Everything Ends

For those not tracking the stretch run of the MLB season, it may not be news to you that the Detroit Tigers lost last night. However, it is if you consider the fact that their improbable win on Wednesday over Chicago, which included two pinch-hit 9th inning home runs to send the game into extra innings, raised their winning streak to 12 games.


I'm not going to predict a World Series win or even an appearance, as the baseball playoffs are an enormous crap shoot, but it's worth noting that every other Tigers team that won >10 consecutive games during a season made it to the Series. I'm looking forward to seeing what our AL Central champions can do this year.

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On a completely different note, since January I've been reading the 27 book Time-Life series on the Civil War that I inherited from my grandpa. I finished the last one this morning, detailing the failed attempt at Radical Reconstruction of the South from 1865-1877.


I've made a few half-hearted attempts in the past to read this series, but have never made it past the sixth book before. I've enjoyed it each time I've tried in the past, but failed because of the huge time commitment required. Now I'm pleased to say that I've learned everything there is to learn about the Civil War. Well, at least I've learned a lot about it.

It's already paid dividends at quiz bowl (first practice was yesterday) because I can laugh mercilessly when those puny high schoolers don't know who the Confederate general at Shiloh (and Fort Sumter) was. It's Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, of course.

The Lazy Bachelor

So I wish I could say I had a good reason for the recent hiatus. In fact, I thought I would have loads of time to build up a big buffer of prepared posts. Well, I have had loads of time...

You see, right after the end of the school year back in the 2nd week of June Meaghan left the country and I've been living the bachelor life ever since. It turns out I'm apparently really lazy when I'm all alone, or maybe just demotivated from doing things -- not sure which.

Why is Meaghan gone? Remember that German teacher exchange? Well, she got to go to Düsseldorf to visit Cordula for the 2nd half of the program. In fact, she'll be staying in Europe for the better part of a month. She co-sponsors a writing-based trip at her high school. Last year, she took about a dozen kids to London, Paris, and Rome. This year the trip size is up to 20 and they're going to Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and England. What am I saying? We're going to those places. 20 was the magic number that they needed to hit for me to go along as a chaperone. I leave Monday, and am starting to get amped up for the trip. Hopefully, not too many of the teens give us grief.

So what have I been up to for the last couple weeks? Good question. I've attached a couple small pieces below along with a teaser for the series that will hopefully keep you company while I'm gone -- assuming I can get them all written before I leave. Enjoy!

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Before Meaghan left the country, we went to see another movie at one of our local art house theaters. This probably deserves its own post, but I'm probably not eloquent enough to do it justice. The film was Terrence Malick's new work The Tree of Life. Like all of his films, it was beautiful and strange if not lacking a little bit in coherency. For those not familiar with Malick, despite the fact that he directed his first movie back in 1973 this is only his 5th full-length feature. I've only seen the two previous to this: The Thin Red Line and The New World.

It's a largely autobiographical story about his childhood growing up in Texas in the 1950s. Depicting his father as a violent force of "nature" and his mother has a beautiful force for "grace" (nature vs grace is the dichotomy set up in the opening narration, hence the quotes), it's essentially a series of related vignettes showing their interactions, their troubles, and the events that shaped him into the person he is today.

My childhood was not nearly as contentious as Meaghan's (she's compared us to the Cleavers on more than one occasion), so I didn't relate to the actual story elements as much as she did, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a beautifully made film. And oh yes, there are dinosaurs!

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Last year when Meaghan was in Europe, I spent a lot of time watching the World Cup, so it's only fitting that this year I've been keeping my eye on the Gold Cup. What? You didn't know that North America's largest soccer tournament has been going on in our country over the last two weeks? I'm shocked.

Wait, no I'm not. Apparently this is the year that I spend all of my sports-related energy on the sports that Americans just don't care about. The finals are tonight, but the only places you can see it are on FOX Soccer (who knew that existed?) and Univision (in español). Predictably, the USA is facing off with Mexico. It's not been an easy road to the finals for the US, so I'm expecting them to get pasted by "El Tri". We'll see what happens.

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Lastly, I spent a lot of time on an unexpected journey that I'll be sharing over the next two weeks. It started with me questioning my sanity, and then I thought I'd completely lost my taste. In the end, though, I came to grips with reality and learned how to stop worrying and love the tween.

New School, Same as the Old School

This weekend Meaghan and I kicked off the summer blockbuster season by going to see the brand-new X-Men prequel/reboot X-Men: First Class. With James McAvoy as Professor X and a Rotten Tomatoes rating up above 80%, we had high expectations. Did it meet them?


