's been working her way through for a while. Over 5,500 words, just short of 11 single-spaced pages. It's about hockey like Catch-22 is about planes. Print it out, mark it up, read it through multiple times.
Another bite:
"But all watching is a sort of vampirism. It’s all about appropriating the qualities of the game for ourselves. For some people it’s vicarious macho, for others it’s vicarious speed, vicarious anger, vicarious triumph, vicarious courage, vicarious endurance. In some sense being a hockey fan is similar to any other form of the symbolic consumption which is so characteristic of contemporary capitalist society- those qualities which we feel lacking in ourselves we seek in something external. Buying a sexy sportscar to feel young, or a hybrid to feel socially responsible. Getting a tattoo to feel cool. We are all very conscious of what our tastes and our choices say about us, we define other people often by what they like to watch, and define ourselves similarly."
and, finally:
"If hockey were war, it would in fact, be war, and if that’s what you really want, you know, we already have that and I’m very sure that a good many governments would be just thrilled if you wanted to go take a closer look. The whole reason that hockey is hockey is that it is not war, neither is it gladiatorial combat, or murder, or Fight Club. It’s not ultimate fighting, boxing, or (American) football. For that matter, it’s not basketball, baseball, figure skating, or dwarf bowling. It’s hockey, and it is different from all those things. So don’t tell me that hockey is violent because it’s battle. It’s not. Battle is battle and hockey is hockey, and metaphor is an art that points obliquely at truth but is not truth itself."
She makes me nervous and itchy with how well she writes about hockey. Seriously, has anyone out there come across someone else who comes even close? And it's not just this linked piece; it's all of her stuff. She is the Roger Angell of hockey.
"Let’s pretend we’re somewhere else.
Let’s pretend its 3:17 AM on a Tuesday, and we’re sitting in a bar. Not a club or anything fancy, just a very ordinary neighborhood tavern type thing (if your neighborhood bar isn’t open at 3:17 AM on Tuesdays, you live in the wrong neighborhood). Let’s pretend we’ve been drinking quite a bit for quite a while and chatting drunken-style about all sorts of things. Maybe I serenaded you with my very moving version of Rex’s Blues, and you were (being drunk) appropriately appreciative. Now it’s very late and things are getting pretty quiet and we’re not in Montreal because I’m smoking and staring at the smoke in that vaguely perplexed way that drunk people tend to stare at cigarette smoke. And after a longish silence, in which you were beginning to think about heading home, I say the following:
Sometimes…
[Pause. Deep breath.]
Sometimes I think that watching hockey makes me a bad person."
So, Ms. E over at A Theory of Ice begins her entry, On Watching. I've effused about her site quite a few times. This last entry seems to be something she's been working her way through for a while. Over 5,500 words, just short of 11 single-spaced pages. It's about hockey like Catch-22 is about planes. Print it out, mark it up, read it through multiple times.
Another bite:
"But all watching is a sort of vampirism. It’s all about appropriating the qualities of the game for ourselves. For some people it’s vicarious macho, for others it’s vicarious speed, vicarious anger, vicarious triumph, vicarious courage, vicarious endurance. In some sense being a hockey fan is similar to any other form of the symbolic consumption which is so characteristic of contemporary capitalist society- those qualities which we feel lacking in ourselves we seek in something external. Buying a sexy sportscar to feel young, or a hybrid to feel socially responsible. Getting a tattoo to feel cool. We are all very conscious of what our tastes and our choices say about us, we define other people often by what they like to watch, and define ourselves similarly."
and, finally:
"If hockey were war, it would in fact, be war, and if that’s what you really want, you know, we already have that and I’m very sure that a good many governments would be just thrilled if you wanted to go take a closer look. The whole reason that hockey is hockey is that it is not war, neither is it gladiatorial combat, or murder, or Fight Club. It’s not ultimate fighting, boxing, or (American) football. For that matter, it’s not basketball, baseball, figure skating, or dwarf bowling. It’s hockey, and it is different from all those things. So don’t tell me that hockey is violent because it’s battle. It’s not. Battle is battle and hockey is hockey, and metaphor is an art that points obliquely at truth but is not truth itself."
She makes me nervous and itchy with how well she writes about hockey. Seriously, has anyone out there come across someone else who comes even close? And it's not just this linked piece; it's all of her stuff. She is the Roger Angell of hockey.
Labels: Blogs, Hockey, Links to Posts, Reviews, The Sporting Thing
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Cubbie Stocks
You can read this relatively short Morningstar posting or just take my advice and save yourself some eye wear.
