And that’s a new… world… RECORD

Check it out! A Jamaican dude named Usain Bolt who was slated to run the 400 in the Olympics just set a world record time in the 100 at 9.72 seconds – beating the old record by .02 and making him the new “world’s fastest man”. Fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell, the old world record holder, first set the record in 2005 with a 9.77 run, and later beat it with a 9.74. Apparently Bolt was using the 100 race for “speed work” and I guess he has a hidden talent at it. The dude is 6’4″ too – Now, I used to run track, and it’s not everyday you see a guy that tall line up. In fact, usually you would laugh at him as you burned him out of the blocks because he’d have a tough time accelerating. I gotta say though, the name “Bolt” just belongs with a fast time – like… “he bolted to the lead, making the other runners appear as if their shoes were bolted to the track”. Yeah corny, but you know the media will eat that one up. Well congrats to Bolt, and good luck with those steroids accusations… just kidding, hopefully.

Yao Ming “Spotted” in Charlotte

By “spotted”… I mean he stuck out like a sore thumb. Apparently Yao took advantage of his time off from the Houston Rockets with a trip to Charlotte for last Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600. He and some drivers played a game of “Around the World” in victory lane which I imagine was a disaster for the drivers. I hear that they tried to fit him in a car, but anybody who’s ever seen one of these cars realizes that had a snowball’s chance in hell of working. Maybe if they had outfitted the car with Michael Waltrip’s roof hatch from 2003 they could’ve dropped him in there. He would definitely have had incredible visibility with his whole head above the roof – however, no word from NASCAR on exactly how safe this would have been.

That time of year again.

Ohhh yeah. summer sports are what it’s all about. Baseball’s in full swing and the basketball playoffs are nearing their conclusion. But what sport is the lead story on espn.com concerned with? The annual Scripps national spelling bee.

(Begin Editorial): Now I’ve got major, major respect for all of the kids in the spelling bee. All of them are ridiculously smart and talented, and I’m sure they’ve dedicated an absolutely huge number of hours in preparing for the competition. That’s awesome for them and they have every right to be proud of their accomplishments. In fact, I think someone who did very well at the competition attends a certain institution in Durham…interesting. I always think it’s interesting though that ESPN, the worldwide leader, covers the spelling bee. There’s many other things it could be showing…like tonight’s WNBA game featuring the Los Angeles Sparks against the Indiana Fever!!! YEAAAAH! CANDACE PARKER TAG!

Also…here’s more proof of the awesomness of bill simmons:

Great Sports Anyway you spell it (his liveblog of the 2002 spelling bee – seriously, how awesome is that. i’m sure he got paid some pretty big bucks to liveblog a spelling bee. awesome).

ESPN also did a feature on Samir Patel, a former national spelling bee title contender. Here’s his info:

When he was 9, Samir Patel became a Scripps National Spelling Bee legend by finishing third. Now 14, after five tries and, shockingly, no title, Patel is too old to compete.

Here’s the article: Spelling bee icon Samir Patel moves on to next challenges

(I’ll be completely honest. I cherry-picked these quotes from the article.)

It is unfair — and uneducated, really — that critics dubbed Samir the “Dan Marino of spelling” last summer when he muffed the word “clevis” and finished his fifth and final Scripps National Spelling Bee without a title. Anyone who has stood on that stage, under the hot lights and cameras, knows the bee can be cruelly random.

Solid writing…but really? The Dan Marino of spelling? You mean Samir Patel is of “Italian and Polish” descent? Had some awesome clutch performances for the Pittsburgh Panthers football team? Was an amazing NFL quarterback who started as a rookie qb in the pro bowl?? And, most importantly, the man who shot Boomer Esion (sp?) one of the coldest looks I have ever seen? Wait till the end of the video.

Mothers cooed when his helium voice confidently belted out Y-A-M-A-M-A-I, which, by the way, is a Japanese silkworm. Teenage girls mobbed him, asking for autographs. Samir just innocently giggled and oozed boyish cuteness.

“Is it just my luck, or am I getting all the French words?” he cracked after one brain buster.