In a word, yes. Although it continues to play in the same thematic pool as X2, it does so with enough skill to easily wipe away the bad taste left in my mouth from the horribly flawed 3rd and 4th entries in the franchise. From its setting (1962's Cuban Missile Crisis -- of sorts) to the surprising turn by Kevin Bacon (I had no idea he was even in it) as Sebastian Shaw, villainous leader of the Hellfire Club to the slam bang action sequences, First Class makes a lot of right moves. And with director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) at the helm, that's not completely unexpected. The acting is competent, the effects are good, but what has always made the X-Men movies worthwhile (or not) are the ideas.

At its heart, as in most of the first movie trilogy, First Class is an exploration of what it means to be different. It uses its two main characters, Charles Xavier (Prof. X) and Eric Lensherr (Magneto), to present two differing viewpoints. In the film, the existence of evolved humans (mutants, if you will) is just becoming known in some circles. Charles, a child of privilege, believes that mutants can and will be integrated and accepted into human society. Humanity will flourish as a result of the unique things these individuals can do. Eric, a Jewish child of the Nazi death camps, knows from his personal experiences that humans are ugly beings that persecute others for their differences. It's a kill or be killed world, and Eric knows that in order to survive mutantkind is going to have to go it alone and be ready to defend itself.

The beauty of X-Men is that neither viewpoint is necessarily painted as right or wrong. Although Xavier is clearly intended as the moral center of the story, you can understand and accept what informs the opposing arguments. Also, mutants can be used as a cipher for many of the issues that are debated in the world today: gender, race, sexuality, etc. Even though it feels to some extent like we're stuck circling around the same ideas as the previous films, no one can deny how much they resonate, and the climax of the film sets us up nicely for further exploration in this space. Planned as the first in a new trilogy, hopefully First Class will make enough at the box office to allow us to see more.

If you're a fan of previous X-Men movies, particularly of X2, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

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Djokovic Watch != 44

You won't be seeing any more tennis updates from me for some time. As feared, Novak Djokovic's win streak was stopped at 43 as he fell in four sets to Roger Federer in the semifinals of the French Open on Friday. That leaves him tied for 3rd longest streak of all time. If he (or anyone else) starts another one, I'll let you know when they get up around 30. Until then...

Hotlanta!

I've been a little short on time since coming back from Atlanta this weekend so I'm sorry in advance for the lack of detail in this update. More will be coming as time allows, which might not be until the weekend.

It was a good, long, tiring weekend. We exceeded our expectations in the tournament by finishing the best out of all schools from Minnesota, making it to the second day of play, and even winning a match in the playoffs. Overall, our A team went 7-5 and our B team just missed the playoff cut at 5-5. Both teams improved greatly on their finishes in last year's national tournament, so Meaghan and I are really pleased with the result. I also got to see the aquarium, the World of Coca-Cola, and the best 24-hour diner/karaoke bar in all of Atlanta. I might even have some pictures to share if I can find our camera. Stay tuned.

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The SWAT team is reconvening this Saturday to jump out of airplanes again. Since hours of training will not be needed this time, I will probably be on hand. I'll see if I can get some pictures of the festivities.

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Djokovic Watch = 43

After beating Del Potro in four sets, Djokovic breezed through a straight set win over #16 Richard Gasquet and then got a free pass to the semifinals because his would-be Italian opponent pulled out with a torn leg muscle that he'd suffered in the previous round. Because of this Djokovic won't be able to tie the record by winning the French anymore as walkovers do not count as victories. It also means that he'll have had four days in between matches when he takes on #3 Roger Federer on Friday, always a tough task. Incidentally, all four of the top seeds advanced to the semifinals in the men's draw. I'm not sure how often that happens at a grand slam event, but it does mean that we're probably in for some quality tennis the rest of the week.

A Bowling We Go

This weekend Meaghan and I will be flying to Atlanta along with 12 of the best and brightest students from her high school. That's right, it's time for the High School National Championship of Quiz Bowl. We have two teams that have qualified, and our goal is to get at least one of those teams into the 2nd day of play. This would mean that they would have to finish 6-4 or better on Saturday. 14 of the 218 teams entered hail from Minnesota, so we're looking forward to seeing a lot of familiar faces around the tournament.