If you are ever tempted by promotional literature, cold calls, door-to-door investment counsellors, or recommendations by close and trusted friends regarding the services of some company called Cubbie Cash Counselling & Investment Emporium, keep in mind that the last time the Cubbies hit it big was 99 years ago. Not the kind of success one would want to count on for one's comfortable retirement. Only a bear would like the Cubs.
If you are ever tempted by promotional literature, cold calls, door-to-door investment counsellors, or recommendations by close and trusted friends regarding the services of some company called Cubbie Cash Counselling & Investment Emporium, keep in mind that the last time the Cubbies hit it big was 99 years ago. Not the kind of success one would want to count on for one's comfortable retirement. Only a bear would like the Cubs.
Labels: The Sporting Thing
Monday, October 01, 2007
Cicadas and Phillies
Every 15 years (or so) both the Phillies and the Cicadas make a lot of noise and get everybody so churned up that thoughts of the World Coming to an End or the return of the Philadelphia Plague are swirling about. I know that Jim is already out there tromping around and getting tired of hearing that the Phillies are the Nat Leagues East Champs.
But, come on Jim! You're in the Greater "Yo!" Area, you've got to give them some cred! I mean, even that New Yorker Conan is getting into the act (while simultaneously showing no heart for the Mets). It's not about laughing at the Mets; you've got to empathize with their drop off the cliff. It's about the Phillies, complete with Manager Charlie Manuel's hair-pulling late inning decision-making and heart attack inducing bullpen, and how they pulled it out with no time to spare. Things like this just don't happen to the Phillies. This is machina ex deus we're talking about here!
(Thanks to Philly's own 700 Level for links.)
But, come on Jim! You're in the Greater "Yo!" Area, you've got to give them some cred! I mean, even that New Yorker Conan is getting into the act (while simultaneously showing no heart for the Mets). It's not about laughing at the Mets; you've got to empathize with their drop off the cliff. It's about the Phillies, complete with Manager Charlie Manuel's hair-pulling late inning decision-making and heart attack inducing bullpen, and how they pulled it out with no time to spare. Things like this just don't happen to the Phillies. This is machina ex deus we're talking about here!
(Thanks to Philly's own 700 Level for links.)
Labels: The Sporting Thing
Friday, September 21, 2007
The Gloves are Down. Gordie Goes Legal
This story is very disturbing. I mean, we're talking about the original Mr. Hockey, the inspiration for the Gordie Howe Hat Trick (Mr. Howe had over 100 of these hat tricks in his life), the only professional hockey player to ever appear in a professional game during six consecutive decades (1940s-1990s). "Gordie Howe" is my ever-loving wife's answer to any Trivial Pursuit question about hockey. And guess what? Her answer is right 50% of the time ("Wayne Gretsky" being another 50% and "Punch Imlach" the balance of 20%). I remember him checking a guy into the boards and smearing his face against the glass for a good 40 feet. Gordie was only 48 at the time. The other guy got up and, I swear, apologized to Mr. Howe for getting in his way.
Doesn't Mr. Howe's neighbor realize who Gordie Howe is? This clown should be sitting in the sin bin with Tie Domi! If Mr. Howe had only let some of his older fans know he was in a bit of a spot, I'm sure they would have paid a visit to his neighbor and straightened the matter up. That idiot was messing with a Hockey God.
Note Bene: Speaking of hockey, A Theory of Ice has already started writing about the Montreal Habitants 2007-2008 season. It's great to have her back again.
Labels: Hockey, The Sporting Thing
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Le footing and now le running
From Arts & Letters Daily comes this link to a Time Online article regarding French opinion on their newly installed leader, President Sarkozy.Some nasty bits:
"(Some) intellectuals and critics see his passion for jogging as un-French, right-wing and even a ploy to brainwash his citizens.
"
"Alain Finkelkraut, a celebrated philosopher, begged Mr Sarkozy on France 2, the main state television channel, to abandon his "undignified" pursuit. He should take up walking, like Socrates, Arthur Rimbaud, the poet, and other great men."
"Le running du Président, often clad in his favourite NYPD T-shirt, has become a ritual, like King Louis XIV’s rides at Versailles."
"Mr Sarkozy has rekindled a French suspicion that the habit is for self-centred individualists such as the Americans who popularised it. "Jogging is of course about performance and individualism, values that are traditionally ascribed to the Right," Odile Baudrier, editor of V02 magazine, a sports publication, told Libération"
I could keep on clipping, so I suggest to just read the entire article. It must be a slow news day in Paris.
Note Bene: Click on the cartoon for the full blown effect of Gallic Wit.
Labels: Quirks, The Sporting Thing
