John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

Viva Espana!

I'll be rooting for Spain in the World Cup final today. My mother-in-law is from Madrid, so I kind of married into the fan base, as it were. I've worn by Spanish national shirt a few times to the office since the World Cup started, including the day in June when my colleague Julien Lafille, wearing the new blue "away" jersey, and I posed for this pic. No matter the winner today, I've really enjoyed this series.

Babe Ruth on setbacks

"Every strike brings me closer to the next home run."
- Babe Ruth

A sign for the passive-aggressive baseball fan

From I Am Bored.

A tale of two cities (and their ball teams)

Toronto, last week:

Toronto Blue Jays Crowd Timelapse - April 15, 2010 from Torontoist on Vimeo.

Minneapolis, earlier this month.

Hmmm. Was it that long ago that Toronto was a rockin' baseball town? Thanks to John Rieti for pointing these out. 

Women, hockey, booze, hypocrisy

Brad Cran nails the hypocrisy of the brouhaha about the Canadian women's hockey team celebrating after winning gold:

Does Sports Illustrated know something we don't?

My wife noticed this on Sports Illustrated's Olympics site this morning: a chart showing that Canada has won both gold medals in ice hockey at Vancouver. Looking at the charts more closely, it seems SI has not called the men's competition in advance, but given two medals to each of medallists in women's hockey.

The Tom Brokaw primer on Canada

It's remarkable that a video feature on Canada that Tom Brokaw did for NBC's Olympics coverage has already been viewed more than 1 million times on YouTube. Then again, it's concise and packed with information and terrific shots (and yes, I was delighted to see aerials of Cape Spear and Western Brook Pond in Gros Morne National Park almost right off the top). There's plenty that could have been included, but for six minutes, it does a fine job.

Quotation: Bob Fitzsimmons on bigger boxers

"The bigger they are, the further they have to fall."
- Bob Fitzsimmons

[Fitzsimmons made the comment before an 1899 bout against a larger competitor. Fitzsimmons got knocked out.]

Them adorable Vancouver Olympics mascots

My son was wanting to catch another look at this animation showcasing the mascots for the upcoming winter Olympics in Vancouver. He apparently has seen it several times, so I figured putting it here might make it easier!

Snowball fight! Let's make it an Olympic sport

 

There's no snow at all in our yard, nor all over St. John's, but that won't last. In fact, in December, we had enough snow to make a couple of decent toboggan runs down Pippy Park, and our and a neighbour's son had a blast making a slew of snowballs. Not sure how much of a snowball fight they had at the time, but as recently as today, Nick said he wanted to line up a kids-vs-adults match.

Also today, my school chum Doug started a Facebook group with a funny purpose: a lobby to make Snowball Fighting a sport in next month's winter Olympics in Vancouver. (The odds, Doug will admit, are slim.)

Love a good snowball fight? Pitch in. It is, after all, a whole lot more meaningful than some of the sports we'll be following next month.

An Olympic video diary from St. John's

A young fellow named Chris Wheeler has been travelling the country as the Oympic torch relay winds its way to Vancouver. You can follow the progress here, on the Travel With The Olympic Torch YouTube channel. Click below to see his video post of Friday's tour through St. John's.

Jersey boys

Here's a list of the worst and best hockey jerseys in the NHL. Guess which one the Canadiens' stripey anniversary ones fall into?

A thought on hockey night, in Canada or otherwise

"I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out."
- Rodney Dangerfield

A thought on sports

"Sports is like a war without the killing."
- Ted Turner 

If kids yelled back at parents

We've all seen them: the parents who like to give their lungs a workout while their kids are playing sports, and could very well be giving their kids a complex. I love this Little League video, which turns the tables nicely.

Serena Williams, and conversational problems

Serena Williams is still making waves with Saturday's spectacular outburst at a U.S. Open semi-final, in which she unleashed a series of threats and expletives against the judge who called a foot fault. The video below includes an annotation of what witnesses heard; the audio recordings have not been good, but the reports have been consistent.

