The NL, on the other hand, will probably be decided by a one-game playoff between the Padres and Dodgers, and an NLCS featuring the winner of that game against the Giants.
The big news of the Olympics yesterday, of course, was Simone Biles. Having been on the periphery of this story the last few weeks, the only thing I would have to say about yesterday's news is that no one should ever feel pressured to do anything in gymnastics for anyone else's sake.
Certainly not mine. I appreciate all of the joy Simone Biles has brought me. She owes me nothing.
Also, over the course of about five years when I wasn't much older than Simone Biles, I saw a psychotherapist regularly, adjusted diet and exercise and immersed myself in Christian-church life. Those were three super additions to my great family and circles of friends in terms of my mental health and happiness. I encourage anyone to build up as many of those assets around themselves as possible--and if one isn't working at a given moment, to keep on trying new versions (and/or going back and re-investing in old versions) until you start percolating. God loves you, and God is bigger than any of us could possibly imagine and always doing new, great things.
And--one last gymnastics point--I was thrilled to learn that Team USA won the silver in the team gymnastics competition yesterday. Great Britain won bronze. The members of the U.S. team are Biles, 24, of Columbus, Ohio; Jordan Chiles, 20, of Tualatin, Oregon; Sunisa Lee, 18, of South Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Grace McCallum, 18, of Cambridge, Minnesota.
Now we have on USA Network a 1/16 matchup in women's archery. India's Deepika Kumari is the 1; Team USA's Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez is the 16. Mucino-Fernandez got the first set and leads the second, but Kumari just shot a 10 ...
I'm currently watching Team Handball, which I like a great deal, but which is dramatically worse than basketball. When you watch sports like Team Handball and Water Polo, you see what a brilliant idea it was to make the goal in basketball into a hoop rather than a goal. In basketball, you can score from the corner, which significantly opens up the whole playing field.
When Roone Arledge did the Olympics, he spent a lot of time teaching viewers how the different sports worked. I can remember long segments on the old compulsory figures in figure skating. NBC has never done anything like that. They just send you to a venue with a couple of Australians on the mike, and expect you to figure it out.
Yeah, NBC tends to do about 45 seconds on that at the beginning of a broadcast, maybe with a graphic or two at the bottom of the screen, but then they just dribble in a little here and there in the commentary. They pretty quickly start talking to us about the top competitors as though we should know who they are and how stuff like the sport's world rankings and world championships work.
Now I'm watching a badminton match. I think that if I could have been an Olympian in anything, I would have picked badminton. Unfortunately, badminton didn't become an Olympic sport until 1992, which was too late for me to start training. But of all the sports in the Olympics, badminton is by far my favorite one to play.
It was me and about 30 other guys who thought they could do better than John Shuster. Then it turned out that it hurts your knees to learn how to shoosh one of those heavy rocks down the ice, and, so, (probably) all of us gave up. And then John Shuster just kept on keeping on and eventually won the gold medal.
Well maybe you'll be out there on that road somewhere On some horse traveling along In the athletes village, there'll be a radio playing And you'll hear me sing this song Well if you do, you'll know I'm thinking of you And the 78.416 you scored in individual dressage That won't be good enough for a medal today But just remember "You won silver in team dressage yesterday. Good job, Schut-Kery, Sabine"
Well, tell them this is their last chance to get to the top of the dressage stand(ing)s Because Jessica von Bredow-Werndl just just scored a big 84.379 And she rode TSF Dalera, and she didn't crash; the Lord had mercy And your horse, if it's a dud, you'll never catch this rider from Germany Well, hold on tight, stay up all night, 'cause we've got four or five more riders And by the time we meet the Tokyo morning light, we'll know who holds the medals in their arms
Isabell, "Queen of Equestrian," it's not too late for dreamin' You haven't won individual gold for 25 years, could Bella Rosa 2 be redeeming? Werth, my queen, your strong horse is reviving No, you're not going to quite make it; your German teammate is rising
Riding now is Charlotte Dujardin Penultimate competitor in individual dressage Riding now is Charlotte Dujardin Looking for a spot on that medals podium She flew in from London City Where the horses are few once you get outside Hyde Park Riding now is Charlotte Dujardin She won the last gold medals in Olympics dressage She didn't come 6,000 miles to drop She got Tom Hunt music blasting in Equestrian Park, singing, "Sha la la, sha la la la la "Sha la la la, la la la "Sha la la, sha la la la la "Sha la la la, la la la"
The bronze-medal game in men's rugby is down to about 30 seconds, and Argentina is leading Great Britain, 17-12. And they're starting to fight a little ...
