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At the Intersection of Sports and Culture

Photo Credit for Header: Alex Foucre-Stimes

Al Czervik and the Players Championship

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Believe me, I’ve faked my fair share of injuries. Every summer, right around the time my wife and extended family are ready to take the boat out for a little water skiing, I develop a severe case of left knee “tendinitis” when  all I’m really trying to do is get out of an embarrassing situation.*

*For the record, I’m the world’s worst water skier. There is nothing in this world more aggravating, humbling than failing to get out of the water over and over and over again while your family rides along in the boat wondering how long they have to sit there before politely telling you to give up. Brings back scarring memories of my grandfather forcing me into the water and not letting me back on shore until I demonstrated some progress. I still have the facial ticks to prove it.

For the record, unlike many golf fans out there I do not believe Tiger Woods is faking his latest knee/achilles injury a la Al Czervik? I do however now question weather he’s going to be able to return to his pre Thanksgiving Day ’09 form. For now, I’ll just hope he can return to health by the US Open at Congressional. Makes things more interesting that way.

view from TPC Sawgrass courtesy of @TanLineClothing

Lil Jon Wants Miami to Fan Up

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All hail the wonderful world of twitter!!! Only there can we experience game 5 of Heat/Celtics through the eyes of Crunk Rock impresario Lil Jon.* My only question for Mr. Jon, as part of the “fan up” initiative in Miami, did an American Airlines Arena staffer force you to wear white or was it a personal choice? Either way, the same color t shirt gimmick has officially been played out. I can deal with the white “noise” at Heat games but the light blue/aqua in Oklahoma City is enough to burn a massive hole in my retina.

*Yes dad, believe it or not, crunk rock is an actual musical genre. At least that’s what Wikipedia told me.

Perhaps the best news for the finely aged Boston Celtics, and the worst for Lebron and his amazing 4th quarter performance, is that now the “Tiger Woods withdrawing after 9 holes at the Players Championship” story will dominate national headlines until the magnitude of his latest apparent injury is revealed. At this point, how many of us still believe Tiger will ever regain the form to challenge Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors?

view from American Airlines Arena courtesy of @LilJon

While You Were Sleeping

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What a big night for Maryland Terrapin basketball! First the university hires Mark Turgeon to replace Gary Williams and then Greivis Vasquez, he of recent Turtle fame, buries a three as time expires to send the Grizzlies into a second overtime against the Thunder. OKC would eventually outlast Memphis in 3 overtimes by a final score of 133-123 but by all accounts this was playoff basketball at its best.

Got to hand it to the Memphis crowd who braved the rising waters of the mighty Mississippi River to come out and support their Grizz. I made it as far as the 2nd quarter before falling off into dreamland.

Before you scold me for my lack of dedication to playoff basketball just understand that when you have a 3 month old, you take your sleep wherever you can find it. If it comes at the expense of Grizz/Thunder, so be it.

I’ll do my best to watch Game 5 on Wednesday, that is unless the game starts after 9pm and in that case all bets are off.

view from the FedEx Forum courtesy of @scottumsted

Monday Morning Musings

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There is this one house on my running route that has been uninhabited/up for sale for quite some time yet the owners/real estate agents haven’t canceled their New York Times subscription. Since the Times has recently gone pay for access, a copy of the Sunday edition has turned into a very valuable commodity. Consequently, I am left with a moral conundrum: to steal or not to steal a copy of the New York Times.

Understand that I haven’t stolen anything since I was 7 years old and I swiped a tootsie pop from my next door neighbor. At the time I was so guilt ridden that I returned the half eaten lollipop to my neighbors kitchen and vowed never to steal again. But isn’t a free copy of the Sunday Times too good to pass up? I wouldn’t even be contemplating this idea if I thought anyone was actually going to read these copies because as it stands now there are a weeks worth of papers stacked up in the abandoned driveway. For the sake of neighborhood resale values, and pretentious intellectuals worldwide, don’t I have a moral obligation to keep our streets clean?

A Quick Trip Around the Bases

1B – Do the Florida Marlins really figure that a new stadium, and name – Miami, will help resolve their attendance issues? As a Baltimore Orioles fan I am probably not the person to talk about empty seats in stadiums but it’s clear from the attached view that nobody is going to these Marlins games in Sun Life Stadium. Granted they were playing the Nationals but still, there must have been only 3K in attendance to see Anibal Sanchez carry a no-hitter into the 7th inning.

2B – Speaking of no-hitters, first Francisco Liriano on Tuesday and then Justin Verlander Saturday. For Verlander this was no no number 2 and many are now speculating that he has the stuff to potentially match Sandy Koufax for second place on the career no-hitter list with 4. (Nobody is going to catch up to Nolan Ryan’s astounding 7 no-hitters.)

3B – Derek Jeter busted out of his season long slump on Sunday going 4 for 6 with 2 HR’s in the Yankees 12-5 win over the Texas Rangers. It’s just one game but judging from New York sports talk radio this morning, all is forgiven between Jeter and the Yankees fans who for weeks were calling for manager Joe Girardi to either drop him down to 8 or 9 in the order or have him banished to the island of Elba. Now after yesterday’s performance, Jeter gets to stay in the leadoff spot for at least one more game and Mike Francesa has the creative license to talk exclusively about two things this afternoon: the Jeter “resurgence” and the incredibly uninspiring Kentucky Derby. If you want to talk about the Mets are anything else having to do with New York sports you can all but forget about it. Tunnel vision. 6 Diet Cokes deep and I say Mike is still going on about Uncle Mo and the owner who invented Vitamin Water.

HR – And while we’re on the subject of hitting streaks, Andre Either had his come to a smashing halt at 30 games this Saturday..by the Mets. The Mets may finish last in the NL East but at least they can say they ended the longest hitting streak of the season to date. Of course, this is probably not much solace for a franchise on the verge of trading their 2 most productive players, Reyes and Beltran, while rumors continue to circulate that the team is up for sale. It’s enough to tire out even the most ardent Mets supporters like say Keith Hernandez.

view from Sun Life Stadium courtesy of @Neuman85