I was watching a soccer game the other day and explaining to my son that America IS the only country that doesn’t call it football.  At the same time I was wondering if the players have favorite balls (I did when I played volleyball) and if so, just how they manager to keep all the balls straight.  Do they have personalized soccer balls or something?  It’s not like I was going to go run on the field and stop play demanding that they answer the question, but the urge to know was strong enough for me to ask the question here.

One of the coolest jobs I can think of is the guy who goes diving in the water hazards at gold courses and gets the balls out of there and then sells them. Golf balls can cost a chunk of change if you play golf regularly and aren’t good – about the way it would go for me – and buying used golf balls would be a way to save money until you get better at the sport. Of course the guy retrieving the balls makes money on it – but that’s the American way.

It’s that time again when an incredible display of… well, something… is made for the whole world to see. The Olympic opening ceremony has exploded into an all-out multimedia spectacle. The parade of nations at least has a kind of purpose where all of the athletes walk through the arena and are introduced to the world. But I’ve never understood the spectacle of a half-time show extended to hours (and hours). Thankfully, it’s only once every two years.

The world is empty and full of pain and misery. That’s right, in just about 24 hours, I had to witness both the Cardinals and the Cowboys crash and burn in a brilliant explosion of mediocrity that, like the sun, was painful to look at. My only hope is that Favre is at the losing end of a monumental shellacking and that he finally just goes away.

Another week and another bad outing for the poor cowboys. With repeated failed attempts to capitalize on big drives throughout the game, and failed opportunities to stop the opponent, the Cowboys have lost their spot at the top of the division. Sad to say that the above description can fit into almost any loss by America’s team.

Even though this isn’t quite like the Cardinals of years past in losing every game in this manner, today’s lose was tough to take. After pinning the Titans at the 1-yard line. The Cardinals could not get a stop and let the Titans march all the way down the field, convert two fourth down plays, and score on the last play of the game to win.

Hope Warner’s ready to go next week.

Leinert loses the college championship again, virtually the same way.

Heard today on the radio that the NBA has broken off discussions with their referee union in the course of new contract discussions. The NBA plans to begin training replacement refs over the next few weeks in preparation for the upcoming season.

This whole episode has started me thinking on why I watch less professional basketball now than I have in over 20 years. My next thought was that I don’t watch the NBA anymore because of the refs. It’s a fact that the refs in the NBA have more influence over the outcome of the game than the refs of any other sport. (Except maybe gymnastics.) Having seen the NBA zebras repeatedly affect games either by making a borderline call or by not making an obvious call, it seems pointless to watch anymore. The effort of the players seems to matter less and less each year.

Maybe the new refs will make a difference, but I still don’t think that I’ll be watching any NBA games anytime soon. And that’s kind of sad.

Get a new commish and clean up the refs!

News hit the world today that Danny Ainge had a mild heart attack earlier today. I’ll always have a special place for Danny Ainge in my sports heart because he was a part of the early-90′s Phoenix Suns that have a really special place in my sports heart.

So, get well soon, Danny. Good luck with the Celtics, and hopefully the Suns can meet you in the Finals next year. (Don’t worry, I won’t hold my breath.)

That’s right. Watch out for that screaming-sally of a serve coming right over the top at ya. Sacrifice the body and stick it right in the path of that 9-inch sphere of doom.

Smack!

Owwwwww!

City-league volleyball ain’t what it used to be, folks. Lake Havasu has the big guns come out for their Parks and Recreation league. Less emphasis on the ‘recreation’ and more on the ‘park your sorry butt on the floor if you get in the way of my epic serve’.

Can’t wait for next week. We’ll have fun. Hope my arms heal by then.

Saturday was the big day.  That’s right, my son was in the Pinewood Derby.  He started out strong, winning his first 2 heats but then things went downhill (full on pun intended).  Apparently the suspense was too much for my youngest and I had to take her for a VERY long walk.  By the time we got back, it was pretty much over with the boy taking 4th place and advancing to District on April 19th.

I’ll let you know how that goes.

I think golfing may be the most technical sport out there. You’ve got your scientifically engineered golf clubs and your aerodynamic golf balls with a specific number of dimples. You’ve got the perfect swing as determined by a computer watching you through the lens of a high speed camera able to catch even the slightest quiver of the club during the swing. You’ve got your tees and your cleats and your gloves.

Tell me, in basketball do they film your layup, zoom in on your shooting hand and graph the tomography of your follow through? I think not.

They may care how many stitches are on a baseball, but they don’t check to see if the line created by the stitch is just the right parabola.

And football is obviously not very scientific – get ball, put ball in end zone, hit people on way to end zone, dance.

Everybody has heard about the incident on the ice Sunday. Zednik had his carotid artery cut upon in a freak accident. Actually, it was the second of its kind – an almost repeat of a 1989 incident when another player’s carotid was cut by an ice skate.

Apparently, this heart stopping story wasn’t enough for someone in the media. The author of one article I read on the matter said that this was just “inches from his jugular”. Very true but then anything in your neck is just inches from your jugular. It seems like the story would have been good enough for even the most jaded and bloodthirsty among us, there was no need to add the histrionics of saying it was “inches from his jugular”. It was just “inches” from his brain and heart as well.

This is something that you can add to a boring, less heart stopping story like, “He had a sore throat. The throat is just inches from the jugular.” This story just didn’t need it.

Ever since the Suns lost the coin flip all those years ago, they have never had a true, top-quality center. They’ve also never won the championship.

Hopefully the addition of the Diesel, the Suns can climb the mountain that they’ve been so close to for the past couple of years.

It’s a long shot for sure, but you can’t expect different results unless you change what you’re doing.

Sir Charles couldn’t do it, and this is by far the biggest name that we’ve had since the Round Mound was here. Hopefully Shaq brings more than his name.

The superest bowl of them all is about ready to begin and I’m at least reasonable hopeful.

I have this tendency to cheer for the underdog and then get upset when they lose. Even when I cheer for the favorite, they somehow end up losing. (Just look at the Cowboys in the playoffs the past couple of years.)

So I’m hoping that the Giants can pull off the upset to end all upsets this year and put the stinkin’ Patriots in the losing column for once this year.

I wouldn’t bet on the Giants, but let’s hope all goes well.