USA 1 - 0 ALGERIA

From out of the World Cup tournament... to clinching the round-robin Group C, with a single kick.

New York Times story link.

On a perfect set-up from goalie Tim Howard who created a 4-on-2 rush, Landon Donovan scored in the first minute of stoppage time to lift the U.S. side to victory and a spot in the Round of 16.

I can understand those people who hate on soccer. I, too, dislike watching players trying to draw fouls by flopping to the turf and acting like they've been shot when there is the least amount of contact. I can't quite understand all the nuances and Calvinball nature of off-sides penalties --- sometimes, it's OK to be past the last defender, and sometimes it's not). And soccer is a sport that badly needs replay, at least at the World Cup level where the technology is definitely available. But we'll put all that aside for the moment and let these players do a little basking.

The way the USA has fought back against the odds, from one or two goals behind late into their matches, against the other 11 men, against the refs who are either physically blind / hallucinogenic, on the take with odds-makers or who harbor personal hate of America, against FIFA for the attitude that soccer is for the 'rest of the world' and want to protect their sport from American dominance. We're still in it and the USA never gives up!

Truth be told, I also have a rooting interest for the Netherlands, a team that has a good chance to win the whole tournament, according to some experts.

1 May 2010

After a day of putting down some grass seed, getting some seeds sown in the garden and strawberry planter pots, and being led into three 1/4-mile walks on the back roads by Ruff, I got inside near 6 p.m. I was taking a shower to get the day's dirt off when I remembered the Kentucky Derby, which would be run shortly. I remember thinking, "I don't know the horses this year, but whichever one Calvin Borel is riding has to be the pick." The dude seems a little simple-minded and has a one-track mind for racing, but hey, when you're really good at one thing, what does it matter? I wouldn't want to bet against him. When I dried off and turned on the television, they were loading the final stall and the race started a few seconds later. And wouldn't you know it.... Super Saver, ridden by Mr. Borel, hugged the rail most of the way and snuck through the field to win by a length or two.

Otherwise, puppy training has been going at its own paces. Ruff is doing better in the box, he's waiting for an 'OK' for certain things (food/water, in/out the door), but he's still got a thing for pilfering shoes from the mat and absconding with them to his bed. Full of vim and vigor, especially so right after feedings, but he's also calmed down appreciably as he's gotten used to the new surroundings and goings-on. Quite the talker and grunter, don't you know.

Winter Olympics

The Opening Ceremony for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver is tonight.

This will be the first Olympics since we got the HDTV, and I'm eager to see how it will look. If it's anything like how every other sport has been, we're in for a show. The ceremonies are going to be less spectacular than the 2008 China games, but that's a given, and I'm not at all disappointed by that.

Long track speed skating is by far my favorite event in the Winter Games. I suppose you might tack this up to my Dutch heritage, with a nod to the story of "Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates." Going back, I remember our family watching and rooting for the Netherlands, which have been dominant in the sport. The province of Friesland --- where my mother's family derives from --- particularly has historically produced some of the world's best speed skaters. The geography of the Frisian region lends itself to this level of interest and dominance. In winters when the freshwater canals freeze --- which is pretty rare (the last was in 1997) --- skating competitions called the Elfstedentocht are held.

One of the more inspiring stories of previous Olympics was Gerard van Velde, who was highly touted but didn't medal in a couple of Games. He then had difficulty adjusting to a new skate design and retired in the late '90s and became a used car salesman. He re-entered the sport, mastered the clap skate and won gold in the 1000m in 2002. In the last Games, Ireen Wust was a surprise gold medalist in the 3000m. She's fallen out of the limelight a bit in competition, and revealed that she is a lesbian in the Dutch press last fall. We'll see if she can recapture her performance like many others who bring their career best at the biggest events. Of course, I don't just cheer for the Dutch. I am American through and through. Shonie Davis looks to continue strong performances in the mid-distance, and break down some of the perceived racial barriers of the Games. The tearjerker story of U.S. speed-skater Dan Jansen was recently the subject of a short Visa ad voiced by Morgan Freeman. These are the kind of stories that make the Olympics so great --- of ordinary people persevering.

