Quite a busy few days looming ahead here. And it's all over the place, too.
Allow me to take a stroll through the next several days and check out what's going on. And yes, this post is as much for my organization and sanity as it is for entertainment. Whatevs.
Friday (today!)
OK, not a whole lot going on today. I'm mostly taking it easy after last night. That's the funny thing with age. It doesn't necessarily prevent you from going out and having as much as you used to, but it definitely takes an extra minute or two to get back to life again...haha.
But yeah, last night was a softball game followed by the customary trip to our bar afterward. The game started off rough. We were down TWO players at the start of the game. Illinois had to let us borrow someone to play catcher, and we were missing an outfielder, so there were plenty of gaps out there.
They ended up scoring 13 runs in the first two innings. Ridiculous! We outscored them something like 5-2 once our full team showed up, but lost 15-8 I think.
Anyway, we kicked some serious ass at flip-cup afterward. Indiana's team challenged us, and we immediately won the first seven rounds we played. I think the final tally was 9-3 or 10-3? Domination, son!
In other Friday news, my future wife Hope Solo will be the guest on PTI today, so I'm pretty pumped about that. And the big news tonight is the 90-minute series finale for Friday Night Lights.
A lot of people I talk to are so skeptical of FNL. "Oh that high school football show?" Well, yes. It has some high school football, but it's mostly about this coach and his family and the kids on his teams and their relationships and the unbelievable roller coaster of emotions small-town football puts them through.
Seriously, it has some of the best writing and acting I've ever, ever seen on a television show (aside from a particularly ridiculous story line in season 2). The majority of the shows five seasons have been as good as television should be and can be. I am simultaneously excited and depressed about tonight's finale.
I believe the show is on Netflix Instant at the moment, and it is so worth your time to check it out. I promise. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose. So good.
Saturday
Saturday I will go running. Because I most definitely did not go running today...haha. I didn't wake up with a hangover, but I felt it would be unwise to push my luck on that front.
I've got a LOT of shit to do around my apartment because it's about time to start preparations for a temporary move to Charlotte. I really hope it doesn't come to that, but what can you do? I will do what I do: roll with it and make the best of it.
And kind of an ongoing thing for the next week or so is I'm going to be one of two acting coaches for the softball team while our main coach is out of town. For the win!
But what that means is all I'm going to do is think about the team for the next week (which includes three games). It reminds of the time in grad school when Clark went out of town for the summer, and I served as the sports editor for Technician for the summer.
The paper only published once a week in the summers, but I LITERALLY thought of nothing else all day every day. Every single day it was, "oh god what stories will I run this week." "What stories can I write this week." "Who is around to write stories this week." I'm getting anxious just thinking about how anxious I was running the section for the summer. Ha.
I seriously could not imagine being the full-time sports editor during the semester when we published Monday through Friday.
Anyway. Judging by the weather forecast this weekend, I will be spending most of it outside. Great success.
Sunday
Big TV day on Sunday, I gotta say.
I'll probably hit up some church after walking Allie in the morning. But oh boy is there ever some shit to watch.
First we have the Women's World Cup final going on with the U.S. vs. Japan. I wrote about my feelings on the U.S. women's national team on Wednesday. I can't wait to watch this game. Let's go, ladies. Kick some ass.
And then Sunday night is the season 4 premiere of Breaking Bad, which is maybe the best show currently airing on television. Top notch, man.
It's also really easy to catch up on it if you haven't been watching. The first season is only seven episodes, and seasons two and three are only 13 episodes each. There's nothing I can say that will do the show justice. It is just amazingly done in every aspect, and I am so, so excited about its return.
Monday
So what's up on Monday? Oh yeah! Job interview downtown! Again, zero percent chance I name the company here, but you know. There it is. I feel good about how the phone interview went last week, and I like the company and the work they do.
When you combine that with how good I've been feeling over the past couple of weeks -- I mean, my confidence is at an all-time high because of my kick-ass weight loss, and I've had a much greater positive outlook lately than before.
Shit's just good, man. This could be it. But I need to get down there and talk to them and see how it goes before I really get excited. I'm just happy to have another opportunity. LET'S GO!
Well that's the next few days. Thursday, we're playing Penn State in softball, and then Saturday we have a doubleheader with Cornell and Richmond. CAN'T WAIT!
I will be working with Evan to set the line-ups and run the games, and I couldn't be more excited. It really is irrational how much I love playing in this damn softball league haha. Whatevs!
Questions? Comments? LET ME KNOOOOW!
And only like six people will understand why I wrote that phrase the way I wrote it. Ha. I'm going for mass appeal here, folks.
I'm out!
