Sports Archives

11 December 2006MNF Fiasco*
Is this worse than the Dennis Miller era? You bet. Is ESPN going to do anything about it? Don't count on it. Will I continue to watch Monday Night Football? Most likely... The trio of announcers that ESPN has calling...
27 November 2006Bruins are #1!
We'll see how long this lasts now that UCLA has an even larger target on it's back, but with Florida and North Carolina losing over the weekend, UCLA leaped from 5 to 1 in the AP poll. Not bad for...
24 November 2006Go Bruins
UCLA football might be going in reverse, but Ben Howland has the hoops program headed in the right direction. The Bruins made it to the NCAA championship game last year and are ranked number 5 and off to a 4-0...
30 June 2006Ruud Gullit at the Ristorante Bellavista
Rutger and I were walking home from dinner at Sing Sing, a very trendy Asian fusion restaurant/bar in his neighborhood last night. I was taking pictures of some of the interesting cafes with their tables spilling out into the sidewalks...
04 June 2006Football Madness
England is in grips of an insane football madness in the lead up to the World Cup which starts this Friday over in Germany. Just as every tourney, England think they have a chance to win. More than a chance,...
26 May 2006Are You Ready for Some Football?*
Anyone else psyched about the World Cup? I am. I always am. Love the sport. Love the event even better. This time all my favorite teams are in. The USA, of course. Australia, natuallly (it's about time!). The Dutch, as...
05 May 2006Pathetic Bush Legacy
The official team bus to be used by the United States during the World Cup will not bear a flag for security reasons. The 32 official buses were presented Thursday in Frankfurt and the other 31 buses have large national...
03 April 2006The Game
The game. Well? The game sucked. It was one of the most painful things to have to sit through. The team that I have been saying all along didn't really belong and was playing way above their heads, finally showed...
03 April 2006U-C-L-A! Fight! Fight! Fight!
After watching the Bruins wipe the RCA Dome floor with the heavily overmatched (and favored) LSU Tigers, it's hard for me not to be optimisitic about tonight's game. They are playing so well in all aspects of the game, despite...
28 March 20062, 3, 4, 11
What do these numbers have in common?...
25 March 2006UCLA is In!!!!!!!
I'm still in shock--that was one of the ugliest games I have ever seen--but UCLA has done it, they have shut down heavily favored number one seed Memphis and have squeaked by into the Final Four. Let me say that...
08 March 2006The Truth With Denials
Is there any other kind these days? No sooner has Sports Illustrated posted an excerpt from a book that has damming evidence (like we needed it) that Barry Bonds was on the juice than the slugger came out and denied...
21 February 2006What a Dick or Button on Skating
I'm not a huge fan of figure skating, but I'm getting a huge kick out of listening to the commentary of Dick Button. Dude is just brutal. He's the Bill Walton of the ice rink - got almost nothing nice...
11 February 2006The Olympics Are Here!
It's funny how the Olympics snuck up me. I was right about to blame NBC for not promoting the games enough then I realized that I have no reason to watch network television... ever....
05 February 2006Super Bowl Steeler Sunday
Super Bowl is here again. I'm going to Brennan's in Berkeley to watch the game which I expect to be great -storied franchise against first time upstart. Not that my predictions are worth shit, but I think it's going to...
05 January 2006USC-Texas, The Greatest Game Ever?
I haven't written much about College Football this year (or this past year) even though I watched more games than usual. I had to planned to write more, but like with so many things, I just let it slide. But...
16 November 2005The Aussies Are In!
Congrats to the Socceroos who have finally made it to the World Cup after all these years. They beat Uruguay on penalty kicks after the home and home series was tied 1-1. Uruguay, you say? Why is Australia playing...
12 September 2005Road Bump For the Aging Aussies
It's been a rough couple of days in sports for me and I'm getting razzed from my friends on all sides. It was bad enough when the Rams (yes, I still love the Rams even though that bitch Georgia Frontiere...
24 July 20057 x 7
It's all over in Paris. Armstrong has won his 7th straight Tour de France. An amazing sporting feat which won't be equaled, well, for at least another 7 years and probably much longer than that. Armstrong now cycles into the...
18 July 2005Rest Day
After 16 days including two grueling mountain 2 stages in the Pyrenees over the weekend, the Tour de France is taking a rest day and not a moment too soon, for me. I'm exhausted. I've been waking up every day...
17 July 2005Hitting the Courts
I played tennis for the first time in years this afternoon. I fished my racket out of the mothballs and knocked a few around on the courts in Alameda with my buddy Anita. I was seriously rusty, as you'd expect,...