Folks may recall that in the past the national tournament has been held in the Chicagoland area, which means that we'd be within driving distance. Unfortunately, the experience of sharing the hotel and convention center there with a bondage convention last year has scared the organizers into seeking a new venue. Let's just say that if you wandered into the wrong place last year, you may have been exposed to material inappropriate for a high schooler.

I'm looking forward to getting to see a little bit of downtown Atlanta, as I've never spent any amount of time there. Depending on when we're eliminated we may get to see the world's largest aquarium, the World of Coca-Cola, or other cool things in the Underground Atlanta. I'll let you know what happened in an update next week.

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Djokovic Watch = 41

Djokovic ran his streak to 41 this morning with a 6-3 6-1 2-3 (ret.) victory over the Romanian Hanescu. His 3rd round match on Friday will be a true test. The opponent is #26 Juan Martin Del Potro. The dangerous Argentine was ranked as high as #4 in the world before injuring his wrist early last year. After getting it surgically repaired at a certain medical clinic in Rochester, he's been on the comeback trail. The fact that he's still ranked #26 despite missing almost an entire year speaks volumes to his skill.

SWAT Team! aka Why My Wife is Crazy, Part 2

It was a stormy day on Saturday. Thankfully, one of the system's bands of rain lifted out of the metro area around 2:00 leaving behind a beautiful blue sky. Perfect for skydiving, one might say. And so it was that Meaghan was able to put the morning's training to good use and performed her first solo jump. Obviously, being her first such jump she wasn't completely alone. Two experienced jumpers fall near you to correct your form and pull your ripcord should you prove incapable. After that, for the controlled flight and landing portions you are truly on your own.

This is a scary proposition (for me, anyway) as we saw an experienced jumper break an ankle on landing two years ago when we were there. Meaghan came through with flying colors, however. She only missed the target landing zone by about 15 yards. Not bad, considering that some of the other first-timers there ended up over a mile away on some of the neighboring farms. Speaking of first-timers, Meaghan went to the drop zone with a couple of her co-workers who had never jumped before. Consequently, the three of them became the charter members of SWAT. I won't tell you what that stands for as it reveals too much about where she works, but it's essentially a group of adventure seeking folks. Any event involving two or more people from her workplace will become a SWAT event.

Unfortunately, I had to learn about all of this secondhand. Because of the uncertainty surrounding the weather, they were really hustling flights up when the skies cleared and Meaghan wasn't given the opportunity to call me out to the airfield before she jumped. I was able to catch up to the SWAT team at a local bar afterwards, though. Look at those proud faces.


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Djokovic Watch = 40

He was a 6-2 6-1 6-3 winner over #71 Thiemo de Bakker in the first round at the French Monday. Next up: #60 Victor Hanescu

And the Streak Goes On...

For those of you not inspired by my post last week to check out some tennis action, Novak Djokovic has done it again by winning the tournament in Rome. That brings his record this year to 37-0 and makes the streak 39 straight wins, moving him to 6th place on the list of longest win streaks. It wasn't an easy road by any means either. He had to play matches on 5 straight days, getting past world #14, #5, #4, and #1 Nadal in the final four rounds. The semifinal against #4 Andy Murray was an especially brilliant match featuring a lot of ups and downs and long rallies. If you have access to ESPN3 and have 3 hours of spare time, you should go check it out.

Amazingly, prior to these two back to back wins against Nadal, Djokovic was 0-9 in his career against the Spaniard on clay. This week is an off week for most of the big guns as everyone rests up for the second Grand Slam of the year, on clay at the French Open, which starts next week. Can he possibly do it again? He'll have to in order to tie the record. Even if he doesn't, he has a very good chance of becoming the first player not named Federer or Nadal to hold the #1 ranking since February of 2004.

Hailstorm!

Prompted by my mom's comment, I thought I'd do a quick follow-up to the Twins-Tigers game we went to last week.

The stomping [10-2 Tigers victory for those who weren't there.] was interrupted by a one hour five minute rain delay. But it wasn't just rain. There was a hailstorm for a good 10-15 mins and the tornado sirens were blaring.


The rain probably completely stopped after 30 mins, but it took them another 30 to clean all the hail off the field. I can't find any pictures, but you'll have to take my word for it that at least a dozen rakes, a couple buckets, a wheelbarrow, and an industrial strength leaf blower all played a part in the job. My hat's off to the grounds crew for handling a situation that they probably haven't really prepared for.