Immediately after the set, which Williams lost to unseeded player Kim Clijsters, who would go on to win the women's final, Williams was in character: 

"An apology? For what? How many people yell at linespeople?" 

As for the judge to whom Williams apparently said, "I'll kill you," Williams said, "I don't know why [the lineswoman] said she felt threatened. I've never been in a fight in my life." Williams also said she could not even remember what she had said.

The incident, of course, was more than a weekend sports story; videos of the tirade have blown over the web, prompting a viral phenomenon. In the world of tennis, where, you know, stars are not supposed to threaten to kill line judges, this is not good form.

So, Williams is out and about this week, to salvage her reputation - or, to use a marketing word, her brand. This part of a CNN interview amused me:

"It was a really tough point in the match and it was really close and got a really tough call that wasn't the correct call, and, you know, things got a little heated and I had a conversation with the line judge that didn't go so well." [My emphasis]

I think all parties would agree it didn't so well, either.

Nor was it, really, much of a conversation.

The quick wit of Muhammad Ali

The Guardian publishes today a list of some of the things Muhammad Ali has said over the years. My favourite, from 1960, when Cassius Clay was in a segregated restaurant:

On being told "We don't serve negroes"

I don't eat them, either. Just give me a cup of coffee and a hamburger.

The rest of the feature is here.

A thought on habits

"Winning is a habit. Unfortunately so is losing."
- Vince Lombardi

Ribald hockey boxers on sale at the CBC Shop

While I know from first-hand experience that some people at the CBC can crack a naughty pun, that kind of stuff doesn't get on the airwaves too much. Certainly, anyway, you don't expect to see ribald boxers at the CBC Shop.

A colleague snapped these for me at the shop in the Broadcast Centre.

"He shoots, he scores!" Indeed. And how about this one, about "High sticking"?

Hmmm! As my colleague put it, "At least they didn't have a pair that said 'Pullin' the goalie!' "

Incidentally, neither of this items appears to be listed in the online catalogue for the CBC shop. (Maybe some people are aroused by Nature of Things Tees. Who knows.) If you're in Toronto, you can check out the store by the Front Street address.

An 'impossible result,' except that it happened

I had read yesterday about how long-shot Mine That Bird won the Kentucky Derby, but I hadn't seen until just now by how much. (The "impossible result" comes from the gobsmacked commentary you'll hear.)

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

A thought on finding your mission early on

"I knew after my first lesson what I wanted to do with my life."
- Billie Jean King

A thought on literary sports snobs

“All literary men are Red Sox fans - to be a Yankee fan in a literate society is to endanger your life."
- John Cheever

NHL jerseys and blasts from the past

The graphics on NHLUniforms.com may not be the most elegant, but it sure is fun to take a tour through the year-by-year representations of all the NHL's teams.

Beyond the basketball numbers

Sports fans love them some numbers. Basketball, in particular, is drenched with stats, charts, points, etc., all of which is the backdrop for a fascinating piece in this weekend's New York Times Magazine on the allure of all-star Shane Battier, who may not rank well on a spreadsheet, yet has an uncanny ability to change a game's outcome on the actual court. A small bit:

Here we have a basketball mystery: a player is widely regarded inside the N.B.A. as, at best, a replaceable cog in a machine driven by superstars. And yet every team he has ever played on has acquired some magical ability to win.

Solving the mystery is somewhere near the heart of Daryl Morey’s job. In 2005, the Houston Rockets’ owner, Leslie Alexander, decided to hire new management for his losing team and went looking specifically for someone willing to rethink the game. “We now have all this data,” Alexander told me. “And we have computers that can analyze that data. And I wanted to use that data in a progressive way. When I hired Daryl, it was because I wanted somebody that was doing more than just looking at players in the normal way. I mean, I’m not even sure we’re playing the game the right way.”

The rest is here.

A thought on second place

"Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion."
- Richard M. Nixon