“Washington Redskins running back Adrian Peterson was “trusting the wrong people,” his attorney said, and is deep in debt after making nearly $100 million during his NFL career.”
Sentence To Ponder
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Category Archives: Sports
A Little Lost This Morning
The Open Championship is over. Final rest day at the Tour de France.
The Open Championship is the best golf tournament in the world. Way more inclusive than the other three majors. Way more authentic than the Masters. I love seeing the players sporting winter hats, with the sideways rain, playing from hellish pot bunkers and gorse. Port Rush Ireland is one of the more beautiful settings for golf I’ve ever seen. It boggles my mind that fewer than 2m people live in North Ireland and 237,000 watched the Championship live.
Irish passion for golf was evident in Rory’s Friday charge, all the Irish player’s comments, and Lowry’s 63 on Saturday. Professional golf doesn’t get any better than that. Only wish I had been there.
And the outcome of le Tour is still up in the air after two weeks. Given the weakness of his team, I do not think 2 minutes is enough of a cushion for Alaphilippe. Of course, we’ll probably have to wait 8 years to determine the winner.
Thanks to this movie preview, which gave me an Open Championship like jolt of joy, I think I’ll be okay today.
Weekend Assorted Links
The Best Kawhi Paragraph
From Zach Lowe:
“And now they have the best wing combination in the league. Leonard, George, and Beverley are going to terrorize people on defense. My god. Beware dribbling anywhere in their vicinity unless you are an expert point guard. George and Beverley can split duty defending the best opposing scorers so Leonard doesn’t have to overtax himself before it counts.”
I chuckled at the lack of numeracy displayed by a current NBA player who tweeted that next season every game is going to be like a playoff game.
There has been no infusion of talent (draft minus retirements as per usual), just a drastic redistribution of existing talent. Which means some teams are going to be really bad, thus hurting the regular season. Maybe superstars on super teams will time their “load management” for especially weak opponents. Regardless, a basic math truism, the record of the most average team in the league will still be 41-41.
Weekend Assorted Links
“But if the internet is inherently threatening to the Church, or to any faith, it’s perhaps not because of the way it affirms doubts. Rather, it’s in the community it opens up — a community that can be just as close-knit and supportive as a ward. Where ChurchofJesusChrist.org offers scripture, the internet beyond the Church’s domain shines light into what has historically been a black box: the lives of the people who have left.”
1B. Mormon identities in flux.
2. Baseball prodigy. Like Mike Trout, but 16 and a switch hitter. Damn the Yankees.
3. The likely elimination of single-family zoning in large Oregon cities. Coming to a city near you?
4. Please stop telling me America is great. I was ahead of the curve.
5. Human dominoes. When brakes are useless.
Is There A More Global or Competitive Game?
Today’s Ladies* Professional Golf Association leaderboard following the first round in Oneida, Wisconsin. Eight countries represented among the top ten. Explained in large part by Asia’s economic rise. Little known fact, Yu Liu played at Duke University**. Course might be a little too easy.
Today’s European Tour leaderboard, only seven countries represented among the top ten because of a run of Brits. Props to Padraig for reppin’ the old guys.
*Who uses “Ladies” anymore?
**that’s what I’m here for
Tennis Prodigy
Fifteen years old. Not a tennis academy machine, a likable young woman. Beat Venus 6-4 in the opening set. Stay tuned.
Postscript: Passing of the torch. 6-4, 6-4. 108 mph second serve. Venus classy in defeat. Look for Gauff to continue winning.
Wednesday Assorted Links
1. Why Financial Literacy is So Elusive.
“It is bad enough that most people are not financially literate, but the painful reality is that investor education does not work — at least not much beyond six months. After that, it is like any other abstract subject taught in a classroom, mostly forgotten. . . .