No funny commentary needed. But is Elizabeth Merril serious? Do teenage girls really mob pre-adolescent spelling bee title contenders? I should have readjusted some priorities in the early days then…

“I don’t really think girls would go for my looks,” he says. “I’m not the most handsome person ever. My mom thinks I’m too young. Apparently, I’m not allowed to get married ’til I’m 30.”

Brown Power!

He didn’t know of his spelling bee history, either, until he was flipping the channels at home and saw him do a celebrity appearance on the Food Network.

Now that’s pretty baller.

Regardless…major props to all of the spelling bee kids.

Wardrobe malfunction?

I recently came across this Alana Beard jersey and was seriously considering buying it. I mean, Alana is practically my idol – not only a great player on the Mystics, but she proves that good NBA… err WNBA players can come out of Duke. But then I got to thinking… what would people say if they saw me wearing this jersey? Well, I made a list of what I would expect to hear.

In order of most common to least common.

1. Nothing. The Mystics cleverly left off their name and only have the DC logo, so most people wouldn’t know what team this is for (and might not even if Mystics were included).
2. “Who’s #20 on the Wizards?”
3. “That’s cute, you must be wearing that because you think she’s hot”
4. “Beard… Beard… Oh Amanda Beard? She plays ball now?”
5. “Just because you’re wearing that jersey, I guarantee I can beat you 1-on-1″
6. “Whatever bet you lost… you sure lost out big”
7. “You should consider moving to California, where people like you are legally ‘accepted’”
8. “Awww I’ll give this poor beggar a dollar. He’s wearing a WNBA jersey, so he must own no other clothes”
9. “Oooh an Alana Beard jersey, but what are those colors? She plays for Duke right?!
10. Last… and least: “Oooh an Alana Beard jersey, what a great player on the Mystics!”

I wish #8 were ranked higher because I could cover the $50 to buy it. But until then, I would probably be wasting money on something that would chill in the closet… unless somebody gives me tickets to a Mystics game, then I would be all over it.

My bad

I’d like to retract what I said earlier about Jordan Farmar – he had a bad series against Utah, and it didn’t help that he was forced to guard Deron Williams, one of the premier point guards in the league. By the way, I still don’t think that the Jazz made a mistake drafting him over Paul. Sue me.

In the last three games against San Antonio – small sample size, I know, but so was the six-game set I berated him for against Utah – he is averaging more than 10 points per game, shooting 50% from the floor and above that mark from behind the arc. I have faith. Besides, UCLA’s a pretty damn good basketball school.

Indy 500 Raceday

For any racing fan, today is the day you look forward to. With the Monaco Grand Prix in Formula 1, the Indy 500, and the Coke 600 in NASCAR, all three races are special to their discipline of racing, and all three happen on the same day. (I was writing a post about this a few days ago when I got interrupted, and I guess Alzheimer’s set in because I didn’t remember it until now) Monaco was won this morning by Lewis Hamilton who had a great drive in the wet conditions. Monaco is the most recognizable temporary circuit in the world because the track flows through the hills, around the harbor, and through a tunnel in the province of France. The famous hairpin is shown above. Take a lap with Fernando Alonso to see how difficult this circuit is.

Enough about F1, we’re gearing up for Indy now. Here is the starting grid, with Ganassi teammates Dixon and Wheldon 1-2, and Penske driver Ryan Briscoe filling out the front row. Here’s the finish to the 2006 500. And the 2007 500 (this was essentially the end, rain called the race). With unification of ChampCar and IndyCar this year, the grid is the deepest since 1995, the final 500 before the split. Looks like about 40 minutes until green, I’ll probably do occasional updates in live-blog style, I have nothing better to do.

12:25: ABC acting as if Danica is the only driver in the field. At least they showed her photoshoot pics. The hype surrounding her is ridiculous, this segment has to be like 10 minutes long.

12:35: Driver intros are underway, Marco’s suit is awesome. The group photo on the yard of bricks was pretty awkward… let’s just race.

12:45: Just had a big segment about “the dangers of racing”. These cars are glorified missiles with wheels running between concrete walls and catch fences, so yeah Indy’s dangerous.

12:48: Gotta love Helio – “Come on, if you meet Oprah, you’re the MAN”.

1:03: You know you’re close when Jim Nabors sings “Back home again in Indiaaanaaa”. And the engines are fired woooo.