17 July 2005Awesome Americans
Not only did Tiger breeze to his 10th major championship in winning the The British Open. Not only did George Hinapie win the hardest stage of this year's Tour de France (his first TdF stage win ever). But Lance Armstrong...
17 July 200538 Seconds
38 seconds. That's all. That's the entirety of Lance Armstrong's lead ahead of Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen in the Tour de France. But what does that mean? Exactly how big of a lead is that? Let's go to the slide...
17 July 2005Attack in the Pyrenees
Today is a huge day for American sports Fans. Tiger is about to tee off in the British Open, which he's almost certain to win, the Yankees are playing the Sox in Fenway, and Lance has the lead the TdF...
14 July 2005Armstrong Under Attack?
Armstrong has the lead as the Tour moves out of the high Alps into the rolling hills, which is a good sign. But today's stage spells trouble to me. I'm going to guess that Michael Rasmussen, the man in the...
12 July 2005Total Carnage
Armstrong just blew away the field on the Courchevel, finished second in the stage , just outsprinted at the line by Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde, way ahead of his main rivals who are still back on the road. Voigt in...
12 July 2005Tour Reaching its Climax
The Tour de France is reaching a climax today as riders pound their way (right now) up the Courchevel. There's a small breakaway with most of the top contenders a little more than 3 minutes back. Team Discovery is putting...
05 July 2005Lance in Yellow
It didn't take long. Four days into the the Tour de France and Lance Armstrong has the lead and the yellow jersey that goes with it. What an great day. The 4th stage was the notorious team time trial, where...
02 July 2005The Tour The Tour The Tour
It's the best time of year. Summer is here. The Tour is here. And OLN is covering the Tour live. And I have OLN. Could it get any better than that? After the opening prologue, there's an American in the...
17 May 2005Let's Go Red Sox
I went to the A's game last night but it was really more like going to the Sox game. I took the BART to game and more than half of the riders were wearing Sox hats sweaters or t-shirts. I...
03 May 2005Go Chelsea!
I want to give a shoutout to my long suffering friend and ardent Chelsea supporter, John B. Chelsea finally won the English title, now called the Premiership and after a 50 year drought can now proudly claim to be the...
28 April 2005The Mighty Have Fallen
The poor, poor, sad-ass Dodgers, once possessors of the best record in baseball have lost 6 of 7 games including being swept in the last three by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Over that span their run production has fallen in half,...
20 April 2005So Long, Chief
One of the great ones bowed out tonight. Reggie Miller played his last regular season game for the Indiana Pacers after 18 stellar Hall of Fame seasons. Reggie was one of the greatest clutch shooter the games ever saw and...
20 April 2005Team of Destiny?
With the caveat that it's still April and the season is barely underway, I have to wonder what is going on with this Dodger team and where they are headed. Let's look at the record. After tonight's come from behind...
18 April 2005Don't Look Now
I know that no one who comes to this site cares one wit about the Los Angeles Dodgers, and that's fine, but I care, and for a good reason, so I'm going to write about them. If you have a...
15 April 2005Surprise, Surprise
Ok, I know it's early, but the Dodgers are kicking ass. In fact, they have the best record in the National League, not bad for a sutured Frankenstein of team. They are 6-2. They are not going to win 75%...
06 April 2005Going to the Game
I'm heading across the bay tonight to catch the Dodgers/Giants game. I haven't been to the ballpark in years and I'm really looking forward to it. Kristen, one of my housemates in the Tahoe house, who's dad is Dave Wallace,...
04 April 2005The Best Game Ever?
Maybe not, but it's a damn good game. There's 2:32 to go. Illinios just tied North Carolina for the second time after being down 15 early in the second half. If Illinois pulls it will be the biggest choke/best comeback...
04 April 2005Play Ball!
It's a great time of year to be a sports fan in America. The NCAA finals are tonight. The two top teams in the land, Illinois and North Carolina are going to face off in what should be an epic...
06 February 2005The Super Bowl is Here
Super Bowl XXXIX just started a few minutes ago. I'm watching it up at the house with about 8 other die hards who've stuck around. I don't really care who wins. I'd be surprised if New England didn't win, but...
09 January 2005Past the First Hurdle
It was always pretty, but the Rams managed, for the third time this season, to beat the Seahawks and move on in the NFL Playoffs. They are now the only team in NFL history to get into the playoffs without...
03 January 2005The Rams Are In!
The Rams may have been in St. Louis for ten years now, but they will always be the Los Angeles Rams of my youth. The team that went to Super Bowl XIV in 1980 led by Pat Haden, Wendell Tyler,...
