Before the 11 day festival of bizarre sports, countries that have lower populations than Birmingham and Usain Bolt dancing to the proclaimers began, I expressed my apathy towards the Commonwealth Games. Britain's glory days appear to be in the past and beating up on small nations only serves to make you feel better rather than improving your global standing. I do still despise being separated from the other nations of the British Isles and Northern Island's struggles reinforced that message. Scotland's success is for another piece later this week. Those thoughts are still somewhere in my head but they were overcome by the brilliance of the games.
Often there are complaints about how the Hall of Fame has transformed from a place where only the greats are enshrined to one of above average athletes who may not have even dominated their own position at the time. Perhaps it's my Atlanta affiliation but this Baseball Hall of Fame class dispels all those criticisms, with absolute brilliance throughout. After the induction ceremony on Sunday, I wanted to look more into the careers of these vaunted athletes.
As Glasgow prepares for the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games this evening, I find myself more excited to catch up on the day's Tour de France highlights than watch the spectacle beaming out Celtic Park. This is the beginning of a rather large sporting festival, possibly the closest I'll be to a pageant resembling the Olympics for another 50 years, with top level athletes from 70 countries, formerly of the Commonwealth, participating.
Life at the bottom of an American Sports league is incredibly dire. No threat of relegation but equally a lack of excitement. Jacksonville Jaguars fans have been subjected to brutal punishment but whilst the mockery may last the whole year round, the suffering is limited to 16 games. The real unfortunates are the baseball fans, who are left to watch their pathetic teams for 162 games. Hope springs eternal though and for all their struggles, the parity-searching structure of Major League Baseball gives them plenty of reason for optimism. 6 teams stand out as particularly troubled/promising.
Ty Cobb holds the highest batting average in a career. Hank Aaron holds the record for the most home runs in a career. 755. Yes, technically Barry Bonds does have 762 but how many of those were influenced by his use of steroids, especially when an increase in strength is one of the main benefits of steroid use? At least 8 I'd say. So Aaron is MLB's home run leader. Today is the anniversary of that legendary last home run so when better to look at the career of the 'Hammer'.
When it comes to picking sports teams, I am the equivalent of Billy Buckner. My list includes: The Atlanta Braves, who seem to have arms made of glass, The Atlanta Falcons who fight like teddy bears in the trenches, The Atlanta Hawks who couldn't attract Ekpe Udoh to sign for them in free agency, England's endlessly disappointing national teams (except you cycling team, never you) and my own football team who lost every single game they played last season. The most disappointing one of all of them though is the Georgia Bulldogs.
When I celebrated the 85th birthday of my grandmother on Sunday evening, I found it difficult to believe that this was a woman who had lived not only through a World War- albeit in the relatively untouched Ireland- but also through a great depression, the Vietnam war, the Margaret Thatcher years and every single World Cup since it began. By the time she was born in 1929, Cobb had just finished his 24 year playing career. Which is why, when I heard of Ty Cobb and the anniversary of his death, Cobb's achievements stood out.
With yesterday being twitter's 8th birthday, and very little celebration from them, it falls upon me to give them their due. Despite it being created in March 2006, it wasn't until July of the same year that it was actually released to the general public. Since then, twitter has grown exponentially, with the official twitter website saying over 500 million tweets are sent per day. Estimating the proportion of those tweets that are sports-related is difficult but the impact twitter has had on sports over the years is immense.
How small are the UEFA sanctions Michel? That small?
When you see Manchester City dancing their way around the pitch this season, moving without the ball ever touching the ground whilst the opponents are lead in a merry dance, remember that it is not just the opposing players and fans they're mocking. Their actions are a large middle finger to the corporats (deliberate misspelling) at UEFA, who, after their counterparts FIFA were already subject of the only other post on this page, have now made it two out of two.
We have a trade to announce! Or two infact. Although the trade deadline may not be until the 31st of June, it appears that Billy Beane just could not hold himself back. Jeff Samardzija, ace of the Chicago Cubs for the previous 2 seasons. Accompanying him on the trip from the windy city to the West Coast was Jason Hammel. Why trade though?
Even with max contracts and salary caps, there is still plenty of money to be had in the NBA silly season. A certain portion of the capital was dished out in the NBA Draft on Thursday night. More is to come in the coming days as free agency begun just as July did. The chess match is on. Cleveland have already moved their opening pawn.
Riggin for Wiggins. Mishandle for Randle. Sorry for Jabari. Rest'em for Exum. Concede for Embiid. All of these are just the taglines for tanking. Whilst tanking is a truly unthinkable prospect to an English fan used to the anxiety of relegation scraps but NBA teams certainly haven't thought that way as they approach the greatest NBA Draft in a decade.