-BG
Showing posts with label Women's World Cup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Women's World Cup. Show all posts
Friday, July 15, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Sports Patriotism
Sometimes, these things just write themselves.
I was listening to the Bill Simmons podcast, The B.S. Report, last night while I was walking Allie. One of the guests was a guy named Dave Jacoby, who writes for Simmons' new website Grantland.com and is known as the "Czar of Reality TV."
Anyway, they were talking about the women's World Cup and how it's so difficult for women's sports to get widespread attention. But when you throw the American flag on it, the game changes.
Jacoby said at one point, "I want to know where the U.S. Debate team is performing because I will show up with my face painted."
A little about me: the two most athletic people in my family while I was growing up were by far my mom and my aunt. My aunt played D-1 college basketball and was an all-star at pretty much every sport she ever tried when she was growing up. She later coached women's basketball at Seton Hall for 25 years.
My mom hurt both her knees pretty badly in high school, but I bet she could have played college ball, too, if not for that. To this day, though, she can hit a basket from any place on the floor. Nothing but net. Every time.
Not only that, but I grew up going to women's basketball games at Seton Hall. Many of my earliest memories are of sitting in Walsh Gym with my grandmother watching my aunt coach her teams.
Then in college, when I was first starting at the newspaper, my main beat (which I genuinely enjoyed covering) was women's soccer at N.C. State.
So all of that goes to saying I recognize I'm probably a little more predisposed to women's sports than a lot of guys might be otherwise.
But if you can't get excited about what the U.S. women's national team has been doing at this World Cup -- I mean. I don't know what there is to say to someone like you. Just look at the last two matches: Sunday's ultra-dramatic come-from-behind win over Brazil and today's semifinal win over France.
Sunday's quarterfinal match against Brazil was everything you look for in sports.
The U.S. team went up early, got screwed by some questionable officiating, lost a player to a red card and had to play the final hour of game time down a man. Brazil went up early in extra time on a fluky ridiculous goal by Marta, and things looked incredibly bleak.
Then the magic happened. In the final minute of injury time in the final period of extra time, Megan Rapinoe played an absolutely brilliant cross into the box to find Abby "The Beast" Wambach sprinting in for a perfect header to tie the game.
What can you say about that moment? It was an eruption of emotions. To be so close to elimination only to rip the game back into your favor. Just wow. The game was decided by penalty kicks, and all five U.S. players made their shots. My future wife, Hope Solo, came up with the one key save she needed, and that's the game, folks. Simply amazing.
It got a little misty up in this piece a couple of times.
And then today, the semifinals against France. Let's be honest. If the U.S. had lost today, some of the magic and mystique of Sunday's win would have been diminished.
The perfect analogy I heard across sports radio and TV was the Miracle on Ice. The 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey victory over the U.S.S.R. was not the gold medal game. If Team USA hadn't gone on to win the gold medal after defeating the Soviets, would that first monumental upset still be referred to with the reverence it is today? I don't know.
And the thing about today's game is France seemed to dominate possession most of the game. Aside from the early first goal for the U.S., it was all France. Both teams had some near misses, but until the U.S. scored the two goals at the end to put the game out of reach, France controlled the flow of the game.
But those two goals, man. Games can turn on an instant. And the team that had previously been dominating the entire contest can be thrown back on its heels in the blink of an eye. Especially when Abby Wambach is on the other team.
Wambach put the team up with another header, of course -- this time off a corner kick. She's just a beast, man. And then my other future wife, Alex Morgan, put the game out of reach with the team's third goal with eight minutes to play.
When you consider that most people don't watch the WNBA, and most people probably don't even know there's a women's professional soccer league in the U.S., why do we get so wrapped up in this? It's obvious: sports patriotism.
Dave Jacoby had it right. If it gives us a chance to paint our faces, scream the national anthem and drape ourselves in American flags, we're all in. And why shouldn't we be? Everyone likes a little patriotism now and then.
The way I see it, there are only two real occasions where it's OK to refer to a team as "we." Your college and your country.
I am as die-hard a Yankee fan as you will find. I always like to say if the Yankees ever played N.C. State somehow, I'd probably still root for the Yankees because that's my blood. That's what I grew up doing. I cannot imagine it being any other way.
But I cannot refer to the Yankees as we. I'm not on the team. I don't work for the team (as much as I'd like to). I was, however, a student at N.C. State -- the best university in the entire country -- so I will always refer to N.C. State's sports teams as we. Also, I am a U.S. citizen, so I don't feel strange saying "we" when talking about the national teams.
So when we play Japan in the World Cup final on Sunday, I will be watching. I will be a nervous wreck because I don't know how else to watch sports. And I will be cheering like crazy for my future wives Solo and Morgan, for Abby Wambach and for the rest of the team to kick some ass.
