sports

BMX? Men’s BMX and Women’s BMX? Water Polo? Volleyball? Beach Volleyball? Badminton? Table Tennis? Kayaking? Basketball? Field Hockey? Trampoline? Race Walking?

Look. I know that Ping-Pong Table Tennis and Synchronized Swimming have been in the Olympics for a long time. That doesn’t mean they need to remain in the Olympics. Can’t we just all agree that these were silly mistakes, sudden displays of horrible taste, fads gone wild? And who fell asleep at the controls and allowed these new ridiculous “sports” into the Games? Good grief.

And I know I’m alone on this one, but I can’t even get comfortable with Basketball, Soccer, Baseball, and Softball. Hello? These are team sports. What happened to the Olympics being all about individual achievement?

There is an excellent glossary of rowing terms on the NBC Olympics site.

Mac users: You can use this link to subscribe to the Florida Gators 2008 Football iCal Schedule, published by Yahoo!.

We are then introduced to the shabby state of both the grounds keeping and of stadium security at the Polo Grounds, as we see an angry rabbit (Bugs Bunny, RHP/UT) is able to heckle the visiting team from left field, where he has dug a fairly substantial hole, and is enjoying a carrot-dog and (it appears) has consumed a large bottle of wine through a straw.
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In a tense confrontation at home, we see the Gorillas replace the umpire by force with one of their own so that they can call Bunny out at home in the next play. Bunny, to his credit, then manages to argue the fake umpire into reversing his own call.

Vote756.com: I’m going with option B, the asterisk.

Commissioner Bud Selig announced Tuesday the discovery that Hall of Famer Hank Aaron had in fact accumulated 50 previously unaccounted-for home runs … bringing his once record total of 755 to an even higher 805 and putting the all-time home-run record perhaps forever out of reach.

Tuesday Morning Quarterback scores again with 2010: The Mock Draft.

Are you a sports fan? Have you ever wondered just how accurate those clocks are? And can a ref — or anyone — really determine a hundredth of a second?

Can there possibly ever have been a better time to be a Florida Gator? Basketball … then football … then basketball again?! I almost — almost — feel bad for Ohio State. We don’t even consider them “rivals”, but they must hate us now.

The Gators became the first team to go back-to-back since 1992 and the first ever to repeat with the same starting five.

They finished with a 10-game winning streak and haven’t lost a postseason game in 18 tries, counting sweeps at the Southeastern Conference tournaments the last two years.

The Florida Gators are, in sum, why we love college basketball.

Last year was for a ring. This year was for history and something as simple and pure as a teammate’s respect. That’s a legacy.

“Why go to Kentucky?” junior Corey Brewer said. “When’s the last time they won a national title?”

Also see: Eddie Munster Coaches Florida to Second Consecutive Championship

A friend of mine recently asked for a list of good sports websites. If you’re only getting your sports fix from ESPN.com then you’re missing a lot of good stuff. I’ve had a Sports bookmark folder since at least ‘95. Here are the ones that I visit on a regular basis:
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Genarlow Wilson, honor student and football star, had consensual sex with a fellow teenager. What happened to him next was a crime.

When he was a senior in high school, he received oral sex from a 10th grader. He was 17. She was 15. Everyone, including the girl and the prosecution, agreed she initiated the act. But because of an archaic Georgia law, it was a misdemeanor for teenagers less than three years apart to have sexual intercourse, but a felony for the same kids to have oral sex.

Now he’s sitting in prison. He got ten years. Been there for two. And there’s not much anyone can do about it, although some are trying.

“What happens here, happens in the rest of the country a decade later.” We’re talking about Los Angeles, folks. This excellent quote is from a stupendous essay on why there will never be an NFL team in LA. It only took me a few months to realize that this place wasn’t going to be able to support an NFL team. Apathy is key. The article makes several perfect points, but the one that matters is the one about caring. In Gainesville, Florida the city is crushed after a Gator loss. And I’m not just referring to a championship game, kids. If the team loses a single game at any point in the season, the entire county is crestfallen for days. There isn’t a smile to be seen anywhere. The baristas at Starbucks glumly pour lattes for grown men who look like they just got the news that JFK was shot.

In Los Angeles the day after USC won the National Championship in football was pretty much exactly the same as the day after UCLA lost the National Championship in basketball. There are — quite literally — millions of people here who are dedicated sports fans. The problem is that there are many, many more millions who don’t know the difference between the SEC and the ACC.

How cool is the World Wide Web™? Within 24 hours of the game I was able to use μtorrent to download the entire 2006 BCS Championship Game and watch it using the latest DivX player. The 2.2GB file took about 20 hours to download, but it’s worth it. I’m considering using the office projector to play the game on the wall behind me on a constant loop.

(While you’re waiting for the massive download, take a look at this awesome video of suffering OSU fans at the game, set to the tune of Beck’s “Loser“. It’s very evil and completely bad karma, but still great.)

During last night’s Sugar Bowl one of the announcers referenced Rudy, one of my all-time favorite movies. Notre Dame got trampled by LSU and they didn’t really deserve to be in the game, but everyone loves them anyway. I admit that as much as I wanted the Tigers to win — to cement how strong the SEC is — I was pulling for Charlie’s boys. There’s just something about the Irish. This morning at the gym I couldn’t stop thinking about what a great film Rudy is. And that made my computer-programming brain start trying to organize my favorite sports movies. So I did.

I’ll start with the Honorable Mentions and then count down to Number One.

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