YAP

There are three teams with swear words in their name: Arsenal, Scunthorpe and Manchester Fucking United #notbitterhonest
Stephen Fry on Twitter today.

Staals Staap Pleeze

Apparently a real screenshot from last night's Leaf's Hurricanes game.

Fun Facts To Know and Share

    Wrigley Field, Labour Day, 1988

The last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series (1908), the Ottoman Empire was still in existence. via Trivials

If someone had offered a bet that fall that a black man would be elected President before the Cubs won again, would you have taken it?

YAP

The future ain't what it used to be. 
Yogi Berra

Toronto's Great Year

    1947 Leafs with the Cup

Oh what a year for Toronto!  The Argonauts win the 100th Grey Cup at home.  Rob Ford is kicked out of office for extreme stupidity.  And the Leafs haven't lost a game this season. 

YAP

The Mets have shown me more ways to lose than I even knew existed. 
Casey Stengel 

LOL Mets

Ichiro

     Photo By Jason Miller/Getty Images

My hero this baseball season is Ichiro.  The most graceful man in baseball.  He is so famous in Japan that his agent claims he will receive any package addressed simply "Ichiro".

This season, the 38 year old's career was fading.  There was no way he would make the playoffs with Seattle and his time was running out.  In a delightful turn of events, he was traded to the Yankees.  There he had to start at the bottom, playing left field and at the bottom of the batting order.  But since joining the Yankees, he as been a man on fire.  In his last 10 games (as of Oct. 1), he's batting .356.  Girardi has put him back in right field, and he was hitting 1st or 2nd in the lineup this weekend. 

Ichiro is having a career year.  I only hope he gets to show his stuff in his 1st World Series. 

Yap

They don't think it be like it is, but it do
Oscar Gamble

I just have to add this photo of the inimitable Mr. Gamble

Pahlay Ball!

    Wrigley Field, Labor Day, 1988

I watched my first baseball game of the season last night.  Boston beat The Yankees in Florida.  I love baseball like no other sport.  I love the balance of the game, the pace, the lack of a clock, the intensity of the individual contests between batter and pitcher.  Most of all, I like that there's no set duration. You play until at least 51 batters are out.  If that doesn't decide it, they just keep playing until someone wins.  No overtime rules or special tweaks to make it more exciting. 

I also love Baseball for the stadiums.  Wrigley Field (above) was a terrific experience, but my favorite is Dodger Stadium.  Nodding off to sleep on a Saturday night while watching a west coast game is my ultimate comfort food.

Pix

Tim Horton, January, 1962

Pix

    Ty Cobb scores a triple, August 16, 1924.

I think this is a great photograph.  Its like epic combat from a classical myth.  The empty stands make them appear to be playing for the Gods, not for humans.


------
Also:
its interesting that this otherwise baffling photo can be explained to anyone who knows baseball with two words "Cobb triple".

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I heard Tonya Harding is calling herself the Charles Barkley of figure skating. I was going to sue her for defamation of character, but then I realized I have no character.
Charles Barkley

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It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.
Muhammad Ali

NFL Visualization

A fascinating visualization of NFL games by Christopher Healey a professor at North Carolina State

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Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston, Lewiston, Maine, May 25, 1965
Photo: Neil Leifer

I believe Mr.Ali, is requesting that notwithstanding his current indisposition, Mr. Liston regain his feet.   He (Mr. Ali) does not feel that they have satisfactorily resolved the evening's business and that should Mr. Liston allow, he (Mr. Ali) would like to knock Mr. Liston out several more times.

Eight Heroic Athletic Performances

I stopped watching the Olympics half way through the first week.  It was spectacular on the HDTV, but between the IOC's money grubbing and the Chinese dictatorship, I just couldn't watch.  I'm sure I missed a lot of really interesting things, but its over now, so that's that.

The big stories seem to have been Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt.  What a name for a sprinter, Usain Bolt.  Great competitors, true champions, but not quite heroic.  Here are some heroic athletic performances that stand out in my memory.  Not all are from the Olympics.  Not all won.  One isn't even a human.  Argue as you please, but its my blog, and these are my heroes.

8. Elvis Stojko - Men's Figure Skating - Nagano 1998

      Source: Unknown -  Stojko during the Figure Skating Final, Nagano 1998
It was finally Elvis' year.  He was the best skater in the world and the gold was pretty much his for the taking.  Several days before the final, he caught the flu, then suffered a groin injury.  That would have ended the games for anyone else.  Elvis skated anyway.  It was obvious during the performance something was wrong.  His signature quadruple-triple combination became a triple-triple.  It was a great performance, but not as good as the Russian Ilia Kulik. Kulik got the gold, Elvis the silver.  The extent of his injury only became apparent during the medal ceremony immediately following the event.  Elvis could barely walk, and had to wear running shoes to the podium.  A guy who was in so much pain he could barely walk, and still turned in a performance worthy of being second best in the entire world.  That's more than willpower, that heroism.  I think that silver medal is worth far more than any gold he could have won.

7. Emil Zatopec - Men's Marathon - Helsinki 1952

      Source: unknown - I believe this is the marathon, but its certainly Helsinki
Zatopek did brilliantly in Helsinki winning gold in the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres.  As he was on a roll, the Czech team decided to let him have a go at the marathon, despite his never having run one before.  He won, setting an Olympic record.