Green Flag: So much for 3-wide, single file in a hurry.

Lap 3: Wheldon kinda dive-bombed teammate Dixon for the lead, but they made it. Scheckter is flying!

Lap 8: Danica’s team tells her to not worry about fuel… no kidding it’s lap 8 fools. Caution for debris – Scheckter already moved from 11th to 4th during the green run. The debris is Junqueira’s mirror… an aero advantage without it, I’d leave it off (nvm, apparently this is illegal).

Lap 13: Sarah Fisher has spun… under CAUTION. Wow… time to add the tag “Women drivers”. Eddie Cheever: “That was a silly mistake”

Lap 18: Buddy Rice is the new leader by not pitting, new tires restart third on back.

Lap 30: Wheldon leads, Rice was gobbled up on the restart. Junqueira is 14 laps down after fixing the mirror… what a terrible way to lose track time.

Lap 40 or so: Graham Rahal crashes out of Turn 4… damn the kid was having a good month before today. Looks like Alex Lloyd decided to slow in front of him to pit… you know you can go full throttle all the way to the frontstretch right Alex? I know this from my experience on IndyCar Series 2005. Seriously, it’s good stuff.

BIG trouble on Foyt IV’s car, car caught fire on pitroad, looks like a major fuel leak because the cap didn’t close. He had a similar issue during qualifying.

Lap 61: Leaders in HEAVY traffic, and Marty Roth crashes – very similar to Rahal’s crash, seems to have gotten too high at the same spot because Buddy Lazier decided to slow to pit early. Cmon guys, practice on IndyCar Series 2005 some more. Helio has a broken wing from debris, but that can be fixed quickly.

Anyone see the commercials for the show “Wipeout”? What a joke, that’s an exact copy of MXC, minus the hilarious commentary.

300,000+ people in attendance today, that’s 4x this year’s super bowl.

Lap 81: Jaime Camara destroys his car hitting the wall out of turn 1, and then again in turn 2 – debris all over the track.

Pretty sure ESPN just had a commercial that said “Let’s be honest, we watch this to see people wipe out”. Go fuc… I mean “Stay classy, ESPN”.

Lap 94: Kanaan passes both Ganassi cars and takes the lead!

Lap 100: Halfway running order: Kanaan, Dixon, Wheldon, Andretti, Scheckter, Carperter, Meira, Patrick, Hunter-Reay, Mutoh.

Andretti up to 3rd. The AGR cars are coming on strong now in 1st and 3rd. Does that mean… Danica is going to move forward?!!?!? Naaaah.

Lap 105 or so: NO WAY!! Leader Kanaan crashes! Looks like his teammate Marco made a late move into turn 3 and a hard crash for Kanaan who spun and got T-boned by Sarah Fisher who had nowhere to go. What the hell Marco…

Kanaan’s response to Marco “being sorry”: “He better be, it was a very stupid move”. He said Fisher cried all the way back in the ambulance… wow. You have to feel bad, it was her own team on a minimal budget. She doesn’t get the breaks Danica does.

And Jeff Simmons crashes under yellow… on the straightaway. What? something must have broken, the car turned dead right…

Lap 120: Race control to Danica “Keep the car in a straight line”. So you mean the driver who complains so much about blocking is getting warned for blocking? Yep. Also, Marco to the lead.

Lap 132: Justin Wilson spins into the inside wall, which is too bad because he was doing well for the ChampCar drivers. This has been a pretty grinding race with all these crashes.

Danica’s radio conversation: “I can’t do anything!!”, “I am slooooow”. Believe it or not, she actually said that. Thanks for confirming that Danica.

Lap 140: Mario Moraes!! WOW, he got out of line and somehow saved it inches from the wall. Dixon is now leading, his teammate Wheldon has dropped waaaay back – 14th at lap 147.

Lap 155: Alex Lloyd crashes into the pitlane. VERY scary, as he could have hit the pit barrier, and debris sent people scattering in the pits.

Tomas Scheckter, who ran in the top 5 most of the day, is now out with a broken driveshaft. A number of good cars have fallen by the wayside today. Vitor Meira to the lead on lap 159! Very daring move through the middle.