It was a fun game for us, but the crowd was really tiny by the time it wrapped up just after 11:00. Due to the delay, absolutely none of our friends save Meaghan's brother stuck it out to the end. The Wed afternoon game looks like it would have been a crazy one to go see, too. [9-7 Tigers including 3 runs off the Twins' closer on a HR, triple, and sac bunt.] I know they've had a lot of injuries, but it is truly shocking to see Minnesota with the worst record in baseball. Couldn't happen to a better team.

The Djoker

Meet Novak Djokovic.


You might not have heard of him if you're no better than a casual tennis fan, but that may all change in a month's time. You see, Mr. Djokovic has started out 2011 32-0, winning his first six tournaments this year including the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open. If you add in his two wins from last December when he led his native Serbia to the Davis Cup title (think of it as tennis's World Cup, only they have it every year for some reason), he's won 34 matches in a row. This is good enough for the 9th longest such streak in men's tennis history.

The longest streak is 46 matches set by Guillermo Vilas back in 1977. In order to match this record, Djokovic is going to have to win his next two tournaments: this week in Rome and the 2nd Grand Slam of the year, the French Open. The trick of it is that both of these tournaments are on clay, and he'll have to get past world #1 Rafael Nadal. Nadal, heralded by some as the best clay court player in history, has a monstrous 93% winning percentage on clay over 230 matches in his career. So can he do it?

Definitely. In fact, he just bested Nadal yesterday in a convincing straight set victory on Nadal's home turf in Madrid. Before he has to worry about Nadal again, though, he has four rounds in Rome to try to get through. His quest continues Wednesday against unheralded Pole Lukasz Kubot. Tune in on ESPN3 (if you're lucky enough to have it) to watch Djokovic chase history. Kubot is currently ranked a mere #141, and only boasts a 13-13 record this year. His most impressive win in 2011 is against American Sam Querrey in the first round of the Australian Open back in January.

Speaking of Americans... this week also marks the first time since a uniform ranking system was put in place back in 1973 that no American man or woman has ever been in the Top 10. The highest man is Mardy Fish at #11. The highest woman is Serena Williams, who hasn't played since last July, at #17. Is this just a momentary lapse, or is this a sign that tennis has finally been relegated along with soccer to the same dustbin of popular world sports that just don't cut it in the States? Only time will tell.

Don't mess with Rick

In completely unrelated sports news, tomorrow is our now-annual trip out to Target Field with friends to watch the Tigers take on the Twins. Detroit's been scuffling a bit so far this year, but are looking to push above .500 with a win. Taking the mound is Rick Porcello, who's had four straight good outings. I'll be looking for a 5th as I wear my Porcello t-shirt up in the nosebleed section.

Play Old Video Games: Baseball

I'm a fan of old video games. They're both simple to play and fun, which makes them ideal for me when I'm looking for something to pick up and relieve the stress of a long work day. I suppose most "modern" people achieve this same feeling by firing up a cheap downloadable game for their cell phone, iPod, or Facebook account, but I like to go back to the originals. There's a sense of history that I enjoy alongside the games themselves and I marvel at how much was achieved with so little technologically speaking. I grew up an Apple II kid and have a warm spot in my heart for many of the programs I used and games I played as a child, but floppy disks are fragile and slow-loading. I've found that for my money, the best place to play games of that era and style today is on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The earliest NES games date back to the years before the system even surfaced in New York City back in October 1985. Developed in Japan by the Big N itself in the early 80s, these games are the simplest of the simple and their names reflect that: Pinball, Kung Fu, Robot Block, Tennis. For the most part, they're exactly what they sound like: bare bones computerized versions of their real-world counterparts. The earliest of these is 1983's Baseball.


Looking at it today, Baseball bares little resemblance to a modern sports video game. Although there are six teams to choose from (all represented by a single letter [C = Cardinals, Y = Yankees, etc.] and a unique uniform), there are no rosters to manage or different players to learn the ins and outs of. Heck, there's not even a lot of evidence that the teams are different at all beyond the color of their uniforms. It's the game distilled down to the basics of throw ball, hit ball, field ball. No complicated control schemes to teach your friends, no dithering about who gets to be the Tigers (me, of course), just pop in the game and you're playing within 10 seconds.


It's essentially the simplest a baseball game can be and have it still look like the sport, and in my book that's a good thing. For me it hits that sweet spot of high playability and low complexity that in a lot of ways was the inspiration for the version of baseball that comes on Wii Sports. Yes, the graphics are a little blocky and move a bit slowly, but it's no wonder that the back of the box touts this game's realism no less than three times in its single paragraph of text. When compared to games from the same era on the Intellivision or Atari, the visuals and attention to detail for those who know the sport are second to none.


