A lot of talk has been made in the wake of Japan beating the juggernaut U.S. softball team for the gold medal and whether the U.S. loss is actually a good thing for the sport of softball, since it was recently voted out of future Olympic competition due to U.S. dominance in the sport.
"Maybe people will get off our backs and realize that there is some parity in this game," U.S. coach Mike Candrea said after the loss. "I've always felt that the rest of the world is getting better.
I'm sorry, but when did a single loss equal parity?
This summer in Beijing, the U.S. team didn't lose a game until the finals and soundly beat Japan 7-0 and 4-1 before its gold medal game loss. Even with their slim defeat (by a score of 3-1), the U.S. still outscored Japan by a total of 12-4 over the course of those three games. Whats more, the U.S. softball team had beaten its competition by a staggering margin of 108-3 in the past two Olympics. No matter how you slice it, that's utter and complete domination.
So could the U.S. stumble in the gold medal game really save Olympic softball? I hardly think so, unless of course this loss is the beginning of a trend that demonstrates an actual narrowing of the gap between the U.S. and softball teams worldwide. Until that happens, there's no legitimacy to the claim that parity exists in international softball, and little reason to continue the sport in Olympic play.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Lightning Bolt!
We've been talking about Michael Phelps non-stop of late, which is understandable given how amazing his 8 gold medals are. But I've never seen an individual performance like Usain Bolt had tonight (well last night, thanks again NBC) in the 100 meter finals.
Bolt didn't just win and set the world record, he started celebrating with 15 or 20 meters to go and still crushed the competition! My jaw just dropped when he put his hands down and started easing up. He won by 0.2 seconds, which in the 100 meters is an insane amount of time. The announcers tonight were saying that his pre-finish celebration probably cost him 0.1 seconds. Can you imagine what it would have looked like if he had run all the way through to the finish? I don't think there's ever been a race of that caliber that was dominated so thoroughly. Michael Phelps would have had to win the 400 IM by about half the pool to equal what Usain Bolt did tonight.
He said after the race that he didn't care about the time because he already had the world record and just wanted to win the gold medal. Ordinarily I would applaud that sentiment, but tonight I felt gypped. I saw the best 100 meter run ever and the athlete wasn't even trying his hardest!
His attitude makes me wonder if there's more to it than just trying to win the gold medal. Was he playing a psychological game with his opponents, saying "I set the world record without really trying...you'll never beat me."? Was there some financial incentive? Perhaps a sponsor has promised him bonuses every time he breaks the world record and he wanted to leave himself some room to improve. Or the last possibility, the one that I hate to bring up, but is on my (and presumably your) mind every time an athlete does something spectacular now:"Was he cheating?" I'm wondering if he figured that if he'd done a 9.59 he would raise more suspicions about drug use?
I hope I'm wrong. I hope there were no ulterior motives, that he simply was so excited (and confident) that he couldn't hold it in until after the race. But sadly, the state of today's sporting world has caused me to look at everything a little more cynically. So please don't let me down, Michael.
Bolt didn't just win and set the world record, he started celebrating with 15 or 20 meters to go and still crushed the competition! My jaw just dropped when he put his hands down and started easing up. He won by 0.2 seconds, which in the 100 meters is an insane amount of time. The announcers tonight were saying that his pre-finish celebration probably cost him 0.1 seconds. Can you imagine what it would have looked like if he had run all the way through to the finish? I don't think there's ever been a race of that caliber that was dominated so thoroughly. Michael Phelps would have had to win the 400 IM by about half the pool to equal what Usain Bolt did tonight.
He said after the race that he didn't care about the time because he already had the world record and just wanted to win the gold medal. Ordinarily I would applaud that sentiment, but tonight I felt gypped. I saw the best 100 meter run ever and the athlete wasn't even trying his hardest!