Lap 167: Milka Duno spins but avoids contact. Looks like Lazier chopped her a bit, and Milka kinda drove into the grass by herself after the contact.

Meira shockingly still leads. He’s never won in his 80 starts, but has finished 2nd 7 times. Still, a single car team isn’t expected to do much at Indy.

Crash in pitroad! Danica and Briscoe crash and Danica is out with a broken suspension! Looks like Shammgod made a good prediction. Briscoe’s crew didn’t seem to warn him that Danica was on his outside. Tough caution for the 2 remaining women drivers who are both involved in incidents. Fortunately the coverage will be about drivers up front from now on, not Danica running 10th.

Danica has a hissy fit and storms down pitlane looking to pick a fight with Briscoe. Sorry Danica, but any guy would probably beat you in a fight.

Lap 176: WILD restart, and Wheldon attempts to make a pass in the grass on the backstretch.

Lap 188: With 12 to go, the top five of Dixon, Meira, Castroneves, Andretti, and Carpenter are running nose-to-tail.

Lap 191: Marco is coming forward… up to 3rd now and closing fast.

Lap 196: Meira has closed and it’s going to be a race between him and Dixon.

Lap 198: Dixon hits traffic, but so far is getting through cleanly, he has a healthy lead now.

Lap 200: Congrats to Scott Dixon for his first Indy 500 win!

Final order: Dixon, Meira, Andretti, Castroneves, Carpenter, Hunter-Reay, Mutoh, Rice, Manning, Bell

Dumb reporter to Dixon in victory circle: “No longer can we call you the iceman, we will call you… the milkman”

Danica acts like if she had gotten down to Briscoe, sh!t woulda gone down. uhhh… haha.

Finals comments: 1) So many cautions really hurt the flow of the race, but it was good. 2) Awesome runs by Vitor Meira in 2nd, Ed Carpenter in 5th, and Ryan Hunter-Reay in 6th. For all the talk about the “Big 3″ teams they did real well. 3) Danica needs to chill out – she makes mistakes all the time too, and she wasn’t even good today. 4) Sucks that Kanaan got taken out, he might have had something for Dixon. 5) Let’s go to Milwaukee!

A Pistons-Spurs Final?

Now, I’m not trying to be biased here, but I took some issue with this recent article that says the NBA should wish for a Spurs-Pistons final.

Forgive me, citizens of Easily Entertained, Need-Flash-To-Appreciate Nation for this blasphemous proposal:

Let’s root for another edition of Pistons versus Spurs in the NBA Finals!

(Trying to block out the sound of 260 million people collectively groaning.)

You got that right. Although, lucky for you, I am sufficiently interested in the NBA to see what kind of crap you’re going to pull out next.

Full disclosure: As a Detroiter, I would love to see the Pistons in the Finals for the sixth time in my lifetime.

Ok, that accounts for the Pistons. But how do we explain the Spurs?

But this isn’t about me. This is about the league’s credibility.

Yes, because the NBA would be SO much more credible if it had another NBA finals that no one watched or paid attention to.

The biggest NBA conspiracy theory going right now is that the league is trying to make a Boston-L.A. Finals happen, because it would mean insane television ratings and a return to the time when the dominance of those two franchises overshadowed everything else in sports.

Well, Boston has gotten some pretty questionable calls against it – see game 6 against the Cavs – and they just lost Game 2 to Detroit when it probably would’ve been pretty easy for the refs to swing that in Boston’s favor given how close the margin was at the end. So I’m not sure if the league is trying to get Boston to the finals.

I’m going to save my judgement on the Lakers’ officiating because I’m afraid it’d be inevitably biased.

If this were any other NBA season, the insinuation that the league was somehow working to orchestrate the return of the Lakers-Celtics rivalry would be considered a real reach — but not when the Tim Donaghy betting scandal is still looming.

But if it’s Pistons-Spurs, the NBA Finals will be conspiracy-free.

Forgive me, but as long as there are fans of a team, there will ALWAYS be conspiracy theories about how a game is reffed. Frankly, any time a team has homecourt advantage, they get calls, or no-calls, they probably should not get. (see game 5 lakers-jazz no-call with gasol in closing minutes) And since both of these teams entered these series AS THE HIGHER SEED – how is it a conspiracy if they win? The Lakers are toying with the Spurs and it has nothing to do with the refs. Kobe has been running circles around the Spurs D and Poppovich has no answer for the triangle. And Boston beat Detroit twice in three tries this season, so why shouldn’t they win the majority of games in the playoffs?

