This Is The Face Of Inspiration

Meet Anthony Robles, one of the 2011 NCAA wrestling champions:

I had a lot of butterflies going out there. This year I think that was the biggest difference in my wrestling, was my mental game. Going into every match I was real relaxed, real calm. But before that, before this match, it was nothing but butterflies. I felt like I was going throw up, I was so scared I almost started crying. But it's just the atmosphere. It's the true athletes that are able to just overcome that.

He also said he's likely done as a competitive wrestler but would like to remain involved with the sport.

The original story is here.

The Difference Between Legal And Fair

In my last post, I embedded a video from YouTube about a middle school football team using a particularly clever play to score a touchdown. And, in the limited context of the video, it is hilarious.

Frank Deford is one of the most insightful sportswriters ever, and he has some sobering thoughts on this play, put into a larger context:

...it is perfectly legal to act in a game. But the players who do that in the pros are not embarrassing the opposition. They're just trying to con the umpire. It's a benign bit of hustle that would've made for some good Aesop's Fables if old Aesop were around writing a sports blog nowadays.

But the Driscoll team didn't act instinctively to try to put one over on a ref. The middle schoolers didn't even come up with the ruse. Their coach dreamed up the play, and even participated in it, hollering from the sideline. The referees weren't victimized. In fact, they had to play along.

No, it was only the other team's kids who were embarrassed and belittled by a children's coach being a wise guy, a bully of sorts. It wasn't genius at all. Sure, it was legal, but it wasn't fair. Laugh at kids being outslicked by a grown-up, and you're cruel. That isn't sport.

You can read his full commentary here.

My children are all young adults, well past the age to participate in youth sports, but I still find it worthwhile to ask myself, how would they have felt to be on the other side of this legal play? How would I have felt for them? I suspect I would have tended towards Mr. Deford's position, and that gives me an uncomfortable feeling about myself.

Surprise!

I saw this on Good Morning America yesterday, and I laughed until the tears were rolling down my face and my belly hurt. It was worth it.

Oops...

This was the cake delivered to a reception hosted by Sens. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)to honor Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox during the Braves recent visit to D.C. to play the Nationals:





There's more detail here. Wonder what that caterer could do with my name?

Opening Ceremonies

We watched the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Winter Games on Friday night, and thanks to The Experiment, we saw them on the local NBC station in HD. How gorgeous! And it was truly appropriate that it was snowing in Greensboro as the Games opened.

Lisa has Native American ancestry, and she was thrilled with the First Country participation in the cultural portion of the ceremonies. We've attended a couple of pow-wows conducted by the Guilford Native American Association, and that helped me recognize several of the styles of dance.

The lighting effects were fantastic -- how did they pull off the orcas swimming in the open sea and spouting as they surfaced to breathe?!

I was still awake when the Olympic flag was carried into the stadium, but as the image and sound on the TV stuttered -- thanks be to my government for a great TV picture and erratic signal! -- I zoned out and missed the snafu where the fourth arm of the cauldron wouldn't rise from the floor. The replays show that the four torch bearers kept their dignity and did their country proud. However, can anyone explain to me, when the Olympic flame in the outdoor cauldron was lit, why didn't the woman who could only stand by as the other three lit the indoor flame get the honor?

Saints 31, Colts 17

With apologies to The Who (great halftime show, by the way): Meet the new boss, not the same as the old boss.

This Peyton Manning fan feels no regret at the way the Saints won Super Bowl XLIV.

Yankees 4, Phillies 2

Well, I can't honestly say that there's a lot of joy in the World Series results for this National League fan. However, I must acknowledge that the best team in Major League Baseball did win.

I was right a couple of years ago when I said that Alex Rodriguez would succeed in the post-season when Curt Schilling did not. After all, retiring from the game would preclude success in the October (and November) baseball.

Go For It!

Here's a look at an unconventional high school football team. Thanks to Jon Wertheim for the story.

A Video Statement

This clip shows one of the best moments ever in a baseball game.



Via Pyle of List.

The Oldest Hall of Famer

This is the sport I love.

300, Again

For the second time since I started this blog, a major league pitcher has earned his 300th victory. The Big Unit didn't do it as the dominating flamethrower who won five Cy Young awards. He did it with persistence and craft, and by all accounts, he appreciates his own achievement and its place in baseball history more for having to work harder for it than he used to.

Congratulations Randy Johnson, and may the Giants treat you better than the Braves treated Tom Glavine today.

RIP Mark Fidrych

I remember the media coverage of "The Bird" in 1976. He was a genuine character on the diamond, and if you didn't enjoy his antics, you just didn't enjoy baseball. Of course, he was more than just a daft player; you don't go 19-9 with a 2.34 ERA and win AL Rookie of the Year on your personality. Nor do you pitch 24 complete games at the age of 22 -- 7 of them in one month -- without grave risk. He was 10-10 during the rest of his injury-shortened career.

He died a couple of days ago in a farm accident, suffocating when his clothes got caught in a power take-off on a dump truck he was working on. I worked around PTOs enough to know that just a moment's inattention would be all it would take.

Mark Fidrych, you're missed already. Your joy for the game was infectious. That had to be why you played, right? After all, your 1976 salary of $16,500 was certainly less than some players now make per game.