05 December 2004More BCS BS
Anyone who follows college football even in the slightest should be aware of the fiasco that is the BCS or Bowl Championship Series. The idea behind the "series" was noble, to put an end to these competing polls that so...
01 November 2004She Wins!
I saw something yesterday that I was amazing. I was assigned to shoot the Silicon Valley Marathon at the half way point on the track at Los Gatos High School. There was also a half-marathon as part of this event,...
19 October 2004Bonds Ball
How much would you pay for a Costa Rican-made piece of rawhide and thread?...
18 October 2004100 Years of Ineptitude
It's hard to watch Red Sox games these days. It really is. I want them to win as badly as any non-Sox fan, but it's tough to sit through a game against the Yanks, especially one at Fenway, and see...
05 October 2004One Good Weekend
It was really more than good for Dodger and Angel fans. It was amazing. Not only did both teams clinch division titles together in the same year for the first time, but in the process they closed the curtain on...
26 August 2004Women Rule
The USA Women's soccer team keeps rolling on with a 2-1 overtime in the gold medal match against a younger, faster Brazil team. It was rough game. Tons of fouls and tightly contested on both sides. Brazil had more chances,...
26 August 2004Hatikvah!
The sailing venue at Athens rang with the sounds of the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah, for the first time in Olympic history as Gal Fridman took home the gold in the Mistral class. It's a landmark achievment for Israel, their...
25 August 2004I Want My Velodrome
Velodrome is cycling is always one of the most exciting events at the Olympics. Unless you live in Trexlertown, PA, it's also one of the events that you're not likely to see but once every four years. I don't think...
24 August 2004Who's Got the World Record?
NBC did such a good job announcing the Athens swim meet that I wonder how they could have so bungled the track and field. It's a simple thing really. These events are not happening in a vacuum. This event, these...
24 August 2004Gymnastics is a Wrap
Gymnastics is finally over and it's time to reflect on the coverage and the performances. I have three main thoughts about this. 1) NBC really needs to rethink their commentary team. Team Trautwig is not getting the job done and...
21 August 2004Adios Swimming, See You in Four
Tonight is the last night for swimming at the 2004 games. The meet has been great to watch. Not too many world records were set because of the Athens' heat, but competition was as hot as the weather. As far...
21 August 2004Hot Chile
I started off not wanting to watch tennis because this just seems like another stop on the tour. You can watch tennis almost anything weekend and there seems to be nothing Olympic about it at all. Then Chileans Fernando Gonzalez...
20 August 2004And a 8.9 From the American Judge!
Does anybody else think that NBC's gymnastics coverage sucks? This is one of the marquee events of the games and NBC is blowing it and this is why: 1) There were 32 competitors in the all-around completion for both men...
20 August 2004What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is Going On Here?
The story of Iranian world champion judoka Arash Miresmaeili has been bothering me immensely since it broke at the beginning of these games. What's bothering me is not that this guy, the world champion by the way, disqualified himself by...
20 August 2004Hello, Dr. Detroit
Is there anything weirder than race-walking? How did this become an Olympic event let alone a sport?...
19 August 2004Shotput in Olympia
Despite skepticism from the rest of the world, the organizers of the Athens games have done so many things right, and nothing exemplifies this more than holding the shot put at Olympia. I don't know who thought of it, but...
17 August 2004It's On!
Ok, after weeks of waiting, the main event of the WSOP is finally here, tonight on ESPN at 6 PM PST. No excuse now for anyone not to watch, unless they are glued to the Olympics. I'll be switching back...
16 August 2004They Held the Olympics and Nobody Showed Up
I've been watching the Olympics for three days now and there's the awful trend that is really sad for the organizers of the games in Athens. After an Opening Ceremonies where the stadium was packed full of enthusiasts, athletes have...
16 August 2004Avoiding the News
I understand why NBC tape delays most events at the Olympics and shows them during primetime. It's because they care more about ratings that the quality of their programming. What I don't understand is why they can't show events live...
16 August 2004The Real Dream Team
You want to see the real "Dream Team". Forget Men's Hoops. Look no further than USA Women's Softball, arguably the most dominant team of any sort on the planet. Before Athens, the team had a 53 game barnstorming tour of...
15 August 2004Controversy in the Pool
So the USA lost the Men's 4x100 Freestyle relay for the second games in succession after dominating the event, never having lost the event in the previous history of the Olympics. In Sydney, we lost to the Aussies led by...
15 August 2004The Team That Couldn't Shoot Straight
I, like everyone else, watched the horror show that was the USA's Hoops opening Olympic disaster against Puerto Rico. I had seen most of the games in the pre-Olympic tour, including the 17 point shellacking at the hands of Italy,...