6. Tiger Woods - US Open - Torry Pines 2008

      Image: Getty - Woods shows pain on his backswing
In future, this may be seen as his greatest victory of all.  With a severe knee injury, he like Stojko, could barely walk.  Yet he played 90 holes over 5 days and won.  This incredible accomplishment has been overshadowed by the Olympics.  However, I think in future Woods' triumph will be thought of as the significant athletic event of 2008.

5. Abebe Bikila - Men's Marathon - Rome 1960

       Image: Getty
An almost literally last-minute addition to the Ethiopian delegation, Bikila did not have a  properly fitting pair of shoes from the team sponsor Addidas.  So he ran barefoot as he had in training.  This caused some derision at the start of the race.  But Bikila won, becoming the first African to win an Olympic gold medal.  In 1964, he ran with shoes, but did so only 40 days after having his appendix removed.  He still won, finishing an incredible 4 minutes ahead of the silver medalist and setting a world record. Bikila is one of only two men to win the Olympic Marathon twice.

4. John Akhwari - Men's Marathon - Mexico City 1968

An hour after the medal ceremony, with just a few people left in the Olympic stadium , a lone figure entered the field.  He was John Akhwari of Tanzania, the last man to finish the 1968 Olympic marathon.  Early in the race, Akhwari had fallen badly, damaging his knee and suffering deep lacerations.  He got up, accepted bandaging from the medical personnel and continued.  Hours later, barley able to walk, he stumbled into the stadium.  The few thousand spectators gave him a thunderous ovation.  Some said that they made more noise that the full stadium had for the winner.  Akhwari crossed the finish line and collapsed.  He was taken to the hospital.  The next day, a reporter asked him why he had persisted long after any hope of coming in anything but last had faded, he replied: "My country did not send me 5000 miles to start the race. They sent me 5000 miles to finish the race."  Fortunately, his finish was caught by a documentary crew and is included in the video African Runners, part of the Olympiad Series.

3. Muhammad Ali - Ali Vs. Foreman, Kinshasa 1974

      Image: Neil Leifer, Sports Illustrated
Games within games. How could the older, slower, outgunned Ali possibly hope to match the juggernaut of George Foreman? Foreman had trained for months to eliminate Ali's only advantage, his dancing movement around the ring. It looked grim. Everyone agreed that if Ali could be cornered, Foreman would pulverize him. Even Ali seemed to believe it. But what the old lack in strength, they often gain in cunning. Instead of dancing around as usual, Ali stood still. He leaned against the ropes and let Foreman pound him. Veteran fight observers couldn't believe it. Was he giving up? Throwing the fight? His coaches were apoplectic, confused, hysterical. But Ali had figured out the one way to beat Foreman, and he told nobody. Not his trainers, or his entourage, or the journalists who pounded him with questions for months before the fight. His strategy was simple, he called it "rope a dope". Instead of his trademark dancing, he stood still, leaning against the ropes. He put his arms up and let Foreman hit him as hard as he could. Ali's arms and abdomen could take the blows, and the ropes absorbed the force.  Ali taunted in a whisper only Foreman could hear.  "Is that all you've got George?" "You can hit me harder than that."  As an enfuriated Foreman exhausted himself, Ali came off the ropes with his strength intact and knocked Foreman out. It was a brilliant boxing match. My favorite documentary "When We Were Kings" tells the story. I highly recommend it, even to non-sports fans.

2. Tiger Woods - The Masters - Augusta 1997

      Image: TexNews
He was the youngest (21) and the first African-American to win. And he did so with the lowest score in 32 years.  But that's not why he's on this list. Its because he tore the course and the competition apart.  He started Sunday morning with a nine stroke lead.  He finished with record 12 stroke lead.  If they had given him another 18 holes, he would have won with a 20 stroke lead.  Tiger won it going away.  It, along with Secretariat at Belmont, was the most electrifying athletic performance I've ever seen.

1. Secretariat - Belmont Stakes - 1973

      Source: Unknown - Possibly Belmont Downs
I'm not a fan of horse racing, but everyone in North America watched this race on June 9, 1973.  Secretariat had won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.  A successful Triple Crown would be the first in 25 years, and only the 9th in history.  Like Tiger Woods at the '97 Masters, he won it going away.  His margin was 31 lengths.  Had they given him another 1/4 mile, it would have been 41 lengths.  It was the fastest 1 1/2 miles on dirt in history at 2:24 flat.  Not only has that record stood, but no other horse has ever gone below 2:25.  More than 5,000 winning bets were not redeemed, the holders kept the betting chits as souvenirs.

The Cortez Bank

Photo: Robert Brown/BillabongXXL
At the edge of the continental shelf, one hundred miles south-east of San Diego, there is a chain of undersea mountains called the Cortez Bank. The tallest peaks of these mountains come within 20 feet of the surface. Gathering energy from 7,000 miles of open water, the ocean swell breaks over these peaks like a beach. The result is enormous breakers, the biggest waves in the world. Its an eerie and dangerous place. I'm not much interested in surfing, but the video below is haunting. Well worth a minute to watch. Remember this is 100 miles away from the coast, in the open ocean. Even professional surfers find the place frightening.



The New York Times ran a story about the Cortez Bank earlier this year.