Tag: Sports, Games and Competitions

God’s Hand

It was interesting to read these words in a Martin O’Malley bit hidden on CBC.ca somewhere quoting the Colorado Rockies Manager of all people:

“You look at things that have happened to us this year. You look at some of the moves we made and didn’t make. You look at some of the games we’re winning. Those aren’t just a coincidence. God has definitely had a hand in this.”

He meant it in a good way. Languishing as they are now at .429, does Satan now get the credit? Separate from the entirely sensible personal faith decisions of the players¹, just as with each of us, the larger role of the Christian pantheon and the sports-related religiousity of the fan’s expectation of outcome has never been very clear to me. Where stand the Cherubim, for example? Do they hover, guiding the bunted ball this way or that way along the third-base line? Why does Jesus not guide the hand of the child at catcher in the picture, too?

It was interesting to consider that quote and the statuette in light of the total collapse of the Red Sox that has gone from just bad pitching to something far worse. David Ortiz, the team’s star designated hitter, appears to be suffered from rapid heartbeat. Manny Ramirez also was out with knee problems and has missed his fifth start in seven games. That is in addition to the fact that “Doug Mirabelli (left ankle) and Wily Mo Pena (left wrist) are still day-to-day. Jason Varitek, Trot Nixon and Alex Gonzalez are all on the disabled list.” That is basically 2/3s of the team other than the pitching. And the pitching is not doing that well – which is a very polite way of putting it. Yet He abides with us.

But even with all that abiding – what do you make of a month like this? The World Series is a long way away but I seem to recall thinking that one was enough. I had made that pact before it happened, a little prayer. Was it me?

¹ One cannot but be impressed, for example, by Wakefield’s good works in the community or Timlin’s calm strength on the mound even as they may be dealing with the end of their best pitching years.

Cricketing Shame

How could I have missed the news? Caught up in the last bits of summer…looking at boats…finally getting the push mower out for a go after weeks of drought and brown laws. How could I have missed this?

Eventually, after nearly an hour of après-tea negotiating, the Pakistanis were convinced to continue. But by that time — with some 24,000 fans in the stands and in the dark about the proceedings — the officials had decided that Pakistan had forfeited the game. In 129 years of international cricket, never before had a game been terminated thusly. When you think about the aborted international games in other sports that immediately spring to mind — about the appalled Soviets getting off the ice on Broad Street or Bobby Knight pulling his basketball team off the floor against his hated Communist opponents — cricket’s was an astounding run of civility. So chalk up another milestone in the sporting world’s further descent into the underworld.

Friday Chat From The New HQ

A while ago I wondered about the point when a move is really made as opposed to finished. Turns out it is not the beds or the telephone but the stuff on the walls. As soon as you put the framed stuff up, your interior is yours. Forget about the TV. That just costs you an hour of sleep and night.

  • And speaking of losing sleep, if the Red Sox lose both the AL East and the wildcard and miss the playoffs blame this week. They have gone 1 out of 6 against Tampa and KC, two teams who are a combined 57 games back. This is a complete embarassment.
  • We forget sometimes that in all the concerns of the day that there are still the legacies of the last sentury to deal with including Conrad Black. Apparently he has to find more money to give the court confidence he will show up:

    Conrad Black’s bail was raised Thursday by another $1-million (U.S.) in cash, but the erstwhile media baron managed to score one important legal victory: His wife won’t be forced to reveal her financial affairs under oath.

    An interesting morality play.

  • Personally, I avoid technologies that make me feel like I am going to be sick – parachutes, roller coasters and Imax.
  • I find it odd that I am not entirely caught up with the liquid bomb story. I think Al Queda has lost me thanks to the skill of the British police’s anti-terrorism unit. I do not assume all will be well. But they are pretty good at making sure all is well. Maybe Al Queda will be content with reverse psychology as its resources thin and its manpower fades.

Must make coffee. Maybe more later. What stories are you following anyway?

Western Swing

When the Red Sox play the AL West it is worse than interleague. First, they appear able to lose against the AL West. Second, when they do lose it happens at 2 am EST so you have wasted an evening and gotten a rotten sleep thrown in for good measure.

By the way – and milking the double entendre for all it is worth – playing a guitar after a couple of weeks of mandolin is very weird. There is all this space between the strings.

Lester Then Paplebon


Google images acting as an ouija board

Even though it was against Kansas City, you have to like the fact that a 22 year old had an eight inning one-hitter for the Red Sox before handing over to another guy born in the 80’s who then earned his 28th save in a 1-0 win.

This is a good year for the Sox – despite Tavarez – and one in which you do not see a slump of major proportions given the strength of the infield, the distribution of hitting and the depth on the bench. So will they trade before the end of the month? Long relief? Maybe…but maybe we have that in another child of the 80’s Manny Delcarmen. If Wells comes back in any reasonable fashion and Beckett is given all home day games, we may even survive the starting rotation.