His attitude makes me wonder if there's more to it than just trying to win the gold medal. Was he playing a psychological game with his opponents, saying "I set the world record without really trying...you'll never beat me."? Was there some financial incentive? Perhaps a sponsor has promised him bonuses every time he breaks the world record and he wanted to leave himself some room to improve. Or the last possibility, the one that I hate to bring up, but is on my (and presumably your) mind every time an athlete does something spectacular now:"Was he cheating?" I'm wondering if he figured that if he'd done a 9.59 he would raise more suspicions about drug use?
I hope I'm wrong. I hope there were no ulterior motives, that he simply was so excited (and confident) that he couldn't hold it in until after the race. But sadly, the state of today's sporting world has caused me to look at everything a little more cynically. So please don't let me down, Michael.
Eating like a champ
I generally have a cup of tea and a bowl or two of cereal (Cheerios with blueberries is the current choice) to get me going in the morning. Michael Phelps, on the other hand, downs three fried-egg sandwiches with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise...
...PLUS one five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar, three chocolate-chip pancakes, and two two cups of coffee. And he's only just getting started for the day.
Phelps consumes far more calories in one meal (4,000) than most of us do in three. That adds up to A LOT of calories in one day. Not surprising when you consider the intensity and length of his daily workout regimen, but just thinking about consuming 12,000 calories in a day--regardless of exercise routine--is mind-boggling. Here the rest of an average day of eats for Phelps, courtesy of a recent post in the Wall Street Journal blog:
Lunch: One pound of enriched pasta. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread. Energy drinks packing 1,000 calories.
Dinner: One pound of pasta. An entire pizza. More energy drinks.
Can't an all-time great Olympian get some dessert?
...PLUS one five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar, three chocolate-chip pancakes, and two two cups of coffee. And he's only just getting started for the day.
Phelps consumes far more calories in one meal (4,000) than most of us do in three. That adds up to A LOT of calories in one day. Not surprising when you consider the intensity and length of his daily workout regimen, but just thinking about consuming 12,000 calories in a day--regardless of exercise routine--is mind-boggling. Here the rest of an average day of eats for Phelps, courtesy of a recent post in the Wall Street Journal blog:
Lunch: One pound of enriched pasta. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread. Energy drinks packing 1,000 calories.
Dinner: One pound of pasta. An entire pizza. More energy drinks.
Can't an all-time great Olympian get some dessert?
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Greatest of All Time?
No, I'm not talking about Michael Phelps. I'm talking about Brad Ziegler. Unless you're a huge A's fan or involved in a deep fantasy baseball league, you probably have no idea who Brad Ziegler is. But he might be the greatest baseball pitcher of all time.
Huh?
Ziegler is a 28 year old rookie relief pitcher. He has now pitched 38 innings in the majors and has yet to give up a run, breaking the major league record of 25 innings without allowing a run at the start of a career. What is more, he has yet to even give up an extra base hit! That's right opposing batters are hitting 0.179 against him with a 0.179 slugging percentage.
His story is pretty interesting. He was drafted om 2003 after his senior season of college, but was released by the Phillies after throwing just 6 innings in the minors. He signed with an independent league team but soon thereafter was signed by the A's. After a few decent seasons in the minors as a starter, the A's decided he was unlikely to make the majors as a starter and asked him to changing his pitching style to throw sidearm. So between the 2006 and 2007 learned to throw sidearm and became a relief pitcher. Since then, he has thrown more than 130 innings in the majors and minors without giving up a home run. So far this season, including the minors, he has only given up 1 run, and thanks to a series of disastrous relief appearances by Huston Street, Ziegler is now the A's closer.
Apparently his pitching style is so deceptive and has so much break that hitters just can't hit the ball in the air. He doesn't strike out many guys, but all hitters can do is hit weak ground balls against him. So far in the majors he has gotten the hitter to hit into a double play about half the time that there has been a runner on first with less than two outs. That may or not not sound like a lot to you, but the all time record for a whole season is only about 35%, so he's inducing GIDPs way more than any player in history.
