10.29.07
Posted in Eminently Occidental, personal, sports at 20:09 by Toby Petzold
Another reason I don’t like soccer is its lack of episodicity. Just look at American football with all of the planning and executing that simply doesn’t exist in a sport where one’s progress cannot really be built upon and where what you gain is unratcheted and fenceless. In American football, physical brutality gets you territory —but so does extreme grace and athleticism. Does soccer? Sorta, but they’re always giving it up. They seem to be constantly losing the ball and squandering their progress and having nothing to show for their work. But are all scores equal? Of course not. Some points are scored cheaply. And not all fouls are the same. American football is more complex and compelling. It is more heroic.
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10.24.07
Posted in America, Unexplained Mysteries, personal, sports at 19:53 by Toby Petzold
Am I losing my damned mind over here or am I the only person who can hear this weird, looping noise on all of Fox’s baseball broadcasts? Seriously. From beginning to end, there’s been this low tone in the back channel of their audio that is a mix of London police car siren and the chattering probes that Darth Vader sent to Hoth.
It’s really noticeable tonight.
Oh, and nice use of the Pixies’ “Here Comes Your Man” at the ad break.
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09.04.07
Posted in personal, sports at 00:43 by Toby Petzold
As much as I love watching and even sometimes following high-level championship tennis, I really dislike doubles matches. I find them tedious and slightly lame.
Singles matches, on the other hand, are all about dueling it out. Man against man. Hot Russian chick against hot Russian chick.
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07.07.07
Posted in Eminently Occidental, Unexplained Mysteries, sports at 13:07 by Toby Petzold
Did it happen in your market, too?
I’m watching Nadal and Djokovic just then in the second semi-final match at Wimbledon —and here comes six or seven seconds of some sort of Babar the Elephant animation.
Not exactly Heidi busting in on the Jets and Raiders, but what the hell?
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06.12.07
Posted in America, music, sports at 22:02 by Toby Petzold
I didn’t like Ben Harper’s interpretation of the “Star-Spangled Banner” at the start of tonight’s basketball game in Cleveland. It sounded almost untalented, although I understand how that might just be me expecting to hear Jimi Hendrix’s version of it from the morning of Monday, 18 August 1969.
Dang! It sure gets quiet when the Spurs score a basket!
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06.04.07
Posted in America, personal, sports at 18:50 by Toby Petzold
I’m very anxious for the NBA Finals to start. It should be interesting to see how the Cavs match up with the Spurs. But another three days to Game One? Damn. Never been too big on the French Open, it’s too early to care about baseball, and what else is going on? Blah.
My prediction? San Antonio in six.
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06.02.07
Posted in sports at 22:20 by Toby Petzold
I don’t care what he brings to the table, Rasheed Wallace is a fool and a detriment to his team. He is constantly bitching about something and it’s just boring. Good riddance.
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05.14.07
Posted in sports at 21:03 by Toby Petzold
Oh, man. That’s gotta suck. Vince Carter just dribbled the ball out of bounds with two seconds left and his team two points down.
Wow. That will live with him like a loud, drunk hobo that won’t leave his house. Ever.
In other news, I am sick with a sinus infection. Dammit. Lots of tomato juice, vitamin C tablets, and a little of that Walgreen’s version of NyQuil.
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05.11.07
Posted in America, Austin, Earth, Science, Texas, Unexplained Mysteries, marihuana, sports, stupidity at 20:51 by Toby Petzold
ESPN’s reporting that Ricky Williams has failed his piss test and cannot apply for reinstatement to the NFL until September.
I used to just shake my head a little and make a distracted expression when I’d hear about Williams’ seemingly deliberate inability to not smoke until it occurred to me —just now— that there’s nothing “seeming” about it: it is a deliberate refusal to not smoke.
It would be a good thing if this were widely used as a point of interest in the ongoing [debate] over the almost-incredible stupidity of the war on drugs and on marihuana, in particular, but some people have an interest in pretending that world-class athletes are somehow adversely affected by their use of marihuana. It isn’t true, though. Except, of course, as a legal and, therefore, professional matter. Otherwise, it is self-evidently stupid to suggest that these huge and powerful professional athletes are harming themselves with the recreational use of a plant.
Yeah, well. I know the sports community may speak to it, but it’s just going to be company man bullshit.
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05.07.07
Posted in America, Big Media, Eminently Occidental, sports at 20:46 by Toby Petzold
I’ve been trying to enjoy the NBA playoffs, but what’s making it almost impossible is Charles Fucking Barkley. If we’re not getting a full whiff of his extremely undisciplined and self-indulgent pre-, mid-, and post-game commentary, we’re subjected to his narcissistic and unskilled celebrity persona in the same two stupid cell phone ads he’s in with Dwyane Wade. And these ads are run over and over during the games until the premise of the ads somehow insinuates itself into the gametime analysis.
Barkley was a great player, an important sports figure, and once was an interesting critic of his own role as a celebrity. But now? The only thing that’s worse than this lazy and arrogant approach to his job as a commentator is the fact that TNT is literally confusing it with their sponsors’ adverstisements. What, is it 1949 already? Is this the Camel News Caravan? Get outta here.
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