Just look at the cut-off man ready to keep the runner from going to third. Okay, so you can't actually throw it to the cut-off man, but he's still there, isn't he? At its core, 95% of baseball comes down to the batter/pitcher battle and that's portrayed well here. The advantage here is that you don't need to understand how a pitcher's arsenal works, nor are you restricted by what's humanly possible. You'll find no curveball, slider, changeup mechanic here. Instead, you can completely control the speed and movement of each pitch. There's nothing more satisfying than enticing your friend (or your wife, as the case may be) into swinging at a slow piece of junk that ultimately moves way off the plate.

I'll be writing every once in awhile about some of the old games that I like to play (or don't as the case may be). Whether I'm helping take you on your own trip down memory lane, inspiring you to check something out on your favorite emulator, or just blathering on self-servingly about things I like, I hope you enjoy the trip in some small way.

Could It Be... First Place?

Just wanted to get this out there today, since I might not have the opportunity at all in the future. Don't look now, but the Detroit Tigers sit all alone atop the AL Central after absolutely stealing a 6-4 victory against the Rangers today. Who knew Brandon Inge was a clutch performer?

We'll see what happens when the dreaded ChiSox roll into town tomorrow...

Can You Paddle a Canoe? Your Country Needs You

Over the past two weeks, I watched the TV with disdain as the USA lost the Olympics. For the first time since 1992, when the CIS still competed together, we came home with fewer gold medals than another country. This time around the culprit was the new Red Menace, China. Sure, NBC can spin it any way they want:


However, it's clear that if you go to the official source we Americans came up short in the standings:


What can we do about this to ensure that we're not embarrassed as a nation again in London 4 years from now? I encourage all of us to go from being couch potatoes to being Olympic-caliber athletes. We need to be selective in the sports that we focus on, though. It won't be to our advantage if we're all inspired by Michael Phelps to become world-class swimmers, as the USA already has Michael Phelps. In order to determine where our Olympic program needs the most help, I compared the results from all 302 medal events to see where the US was lagging behind China. I came up with these 6 focus areas.

1. Diving


The only thing that kept China from winning all 8 gold medals offered in this discipline was the horrible choke job performed by Zhou Luxin in his final dive off the platform (coupled with a fantastic last dive by Australia's Matthew Mitcham). The best the US could manage was a pair of 4th place finishes in the men's and women's synchronized springboard events. What happened to the days of hardcore Americans like Greg Louganis? He hit his head (not for the squeamish) on the board in 1988 and still managed to claim the gold. In fact, it's Louganis himself that inspired the Chinese to become so good at diving. From the New York Sun:

The greatest diver in American history, Greg Louganis, played
a small part in the rise of Chinese diving. Louganis won both the
springboard and platform gold medals in both 1984 and 1988,
and Chinese divers took the silver in three of those four events.
The inability to beat Louganis motivated China to reshape its
diving program, with national coaches obsessively studying film
of Louganis to determine how to match his technical precision.

I think it's about time that we Americans do the same. Scour YouTube for footage and study it obsessively. I know what you're thinking. Diving? You want me to put on a Speedo then bounce and twist around in public? In short, yes. Don't do it for me, do it for your country. If you have a friend who's interested, too, bring them along and you can compete together.

2. Canoe/Kayak


There are two disciplines of canoe/kayak in the Olympics: whitewater and flatwater. It's not so much that China is particularly good at these events (they only won a single gold out of 16 possible), it's instead the case that the US doesn't have much of a presence here at all. We only competed in 3 of the 12 flatwater events and didn't make the finals of any of them.

It's easy to see why Americans wouldn't think to participate in this. Rowing (or crew as it's often known) is a pretty big sport at some of our better universities. Due to this, there's an established pipeline to feed athletes into the Olympic program. Case in point, we won three rowing medals in the Beijing games. On the other hand, canoeing is something we only do if we've packed a picnic lunch and a six-pack... hardly an athletic endeavor.

If we're going to improve here we'll need to change our mindset: no more leisurely early morning kayaking or lazy afternoon canoeing. The next time you're out on the lake or stream remember to dig deep and move that water. We won't improve as a nation unless we all improve.

