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Category: sports

Published on Leave a comment on London Calling

Congratulations to London for its winning bid to host the 2012 Olympics. The Samwick family plans to attend, and we'll be live-blogging it on our cell phone, PDA, wristwatch, or whatever the latest gadgetry turns out to be.

I think Londoners are some of the best sports fans anywhere. Judging the English based on the conduct of soccer hooligans would be a bit like judging Americans based on the end zone of an Oakland Raiders game. I recall being in London during the 1994 World Cup, when England failed to qualify but the U.S. and Ireland were in and doing well. I drank for free that week in every pub.

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Published on Leave a comment on Hockey, I understand … but lacrosse?

I took some time this weekend to enjoy the Dartmouth-Cornell men's lacrosse game, in which the Big Red edged the Big Green, 8-7. This was the first game I have seen in over a decade, and I confess that I couldn't figure it out. It seemed like Cornell was playing a different sport than Dartmouth was.

Hockey, I understand quite well, after 20 years of watching it closely. It basically comes down to three principles:

  1. Failure to clear the puck out of your defensive zone is the source of all bad hockey. (This means that the entire team, including the forwards, must work as hard as possible to get the puck across the blue line.)
  2. If there is a 2-on-1, and you are the 1, prevent the pass not the shot. (The goalie has to play the opponent with the puck no matter what, so the defender's primary objective should be to make sure he doesn't also have to worry about a pass to the opponent without the puck.)
  3. Favorable rebounds far outnumber perfect passes. (The best opportunities arise when the puck is near the net, so when in doubt, shoot.)

Can anyone enlighten me on comparable principles for lacrosse? And what are the rules governing physical contact and contact with the stick?

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Published on Leave a comment on Philadelphia Eagles, Meet Irony

These items were too much to pass up:

1) For all of the inane flapping of their arms they do, the Eagles could have moved with a bit more alacrity in the fourth quarter as they were trying to come back from 10 points down.

2) Before the game, Freddie Mitchell was talking trash about Rodney Harrison and the rest of the Patriots' secondary. By the end of the game, Harrison caught more passes (2) thrown by Eagles' quarterback Donovan McNabb than did Mitchell (1). And he also made 7 solo tackles and one sack.

Mr. Mitchell would do well to remember the adage, "Keep your words soft and sweet. One day, you might have to eat them."

UPDATE: Wizbang picks up the irony, too, giving Mitchell's original statement its "Quote of the Day."

Congratulations to the Patriots!

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Published on Leave a comment on Maybe His Daddy Moved to Queens

This week, my fellow Red Sox fans and I learned that Pedro Martinez opted for a $53 million contract over four years with the Mets rather than the best offer the Red Sox could muster ($40.5 million over three years). Best of luck to a heck of a pitcher. And the Boston sportswriters should stop whining about it. It's a business, and if you can trade Nomar for your own reasons, then you can't complain when Pedro leaves for a bigger paycheck. Meanwhile the Mets continue their efforts to become the best team in baseball--in January rather than October.

I'll still be cheering for the Red Sox next year, now with Edgar Renteria playing shortstop, though I don't hold out any hope that they can get back to the World Series without filling this hole in their pitching rotation. I guess there will be plenty of time to watch Faith Rewarded next October.

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