Let's GO.
-BG
I was listening to the Bill Simmons podcast, The B.S. Report, last night while I was walking Allie. One of the guests was a guy named Dave Jacoby, who writes for Simmons' new website Grantland.com and is known as the "Czar of Reality TV."
Anyway, they were talking about the women's World Cup and how it's so difficult for women's sports to get widespread attention. But when you throw the American flag on it, the game changes.
Jacoby said at one point, "I want to know where the U.S. Debate team is performing because I will show up with my face painted."
A little about me: the two most athletic people in my family while I was growing up were by far my mom and my aunt. My aunt played D-1 college basketball and was an all-star at pretty much every sport she ever tried when she was growing up. She later coached women's basketball at Seton Hall for 25 years.
My mom hurt both her knees pretty badly in high school, but I bet she could have played college ball, too, if not for that. To this day, though, she can hit a basket from any place on the floor. Nothing but net. Every time.
Not only that, but I grew up going to women's basketball games at Seton Hall. Many of my earliest memories are of sitting in Walsh Gym with my grandmother watching my aunt coach her teams.
Then in college, when I was first starting at the newspaper, my main beat (which I genuinely enjoyed covering) was women's soccer at N.C. State.
So all of that goes to saying I recognize I'm probably a little more predisposed to women's sports than a lot of guys might be otherwise.
But if you can't get excited about what the U.S. women's national team has been doing at this World Cup -- I mean. I don't know what there is to say to someone like you. Just look at the last two matches: Sunday's ultra-dramatic come-from-behind win over Brazil and today's semifinal win over France.
Sunday's quarterfinal match against Brazil was everything you look for in sports.
The U.S. team went up early, got screwed by some questionable officiating, lost a player to a red card and had to play the final hour of game time down a man. Brazil went up early in extra time on a fluky ridiculous goal by Marta, and things looked incredibly bleak.
Then the magic happened. In the final minute of injury time in the final period of extra time, Megan Rapinoe played an absolutely brilliant cross into the box to find Abby "The Beast" Wambach sprinting in for a perfect header to tie the game.
What can you say about that moment? It was an eruption of emotions. To be so close to elimination only to rip the game back into your favor. Just wow. The game was decided by penalty kicks, and all five U.S. players made their shots. My future wife, Hope Solo, came up with the one key save she needed, and that's the game, folks. Simply amazing.
It got a little misty up in this piece a couple of times.
And then today, the semifinals against France. Let's be honest. If the U.S. had lost today, some of the magic and mystique of Sunday's win would have been diminished.
The perfect analogy I heard across sports radio and TV was the Miracle on Ice. The 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey victory over the U.S.S.R. was not the gold medal game. If Team USA hadn't gone on to win the gold medal after defeating the Soviets, would that first monumental upset still be referred to with the reverence it is today? I don't know.
And the thing about today's game is France seemed to dominate possession most of the game. Aside from the early first goal for the U.S., it was all France. Both teams had some near misses, but until the U.S. scored the two goals at the end to put the game out of reach, France controlled the flow of the game.
But those two goals, man. Games can turn on an instant. And the team that had previously been dominating the entire contest can be thrown back on its heels in the blink of an eye. Especially when Abby Wambach is on the other team.
Wambach put the team up with another header, of course -- this time off a corner kick. She's just a beast, man. And then my other future wife, Alex Morgan, put the game out of reach with the team's third goal with eight minutes to play.
When you consider that most people don't watch the WNBA, and most people probably don't even know there's a women's professional soccer league in the U.S., why do we get so wrapped up in this? It's obvious: sports patriotism.
Dave Jacoby had it right. If it gives us a chance to paint our faces, scream the national anthem and drape ourselves in American flags, we're all in. And why shouldn't we be? Everyone likes a little patriotism now and then.
The way I see it, there are only two real occasions where it's OK to refer to a team as "we." Your college and your country.
I am as die-hard a Yankee fan as you will find. I always like to say if the Yankees ever played N.C. State somehow, I'd probably still root for the Yankees because that's my blood. That's what I grew up doing. I cannot imagine it being any other way.
But I cannot refer to the Yankees as we. I'm not on the team. I don't work for the team (as much as I'd like to). I was, however, a student at N.C. State -- the best university in the entire country -- so I will always refer to N.C. State's sports teams as we. Also, I am a U.S. citizen, so I don't feel strange saying "we" when talking about the national teams.
So when we play Japan in the World Cup final on Sunday, I will be watching. I will be a nervous wreck because I don't know how else to watch sports. And I will be cheering like crazy for my future wives Solo and Morgan, for Abby Wambach and for the rest of the team to kick some ass.
Let's GO.
-BG
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