Not that this has stopped states from mandating financial literacy for high schoolers. The Washington Post reported last week that financial-literacy classes are mandated by 19 states in order to graduate from high school, up from 13 states eight years ago. This is well-meaning, but without a radical break from how financial literacy is taught, it is destined to be ineffective.
Why? There are a number of reasons: The subject is abstract and can be complex; specific skills deteriorate fairly soon after graduation from high school; the rote memorization and teach-to-the-test approach used so much in American schools is ineffective for this sort of knowledge.”
2. Japanese office chair racing. Hell yes.
3. Remembering the runner who never gave up.
4. Six places in Europe offering shelter from the crowds.
5. What ever happened to Freddy Adu?
The heart of the matter:
“When he wasn’t scoring, he wasn’t doing much of anything. ‘He saw himself as the luxury player, the skill player,’ Wynalda said. ‘Give me the ball and I’ll make something happen.’ ‘OK, I screwed up, give it to me again.’ ‘OK, again. Just keep giving it to me.’ And eventually it’s like, ‘You know what? I’m going to give it to some other guy.'”
6A. The Surreal End of an American College.
6B. The Anti-College is on the Rise.
. . . a revolt against treating the student as a future wage-earner.
Wednesday Assorted Links
1. Someone call Child Protective Services.
2. Why every cyclist needs a pool noodle.
3. The future car.
4. How accurate is HBO’s Chernobyl? Spoilers throughout.
5. Add college library books to the endangered species list.
6. High school athletes in California are turning away from football.
The Mouse And The Man
Just received the meanest of text messages from the Bad Wife:
“I’m pretty sure I went 49 mph today coming down the hill between the Cove and Holiday Hills. Don’t have a computer so I can’t verify, but I’m pretty sure.”
There’s so much wrong with this text. First of all, what kind of person cycles without a computer?!
Secondly, I had just told the Bad Wife that I set a new cycling speed record during a group training ride in rural Lewis County (redundant). 48.8 mph.
I’m training for the annual sufferfest in Bend, Oregon in two weeks, the Central Oregon 500, which I turn into the Central Oregon 400, or last year 336, due to light snow on McKenzie Pass.
I am happy to report that I’m starting to feel some snap in my legs, but I coulda used a larger cassette on some of yesterday’s climbs. At times, I thought I might have to toss one or both water bottles overboard to breach the steepest pitches.
There were eight of us. I knew seven. Or so I thought. The eighth dude was someone I hadn’t seen in 15-20 years. The last time I saw him I was literally yelling at him at the finish line of the Black Hills triathlon. No, not in my character, but I watched him pass me on the bike, and then, totally ignoring the no drafting rule, suck another guy’s wheel for miles and miles. I did not reel him in during the run and did not take losing well. Keep in mind, this was before I studied Stoicism and got my shit together, by which I mean, got my ego somewhat in check.
Have you ever gotten so angry at someone that your anger ends up being much worse than whatever offensive action the other person committed? Me too.
Not immediately, but with just a little passage of time, I would’ve liked a do-over. As if an Olympic age group triathlon has any cosmic significance.
So imagine my surprise when The Drafter, a friend of a friend I learned, showed up for our group training ride. What to do? I intuited that he still remembered the psychotic break. Damn. Awkward. Thinking. Thinking. Thinking. I know what to do, pretend I don’t remember any of it!
That’s right, as a friend puts it, I was way more mouse than man. Why the hell couldn’t I have apologized and said what I was thinking, “Man, sometimes I think back to that time I lost it at the triathlon and I feel badly, sorry for all that anger.” And we rode together for 3+ hours. And we talked about our 26 year old daughters and life. His daughter is a first year teacher in Brooklyn and he was asking me for advice to pass on to her.
Having obviously moved on even without an apology, he was more man than mouse.
I know what you’re thinking. I’m a loser and that’s the one thing you’ll be most correct about today. You’re also wondering who was stronger two decades later? The Man or the Mouse? He did challenge me on several of the steepest climbs. He really shoulda known better. Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Pressing Pause 