From The Sports Desk

Tragic.

Thanks for the clips. Yep I only watched the highlight reel. Phil’s starting to look a little old, at least since the last time I saw him. Seems like the older I get, the less time I have for sports. I always thought it’d be the other way around.

On a brighter note, the other day, while I was working on a small engine in the barn, my señora wandered in and announced she’d just bought a couple of good Mariners tickets. Woo-hoo. It was our first game of the season. Mariners v Bluejays. She got us seats right behind home plate, a little on the third base side. I think most of B.C. drove down to support the Jays. We were in the middle of a sea of Canucks. It was a gorgeous evening. Anyway I like how fans roll with the punches even for something as mundane as a rules change. Late in the game one of the relievers for the Mariners got his pitch off a tad late and a ball was called for a pitch-clock violation. Thereafter whenever the clock got to 10 seconds, Mariners fans shouted a count-down: TEN-NINE-EIGHT-SEVEN…There were no more pitch time violations.

he's in his 70s I think. I have noticed over the past few years he sometimes struggles just a little bit with commentary but to me he's still the "voice of cycling" and I love him. every year for the tour---he's like an old friend whose visits you look forward to, and who leaves all too soon.

that's a fun baseball story.

saw this in my "shorts" viewing last night and thought youd like it (the baseball ones are usually really good):

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/oVrjE...?feature=share

I have been looking for an excuse, however slight, to post this, now that the tour is upon us, maybe that suffices...

Good vid. The Phillies are fast becoming my fav team, and that’s saying a lot for someone who grew up in the south, with the Braves, natural enemies of the Phils.

I bet Vin would kill in a big wheel bike race, but the funny thing about the pic is that it’s taking a jab at a franchise that should’ve been put to rest a few movies ago.

Switching to football, I found this in Hunter S. Thompson’s Songs of the Doomed. It’s a description of the Georgia Tech Backfield in a game against Vanderbilt:

Quote:

---

It was a torturous thing, but beautiful in its way; here were men who would never again function or even understand how they were supposed to function as well as they did today. They were dolts and thugs for the most part, huge pieces of meat, trained to a fine edge—but somehow they mastered those complex plays and patterns, and in rare moments they were artists.

---

Well said.

oddly enough, another phillies one:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/yefVQOcogkA

also oddly enough, I haven't seen any of the fast and furious movies.

that is a really nifty passage.

tour de france bonus clips from last weeks gravel stage:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DPsc3...?feature=share

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eaMBo...?feature=share

Good clips.

Ya know, where bicycling is concerned, I think I’m getting to the point in my life where I need a beach cruiser, with big ole balloon tires, and a wicker basket.

One of my favorite bicycling scenes:

https://youtu.be/8_JPDEHU1ok?si=ahOVOgmjq5fWojIx

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

ah, the things guys will do to impress women! laughs...

i think any bike is dandy, and i could do a beach cruiser too, but a lot of times when im on a bike im like Jeffrey Goldblum from Jurassic park and independence day---"must go faster!"

i just saw this---hard to tell if its real or just a really good simulation, but if its real, my goodness!

and apparently inspired by paul newman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7WCuNSNZCU

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Wxq2T...?feature=share

Hah!
That guy had to go Superman. He brought a fixed-gear track bike to a road race.

I thought the cool part about the Paul Newman clip was that he didn’t need to impress the girl. She was already in the mood and headed for the hayloft. But Sundance decides to take a few more laps on the bike because he’s having so much fun. It says a lot about how much fun it is to ride a bike, eh?

Watched some of the women’s cycling from Paris today.

I think that's a great point about the joy of bike riding.

I watched a replay of the mens Olympic TT yesterday. it was pretty good---one small tragedy made it kinda more exciting, a british rider got a flat and had to do a bike change, and he missed the bronze medal but only a couple seconds.

there are plenty of things I like watching women do (sports wise that is), cycling usually isn't one of them.

yays:

swimming, track and field (and other running), diving, gymnastics, tennis, softball, volleyball, weightlifting, golf and bunches of others.

maybes:

wrestling

nays:

basketball, cycling (possible exception for some track events), hockey, football, boxing and mma.

a belated tdf clip:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/a7YYrZ3mdsY (apparently they caught the guy and he got into some trouble)

a response to your beach cruiser thoughts:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/q1Ry8B0O8xU

baseball bonus!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qn64u_r8IbM

Samurai is probably Shohei Ohtani’s grandpappy.

Yeee-haw! As for the mountain biker — Legend! What’d he get in trouble for? Being awesome? I gotta say, that clip pretty much sums up the difference between the personalities of Mountain bikers vs Road cyclists.

apparently mtn bike jumping over the tdf is a thing. all the years ive been watching NBC's coverage they never showed that.

I don't remember where I saw the initial article, but a little search brought me this vagary:

"Valentin Anouilh, a mountain biker from Cantal, gained fame by jumping over the Tour de France peloton in 2019. However, this also attracted the attention of French authorities for unspecified reasons. His repeated stunts, including in 2019 and again in 2023, may have caused issues with the Tour de France officials and French authorities. While the specific details of Anouilh's problems with French authorities are not available, it's clear his bold behavior and spectacular jumps have raised concerns and tensions with Tour de France and local officials."

and the awesome photo:

Haha. The man has found his calling.
As for the authorities, pshaw, who hasn’t had a run in with the “authorities” from time to time?
I’m picturing Eddie Murphy here — “Is there a problem officers?”

I wonder if phil liggett would approve of such things?

meanwhile, somehow I stumbled upon this which I think is worth watching, perhaps inspired by bob knight:

https://youtu.be/Xez7kGgEg-U

and I sometimes love watching volleyball:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zM5cJ...?feature=share

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SY57e...?feature=share

Haha. Sports sometimes brings out the best in us. And sometimes it don’t.

I watched the end of the road race in Paris today. Evenepoel was a good minute out in front of the chase group and increasing the lead. The commentators were saying — well, the only thing that can take the gold from the leader is a mechanical… And then he flatted. Pulled it out though. What a ride!

I’ll bet Phil would be pretty matter-of-fact about the mountain biker. I remember a few years ago when some moron tossed a bunch of carpet tacks on the road in front of the peloton, Phil took it stride. I also remember it brought out the sportsmanship of the cyclists. Once all the flats were fixed, they managed to reorder themselves as best they could to make it the way is was before the incident.

I like the women’s beach volleyball event. If I watch it though, the wife will roll her eyes and leave the room, commenting on the way out something like — Hmm-hmm.

I skimmed through to the last ~30k of the Olympic road race. evenepoel was amazing. it'll be interesting to see if he can improve his climbing enough to contend for grand tour wins---or if the organizers add more time trialing to accommodate his strengths.

I might have mentioned this years before. I have a friend who ran into phil liggett and paul sherwen in an airport and he asked to get photos with them. they were wonderfully obliging.

on the topic of kicking tail---watch femke bol (who is also a major "girl next door" cutie):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imsNmnaSszU

your beach vb experience made me think of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4xRFodcPB0

Oh man. Bol killed it, a world class athlete masquerading as a regular person. I gotta say the women have been inspiring in these games. Watched Kirsten Faulkner win the road race yesterday, amazing. She picked her moment and destroyed the field.