It is a bizarre circumstance, though, that medalists are so lauded for what's often such marginal victories. But that is the nature of sport. Tonight is the biggest highlight most of the athletes will experience, but it's a huge personal accomplishment just to make it that far.

(Photo (c) Genevelyn Burke, 2007, of Ilanaaq, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics emblem.)

As a stone guy, I've gotta say that picture is close to my own heart. .... Not in the sense that I have a "heart of stone" or something.... Oh well. You know what I mean.

Whalers Retro

When the Hartford Whalers left town in 1997, it was the end of an era in hockey. The NHL had become a league of "dump and trap" that wouldn't abate until after a season-long work stoppage and badly needed rules changes. In 2004, those changes finally came, opening up the playing surface by removing the center-ice red line (thus reducing two-line pass penalties), giving a competitive advantage to teams and players with speed and skating ability. They have also gotten games out of the 1-0 or 2-1 rut, and the most important occurence of a game is no longer, "Who got in a fight?" We can now look back on those days with a certain sentimentality. But for Whalers fans, those days are all that's left. Still, though, there are many Whalers fans left in Connecticut.

Recently, I ran into the drawing at left, which provides a glimpse at the Whalers' logo design process. The artist who was commissioned for the design was Peter Good, now of Cummings & Good, a graphic design partnership. It's always fascinating (for me at least) to see this idea flow from one concept to the next. Here, the initial stages show an intent to include a negative-space H (for Hartford) to pair with the Whalers W. The design progresses from Poseidon-like hook shapes to a whale fluke. It is still lauded in the logo design community as one of the best designs out there.

Delay of Game

There was an interesting article in the WSJ today by David Biderman that provided a breakdown of the content of an average NFL game.

Now, I had suspected that out of the 60 minutes of game clock, that there would be a lot of dead time e.g. how the clock keeps ticking after running plays are stopped in-bounds. Still, just less than 11 minutes of actual game-play was a little surprising to me at first blush.

"According to a Wall Street Journal study of four recent broadcasts, and similar estimates by researchers, the average amount of time the ball is in play on the field during an NFL game is about 11 minutes.

In other words, if you tally up everything that happens between the time the ball is snapped and the play is whistled dead by the officials, there's barely enough time to prepare a hard-boiled egg. In fact, the average telecast devotes 56% more time to showing replays.

So what do the networks do with the other 174 minutes in a typical broadcast? Not surprisingly, commercials take up about an hour. As many as 75 minutes, or about 60% of the total air time, excluding commercials, is spent on shots of players huddling, standing at the line of scrimmage or just generally milling about between snaps. In the four broadcasts The Journal studied, injured players got six more seconds of camera time than celebrating players. While the network announcers showed up on screen for just 30 seconds, shots of the head coaches and referees took up about 7% of the average show."

Looking at these numbers has to be pretty disheartening to regular viewers who whittle away whole Sundays. When I am watching football, I'm often doing something else at the same time, usually cooking, which cuts down on my NFL-coach-potato guilt level. But to those fans who go to the games, that's quite a price to be paying for 11 minutes of action.

It begs the question, though: How does football dead time compare to other major sports? In basketball with a 24-second shot clock, a lot of time is spent passing the ball and setting up plays before a shot is attempted. Same thing with hockey. Both of those sports have a 60-minute clock in the professional game. Soccer is another serial time-waster, even with longer matches --- 90 minutes, plus so-called "stoppage time" which is a referee-determined add-on of how much time has been spent on injuries, substitutions, etc. --- that often come down to about 5 serious shots on goal. This is an American viewer's oft-bemoaned example of why soccer doesn't have much of a following in this country.

Tens of millions of fans, however, go to Major League Baseball games every year to sit through an indeterminate-timed 9 innings. Indeed, sitting for 3 hours, watching practice swings, bullpen sessions, warm-up pitches, bubble gum chewing and arguments between managers and umpires, while waiting for 27 players to be called "out" is deemed the American past-time. Then again, at our house, it gives a heck of a reason for a nice spring/summer/fall weekend nap when a game is on.