Yes, is. Great Britain was the silver medalist in men’s rugby sevens at Rio 2016 (Fiji won gold; South Africa, bronze.) That was the first rugby of any form had been played at the Olymics since 1924.
But now back to rugby sevens at Tokyo 2020, where defending gold-medalist Fiji is about to face traditional-power New Zealand in the final on NBC Sports Network tape delay ...
A player for Fiji whose nickname is "The Marvelous Mustache" dashes around right end and stretches the defending champs' lead to 19-5. Forty-five seconds to go in the half ...
Tonight I have the Yankees at the Devil Rays. 0-0 in the top of the 4th.
ReplyDeleteThis season has been extremely disappointing for the Yankees, who are 51-47 and 9 1/2 games behind the BoSox in the AL East.
ReplyDeleteThe Devil Rays, on the other hand, are 60-40 and only 1 1/2 games out. They are in a strong position to win the division or get a wild card.
ReplyDeleteThe AL appears to be headed toward a showdown that will feature the Red Sox, White Sox, Astros, and (probably) the Devil Rays.
ReplyDeleteThe NL, on the other hand, will probably be decided by a one-game playoff between the Padres and Dodgers, and an NLCS featuring the winner of that game against the Giants.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to the playoffs because I really hate that ghost runner rule. I hope every playoff game goes 15 innings.
ReplyDeleteThis point is worthy of a separate entry, but do yourself a favor and watch Michael Cleveland play the fiddle on YouTube.
ReplyDeleteThe Yankees win 4-3, which is good news for the Red Sox.
ReplyDeleteI think I would love to play water polo (and handball).
ReplyDeleteThere’s 45 seconds to go in a tape-delay women’s match on USA Network. Hungary is leading Team USA, 10-9, and the teams are coming out of a timeout.
The Rio 2016 medalists were Team USA gold and Italy silver. They gave the bronze to Russia, which cheated in the Olympics.
No dice. First loss for Team USA in the last three Olympic Summer Games.
ReplyDeleteQuarterfinals start Tuesday--Team USA has already qualified.
It's about 20 minutes until midnight in Tokyo, so I guess we're done with live competition for today.
ReplyDeleteOh, good! Team USA won the 3x3 women's basketball. That's exciting. China won bronze. Latvia won the men’s tournament, and Serbia won bronze.
ReplyDeleteThe Team USA women are …
— Stefanie Dotson, a 29-year-old from Port Jervis, New York, who played at Connectictut and now plays for the Chicago Sky of the WNBA;
— Allisha Gray, a 26-year-old from Greenwood, South Carolina, who played at both North Carolina and South Carolina and now plays for the Dallas Wings;
— Kelsey Plum, a 26-year-old from Poway, California, who played at Washington and now plays for the Las Vegas Aces, and
— Jackie Young, a 23-year-old from Princeton, Indiana, who played at Notre Dame and now also plays for the Aces.
Dotson was 4 when the WNBA came about in 1996; Gray, 2, and Plum 1. There’s been an WNBA throughout Young’s life. That makes me happy.
Hey, that was Latvia's first medal of Tokyo 2020!
DeleteThe big news of the Olympics yesterday, of course, was Simone Biles. Having been on the periphery of this story the last few weeks, the only thing I would have to say about yesterday's news is that no one should ever feel pressured to do anything in gymnastics for anyone else's sake.
ReplyDeleteCertainly not mine. I appreciate all of the joy Simone Biles has brought me. She owes me nothing.
Also, over the course of about five years when I wasn't much older than Simone Biles, I saw a psychotherapist regularly, adjusted diet and exercise and immersed myself in Christian-church life. Those were three super additions to my great family and circles of friends in terms of my mental health and happiness. I encourage anyone to build up as many of those assets around themselves as possible--and if one isn't working at a given moment, to keep on trying new versions (and/or going back and re-investing in old versions) until you start percolating. God loves you, and God is bigger than any of us could possibly imagine and always doing new, great things.
And--one last gymnastics point--I was thrilled to learn that Team USA won the silver in the team gymnastics competition yesterday. Great Britain won bronze. The members of the U.S. team are Biles, 24, of Columbus, Ohio; Jordan Chiles, 20, of Tualatin, Oregon; Sunisa Lee, 18, of South Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Grace McCallum, 18, of Cambridge, Minnesota.