So…why can’t you get a Tavarez shirt?

Still With The Zizou

It is funny reading this morning in the Canadian papers more going on about Zidane’s headbutt and the need to have it explained by scientists…the science of the headbutt looks like this:

“Just because somebody acts aggressively doesn’t always mean that they’ve lost it,” Glassman said. “There’s also often a question of choice.”

“Anger, he said, “can be learned behaviour to get what you want.” But anger that does result in losing it is almost always evoked by a perceived violation, said Lorne Korman, director of the anger management clinic at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Canada’s sport, hockey, is entirely based on retaliation and violence. Canada’s back up game, CFL, is pretty much based on retaliation and violence. The reason soccer does not do well in North America is the false perception that there is not enough retaliation and violence.

Soccer is filled with retaliation and violence, headbutts behind the play, slide tackles that are way too hard, cleated shins, clattered skulls during a well fought for header. North Americans (softies for the most part) just do not understand how that can go along with the grace and hearty athleticism of fitba. Heck, I snapped a guy’s leg once and finished another game with three teammates in the hospital, one of whom made the New England Journal of Medicine for his badly bruised pancreas. Good, then, to see Zizou getting the best player award because he was – and no namby pamby new PC NASCARian milk-drinker misunderstanding of the importance of a head butt should have gotten in the way of that.

Last Friday Chat of The First Half

Tomorrow is closer to 2007 than 2005. We have already passed the solstice. Funny how it all just trips away. No nevermind, however, as there are do-ins to do and a long weekend before us. And we’ll see how far we get with today’s bullets as high-speed from Sympatico is chugging like a tramp steamer. No doubt all the new GX40 surveillance technology. Don’t be holding your breath waiting for spelling corrections today, all you grade-five ruler-tappers you.

  • Update3 : Rick Moranis – almost as Canadian as Paddle to the Sea.
  • Update 2: Michael and Aaaarold. I have a white shirt, too, by the way. Wore it today. I like white shirts. They are coming back. You never see ska band members in patterns or stripes. No way.
  • Update: YouTube is good because you can watch the Morton score amazingly anytime you want. It is bad because it does not have the NFB’s film Paddle to the Sea, the one thing that both expresses the soul of the nation and brings it together and brings us all together. Tommorrow, on Canada Day, children all over the land ought to be brought into elementary school gyms to watch Paddle to the Sea and eat creamsicles.
  • The Red Sox. I have not been talking about them and they go on a twelve game winning streak during June’s interleague play. Last night was apparently Coco-riffic with even Steve Somers of the Mets home station, WFAN in New York, going gaa-gaa about his “diving into a swimming pool” catch last night in the eighth to save the game. The view shown here with his head aimed at the green monster in mid-flight should give you some sense of the moment. A video of the catch is available at this page. Easier to watch on TooYube.
  • Two ailments I have which are exceedingly minor but which bug the heck out of me. First, rogue eyelashes. They stick in my eye. It only happened once I hit 40 and it drives me mental. Second, a comb-over sideburn. I have a bald patch 1/4 the size of a stamp. It changes everything. There. I have written something about myself. That is it. No more.
  • Today’s two World Cup games are a gem and a dud. If Italy wins, it should have won but if it loses it should have won. Germany v. Argentina, however, could be the game of the tournament. It is still early enough that the fear will not lock the knees of players gripped with the angst that they might make the play that loses the Cup. Luncheon table booked for second half.
  • Never one to see a high ground he won’t avoid, Junior is going to keep on holding on to the good things that got him all his success:

    President Bush told reporters he promised to take the findings of the court “very seriously”. But he signalled he might seek congressional approval to resurrect the tribunals. “To the extent that there is latitude to work with the Congress to determine whether or not the military tribunals will be an avenue in which to give people their day in court, we will do so,” he said. “The American people need to know that this ruling, as I understand it, won’t cause killers to be put out on the street.”

    You can trust that the good politicians who need to get elected in the fall will ensure there is a sprinkling of natural justice throughout the process so that while the ding-bats will say the tribunals continue the kangaroo will no longer be in the room.

  • Did I mention coffee is good? Kicking Horse Sumatra this morning.
  • TVO is getting redone. I have enjoyed the now-axed Studio 2 but the format may have gotten tired and, yes, there is no doubt that half an hour a week of actual discussion of actual provincial politics would make any government tired of sending cheques. Too bad we do not have the benevolent giving class of our neighbours to the south where benefactors ensure that institutions like National Public Radio are becoming more and more independent of government support and influence and more and more able to address the needs of the community. Sadly, there are few other voices attending to the current affairs and life of Ontario as opposed to Canada. Good to see that Steve Paikin continues in a new news show called The Agenda that may make all my fears for naught.

That is it. It was like doing it on dial up and, while doing it on dial-up is what made the Internet what it is today, I do not like doing it on dial-up.