3. Gymnastics


Why is this on the list? Didn't our own Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson take home gold and silver in the all-around? Yes, they did, but while that was going on (and while they were apparently busy keeping their snazzy websites up to date) the Chinese men and women took home a ridiculous 9 gold medals. You could blame some of the lackluster performance on the injuries that crippled the American men's team, who still managed to eke out a bronze medal in the team competition, or the too young members of the Chinese women's team, but that would be taking the easy way out.

The real problem is our apparent lack of physical and mental toughness. There's no reason that American teenagers should be breaking down on the international stage like this. The solution is to attack the competition on two fronts. First, we need to raise our kids a little tougher. It's inexcusable to let things like broken hands, bone spurs, and lapses of concentration negatively impact our national pride. If we have to ship our kids off to gymnastic boot camps run by Army drill sergeants, so be it. Second, the program needs to cater to older generations of gymnasts. Our current philosophy is to chew up and spit out these young men and women while they're in their 20s, but there's no reason that we can't keep people in the program longer as well as catering to late bloomers. Sign up now!

4. Judo


This is another discipline where the US hardly has a presence despite the high number (14) of available medals, especially on the women's side where we only had competitors in 3 out of the 7 weight classes. The Chinese team, led by this monster, racked up 3 golds in Beijing. In America, it seems that most of the time and energy we put into hand to hand combat goes toward either wrestling (both real and fake) or modern bloodsports like the UFC.

To me this seems like poor allocation of our national assets. Is there more glory in nearly bludgeoning someone to death on pay-per-view TV or in literally wrestling a gold medal away from those that seek to diminish our country's prestige in the Olympics? I think the choice is clear. Judo is all about gaining leverage to trip or throw your opponent to the ground. While that may not sound as exciting as pummeling someone in the face repeatedly, you have to admit that there's a little more class involved. And hey, you still get to choke people into submission.

If you're the strong, stocky type that likes to throw people around, don't delay in signing up now. For those of us without the proper build or level of aggression we need to start a grassroots campaign to bankrupt the UFC and other organizations like it. Boycott their events and paid programming (I know you watch it), and encourage our brave, young athletes to take up judo instead.

5. Weightlifting


I don't know what they're feeding those guys, but China won 8 of the 9 weightlifting competitions they entered (they only got silver in the 9th). Most of those victories came by ludicrous margins. Meanwhile, the USA only fielded lifters in 5 of the 15 available weight classes. Perhaps the Chinese are cheating... goodness knows there's a history of that in the sport. If that's the case, we need to figure out what drugs they're using and get some ourselves as they're apparently discreet enough to not be detected.

Regardless, we need to come up with a way to get muscleheads out of the gym and on to the world stage. I'm not talking about posing either. You can't earn any glory for your country from doing that. I'm not going to sugar coat this. There are hazards (again, not for the squeamish) above and beyond just lifting heavy stuff, as a certain amount of balance and coordination is required to execute lifts.

China also has one weakness that we can exploit: they're typically smaller than people from the West. They didn't field any competitors at all in the top three men's weight classes and the top women's weight class. Let's take advantage of our natural girth by turning our weight problem into a positive. If you like to pump iron, it's time to pump with a purpose.

6. Badminton


In Beijing, China won its goal of 3 golds while snagging 8 of the 15 available medals in total. In contrast, Americans only managed a 1-4 record in the 5 different events combined. This is another example of competitive sport that is viewed almost strictly as a leisure activity in the United States. How many people have childhood memories of whacking a birdie back and forth over a volleyball net? It's okay... I'm guilty of this, too.

It turns out that you were really supposed to be pounding it back and forth over a lower net at speeds of up to 200 mph. It's not surprising that this would be a weakness of the US Olympic team given the decline of racket sports in this country. (Quick... name the top-ranked US tennis player. No peeking.) If tennis isn't popular, goodness knows things like badminton probably won't be.

The strategy for this one is simple. I'll win the gold medal in 2012. I actually took a PE class in badminton while at Iowa State; I even still have the book for whatever reason. I'll get to reading... I'm sure I'll be a master before too long.

Feel free to browse around NBC's site to view footage of these and other sports. Click on a sport and a particular day of the competition. Most things will have the word "Rewind" next to it. This will replay the full coverage. Other fun things can be found in the Video section of each discipline.

Study hard, our chance for redemption is only four years away.

Kickoff 2008

College football is upon us again! As I write this, my Iowa State Cyclones lead recent I-AA addition South Dakota State 10-0 at the end of the 1st quarter. The Jackrabbits are the #19 team in the Championship Subdivision. Sadly, I'm not able to attend games in person this year or watch them online as I don't have enough cash in my personal budget to afford such things. Such is life.