21 November 2009

Buffalo Bills coach Dick Jauron was fired on Tuesday this week. It's the first step of a long road toward turning the franchise back toward respectability. There's a lot that needs to be fixed in the hierarchy of the front office. The multiple-VP 'consensus' system that was initiated a couple of years ago is not what's required in the NFL. So far, the rumor-mill has generated the name of former Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan, who would ostensibly be brought in either late this season in an advisory role (similar to Bill Parcells' post with the Miami Dolphins) and perhaps be named as the head coach and/or GM after the season concludes. The issue of how much control a new hire would have is something that will have to be worked out. Ralph Wilson, the Bills' owner, is rightly making generic statements, but hinted that established big-name coaches are on the radar. For an owner who has run his team on the cheap for the last ten years (and who has meddled with his toy to the team's detriment since the start) I'll believe in change when I see it.
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Started building a new tailgate for the trailer this week, in addition to re-jiggering the tail light wiring. It will soon be street legal again. The tailgate is a pattern of three horizontal pressure-treated 1" x 6" boards with a 6" gap between them, and bolted together with four shorter vertical sections. Will have to post a picture when it's complete. This is, I hope, ahead of doing some more extensive repairs on the trailer itself in the spring. The plywood sides have certainly seen better days and the frame could use a fresh coat of paint.
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Built a replacement birdhouse this afternoon, essentially making a copy of the design of the old one whose wood was weathering away. The entry hole had been hacked away to about 4" in diameter, and it's been awhile since I noticed any birds in residence. Building it better, painting it 'Colonial Red' and also making a roof covering out of a pair of old Connecticut license plates that were from our '86 Bronco (which had quite the same color scheme as the new CT plates). That was something I'd seen in a magazine some time back, and it seemed like a interesting idea. This, too, I'll have to share a picture of when it's done.
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The UConn football team beat Notre Dame this afternoon in double OT. Undoubtedly the biggest win in the program's young history... and surely an emotional victory for the team with all that's happened in the past month.
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I recently rejoined Facebook. After the family reunion "pumpkin carving party" just before Hallowe'en, it made me rethink the decision. Made a few changes, edited the 'Friend' list a bit and it seems a little more palatable now. Not on it all day (not that I ever was)... just now and then. We'll see how it goes.

Agassi Opens Up

Had to say that I was surprised as all get out last week when I read that Andre Agassi's tell-all book, titled "Open" reveals that he used crystal meth repeatedly in 1997.

First comes the disappointment that a player I loved to watch when the majors were on television would do something something so stupid. But then there's the grudging acceptance... that's just how things are a lot of the time. Watching the interview on "60 Minutes" last night also went a long way toward seeing it in a different light. In "Open" (a double meaning of tennis's biggest matches and Agassi coming clean about exactly what happened) you can see a man wanting to set the record straight on his own initiative, and you can see him asking for forgiveness. The cover of the book is striking itself, with a full-frame close-up sending the message that this is the story front and center, no hiding, no weaseling.

One can also see that crystal meth is not a performance-enhancing drug. Agassi is not on the level of a number of baseball stars who admittedly, or according to official drug testing, used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. I think most of their (and Major League Baseball's) fault lies in trying to conceal what they did. Still, to sweep illegal drug use under the rug as if it's OK sends the wrong message.

Seems that the larger lesson that Agassi wants to communicate is his personal redemption. Getting caught by the pro tour's drug-testing lab was a wake-up call for him. And wake up he did. His play from 1999 to his retirement in 2006 produced a lot of great tennis. Most of all, the classic U.S. Open final against Pete Sampras.

Some in the tennis world have come down pretty hard on Agassi, including legend Martina Navratilova, and current phenoms Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. The American public has an amazing capacity for forgiveness --- but only when they are told the truth. This story would have been many times worse had it been revealed any number of years in the future. Agassi does deserve some compassion right now, and while I remain disappointed, I'm also glad he told the story honestly --- and openly --- on his own.