UNC 89, Michigan St 72

After more than 30 years as a Tarheel basketball fan who has known my team to give away more leads than I can count, I spent the first half on pins and needles. There was no need this time; the Heels were otherworldly on both ends of the court.

It's mildly ironic that the highest scoring team in the country dropped its offensive intensity in the second half. The defense that was lambasted from all quarters during the first three months of the year never let up.

It's Wednesday evening, I'm finally coming down from Monday night's adrenaline high, and all I really have left to say is GO HEELS!!!

This is a Surprise, and not a Good One

Sports Illustrated has reported today on their website that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids during 2003, the year he won his first American League MVP award. He's a supremely talented baseball player who plays a truly bush league game that deserves a lot of contempt, but I would've bet good money that he wasn't chemically enhanced.

Crap.

Super Bowl Thoughts

• Sloppy, sloppy play, with all the penalties.
• Low class of the Steelers to get hit with so many unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
• Al Michaels may be very knowledgeable about football, but he really sucks as an announcer. Really, what was that comment concerning Somalian pirates?
• James Harrison, that was a lovely, lovely pick to end the first half. I don't think you ran the ball back 100 yards much faster than I could have.
• The Pittsburgh defense played the 4th quarter like they wanted Arizona to win.
• Both offenses played the last five minutes to win. That is what I want to see in my sports.
• I was not at all disappointed with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at halftime.
• Bottom line: Steelers 27, Cardinals 23.

A Sad Day For The Braves

The Red Sox made the official announcement today. They've signed John Smoltz away from the Braves.

It's ridiculous to feel much concern for someone who will make $5 million from Boston this year (at least) instead of $3 million from Atlanta; after all, it was about respect, not money.

Guess what? I believe Smoltz. Not all that long tradition did mean more in baseball than in other sports. Now, the business rules. Player salaries are such that a $10 million contract is reasonable, maybe even a bargain. I can't really comprehend it being a bargain, when a man is going to make more in one year playing a game than I'll make at programming in my entire life, but that's the state of the sport, and I'm a fan.

I'm also a bit of a historian, and my team has let a significant piece of history slip away. The only pitcher in the history of the game who was an elite starter, then an elite closer, and finally an elite starter again. Over 200 wins. More than 150 saves. 3000+ strikeouts. The best postseason record in the game.

More injuries and surgeries than an over 40 pitcher should be able to overcome.

I'm still a Braves partisan, which isn't going to change. I hope, though, that John Smoltz has a phenomenally successful tenure with the Red Sox.

A World Series follow up thought

To Cole Hamels: Congratulations on winning the Series MVP award. You earned it. But, on your comment that "This is the best thing to ever happen to this city. Ever," you play in Philadelphia. There's a place not far from Citizens Bank Park called Independence Hall. Go take a tour, kid, and learn some history.

Phillies 4, Rays 3

And so the 2008 MLB season ends. Game 5.5 of the World Series was very entertaining, very well played.

I'm not particularly a Philadelphia Phillies fan, and the Tampa Bay Rays are the baseball story of the year, no doubt, but I am a National League fan first and foremost. So, I'm happy with tonight's outcome.

I found it sweet that no New York team made the post season this year. The Mets have had a good team for the last three seasons, but in 2006, the NL pennant slipped away from them in Game 7 of the NLCS, last year they blew their post season chance on the last day of the season, and this year it happened in the last weekend of the season. I see a trend here.

As for the Yankees, well, sooner or later they're going to buy another championship. I just hope A-Rod is long gone before then.

The Trading Deadline

Ivan Rodriguez to the Yankees? Ken Griffey Jr to the White Sox? Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers?! No front line pitchers moved? The world seems to have turned upside down.

Saddest to me is that the Braves have surrendered hope of making the postseason. It's understandable, since their starting pitching has been ravaged by injuries all year, starting with John Smoltz's season-ending shoulder surgery. Now, with Tim Hudson out for the rest of the season with elbow ligament damage and Chipper going on the DL with nagging leg injuries, and considering the two big leads they blew to the Phillies last weekend, it simply made economic sense to trade Mark Teixeira. The Braves couldn't have afforded him as a free agent this winter, not with Scott Boras as his agent.

As Dodger fans used to say, just wait till next year!

The Mid-Summer Classic

For the first time in several years, I watched the MLB All-Star game last night. Well, I watched most of it. When the AL tied the game in the bottom of the 8th inning on Evan Longoria's ground rule double, scoring Justin Morneau, I suspected that the NL was going down again. I really didn't have much interest in watching a glorified exhibition game go into extra innings, and I saw this morning that the game lasted 15 innings, ending after 1:30 a.m.

I'm glad for J.D. Drew that he's finally living up to his talent in Boston, although I'm certain the fans in Philadelphia and Los Angeles are none too happy with him, still.

Ryan Dempster was the most impressive pitcher I saw on the field.

Best play of the night - Ichiro throwing out Albert Pujols when he tried to stretch a single off the right field wall into a double.

Hopes for the second half of the season - that the Atlanta Braves make a real run for the postseason, and that the New York Yankees fall flatter than flat.

Never, ever, let it be said that I'm anything less than partisan and biased when it comes to my baseball.