It is unlikely that he'll be able to continue allowing no runs, but it sure is fun to see a guy with (apparently) middling skills pitch like an all time great. I'll be very interested to see if he can sustain his success, and if so, if it will spur a whole generation of guys who can't through 90 miles an hour to try throwing sidearm.
Huh?
Ziegler is a 28 year old rookie relief pitcher. He has now pitched 38 innings in the majors and has yet to give up a run, breaking the major league record of 25 innings without allowing a run at the start of a career. What is more, he has yet to even give up an extra base hit! That's right opposing batters are hitting 0.179 against him with a 0.179 slugging percentage.
His story is pretty interesting. He was drafted om 2003 after his senior season of college, but was released by the Phillies after throwing just 6 innings in the minors. He signed with an independent league team but soon thereafter was signed by the A's. After a few decent seasons in the minors as a starter, the A's decided he was unlikely to make the majors as a starter and asked him to changing his pitching style to throw sidearm. So between the 2006 and 2007 learned to throw sidearm and became a relief pitcher. Since then, he has thrown more than 130 innings in the majors and minors without giving up a home run. So far this season, including the minors, he has only given up 1 run, and thanks to a series of disastrous relief appearances by Huston Street, Ziegler is now the A's closer.
Apparently his pitching style is so deceptive and has so much break that hitters just can't hit the ball in the air. He doesn't strike out many guys, but all hitters can do is hit weak ground balls against him. So far in the majors he has gotten the hitter to hit into a double play about half the time that there has been a runner on first with less than two outs. That may or not not sound like a lot to you, but the all time record for a whole season is only about 35%, so he's inducing GIDPs way more than any player in history.
It is unlikely that he'll be able to continue allowing no runs, but it sure is fun to see a guy with (apparently) middling skills pitch like an all time great. I'll be very interested to see if he can sustain his success, and if so, if it will spur a whole generation of guys who can't through 90 miles an hour to try throwing sidearm.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Golds Galore
It seems only fitting to celebrate Michael Phelps becoming the "winningest" Olympic athlete by remembering one of the now second-winningest Olympic athletes, albeit in one of his less than shining moments:
Ohhhhhhhhhh, ohhh-oh-ohhh-oh-ohhh-oh, oh-ohhhhhhh that's bad. So bad it's good, actually, and made even better by former ESPN anchor Charlie Steiner's memorable "written by Francis Scott off-Key" line, uttered while in the midst of one of his patented fits of laughter. Steiner was a personal favorite back in the day before SportsCenter became ObnoxiousAndAnnoyingAndWayTooLoudEntertainmentCenter.
But I digress...congrats, Mr. Phelps!
Ohhhhhhhhhh, ohhh-oh-ohhh-oh-ohhh-oh, oh-ohhhhhhh that's bad. So bad it's good, actually, and made even better by former ESPN anchor Charlie Steiner's memorable "written by Francis Scott off-Key" line, uttered while in the midst of one of his patented fits of laughter. Steiner was a personal favorite back in the day before SportsCenter became ObnoxiousAndAnnoyingAndWayTooLoudEntertainmentCenter.
But I digress...congrats, Mr. Phelps!
Monday, August 11, 2008
Thanks NBC
I apologize in advance for writing a rant rather than an informative post, but I just need to vent.
NBC spent tons of time and presumably tons of money negotiating with the Chinese Olympic committee to get them to have things like the swimming and gymnastics finals in the morning so they could show them live in prime time in the United States. But they're only showing it live in HALF the United States. I ask you, what is the point of going through the trouble to make sure it's live when it's not live everywhere?
For the second night in a row, Michael Phelps swam after 10:00 PM eastern time. I live in Arizona, right now we're three hours behind the east coast*. Why couldn't I see Michael Phelps swim at 7:15 PM my time? That's still prime time. I'd come home early from work if I had to to see him swim if it was earlier! But instead, I get it on a 2 hour delay. And then they have the gall to leave the "LIVE" logo up on the screen as if I really am seeing it in real time.
