- 03:58 AM
- 05/18/08
| Name: | John McClure |
|---|---|
| Homepage URL: | http://www.ultimateolympian.blogspot.com |
| Location: | UK |
| Member since: | October 15, 2003 |
| Last visit: | May 17, 2008 |
JJ has posted 114 links and 1362 comments to SportsFilter and 13 threads and 142 comments to the Locker Room and has written 4 columns.
Cardiff's FA Cup Run... in Lego. A dedicated fan has reenacted Cardiff City's journey to today's FA Cup Final in Lego. With some very odd music in places. [part one, part two]
posted on May 17, 2008 - Go to the detail view for this result
Jack talks to Golf Digest - that's Nicholson, not Nicklaus - "You don't understand golf. I can play this game as well as Tiger ... for a very short time. There's one shot a hole between me and the best golfers in the world..." [printable version]
posted on Dec 10, 2007 - Go to the detail view for this result
Top 50 Sporting Injuries - a list from the Times.
posted on Oct 17, 2007 - Go to the detail view for this result
Sport is killing the planet and Gary Player hates monks. Or so George Monbiot would have us believe.
posted on Oct 16, 2007 - Go to the detail view for this result
England beat France and South Africa beat Argentina, lining up a final in the Rugby World Cup between two teams who met in the pool stages a month ago. South Africa won that game 36-0 and England looked like they might be lucky to escape their group, but somehow, everything has changed. Maybe it's the broccoli Martin Corry eats for breakfast, or maybe rugby is a game that values will over skill. They have struggled with the title of World Champions, but could England do the unthinkable and become the first team to ever retain the RWC on Saturday night? The bookies think not, but England have already proved them wrong twice.
posted on Oct 15, 2007 - Go to the detail view for this result
Pistorius makes strides is his quest to compete in Beijing. The double-amputee won his appeal against the IOC in his hearing with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (previous SpoFi discussion on this topic here and here; note Amateur's graphic that suggests how far Oscar still has to go in competition).
posted to Olympics at 8:56 AM CDT
Henin retires. Number 1 ranked Justine Henin has announced her immediate retirement from professional tennis.
posted to Tennis at 10:30 AM CDT
My first thought was "pregnant" when I heard how abruptly she'd retired.
She had a good career, but she never captured my imagination, heart or even interest really. Not even enough to dislike her.
Not, I'm sure, that she could give a whistling shit what I think.
posted at 7:00 AM CDT on May 15
more about vanity than dignity
A good point. It's not like boxing where you risk permanent brain dammage if you stay in the game too long. Even in decline, she'd still have been better than plenty of others out there for a long time and might have won more.
Or maybe I just envy her self-knowledge. If there is no non-tennis reason for the decision, it's as ruthless and effective as her backhand became.
It's a whole other debate - is it better to exit at the top, or allow yourself to decline slowly, possibly picking up the odd major here and there on your way out?
posted at 8:37 AM CDT on May 15
Relax! Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James now has mom as an enforcer Why was anyone ever worried about the hard fouls issued to LeBron James? Cleveland fans don't have to worry about James as long as his mom is in the house.
posted to Basketball at 5:54 AM CDT
but I haven't heard about her pulling this stuff
So it doesn't exist...?
I saw my first ever game of basketball last November at the Q. Celtics took an early lead, LeBron pegged them back, then mauled them in overtime. What seemed to be more important though was that I ate a lot of fried food.
posted at 9:43 AM CDT on May 13
My old man could take his old man ANY day.
And his Celtics.
Roughly.
From behind.
Are you calling my ma fat?
posted at 9:45 AM CDT on May 14
There was the British lightheavyweight fight when Tony Wilson's mum climbed into the ring holding one of her shoes and started battering the other fella with it because he was destroying her son.
Annoyingly, I can't find a clip.
Speaking of the Celtics - come on Rangers! (in tonight's UEFA Cup final).
posted at 11:13 AM CDT on May 14
Wigan coach and former Man U captain Bruce vows 100% effort against former boss Ferguson. The final games in the EPL will be played this Sunday. Chelsea and Man U are tied on points at the top of the league, with Man U holding a 17-goal advantage over Chelsea on goal difference. However, if Chelsea win, and Man U have anything less than a win against Wigan (who won the former League and European Cup honors with Man U), it will be the Blues taking the championship away from the current holders. All this, ahead of a Champions League final between Chelsea and Man U. It's all Man U's to lose. And it's happened before, exactly 40 years ago.