I really struggled to place this particular post into any of the blogs listed on this website. Is the move purely financial? Could LeBron only be sending a message to the other members of the big 3? Does his heart remain in Cleveland?
A Brazilian goodbye to Spain, Australia, Croatia and Cameroon. The first round of 16 matches are also set with Brazil facing off against Chile, and Mexico playing a rampant Dutch side.
Despite the two 1-0 games we had on Saturday, there was still plenty of excitement at the World Cup, especially in the game between Germany and Ghana. Of course Lionel Messi was involved too, coming up big late in the dying minutes of Argentina-Iran.
Is it possible that England have been eliminated from their group without even playing the best team in it? Could France actually be contenders for the overall tournament? Has Enner Valencia grabbed the title of the best Ecuadorian Valencia?
My favourite 30 for 30 is Survive and Advance. Any mention of Dick Vitale wins it for me and the story built around the inspirational Jimmy V and his 1983 North Carolina State team. My second favourite? June 17th 1994.
That damned little Uruguayan. After breaking countless English hearts in the club game, Luis Suarez continued that habit in the international game as he led his team to a 2-1 win over England.
After missing a day, I now have rather a lot to catch up on. The main story is the fall of the perennial favourites Spain and Brazil. Brazils fall was tiny in comparison to Spain's, with Brazil merely falling from Christ the Redeemer compared to Spain's fall from Everest.
20 goals were scored in the opening round of the South Africa World Cup in 2010. It took only 6 matches to tie that tally this time around, with 49 being scored in total across the first 16 games of the tournament. There have certainly been shocks too and plenty of interesting items to review.
Group Death? Well if it wasn't for some events I had to attend, I would've been writing this on Saturday day and would've said no to it being the group of death. After watching the two matches from group D though, I think it probably is.
When the Spurs beat the Heat in the NBA finals two nights ago, it only served as a reminder that individual star quality cannot beat an efficient team. Germany were clearly watching this and took immense confidence into what eventually turned out as a thrashing in group G.
There was a sense of inevitability to the result in Rio on Sunday night. Whenever a team has the attacking prowess that Argentina does, Bosnia were always going to have a tough task. Looking to cement his legacy, Lionel Messi lead that terrifying attack, out to prove that he is the best player ever.
As the rest of the English media descends into their usual melancholy, I remain upbeat about England's World Cup chances. By no means do I believe they'll win the tournament, but I would hope they'd progress from their group.
Wow this group is a struggle. There are 4 pretty average teams in this group and to pick a clear winner is difficult. The one good thing to come out of this group is the round of 16 tie for England, if they get through, will be against one of these mediocre teams.
Well this is an unpredicted predicament. A loss to Italy was always a possibility for England, but it was an extremely positive performance. Meanwhile Costa Rica beat Uruguay in a result as strange as Holland-Spain. Group D is now left in the position of Costa Rica being top of the group.
This was the most surprising result in world football for a very long time. I sat watching the match in a state of disbelief, dumbfounded at the destruction I was seeing.
For about 18 minutes there last night I though Brazil was going to descend even further into political riots. However some lucky strikes, terrible refereeing and lucky escapes prevented the Brazil loss.
As is tradition, the tournament begins tonight with the hosts facing off against one of their rivals in group A. This year, it will be the Brazilian flamboyance facing off against the mysterious Croatia, who will be looking to pull off a dramatic upset and send the whole of Brazil into protest.
The night before the World Cup has few comparisons for many a sports fan. There was some sporting action separate from Brazil though, especially in the United States.
In the NBA, the expectation is that the game winning impact will come from one of the traditional 'Big Three'. Yet on the biggest stage of all, game 3 of the NBA finals, it was another San Antonio Spur that stole the headline.
As the Kings pushed the Rangers to the brink of playoff extinction, there was a feeling of anti-climax. New York was the centre of the sporting drama last night though still, in what was, at least to my ears, a surprise.
To see Jose Mourinho celebrate is no rare thing. Everyone remembers the sprinting down the touchline and a quick YouTube search brings up almost four minutes of extravagant fist pumping and hugging.
When the weather is the main topic of discussion after a match, you know that the action on the pitch must have been drab. So was the case with England-Honduras on Saturday night.
Whether or not to class this blog post under 'The Invisible Cereal' or 'The Bank Shot' was the question that faced me as I write this article. Fortunately I have total control over which heading it comes under. However this is not the case for many of the sporting problems that sports fans face on a regular basis.
Coming out of World War 2, America faced many issues in both Asia and Europe. These issues were ideological between the US and the USSR in what eventually became known as the Cold War.
The brutal English weather has proved to be pathetic fallacy for Franck Ribery and Marco Reus. It did however wake me up in time to watch the New Zealand-England game so here it is:
However unwanted it may be, there is a connection between politics and sports. Be it joyous White House visits or meddling and corruption scandals, their fates are intertwined.