NBC is holding me hostage. They offer something like 2600 hours of Olympic broadcasting streaming online. But if you investigate, it's only sports that aren't on TV. Want to watch swimming? You'll have to wait for it to be on TV. However, they don't show all the swimming events on TV (like the first semifinal of the 200 fly tonight), but because swimming is a TV sport, you can't even see the events they aren't showing on TV!
So my only choice is to wait 2 hours, which means that I can't turn on my computer because the lead story basically everywhere on the internet is what happened to Michael Phelps. To make matters worse, my wife is currently in Maryland and the Artist is in St. Louis. I talked to both of them last night on the phone, and both of them had wanted to talk about the 4x100 free relay. Both of them had seen it in real time, but couldn't talk about it with me because I had to wait my allotted 2 hours. Grrrr!
I understand NBC is doing this to sell prime time advertising, but it seems like they're doing nothing but angering people who are really excited about seeing their product. I talked with 2 people at work today. They are both huge sports fans, and both are thoroughly disgusted with NBC over this. So I ask NBC, is angering 100% of your customers west of Kansas worth the extra advertising revenue?
*Arizona is wacky. We don't have day light saving time, so right now I'm 3 hours behind the east coast, but in the winter I will only be 2 hours behind. To make matters worse, some Indian reservations use day light savings time, and some don't. So there are pockets of Arizona which are always 2 hours behind. And to add insult to injury www.nbcolympics.com knows that I'm in Arizona, and tells me the times for the programs are 3 hours behind the east coast, but then they come on TV 2 hours behind. So if was relying on NBC to tell me when to watch Michael Phelps, I'd still miss it! Not to mention the fact that if I happened to look at the website before it was aired here to find out when it was airing, they would have told me the results before I could get to the TV schedule!
NBC spent tons of time and presumably tons of money negotiating with the Chinese Olympic committee to get them to have things like the swimming and gymnastics finals in the morning so they could show them live in prime time in the United States. But they're only showing it live in HALF the United States. I ask you, what is the point of going through the trouble to make sure it's live when it's not live everywhere?
For the second night in a row, Michael Phelps swam after 10:00 PM eastern time. I live in Arizona, right now we're three hours behind the east coast*. Why couldn't I see Michael Phelps swim at 7:15 PM my time? That's still prime time. I'd come home early from work if I had to to see him swim if it was earlier! But instead, I get it on a 2 hour delay. And then they have the gall to leave the "LIVE" logo up on the screen as if I really am seeing it in real time.
NBC is holding me hostage. They offer something like 2600 hours of Olympic broadcasting streaming online. But if you investigate, it's only sports that aren't on TV. Want to watch swimming? You'll have to wait for it to be on TV. However, they don't show all the swimming events on TV (like the first semifinal of the 200 fly tonight), but because swimming is a TV sport, you can't even see the events they aren't showing on TV!
So my only choice is to wait 2 hours, which means that I can't turn on my computer because the lead story basically everywhere on the internet is what happened to Michael Phelps. To make matters worse, my wife is currently in Maryland and the Artist is in St. Louis. I talked to both of them last night on the phone, and both of them had wanted to talk about the 4x100 free relay. Both of them had seen it in real time, but couldn't talk about it with me because I had to wait my allotted 2 hours. Grrrr!
I understand NBC is doing this to sell prime time advertising, but it seems like they're doing nothing but angering people who are really excited about seeing their product. I talked with 2 people at work today. They are both huge sports fans, and both are thoroughly disgusted with NBC over this. So I ask NBC, is angering 100% of your customers west of Kansas worth the extra advertising revenue?
*Arizona is wacky. We don't have day light saving time, so right now I'm 3 hours behind the east coast, but in the winter I will only be 2 hours behind. To make matters worse, some Indian reservations use day light savings time, and some don't. So there are pockets of Arizona which are always 2 hours behind. And to add insult to injury www.nbcolympics.com knows that I'm in Arizona, and tells me the times for the programs are 3 hours behind the east coast, but then they come on TV 2 hours behind. So if was relying on NBC to tell me when to watch Michael Phelps, I'd still miss it! Not to mention the fact that if I happened to look at the website before it was aired here to find out when it was airing, they would have told me the results before I could get to the TV schedule!
