July 2007 Archive
Watercooler Chat: Beckham bends for 12 minutes, Danica skids and Bonds could break
Soccer
I happened to catch the moment soccer history was made in this country when David Beckham entered the field in the 78th minute of the LA Galaxy exhibition match against Chelsea on Saturday night. Chelsea won the match 1-0, but no one seemed to really care. It was all about watching Beckham, who was mostly on the sidelines due to an ankle injury. I hadn’t planned my evening to watch Beckham (sorry LA Galaxy) but when I looked up at the bar and saw the match on TV, I watched intently like everyone else in the room. I’ve got to admit, the most exciting thing about the game was watching the cameras follow all the celebrities in the stands, but I’m willing to keep an open mind. I played soccer growing up, my Kids play soccer now and I think it is an incredible sport. With that said, I just don’t see myself getting all that excited on a Sunday afternoon to watch 2 plus hours of a match where we might only see one goal scored. Another indication that soccer has a long way to go in becoming one of our “mainstream” sports is by looking at the navigation bars on any of the major sports internet sites. Soccer is hidden in the “other sports” category and not displayed prominently at the top of the page like NFL, MLB, NHL, Nascar, Golf and Tennis. It will be interesting to see if Beckham can help change this.
Watercooler discussion: Will Beckham change the way we view soccer in this country? Will soccer every overcome baseball or football as America’s sport
Motorsports
Danica Patrick finished 5th in the Honda Indy 200 this weekend. This was her best finish so far in an Indy car race, although she might have finished even better if it were not for Tony Kanaan knocking her into the grass for a few seconds in the first lap. Kanaan excused himself by claiming that Danica was sliding. For his third straight time (and on his 27th birthday), Scott Dixon won the race.
Watercooler discussion: Should Danica be getting this much attention just because she’s a woman?
Baseball
SF Giant Barry Bonds could break Hank Aaron’s prestigious home run record this week while he’s in his hometown of San Francisco. Apparently baseball commissioner Bud Selig doesn’t plan on traveling to SF to see history being made. In case you haven’t been following, Bonds is not well liked because of the allegations against him for taking steroids.
Watercooler discussion: Is Bud Selig making the right decision in not attending the game?
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Watercooler Chat: Michael Vick indicted
Michael Vick, star quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, has been indicted on dog fighting charges. He hasn’t been convicted yet, but he’s in real trouble. In case you didn’t know, dog fighting is illegal and really sick. I’ve never seen it (or ever will) but it’s incredibly inhumane and incredibly brutal. In addition, Vick is charged with killing a number of dogs that were unable to fight. And, he apparently killed them in a really disgusting manner; hanging, strangling, drowning and smashing on the floor. Whether or not Vick actually gets convicted of this illegal crime, his reputation is shot. I can’t imagine he will ever get another sponsorship deal. Who in their right mind would want someone like that endorsing their products? I’m sure we’ll be hearing more on this story as details come out, but as of now, I’m thoroughly disgusted and can’t imagine a person in their right mind who would torture dogs for sport.
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Watercooler Chat: Beckham, Bonds and surprisingly no boos for the Phillies
Major League Soccer
Is anyone else as tired as I am of hearing the hype over David Beckham’s arrival in the US? The press conferences, magazine covers, newspaper reports of Beckham and Victoria’s big arrival in Los Angeles where he’ll play for the LA Galaxy, is just a bit overdone for a sport that will never pass football, baseball, basketball or golf as an American favorite. The Galaxy ponied up $250 million over 5 years to lure Beckham away from England. I think this will go down as one of the absolute worst sports franchise moves in history. I just can’t imagine how the Galaxy plans on recouping that kind of money in a sport that is just not “mainstream” here in the US. And, at some point (hopefully some point soon), the paparazzi will get tired of taking pictures of the robot-like Posh Spice. On that note, just once I’d love to see a picture of her actually smiling instead of her signature pout.
Baseball
Our Barry Bonds watch is still going strong. The San Francisco Giant Barry Bonds is still 5 home runs away from breaking Hank Aarons home run record. The question on everyone’s mind right now is not so much “if” he’ll hit more than 755 career home runs, but “when” and which pitcher (team) will go down in history in making it happen.
If you can’t beat em join em. The Philadelphia Phillies have the dubious distinction of losing their 10,000th game, the first time in history that a sports franchise has reached that landmark. The clincher was hearing the fans “cheer” while the Phillies reached this milestone.
Rumor Mill
This weekend a broadcaster fueled the LA Lakers’ Kobe Bryant trade rumor when he apparently slipped (unintentionally as he thought the mic was off) and said he had been told that Kobe would go to the Grizzlies.