Unlike the Lakers and Celtics, the Pistons and Spurs didn’t get to the conference finals with the help of questionable blockbuster deals.

Yes, because the Spurs got Tim Duncan completely legitimately by tanking the ’97 season when David Robinson “rested” for the second half of the year. And can we please stop talking about the Garnett and Gasol deals? Kevin Garnett isn’t the only piece of this puzzle. What about the individual improvement of Kendrick Perkins, Leon Powe and Rajon Rondo, the drafting of Glen Davis this year and the trade for Ray Allen? I’d even argue that Paul Pierce is the MVP of that team and they don’t win unless the supporting cast gets it done – see game 2.

With regards to the Lakers, Andrew Bynum was playing spectacularly before he went down and the Lakers could have been this good next year when he came back if they hadn’t gotten Gasol now. Let’s not forget that Kobe Bryant is playing the best ball of his career, they resigned Derek Fisher to provide another solid floor leader, Lamar Odom’s consistency in the playoffs has been unreal, the “Bench Mob” of Sasha/Turiaf/Walton/Farmar has improved drastically this season, and the midseason trade for Ariza added a valuable defensive stopper. That’s a lot of other personnel movement that has accounted for L.A.’s success.

If you complain you’re sick of seeing NBA teams that don’t play hard, root for Pistons-Spurs.

I don’t think anyone has the intensity of Kevin Garnett. And Kobe especially REFUSES to let his teams lose. Besides, these youngins on LA and Boston play with tremendous passion – just look at how crazy Big Baby and Ronny Turiaf get during games.

If you love teams that win because of their commitment to team basketball, root for Pistons-Spurs.

The Lakers are the best passing team in the NBA and they win because EVERYONE gets involved. And the Celtics are friggin’ UBUNTU!

If you’re sick of seeing basketball dominated by And-1 wannabes, root for Pistons-Spurs.

Don’t even try to call the Black Mamba an “And-1 wannabe”. The boy is a beast. These two teams both have great role players like James Posey, Derek Fisher, P.J. Brown, and Lamar Odom – all of whom fill a niche on their respective teams without being super flashy.

Pistons-Spurs — that’s what we all should be dying to see.

I actually think I might die if I see it.

French Open Preview

The French Open begins this weekend, with matches featuring Novak Djokovic and James Blake starting tomorrow. Here’s a pseudo preview of the year’s second grand slam:

Men’s Draw

First of all, the big surprise on the men’s side has got to be the #1 seed for Roger Federer. I’m not disputing Federer’s status as the overall #1 player on the planet (although Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic can definitely take issue with they; they have significantly narrowed the gap). However, Federer getting a #1 seed for the French Open is an absolute joke. Nadal had >100 match win streak on clay courts spanning over 3 years. He’s the winner of the past 3 French Opens, and a 4th win this year would tie Bjorg’s record. And it’s not like Federer has dominated Nadal on clay courts this year or anything. Although Federer somehow lucked into a #1 seed and a significantly easier draw than the other half of the bracket, Nadal is definitely the favorite to repeat (again) for the French Open. Nadal’s definitely going to have to work to make it to another final this year; hes battled through some injuries this year and always plays a grueling schedule. He may also have to face Djokovic, winner of this year’s Australian Open.

Andy Roddick recently pulled out of this year’s French Open, citing a shoulder injury. Not really a big deal. I’m a huge Roddick fan, but at least this spares us from hearing Andy struggle through yet another press conference after a “stunning first-round upset”. His power game is absolutely unsuited for for clay. This leaves James Blake, the #5 seed, as U.S.’s best chance for a slam. Well…this gives me the excuse to link some of Sampras’s best overheads. These are pretty sick, especially considering Sampras was one of the quietest guys to ever play the game.

Prediction: Nadal denies Federer (again) in his efforts to complete the career grand slam.