Although tonight is the first night of I-A action (20 schools in total are playing), the season actually kicked off Saturday evening. In D-II, last year's national champion #1 Valdosta State put the hammer down on the Fort Valley State Wildcats 56-3. Meanwhile at the NAIA level, tiny Concordia College of Selma, Alabama (just 2-9 last year) shocked at least a small portion of the football world by knocking off #6 Bethel College of Tennessee 23-18.

Let the Madness Begin

I don't know if anyone else is the same way, but every 2 years when the Olympics roll around I find myself trying to watch as much of it as is humanly possible. Of course, I usually only make it through the first weekend before I realize there's no way I'm going to be able to watch as much as I want. So I'm going to try to be selective this year to prevent the burnout. Forget the "gripping" human interest stories, the pageantry of the opening ceremonies, or watching the "Redeem Team" punish some hapless African nation. I'm just going to take the opportunity to enjoy some of the world's lesser known sports that only get this chance to shine on the international stage.

NBC isn't helping my cause any, though. On a combined 5 channels (more if you count HD & Telemundo), they're going to be offering an eye-popping 3600+ hours of coverage. That's apparently more than all of the Summer Games from 1960-2004 combined, which frankly is ridiculous. A large portion of that is available online, too. Please help me avoid the temptation to become an Olympics zombie.


Oh, if anyone was wondering, competition began already today with opening games in the women's football competition. The US team was upset 2-0 by Norway behind the strength of two goals in the first 5 minutes. How do I know all this? I was up at 6:45 this morning to watch it, of course.

The Sky is Falling...

To say it's been a rough couple of weeks in sports land for me would be an understatement. Not only have my Detroit Tigers made for horrible dishwashing companionship so far in this young season (that's 0-5 so far for those of you keeping score), but the dreaded "Doomsday Scenario" (all four #1 seeds making the Final Four) struck the NCAA basketball tournament this year.

Yawn. Wake me up when something interesting happens for a change.

First to Worst

Proving that it is possible to go from first to worst, my Klondike team at work (The Mudpuppies) failed miserably in defense of the title we earned last February. If you don't know what a Klondike team is, that's probably a good thing. Needless to say, it involves four people, no dogs, and one of these things:

There wasn't a lot of snow left on the ground today, but there was just enough to go for a nice romp through the sludge. We'll do better next year.

We're #2!

In shocking contrast with virtually every other sports team I've ever been on, my city basketball team Wyld Stallyns has finished the regular season with a winning record (6-4). Not only that, but that's apparently good enough to be the #2 seed in the league playoffs starting next week.

I'm not saying I've had a heck of a lot to do with our success so far, but I've started playing better in recent weeks so hopefully I'll be able to help us get deep into the playoffs. Wish us luck!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

Considering I was planning on posting a lot in November, I'll confess that only managing one measly post was pretty pathetic. Here's to turning that around this month.

To that end, I'd like to wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you all had a wonderful time wherever you spent it. After an aborted attempt at hosting the holiday for Meaghan's family this year, we opted to go back to my parents' in Michigan where we always have a good time.

This year was no exception, as we got not one but two turkey dinners (neither of which my mom had to cook - although she helped with one). On Thanksgiving day we went to Mount Pleasant for dinner with my dad's side of the family. It was a crowded affair, as there are an awful lot of my generation's children running around these days, but it was a good time. We got to watch the Lions lose (as is tradition), and I got to catch up with cousins, aunts, and uncles. We didn't make it back to Michigan at all this summer, so I hadn't seen any of them since last holiday season. A lot of them didn't even know I'd moved to Minneapolis (they're apparently not reading this blog). I'll need to try to fix that.

On Friday, we went to the "Grand Eye-Opening" of the new Detroit Institute of Arts. The DIA has been undergoing extensive remodeling over the past six years, creating unique new spaces and ways to view and become engaged by art. They celebrated completion of the project by hosting a giant 32-hour party and giving free admission to anyone who wanted it. As a fan of art museums, I thought this one was pretty cool.

They don't really have any extra-special exhibits on display just yet, so the star really was the museum itself. Absolutely none of the exhibit halls was your standard rectangular room, as walls arced and jutted all over the place. Couches and benches were the norm to ease your feet while still being able to enjoy the exhibits, and they came complete with companion art books so you could learn more about the types of art you were seeing. Some rooms were even themed (a bit like being at Disney World, but not in a bad way): the religious art exhibit halls were like walking through the inside of miniature Gothic cathedrals, there were multiple plazas for resting and eating that looked like European courtyards surrounded by many-windowed buildings. All in all, a very neat place to go and spend a day from time to time. I hope it works out for them.

