Sweet Dwight, nicely put. I love this edition of the United States Men’s Olympic Basketball Team. I am a huge fan of so many of the players on this team, obviously Dwight Howard, but D-Wade, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer and I have even warmed to Lebron and Kobe, two guys that I am generally lukewarm towards.
The fact is we (when discussing the Olympics, one can actually use the article “we” to describe compatriot athletes”) absolutely dismantling teams, we are playing hard on offense and defense, having fun and reminding the world that even with the improved competition internationally, America at its best is unbeatable at basketball.
Vacations are definitely not ok in the blog world, when blog readers expect new posts every 3.2 hours. Alas, The Bocker made another blog faux pas, spending most of the past month at live music festivals, baseball games, bars and lastly at work (work sucks!). Radiohead was awesome though.
Growing up in Westchester (White Plains to be exact), local sports fans learned quickly that when it came to Boys High School Basketball, there was Mount Vernon and there was everyone else. This week, Mount Vernon Basketball again stood alone in Westchester, though it was not to celebrate a Section Championship or announce college scholarships for a graduating senior, but to begin a fundraising drive to save Mount Vernon High School Sports.
The citizens of Mount Vernon, generally poor and unsatisfied with poor performing public middle and high schools, voted against the proposed budget for the upcoming school year. Since schools have only legal obligations to teach subjects like Math, English and Science, areas like the arts and extracurricular sports were the areas that could be cut most drastically. Thus, Mount Vernon Athletics, including its vaunted basketball program, are without funding for the 2008-09 school year and need to privately raise $950,000 to make school sports a reality. Here is a news story about the issue. (more…)
If some viewers of ESPN’s coverage of Euro 2008 had not yet figured out that ESPN was producing coverage entirely from Bristol, Connecticut without even game commentators live in Switzerland or Austria, today’s tournament semifinal between Germany and Turkey clearly clued all watchers in to this fact.
Up until the beginning of the 7th inning, Dan Giese was pitching probably the best start by a Yankees pitcher all season. He had not given up a run and was able to get through 6 innings on a thrifty 62 pitches (compared to 100 even for Joba Chamberlain in 5 and 2/3 on Thursday).
Then in the top 7th, Dan Giese showed his inexperience as a likely double play he botched and a terrible 0-2 pitch with 2 outs both combined to doom the Yankees in their 6-0 loss to the Reds. Before I really begin to pick apart Giese’s 7th, let me first credit the Cincinnati Reds with a great combined pitching performance from 22-year old Daryl Thompson and the bullpen and also cast some blame on the Yankee offense for not being shutout.
Back to the Reds half of the 7th. After Giese allowed Ken Griffey Jr. to get on base with a leadoff single, Giese managed to get Brandon Phillips to hit a tailored made double play ball back to him. The sure double play was quickly reduced into 1st and 2nd, after Giese’s bad throw to Robinson Cano off of 2nd base. Everyone was safe.
Next up, Joey Votto grounded out to Alex Rodriguez, but on this play, A-Rod should have been able to get Griffey Jr. out by making sure he actually tagged him as opposed to just waving his glove hand towards Griffey before throwing on to first base. This play resulted in 2nd and 3rd with one out.
Giese got the second out by striking out Adam Dunn, but followed that at bat with a costly pitching error. After jumping ahead of Edwin Encarnacion, 0-2, Giese through a pitch right over the plate that Encarnacion crushed for a two-run single. Ahead in the count, Giese should not have thrown that pitch near the plate. I hate when pitchers do this, because there is no reason to through a hittable pitch with such a great advantage in the count. Try and see if the batter will get himself out rather than giving him a chance to hit a decent pitch.
Dan Giese gave the Yankees 6 innings of brilliant baseball, even as the Bombers gave him no support offensively. The worry though is that his breakdown in the 7th is what Giese takes away from this start and the successes he had through the first 6 innings were lost.
The much criticized transition from reliever to starter for Joba Chamberlain is going quite smoothly, making it seem as though the Yanks loss of Chien-Mien Wang will be manageable for the team. Joba finally hit 100 pitches in his start versus the San Diego Padres today, getting through 5 and 2/3 innings while striking out 9 and allowing just 1 run. While Chamberlain did not get a decision, the Yankees did manage to win the game, 2-1, the team’s 7th straight win.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Fantasy Sports sites, such as Yahoo Fantasy and CBSSportsline, can continue to use Major League Baseball player names and statistics in their fantasy leagues, as this use is protected by Free Speech rights (LA Times Article here). Major League Baseball has brought a suit against these sites, seeking a the right to charge fantasy sites a premium to use players names and stats in their fantasy leagues.
The court’s ruling is definitely the correct one, both in terms of the legal issues at hand and for the well being of baseball. (more…)
True to their word, The Hood Internet released their latest mixtape on Tuesday, The Hood Internet vs Chicago. True to the album’s name, The Hood only samples from Chicago-based artists on this release, taking bits and pieces from big acts like Wilco, Kanye West, and Liz Phair in addition to small acts like Yea Big, Kid Sister and Juice. Its a hit, without a doubt. If you have some Chicago pride to rep, download this. If you like mashup mixtapes, download this. If you don’t like yourself very much right now, download this. Fyi, follow the link above to download this. Lupe is there too.
Oscar Award-winning director Sydney Pollack died of cancer on Monday, at the age of 73.
While he is obviously most known for his directing efforts (Out of Africa, Jeremiah Johnson, Three Days of the Condor), Pollack was an underrated actor, who I always found entertaining and funny. Always nailed the role of the Jewish New Yorker to a tee, especially with the deadpan humor. Below is a video from one of his more funny acting sequences, from Tootsie. I really wanted to post a video of his great acting performance from my favorite movie from ‘07, Michael Clayton, but I could not find the specific scene I wanted.
On Friday, New York Governor David Paterson granted a full and unconditional pardon for Ricky “Slick Rick” Walters, which will allow the rap pioneer to avoid deportation back to his native United Kingdom.
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