Women’s Draw

Justin Henin was last year’s French Open champion, but her retirement leaves the field pretty open this year. Maria Sharapova is one of the top seeds for this year’s tournament, but her power game is also not the best match for the clay of Roland Garros. America’s best chance comes in Serena Williams. The Williams sisters are the ultimate X-factors for any grand slam – when they’re on, very few can play with them. Now the Henin’s gone, Serena’s definitely got the chance to repeat. And I’m liking her chances.

Prediction: Sharapova’s improving clay court game and a wide-open field leads to a finals appearance, but Serena Williams proves too strong.

I expect better, ESPN

There’s a poll on espn.com right now asking “Who has the toughest job to save his or her sport?” After about 4,000 votes the results are:

44% – Candace Parker

32% – Sidney Crosby

13% – Big Brown

10% – Danica Patrick

I’d say these results are mostly fair, although I don’t really understand the wording “save” the sport. In Candace’s case, yes, she will have a large part in “saving” the WNBA which has been viewed as a joke to most people and struggles to keep its head above water. However, the league is still expanding and I wouldn’t save its in any imminent danger – maybe it should be worded as “generating legitimate interest” in the sport. Sidney Crosby is a solid #2 because it will be difficult to raise the NHL to a sense of relevancy for the common sports fan, but does the NHL need saving? In a recent Harris Poll asking “If you could pick one sport as your favorite”, Hockey ranked higher than Pro Basketball, and the NBA is in fine shape. I believe it ranks higher because Hockey is more of a niche sport – I would guess that most NBA fans are also NFL fans or college ball fans, so because the poll only include your favorite, it ends up with a lower tally. This is not a bad thing for hockey because it means more hardcore fans – with a hardcore fan base, hockey doesn’t need “saving”. Likewise Big Brown isn’t going to “save” Horse Racing – It has its followers as it has seemingly forever and gets its share of coverage around Triple Crown time (although PETA might have other plans). Also, Danica Patrick goes under the “generating interest” column because unlike the other three on this poll, she isn’t at the top of her sport – and a sport that would be “saved” by open-wheel unification, not by one driver.

The real issue in my mind is that ESPN does not have enough respect/coverage of other sports beyond it’s “Big 3″ – football, baseball, basketball. Just because these sports aren’t given equal coverage time by ESPN, doesn’t mean they don’t have large, dedicated followings. What about the MLB? It’s embroiled in a scandal which taints the results of its games for over a decade, and by that Harris Poll has lost 8 percentage points in the last 20 years. Does it need “saving”? Probably not, because it still has a large following, but I could make a better argument for the MLB than for the NHL. Even the NBA has gone through a major “Post-Jordan depression” and has dropped from 13% to 4% in the last decade. Same argument applies.

The bottom line? As much as I love SportsCenter, its time for ESPN to stop snubbing other sports and earn the self-proclaimed title “Worldwide Leader in Sports”. Maybe better wording of polls such as these would be an easy way to get started.

Barkley’s serious side

When I look back on this summer, I think I’ll remember one thing – me discovering the awesomeness that is Charles Barkley. I could tell you about the time I spent about 4 hours on youtube, searching for all of his highlights from inside the nba (note: the one where he kisses kenny’s ass is priceless; reggie miller’s analysis of the tnt vs. espn crew was also pretty sweet; and especially, the queer eye for the straight guy one. but anyway). I also watched some of Barkley’s highight mixes on youtube. Quality time wasted. Learned he was also known as the “the round mound of the rebound.” I gained a lot more respect for Barkley when I found out he’s actually like 6’4”. That’s crazy considering the way he played. But this week’s news about Barkley’s alleged gambling debt made me respect Sir Charles even more.

A Las Vegas Casino sued Barkley for him to repay $400,000.

That link has a video of Barkley while on Inside the NBA. I think it’s actually a pretty interesting video to watch. I thought it was big of him to talk about this issue so publicly. Barkley admitted that he had the debt and took full responsibility for his mistake. Barkley also said that he would attempt to give up gambling because of this incident.

“For right now, the next year or two, I’m not going to gamble,” he said. “Just because I can afford to lose money doesn’t mean I should do it.”

Barkley acknowledged that this would be a difficult process: “It’s like a fat person on a diet. This sucks.”

Damn. Charles Barkley…you are the man.