By The Beachwood Olympic Bureau
Ice dancing, the mysteries of curling, Ryan Miller’s exhaustion and the Unemployed Olympics.
1. Sensuous and flowing.
Posted on February 23, 2010
SportsMonday: Sorry, Canada
By Jim Coffman
I feel bad for Canada. Everyone agrees the hosers who live up there care more about a certain Olympic sport more than any other athletic pursuit, eh? Although I am generally loathe to generalize about these sorts of things, it is clear that the Winter Olympic host nation’s heart is housed in a hockey rink. And Sunday’s loss had to burn, burn, burn.
I was happy when the U.S. men’s hockey team triumphed 5-3 in Vancouver on Sunday evening. But I know I wasn’t nearly as happy as millions of Canucks were hacked off that their team had let them down. Then again, I’m a sap for even thinking about this. If I may paraphrase Da Coach: In life there are winners and losers and if the former doesn’t want to become the latter, it won’t waste time thinking about feelings. I would say “Just win, baby” at this point except the forever Raider famous for the phrase actually just loses these days. Instead I’ll go with, “My condolences, Canada.”
Posted on February 22, 2010
TrackNotes: Santa Margaritaville
By Thomas Chambers
You try to be a fan.
They look the other way on corked bats and steroids to produce ultimately meaningless home runs. They put out the yellow flag to keep the “stock” cars together lest a master mechanic set up his ride to run and hide. They sanction one woods as big as a Wiffle golf club to make sure you don’t swing and miss.
And now they’re seriously considering eliminating weights in the Santa Margarita Invitational, a Grade 1 handicap race Zenyatta will use as a prep for her April 9 Apple Blossom Invitational showdown with Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra at Oaklawn Park.
God forbid Zenyatta loses a race under normal, competitive conditions.
You have to remember not to blame the animal. Trainer John Shireffs and owners Ann and Jerry Moss coddled her by keeping her at home on the synthetic California circuit for most of her 14-0 career, lucking out in having her Breeders’ Cup Classic on her familiar Santa Anita course.
Posted on February 19, 2010
Olympic Moments
By The Beachwood Olympic Bureau
1. It’s all about the amplitude, dude.
Posted on February 18, 2010
Setting The Spring Training Table
By George Ofman
Hope springs eternal. Cubs fans, of course, are eternally hopeful every spring.
White Sox fans are simply grateful they have what the Cubs don’t: a World Series title.
Welcome to spring training, where our boys of summer have designs on being the boys of October.
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The Cubs will convene in Mesa, Arizona, where trying to pay for a new facility has rankled the other 14 major league tenants who have thrived thanks to the Cubs’ existence in the Cactus League.
The Cubs have been printing money here for years. What they haven’t done is hang banners proclaiming “World Champs.”
Posted on February 17, 2010
Fantasy Fix: Baseball’s Top 40
By Dan O’Shea
Fantasy basketball leagues have been on All-Star hiatus since last Thursday and just starting up again as I write this. So, this week, will skip our fantasy hoops treasure hunt and go right to our first fantasy baseball report of the year.
As Major League Baseball spring training starts this week, there’s no question who will be the first two picks, but after that things get pretty interesting. Overall, I think it will be a big year to go after starting pitchers in the early rounds, and probably a good time to lower superstar outfielder expectations. Here’s my top 40:
1. Albert Pujols, 1B, STL: No doubter, despite what was actually a slow second half last year.
2. Hanley Ramirez, SS, FLA: Still young, still looking for batting average, stolen bases to grow.
3. Ryan Braun, OF, MIL: A stat motherlode. BA, SBs make him a better third choice than A-Rod.
4. Alex Rodriguez, 3B, NYY: His first un-stressed season in years after a great post-season, but aging.
5. Chase Utley, 2B, PHI: Tough call because all-around stud could easily be third. No. 1 in 2011?
Posted on February 17, 2010
Olympic Moments
By The Beachwood Olympic Bureau
1. Our intrepid correspondent Scott Buckner checks in:
I’ve never been a huge fan of figure skating, mostly because I happen to favor winter Olympic sports where it’s possible to either kill yourself or get disqualified because you simply can’t handle a snowboard like American crash-and-burn Olympian Lindsey Jacobellis.
But I’m paying attention to Russian figure skater Evgeni Plushenko and his trash talk. Like it or not, Plushenko’s a contender for a gold medal, and when you’re in contention, trash talk is acceptable.
More disturbing is the trash emanating from Team America. “American Johnny Weir will provide another dose of shock value with his outrageous and extravagant performance in the long program, but he sits in sixth place and seems well out of contention,” Yahoo! Sports notes.
Green Day may want to adopt Johnny Weir for it’s Glee-inspired Broadway show, except under the working title American Asshole.
Posted on February 17, 2010
Olympic Moments
By The Beachwood Olympic Bureau
1. Wescott could barely even walk six weeks ago.
Posted on February 16, 2010
SportsMonday: Olympic Moments
By Jim Coffman
Greetings from Olympics Television Central. What follows are my informal, post-tragedy impressions of the competitive goings-on in Vancouver (great town, terrible Olympic location – generally not a good idea to have the winter games on the edge of a rain forest, even if it is a temperate, northern Pacific Coast rain forest) so far.
At least on Saturday and Sunday, the artificial snow held up against the rain (with some help from underground plastic tubes stuffed with dry ice), heavy fog never quite materialized and, other than downhill skiing, the events proceeded reasonably smoothly.
As for the one event that is designed to be anything but smooth, well, I’m glad the moguls are over. There were the three American medals in two (men’s and women’s) races. The USA would do well to repeat that medal rate in just about any other specific event.
But did anyone’s knees and back not feel a bit worse for wear after watching skier after skier pounding through – what was it – about a hundred vicious little hills per run? Yikes. If I’d watched much more I was going to need arthroscopic surgery on something.
Posted on February 15, 2010
Ofman: Dis and Dat, Dem and Dose
The moment Derrick Rose and his multi-million dollar body crashed to the floor Wednesday night I’m thinking John Paxson and Gar Forman were dialing 911. Not for Rose but for themselves!
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Fortunately, Rose has just bruised hip. He’s traveling to Dallas for All-Star Weekend where he’s scheduled to defend his skills challenge title and play in Sunday’s game. My suggestion: Let the NBA know this rather valuable piece of property will not even work up a sweat. No challenge; no game. Thank you very much.
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I found it rather amusing Mike Martz said this of Devin Hester:
“Devin Hester in that role could just be stupid good, if that makes sense to you. What we can do with him inside, the match-ups we can get with him on third corners, safeties and linebackers would be absolutely remarkable.”
Funny, isn’t it, because just prior to Martz getting the job and uttering those lines, Hester had this to say in a radio interview about being a wide receiver:
“I know what I’m best at. The return game is my bread and butter, so if I had to cut back on my receiving and go back to returning, that’s something I would love to do . . . I would love to get back in that situation with the return game. But at the same time, I’m a team player so wherever [the Bears] want me to go, I’m ready to do it.”
I remember Hester being stupid good at returning. Sounds like a very good idea to me.
Posted on February 12, 2010