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Yao-za!
What a amazing spectacle it was to see the Americans face host nation China in men's basketball! Not that it was a great basketball game from beginning to end, but the event itself was really something to behold. Passing thoughts and observations from the game:
- How cool to be a part of a sporting event seen by over 1 billion viewers worldwide! One billion, wow.
- Was there any more fitting way to start the game than with Yao Ming knocking down a 3-pt FG? And how just how impressive was Yao? He led his team in points (13) and rebounds (9), was 6-6 from the line, played strong throughout--despite grimacing and hobbling a bit after hurting his his right ankle in the second half, and cheered his team like the were up 25 instead of down by that amount in the game's closing minutes. Represented the sport and his country quite admirably.
- Interesting point brought up in NBC's coverage about the popularity of the NBA in China and how other than the Chinese national team itself, Team USA is the squad the Chinese will root for the most. Somewhere David Stern is smiling.
- Team USA's uniforms were stellar. Here they are in white and blue. Very clean and crisp. The tighter fit, very sharp.
- LeBron James was a beast (18 PTS, 6 REB, 4 AST and 3 jaw-dropping blocks, though his post-game interview was a bit uninspired and disappointing) and Dwayne Wade was also impressive--a perfect night shooting (7-7 FG, 5-5 FT) in route to 19 PTS.
- How about Yi Jianlian's one-handed follow-up dunk over Carmelo? Nice play by the youngster
- As impressive as Team USA's defensive pressure and fastbreak finishes were, their outside shooting (surprise, surprise) left a lot to be desired. Let's see, where have we heard this before, hmm....
- And finally, the 18,000 or so fans who helped create an electric, memorable atmosphere for the entirety of the game. Virtually no booing whatsoever--regardless of a given call or who was winning or losing--and a display of genuine appreciation for what they were seeing on the court as well as an excitement for what they were helping to create for viewers worldwide.
Next up for Team USA: Angola, Tuesday, Aug 12, 8 a.m. EST
- How cool to be a part of a sporting event seen by over 1 billion viewers worldwide! One billion, wow.
- Was there any more fitting way to start the game than with Yao Ming knocking down a 3-pt FG? And how just how impressive was Yao? He led his team in points (13) and rebounds (9), was 6-6 from the line, played strong throughout--despite grimacing and hobbling a bit after hurting his his right ankle in the second half, and cheered his team like the were up 25 instead of down by that amount in the game's closing minutes. Represented the sport and his country quite admirably.
- Interesting point brought up in NBC's coverage about the popularity of the NBA in China and how other than the Chinese national team itself, Team USA is the squad the Chinese will root for the most. Somewhere David Stern is smiling.
- Team USA's uniforms were stellar. Here they are in white and blue. Very clean and crisp. The tighter fit, very sharp.
- LeBron James was a beast (18 PTS, 6 REB, 4 AST and 3 jaw-dropping blocks, though his post-game interview was a bit uninspired and disappointing) and Dwayne Wade was also impressive--a perfect night shooting (7-7 FG, 5-5 FT) in route to 19 PTS.
- How about Yi Jianlian's one-handed follow-up dunk over Carmelo? Nice play by the youngster
- As impressive as Team USA's defensive pressure and fastbreak finishes were, their outside shooting (surprise, surprise) left a lot to be desired. Let's see, where have we heard this before, hmm....
- And finally, the 18,000 or so fans who helped create an electric, memorable atmosphere for the entirety of the game. Virtually no booing whatsoever--regardless of a given call or who was winning or losing--and a display of genuine appreciation for what they were seeing on the court as well as an excitement for what they were helping to create for viewers worldwide.
Next up for Team USA: Angola, Tuesday, Aug 12, 8 a.m. EST
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