I have no excuses really. I just didn't have much that I felt strongly enough to write about. Then I got busy. Then not posting here became a habit. Thus, the two month holiday. But here I am, back again having missed one Tiger taking the rest of the year off and a group of Tigers who also seem to have taken the season off. I missed pontificating about the Olympics, which were fun in the bits and pieces that I saw, but not enormously interesting to me beyond three or four specific events that I have an interest in (like the Oly Tris which were amazing!! Way to go Simon!!!). The Winter Games are more my thing.
But where are we now? Day one of the college football season! It seemed so far off for so long, but it's finally arrived. The dawn of fall. The time when every school still believes they have a shot ... you know ... before they actually get beat by Appalachian State and drive their fans into the depths of despair, leading to the hiring of a new coach and the departure of all the players who can actually play and a season that is likely to be the first without a bowl berth in forever. But enough about Michigan.
Beyond college football, we're just a week from the dawn of the NFL season and then shortly thereafter, the MLB playoffs and NHL season will begin. It's good times in sports and I'm excited to see it all start. I promise, I'll post again in less than 60 days this time!
Showing posts with label Triathlon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Triathlon. Show all posts
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
That was an interesting three weeks!
It's been a very long time since I've chimed in here. I've been busy with real life getting in the way. And mostly I've been lazy when I've actually had time. But I certainly haven't stopped paying attention to all of the amazing things that have happened in the sports world over the last three weeks.
I didn't get down my thoughts when the Red Wings finally clinched the Cup in game 6. I was too busy celebrating! The Wings should be proud of the way they bounced back from the triple overtime loss in game five and, despite everyone saying their "old" legs wouldn't bounce back as quickly as the Pens, they went into Pittsburgh and played a dominant game to put the finishing touches on a masterful season. Aside from those hectic final two minutes, Detroit was thoroughly the better team and a deserving champion. It's scary to see how much talent they've got coming back next year and it's going to be fun watching some of the young guys develop further. As for Pittsburgh, I'm not sure that they're going to be back as soon as everyone thinks. It looks like Shero is going to struggle to keep that team intact, so he's going to have some work to do to make sure the supporting cast is solid enough to make them more than a one-line team in the years to come. They should hold hope though in that as Crosby and Malkin develop further, they'll start being able to take more penalty kill and defensive time that will make them the complete players that Datsyuk and Zetterberg showed themselves to be for Detroit.
The NBA finals happened too ... but that pretty much sucked. The most interesting thing during the finals was the assertion by disgraced ref Tim Donaghy that the league has conspired with the refs for years to fix games and extend series. I would normally laugh off a conspiracy theory like this one (especially when the ref has been found criminally guilty of gambling and fixing games), but this one sticks a little bit better since people have been questioning the reputation of the NBA for years. The refereeing during the 2002 series that Donaghy specifically referenced in his accusation has been called some of the worst in the history of the league ... maybe there's something to this story!
The US Open was a much more thrilling event than the NBA finals at least. All of the old Maple Leafs fans still clinging to Bobby Baun winning the Stanley Cup on a broken leg (it was just a hairline crack in the ankle ... and his goal wasn't even in game 7) can now look at a new hero. Tiger, playing on a torn ACL and a double stress fracture in his tibia managed to still lap the field except for Rocco. Mediate put up an incredible fight and hung in better than anyone could have ever expected him to, but Woods was simply too much. The guy just has an uncanny ability to find a way, any way, to get the ball in the hole when he absolutely has to. How did he make the 80 footer for eagle on 13 on Saturday? Or the 40 footer for eagle on 18 that same day? Or that final putt on Sunday? And then again to birdie 18 when he had to in the playoff and hang on long enough for Rocco to finally make a mistake. It was just an amazing performance that was made even more incredible when we found out how badly injured he really is. I'm not suggesting that he made the right decision to play through his leg problems (in fact, I think it was a mistake), but it sure made for good theater!
And speaking of amazing Tigers, how about those fellas from Detroit?! Winners of 12 of their last 14 games! I'm not going to suggest yet that they can climb all the way back in this, but looking forward at the rest of the season all they have to do is average wins in 2 out of each 3 games to get to 95 wins. 95 wins usually gets them in the playoffs and with the hitting they have (they've started to not suck at the plate any more) and the pitching staff figuring out how to limit the damage each game (giving up less than 3.5 runs per game during this stretch), this team offers some hope to live up to the expectations that everyone had at the start of the year!
Unfortunately, the sports world is now pretty quiet for a while. The summer will bring a few interesting golf tournaments, but without Tiger I think I might be the only one watching. Training camps for football are still a little more than a month away. The middle of the baseball season? Well, one game sort of runs into the next when they play so many. I think it might finally be time for me to break out some posts about the sports that no one follows. There will be posts about triathlon (perhaps a recap soon of the World Championships and later this summer, some talk about Ironman Canada) and in seven weeks, I'll certainly get into the Olympics! Look out for Greco Roman Wrestling! (not really ... even I don't know anything about GRW)
I didn't get down my thoughts when the Red Wings finally clinched the Cup in game 6. I was too busy celebrating! The Wings should be proud of the way they bounced back from the triple overtime loss in game five and, despite everyone saying their "old" legs wouldn't bounce back as quickly as the Pens, they went into Pittsburgh and played a dominant game to put the finishing touches on a masterful season. Aside from those hectic final two minutes, Detroit was thoroughly the better team and a deserving champion. It's scary to see how much talent they've got coming back next year and it's going to be fun watching some of the young guys develop further. As for Pittsburgh, I'm not sure that they're going to be back as soon as everyone thinks. It looks like Shero is going to struggle to keep that team intact, so he's going to have some work to do to make sure the supporting cast is solid enough to make them more than a one-line team in the years to come. They should hold hope though in that as Crosby and Malkin develop further, they'll start being able to take more penalty kill and defensive time that will make them the complete players that Datsyuk and Zetterberg showed themselves to be for Detroit.