13 August 2004Katie Couric is Horrible
I don't watch the Today, so I'm not subject to the mystical power that Katie Couric seems to exude over the American public, but watching (and listening) to her in action during the Olympic Opening Ceremonies was excruciating. Even Bob...
12 August 2004One Day in September
The 1972 Munich Olympics were supposed to be the Olympics of Peace, a showcase for the new democratic Germany. But celebration turned to tragedy as Palestinian terrorists infiltrated the Olympic village and took Israeli athletes hostage. On the even on...
10 August 2004Olympic Fever
Have you got it? I do. Big time. The games don't officially open until Friday, but there are prelim Women's soccer matches starting tomorrow with Greece vs. USA getting things underway. NBC is covering the games like never before...
25 July 2004Go Lance Go
I went down to the Stadium Pub down the street to watch two of the final stages of this year’s Tour de France. I don’t know why I didn’t do it earlier, but I didn’t. I don’t have OLN,...
05 July 2004When's That Tour de France Thing Anyway?
Well, it's on now. It's in full swing with the Prologue and 2 Stages down. Lance Armstrong is in great position in the top 3 and has a fantastic chance to become the first 6 time winner of the TdF....
24 April 2004Play Ball
Did baseball sort of sneak up on you this season? It did me. I guess it's easy not to pay attention when in you're in the middle of fucking nowhere and it's snowing outside. It's not exactly baseball weather here....
01 February 2004Watching the Super Bowl? Not Me
So, this is not most exciting Super Bowl matchup ever, but I'd still like to watch the game. It is, after all, America's great sporting event. All the other major sports have playoff series which can be long and drawn...
10 January 2004Prediction Time
The NFL season is down to nail biting time for concerned fans. 8 teams left. 2 wins to the Super Bowl in Houston. Very exciting. The a couple of great things about this playoffs. The first is that any of...
03 November 2003Those Running Indian Octogenarians
I had wanted to go and watch the end of the preofessional New York Marathon but I couldn't because I was so exhausted from the night before, even though the finish line was just down the street from Josh's apartment....
20 October 2003Are You Ready For Some Football?
Tonight's MNF game between the Chiefs and the Raiders is a classic lesson in why you should never stop watching an NFL game at halftime, no matter how horrible the first half is. The first half was about as dull...
18 October 2003Bring On the Fall Classic
Caly Aiken, the "American Idol", is singing the national anthem and the World Series is about to get underway, which is always an exciting prospect. As much as I and almost everyone else in the country (including FOX) would have...
15 October 2003Dead Man
There are so many questions swirling around Chicago after last night's collapse against the Florida Marlins. Did this fan reach into to the field of play to interfere with Moises Alou? Did it change the result of the game? Is...
27 July 2003Lance wins Fifth!
He wasn't at the top of his game. He was sick. He crashed several times. He had tremendous cyclists breathing down his neck all the way to Paris. Yet Lance Armstrong pervailed to win the Tour. Again. He joins...
21 July 2003Armstrong in Dogfight
Lance Armstrong still maintains the lead in the Tour de France, but only a scant 15 seconds ahead of close rival Jan Ullrich, who, I think, is the only other rider in this year's field to have won the...
17 July 2003Samoa Beats USA?
Yes, Samoa actually beat the USA 52-45. Ok, so it was in Netball, a sport you probably didn't even know existed. Even if you were aware of Netball, it's unlikely that you knew that the 11th Netball World Championships...
15 July 2003New peril for Armstrong
The French penchant for protest has reached new heights. Crazy supporters of radical farmer Jose Bove ran into the road and blocked Tour de France cyclists near Pourrieres. Armstrong was caught behind the pickets. Certainly this is not the...
13 July 2003Reloading with Blanks?
I'd love to think that these moves that the Lakers are making or are rumored to be making are going to work. But I doubt it highly. If nothing else, Karl Malone, deserves a championship. I've been a huge...
08 July 2003It's a World Record!!
If you had any doubt about the strength and power of Samoans, you only have to look over to Fiji where the 2003 South Pacific Games are taking place. Powerlifter George Leafiifano has set a WORLD RECORD in the...
03 July 2003Drive for Five
It's July again so it's time for one of the world's greatest sporting events, the Tour de France. This year is notable for a few reasons. It's the hundredth anniversary of he first Tour in 1903. It's alos the a...
07 April 2003April Madness
You have to feel a little sorry for Roy Williams. They guy has had a bad run of it. And you really want him to win. He's such a classy guy. He graduates his players. He stayed at Kansas even...