Watercooler Chat: Giuliani reads The Female Fan Guide to Motorsports
I opened up the New York Times this morning and had the greatest surprise. As I'm sipping my coffee and flipping through the paper, I noticed an article about former NY Mayor and Presidential Candidate, Rudolph Giuliani on his way to a Nascar race at Daytona Beach. To my COMPLETE surprise, the article mentioned my book, The Female Fan Guide to Motorsports which Giuliani said he read in preparation for the race. For the complete article, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/us/politics/09rudy.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
On to the news of the weekend......
Tennis
After a tense 3 hour, 45 minute 5 set match, was there really any doubt that Roger Federer would pull out the win over Rafael Nadal? This is Federer’s 5th straight Wimbledon title, which ties the record set back in 1980 by Bjorn Borg. At only 25 years old, Federer is considered by many to be the best men’s player EVER. Even John McEnroe said on ESPN recently that he’s never seen a player like him.
Talking about best players EVER, Venus Williams won the women’s final (big surprise) for her 4th all time Wimbledon title. She beat Marion Bartoli 6-4, 61. Venus just makes this all seem so easy.
Indy Car Flare up
Scott Dixon won the Indy Car (open wheel) race at Watkins Glen Grand Prix, but that’s not what everyone was talking about this weekend. After the race, Tony Kanaan came over to “talk” to Sam Hornish Jr because he was upset that he bumped his car. Hornish Sr pushed Kanaan and then the fracas began as Kanaan’s team knocked the father over. According to Kanaan, he was only approaching Hornish Jr to talk about the race and never intended to get into a fight.
Tour de France
The biggest bike race has begun. I can’t really watch this on TV, but I do like to hear about who’s in the lead and every time I get on a bike, I completely appreciate and am marveled by the endurance of this grueling race. The Tour de France lasts 20 stages (plus the prologue which is a 4.9 mile race through downtown London) for a total of 2, 206 miles. Don’t worry if you missed the fact that the race is already underway. We won’t even crown a winner until the race ends on July 29th.
Floyd Landis, last year’s champ, is still trying to defend his 2006 title against claims that he used illegal drugs to win.
Watercooler Chat: Hot Dog Eating as a SPORT?
Ok, someone please explain to me why a “hot dog eating” contest is considered SPORTS. All morning long I’ve been watching ESPN and they keep showing scenes from yesterday’s hot dog eating contest with full play by play commentary. Not only is this disgusting to look at but I kept thinking it was April Fools and someone would pipe in with a “just kidding” we’re really not covering this. Unfortunately, no one did and it was discussed with as much fan fare as the Washington Nationals’ Dmitri Young’s grand slam to lead the Nationals to a 6-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs.
In case you actually care about this, Kobayashi (the reigning champ) had an injured jaw and apparently could only open his mouth 2 inches not his normal 4 inches. Well, this injury proved his downfall because he lost his title to Joey Chestnut who broke the world record by eating 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes. Normally I’d be pretty psyched that a “world champ” was from my hometown of San Jose, CA, but I don’t think I’ll be celebrating this one. Anyone else agree with me that hyping this as an endurance sport is a little crazy?
Watercooler Chat: Oden #One In NBA draft, Bonds an All Star
NBA Draft
It was no big surprise that Greg Oden (remember the Ohio State All American who looks like he’s 50 years old) was selected first by the Portland Trail Blazers in the draft on Saturday. In all of his weekend interviews, Oden really seems like a class act. I can’t wait to see him dazzle the League next year. Portland also made headlines by trading away their star player Zach Randolph to the New York Knicks. Over the next year, there will be a lot of talk about Zach’s character. He has been arrested numerous times in Portland for among other things, breaking his teammate’s eye socket and driving under the influence. With a new $61 million over 4 years, he has a lot of reasons to clean up his act. Stay tuned.
Just 5 minutes after Oden was taken by the Trailblazers, the Seattle Supersonics selected the other highly touted college player Kevin Durant (University of Texas). The best thing about the NBA draft is that teams have only 5 minutes between rounds to make their selection. In one hour, we can see 12 selections. Compare that to the 15 minutes between rounds in the NFL draft. It would take about 3 hours to see the same number of selections.
Baseball
Saturday I introduced my Kids to their first baseball game. A friend of mine offered us tickets to see the New York Yankees play the Oakland A’s. It’s kind of a testament to the Yankee season that they were much more interested in their mint chip flavored ice cream dots, cotton candy and cracker jacks than they were in the game. How can you blame them? The Yankees only got one hit (yes one hit) in an abysmal 7-0 loss. Hooray for junk food. The Kids had such a fantastic time getting a free ride to eat their body weight in junk they couldn’t wait to go back.
The big news of the weekend is that the very controversial San Francisco Giant, Barry Bonds, was selected for the July 10th All Star Game. Thankfully the All Star Game will be played in Bonds hometown of San Francisco because he is almost universally booed in every other stadium for allegedly taking performance enhancing drugs.