The NBA finals happened too ... but that pretty much sucked. The most interesting thing during the finals was the assertion by disgraced ref Tim Donaghy that the league has conspired with the refs for years to fix games and extend series. I would normally laugh off a conspiracy theory like this one (especially when the ref has been found criminally guilty of gambling and fixing games), but this one sticks a little bit better since people have been questioning the reputation of the NBA for years. The refereeing during the 2002 series that Donaghy specifically referenced in his accusation has been called some of the worst in the history of the league ... maybe there's something to this story!
The US Open was a much more thrilling event than the NBA finals at least. All of the old Maple Leafs fans still clinging to Bobby Baun winning the Stanley Cup on a broken leg (it was just a hairline crack in the ankle ... and his goal wasn't even in game 7) can now look at a new hero. Tiger, playing on a torn ACL and a double stress fracture in his tibia managed to still lap the field except for Rocco. Mediate put up an incredible fight and hung in better than anyone could have ever expected him to, but Woods was simply too much. The guy just has an uncanny ability to find a way, any way, to get the ball in the hole when he absolutely has to. How did he make the 80 footer for eagle on 13 on Saturday? Or the 40 footer for eagle on 18 that same day? Or that final putt on Sunday? And then again to birdie 18 when he had to in the playoff and hang on long enough for Rocco to finally make a mistake. It was just an amazing performance that was made even more incredible when we found out how badly injured he really is. I'm not suggesting that he made the right decision to play through his leg problems (in fact, I think it was a mistake), but it sure made for good theater!
And speaking of amazing Tigers, how about those fellas from Detroit?! Winners of 12 of their last 14 games! I'm not going to suggest yet that they can climb all the way back in this, but looking forward at the rest of the season all they have to do is average wins in 2 out of each 3 games to get to 95 wins. 95 wins usually gets them in the playoffs and with the hitting they have (they've started to not suck at the plate any more) and the pitching staff figuring out how to limit the damage each game (giving up less than 3.5 runs per game during this stretch), this team offers some hope to live up to the expectations that everyone had at the start of the year!
Unfortunately, the sports world is now pretty quiet for a while. The summer will bring a few interesting golf tournaments, but without Tiger I think I might be the only one watching. Training camps for football are still a little more than a month away. The middle of the baseball season? Well, one game sort of runs into the next when they play so many. I think it might finally be time for me to break out some posts about the sports that no one follows. There will be posts about triathlon (perhaps a recap soon of the World Championships and later this summer, some talk about Ironman Canada) and in seven weeks, I'll certainly get into the Olympics! Look out for Greco Roman Wrestling! (not really ... even I don't know anything about GRW)
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Dreams Can Come True
Today, I was mentioned by Sports Illustrated! No, I didn't do anything wonderfully athletic (though I will do a half ironman this weekend). Rather, I sent them an interview that they found interesting. Hot Clicks threw the article up and gave me a shout out!
You can check it out here ... Hot Clicks - May 28, 2008
You can check it out here ... Hot Clicks - May 28, 2008
Friday, November 30, 2007
And Another Thing ...
One more prediction and one quick rave as we head into the weekend ...
First, the rave. The NHL board of governors has decided to change the schedule up again. I know that 99.99% of people are now saying "the NHwho?". But this is important. It's a lot easier to market stars like Sydney Crosby coming to town than it is to sell an eighth game each year between Detroit and Columbus. The new schedule will allow the Original Six teams to actually face each other more than once every three years and revive some old rivalries that were canned to try and create new ones. I'm usually very negative on Bettman and his gang of weenies, but on this one, they got something right. Two thumbs up.
Now for the Prophecy ...
In between college football games this Saturday, try to check out the coverage of Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. The coverage is on NBC from 4:30 - 6:00 pm ET. I'm predicting that Macca (Chris McCormack) will win the men's race in a time around 8 hours and 15 minutes ahead of Craig Alexander of last years dream team Tri Dubai. I'll go with an upset on the women's side ... maybe Chrissie Wellington of the UK over our proud Canadian Samantha McGlone! Okay ... so the race was a month and a half ago and these prophecies are obviously right ... my blog, my rules. Just check it out. This is an awesome event where you get to see thousands of incredible people put everything they have on the line for 8-9 hours (or up to 17 for the age-group racers!). Get inspired!
First, the rave. The NHL board of governors has decided to change the schedule up again. I know that 99.99% of people are now saying "the NHwho?". But this is important. It's a lot easier to market stars like Sydney Crosby coming to town than it is to sell an eighth game each year between Detroit and Columbus. The new schedule will allow the Original Six teams to actually face each other more than once every three years and revive some old rivalries that were canned to try and create new ones. I'm usually very negative on Bettman and his gang of weenies, but on this one, they got something right. Two thumbs up.
Now for the Prophecy ...
In between college football games this Saturday, try to check out the coverage of Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. The coverage is on NBC from 4:30 - 6:00 pm ET. I'm predicting that Macca (Chris McCormack) will win the men's race in a time around 8 hours and 15 minutes ahead of Craig Alexander of last years dream team Tri Dubai. I'll go with an upset on the women's side ... maybe Chrissie Wellington of the UK over our proud Canadian Samantha McGlone! Okay ... so the race was a month and a half ago and these prophecies are obviously right ... my blog, my rules. Just check it out. This is an awesome event where you get to see thousands of incredible people put everything they have on the line for 8-9 hours (or up to 17 for the age-group racers!). Get inspired!
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