posted to Soccer at 2:18 PM CDT
Just before Chelsea played Everton, a friend pointed out that the price of 10/1 being offered on them to nick the title from United seemed a bit premature. I agreed and took them for £20. As a Liverpool fan, I despise them both, but just for today "Come on, Chelsea!"
posted at 6:01 AM CDT on May 11
Arse.
posted at 6:37 AM CDT on May 12
Chelsea beat Liverpool, set up final battles with Man Utd for Premier League and Champions League Chelsea broke their Liverpool and Champions League jinx with a 3-2 (4-3 aggregate) win to move into the final against Premier League leaders Manchester United. Has this ever happened before, where the same top two domestic teams (they are tied on points but United has far superior goal difference with two matches to go) are also in the Champions League final?
posted to Soccer at 4:25 PM CDT
They have special commentators for players of colour?
posted at 5:06 PM CDT on April 30
I hope you're not serious.
Tried it once, but it didn't suit me.
Well done to Chelsea. The better team won on the night, and there's a soft old part of me that was pleased for Frank Lampard to score. A touching moment when he blew a kiss to his old man.
I was offered a ticket, but didn't go as I'd have been in with the Chelsea bucketheads and suspected I wouldn't have been able to control my glee if and when Liverpool scored. As it was, I got so excited when Torres equalised that I nearly got in a fight with a Chelsea fan in the pub in Oxford, so I don't think I would have got out of Stamford Bridge alive had I been there instead.
posted at 7:43 PM CDT on April 30
Transvestite hooker tries to extort money from Ronaldo (the original) in Rio Ronaldo buys three hookers and gets unexpected packages.
posted to Soccer at 1:16 PM CDT
He/she's a looker though, eh?
Actually, probably not a bad catch for a man who could eat an apple through a tennis racket.
posted at 7:57 AM CDT on April 30
"This fella, Ronaldo, he's a cod" RTE's TV pundits show they really don't like Cristiano Ronaldo (via). Why does he seem to polarise opinion in a way that other players don't?
posted to Soccer at 3:44 AM CDT
Two outstanding things from the two semi-finals: Drogba and Ronaldo, both hailed as wonderful players, both set up and examples to youngsters of how to play the game, but both, to my eyes, cheats. They go down easily, despite both being built like tanks. They "draw the foul" (that needs to stop being described as an asset) and when it comes down to the muck and bullets of just getting on with it, they both go missing and then shrug at their team-mates as though it's everyone else's fault.
As Fence points out, to agree with Dunphy is something no reasonable Irishman would ever aspire to, but to give him his due on this occasion, he's spot on.
As a side note, despite being a Liverpool fan, I'm starting to want to lump Stevie G into that same bracket of players who tend to go missing in the big games.
posted at 4:54 AM CDT on April 25
I lost count in the CL game the other night of the number of times he (Drogba) "won" a free kick by backing into players and then falling down like he'd been kicked in the stones. He also feigns injury, which I think should be as frowned upon as diving. He went down under a challenge the other night subsequently shown in the replay to have been completely innocuous, and he remained down, writhing around as though he'd been shot in the testicles. He was stretchered off looking like he might never walk, let alone play, again, but within five minutes he was back on the pitch running at full speed.
Whoever those Chelsea doctors are, we need to get them transferred to somewhere where lots of people are clinging to life by as narrow a thread as Drogba seemed to be the other night. They could clear up the world's problems in a reasonably productive afternoon!
The other thing that's irksome about Ronaldo is... well, everything.
posted at 7:52 AM CDT on April 25
That's exactly the point as I see it, chico. The reason there has been no issue in the past with things like improvements in shoe design or outfit design is that those improvements have (in theory) been available to everyone and it's been a matter for the athlete to chose which shoe to wear, or which manufacturer to align himself with.
If Oscar can strap these blades to his legs, then so can anyone else. I want to watch a running race, I don't want to watch a pogo competition with a seven foot Jeremy Wariner winning the 400 in 35 seconds.
The introduction of race to this discussion is the reddest herring I've ever seen.
As Aardhart pointed out, OP wasn't excluded, the blades were. Or was your point that the blades were black?
It's not about "let him run". If you're wanting to campaign, it's about "let him use the blades".
If you let him use the blades, then everyone else should be allowed to use them too. I suppose we'll never know, but I wonder how the CAS would have ruled (or if they'd even have been involved) if the athlete wanting to use the blades had been able-bodied.
My feeling is that if Jeremy Wariner had turned up and said "I want to wear these things on my feet that make me a foot and a half taller than I really am and increase my stride length by about a yard, that OK with everyone?" it wouldn't even have made it to court in the first place.
Oscar should no more be running in the Olympics than Dudley Moore should have been cast as Tarzan.