At the Olympics, the coach of the New Zealand men's field hockey team (I didn't know men played field hockey) was ejected from a game because his team's underwear was the wrong color.
As my hero, Dave Barry, likes to say, I am not making this up.
I'm sure NBC will be all over this story in prime time tonight.
Showing posts with label olympics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label olympics. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Bears pick Orton, ND moves back to Indiana
The Bears finally cut the cord with Rex Grossman and turned the offense over to former Boiler Kyle Orton. After watching the game with Seattle the other day, Rex better stay ready. There's a good chance Orton is going to get creamed.
The offensieve line couldn't block anything and wouldn't recognize a blitz in a police lineup. If that doesn't get fixed, the QB won't matter.
In other Chicago news, the Tribune has finally recognized that Notre Dame is in Indiana. Last week, I wrote about how their list of athletes with "Illinois connections" included someone whose only connection was that she attended ND. It took them a week, but she finally dropped off the list.
The offensieve line couldn't block anything and wouldn't recognize a blitz in a police lineup. If that doesn't get fixed, the QB won't matter.
In other Chicago news, the Tribune has finally recognized that Notre Dame is in Indiana. Last week, I wrote about how their list of athletes with "Illinois connections" included someone whose only connection was that she attended ND. It took them a week, but she finally dropped off the list.
Athletic, yes, but not a sport
I've always felt that one of the definitions of a sport is something where you can tell who won. Gymnastics and figure skating, which rely on judges to tell you who won, are more like athletic pageants than sports. Diving fits into that as well.
We saw another example again tonight. Nastia Liukin of the US appeared to have done a little better than He Kexin of China, but the judges ruled them tied, and He won on a tiebreaker. Another Chinese gymnast finished third, but she might have been better than the other two. Who can tell? Certainly not me, and even the announcers (who have a huge US bias to be sure) struggled with it.
He, who was below the minimum age required to compete in the Olympics before she miraculously produced a passport that said otherwise, had a worse low score that counted than Liukin did. That was the tiebreaker.
Another US-China matchup was pretty spirited as well. Today's 9-1 win for the US baseball team over China got a little intense. Five, or perhaps six (news reports conflicted), US batters were hit by pitches. Two US runners collided with Chinese catchers. One of those catchers, Wang Wei, got knocked out of the game in the 5th. Backup Yang Yang got steamrolled in the sixth, which made China's manager, Jim Lefebvre (the former Cubs manager) pretty irate. He argued the US runner's play was unnecessary and that he should have been kicked out of the game. Lefebvre was launched instead. The first batter for the US in the next inning, Matt LaPorta, was beaned and knocked out of the game. Maybe the next one too. That got the Chinese pitcher tossed along with backup manager Steve Ontiveros (the former MLB pitcher, not the former Cubs 3B).
The final act of sportsmanship came when Yang yanged one over the left field fence in the 9th for the only Chinese run. He ran the bases with his arm in the air in celebration like he hit a 10-run homer.
In the bigs, the next guy goes down and pretty much everyone in uniform gets ejected. Here, the teams just shook hands after the game.
Gotta love the Olympic spirit!
We saw another example again tonight. Nastia Liukin of the US appeared to have done a little better than He Kexin of China, but the judges ruled them tied, and He won on a tiebreaker. Another Chinese gymnast finished third, but she might have been better than the other two. Who can tell? Certainly not me, and even the announcers (who have a huge US bias to be sure) struggled with it.
He, who was below the minimum age required to compete in the Olympics before she miraculously produced a passport that said otherwise, had a worse low score that counted than Liukin did. That was the tiebreaker.
Another US-China matchup was pretty spirited as well. Today's 9-1 win for the US baseball team over China got a little intense. Five, or perhaps six (news reports conflicted), US batters were hit by pitches. Two US runners collided with Chinese catchers. One of those catchers, Wang Wei, got knocked out of the game in the 5th. Backup Yang Yang got steamrolled in the sixth, which made China's manager, Jim Lefebvre (the former Cubs manager) pretty irate. He argued the US runner's play was unnecessary and that he should have been kicked out of the game. Lefebvre was launched instead. The first batter for the US in the next inning, Matt LaPorta, was beaned and knocked out of the game. Maybe the next one too. That got the Chinese pitcher tossed along with backup manager Steve Ontiveros (the former MLB pitcher, not the former Cubs 3B).
The final act of sportsmanship came when Yang yanged one over the left field fence in the 9th for the only Chinese run. He ran the bases with his arm in the air in celebration like he hit a 10-run homer.
In the bigs, the next guy goes down and pretty much everyone in uniform gets ejected. Here, the teams just shook hands after the game.
Gotta love the Olympic spirit!
Monday, August 11, 2008
The University of Chicago at South Bend
One of my pet peeves about the Chicago Tribune sports section, and Chicago sports media in general, is that they treat the University of Notre Dame like it's the University of Chicago at South Bend. I understand that the school has a large fan base here, but I have always thought that it is a bit silly for the Irish to get better coverage than the University of Illinois. But, they do.
South Bend, by the way, is halfway to Ohio from Chicago. Milwaukee is closer to downtown Chicago than South Bend.
The most recent (and blatant) example of the geographic confusion is in the agate type on the Olympics page. There, you'll find a list of three dozen athletes with Illinois connections. There are people who grew up in Illinois, went to college in Illinois, or play professionally here. They might not even represent the US in the games, like Andres Nocioni of the Bulls, who plays for Argentina, but they all have a connection to the state, except one.
Near the bottom of the list is women's sabre gold medalist Mariel Zagunis. Her "Illinois" connection - she attended Notre Dame.
South Bend, by the way, is halfway to Ohio from Chicago. Milwaukee is closer to downtown Chicago than South Bend.
The most recent (and blatant) example of the geographic confusion is in the agate type on the Olympics page. There, you'll find a list of three dozen athletes with Illinois connections. There are people who grew up in Illinois, went to college in Illinois, or play professionally here. They might not even represent the US in the games, like Andres Nocioni of the Bulls, who plays for Argentina, but they all have a connection to the state, except one.
Near the bottom of the list is women's sabre gold medalist Mariel Zagunis. Her "Illinois" connection - she attended Notre Dame.
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