Saturday was our second Thanksgiving dinner. This one was up in Midland with my mom's side of the family. There weren't so many people at this one, as only one of mom's siblings has kids and they all live out on the East coast. So after helping lug a vintage 1986 TV to the basement (to replace the 1985 TV that had burned out a few months back) I spent some time down in the "Man Cave" with my Uncle Bill watching football and chatting about life. Good times.

We actually watched a lot of football over the weekend, much to my sister-in-law's chagrin. There was the Lions game on Thursday, state high school championship games on Friday and Saturday (as is tradition), and some college games on Saturday, too. It was a pretty rotten weekend for teams I was backing: the Lions lost, Kansas lost, Tennessee won (the luckiest sons of a gun in all of college football), the Midland Chemics (Uncle Bill's alma mater) lost in the Class 2 state final. Of teams I cared about, only Hawaii (I love to see those small conference teams get into the BCS) came away with a victory.

I would be remiss if I ended this without mentioning a couple more things:

1) Ken Burns' new documentary "The War" is as good as they say. I only watched the first episode of my mom's newly purchased DVD set so far (I'll watch more at Christmas), but I felt that I learned more about WWII in those two hours than I'd known previously. It's one thing to know of a lot of things (Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, German aggression in Europe, etc.), but it takes something like this to really fit it all together in a way that makes sense. It's similar to a radio documentary I just heard the other day about Eugene McCarthy's (who I'd never heard of) bid for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination. It really put the events of that tumultuous year (MLK Jr. assassination, RFK assassination, Chicago protests, etc.) together for me in a way nothing had before.

2) I already knew this, but hadn't written about it here before. I'm going to be transformed into an uncle in March! My brother Steve and his wife Mandy are slated to have a son, Søren (like the Danish Existentialist) in March. I don't know if they're actually going to use the cool 'ø' with the stroke in it, but I think that would be pretty neat. A hearty congratulations goes out to them. I'm looking forward to meeting the new addition early next summer. Maybe he'll even change my opinion of kids younger than the age of 5. We'll see.

It's Hoops Time

It's that time of year when we turn our attention from our alma mater's struggling football team (despite the nice win last weekend over K-State) to the hardwood floors. College basketball season is officially upon us with last night's start of the Coaches vs. Cancer classic. In the first game of the season, those pesky Richmond Spiders downed Maine in a 44-42 shootout. Their reward? A matchup with #3 Memphis. I wish I got ESPNU. It seems like there hasn't been nearly as much college basketball on TV since ESPN signed a deal with the NBA.

My Iowa State Cyclones start their official season this Friday (they've already won two exhibition games, destroying the University of Dubuque and sneaking by the EA All-Stars) with their own Cyclone Challenge, in which they invite three of the worst teams in the nation to Ames in order to pick on them. This year the opposition consists of Winston-Salem State (a 2nd year Division I program), Centenary, and Lipscomb. They ranked 304, 294, and 179 respectively in last year's RPI ratings (out of 336 schools).

Going to Hilton Coliseum with my friends is one of the things I miss most about college, especially the Cyclone Challenge. We used to go to the early games that didn't involve Iowa State and pick a random team to root for. Traditionally, less than 100 people show up for those games as they're during dinner and no one cares about the teams, so we found that if you're really loud you can make a real impact on the game.

One year we made signs for a bunch of SW Texas State players (mine ended up becoming an Indiana Pacer). Another year, the North Texas coaching staff offered us free beer if we could cheer them on to victory (they lost). Other times, teams would go from hearing our cheers one day to our derisive jeers the next when they faced off against the Cyclones (Boney Watson, anyone?) If I were there this year, I think we'd definitely have to pick Centenary. Gentlemen beat anyone who thinks that the correct pluralization of Bison is Bisons any day.

Heartbreaker

The Last Round Draft Picks (my touch football team) continue to live down to their name, as we dropped a 19-13 heartbreaker last night. After surging out to a 13-0 halftime lead, we sputtered miserably after the break. It probably would've helped if I'd been able to catch anything at all in the 2nd half.

The nail in the coffin came when the other team's best player ran over Urrv to make an interception and return it for a touchdown. But hey, a guy could really get used to this whole playing a full game without the mercy rule coming into effect thing.