Here is the current medal count according to 538:
ReplyDelete1. United States: 31 medals (11,11,9): 6 fewer than expected
2. China: 27 medals (12,6,9): 2 more than expected
3. Russia: 23 (7, 10, 6): plus 10
4. Japan: 22 (13,4,5): minus 5
5. Australia: 16 (6,1,9): plus 3
Now we have on USA Network a 1/16 matchup in women's archery. India's Deepika Kumari is the 1; Team USA's Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez is the 16. Mucino-Fernandez got the first set and leads the second, but Kumari just shot a 10 ...
ReplyDeleteAnd another ... now tied at two sets apiece ...
ReplyDeleteI'm currently watching Team Handball, which I like a great deal, but which is dramatically worse than basketball. When you watch sports like Team Handball and Water Polo, you see what a brilliant idea it was to make the goal in basketball into a hoop rather than a goal. In basketball, you can score from the corner, which significantly opens up the whole playing field.
ReplyDeleteAgree!
DeleteMucino-Fernandez is an 18-year-old from Massachusetts who learned archery while living in Mexico for a while, the USA Network person says.
ReplyDeleteKumari opens the third set with her third consecutive 10 ...
ReplyDeleteAnd Kumari takes the third set. So somehow--why don't I actually learn how these sports score--Kumari leads 4 points to 2, and it's first to 6 wins.
ReplyDeleteWhen Roone Arledge did the Olympics, he spent a lot of time teaching viewers how the different sports worked. I can remember long segments on the old compulsory figures in figure skating. NBC has never done anything like that. They just send you to a venue with a couple of Australians on the mike, and expect you to figure it out.
ReplyDeleteYeah, NBC tends to do about 45 seconds on that at the beginning of a broadcast, maybe with a graphic or two at the bottom of the screen, but then they just dribble in a little here and there in the commentary. They pretty quickly start talking to us about the top competitors as though we should know who they are and how stuff like the sport's world rankings and world championships work.
DeleteNow I'm watching a badminton match. I think that if I could have been an Olympian in anything, I would have picked badminton. Unfortunately, badminton didn't become an Olympic sport until 1992, which was too late for me to start training. But of all the sports in the Olympics, badminton is by far my favorite one to play.
ReplyDeleteI actually went to a curling lesson one time when we were in North Carolina.
ReplyDeleteIt was me and about 30 other guys who thought they could do better than John Shuster. Then it turned out that it hurts your knees to learn how to shoosh one of those heavy rocks down the ice, and, so, (probably) all of us gave up. And then John Shuster just kept on keeping on and eventually won the gold medal.
ReplyDeleteI really want a movie -- a serious, Oscar-quality movie -- about John Shuster.
DeleteWhen I was a kid, I really loved badminton. Under the right circumstances, I really could have played several hours/day.
ReplyDeleteIt's among the pictograms for the Virginia Senior Games.
DeleteI missed the end of the archery. However they score it, 27-year-old Deepika Kumari of Ranchi, Bihar, India--"Deepika Kumari Mahato (born 13 June 1994) is a Indian professional archeress," says her Wikipedia page--outlasted 18-year-old Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez of Boston (who grew up in Mexico City).
ReplyDelete"Deepika Kumari was born in Ranchi, Bihar (Now Jharkhand) to Shivnarayan Mahato, an auto-rickshaw driver and her mother Geeta Mahato, a nurse at Ranchi Medical College. Her parents live at Ratu Chatti village, 15 km away from Ranchi, Jharkhand. As a child, she practised archery while aiming for mangoes with stones."
And we go down to Setagaya-ku
ReplyDeleteAnd at Setagaya-ku they'll ride
Oh, down to Setagaya-ku
they'll ride
Well maybe you'll be out there on that road somewhere
ReplyDeleteOn some horse traveling along
In the athletes village, there'll be a radio playing
And you'll hear me sing this song
Well if you do, you'll know I'm thinking of you
And the 78.416 you scored in individual dressage
That won't be good enough for a medal today
But just remember "You won silver in team dressage yesterday. Good job, Schut-Kery, Sabine"
Well, tell them this is their last chance to get to the top of the dressage stand(ing)s
ReplyDeleteBecause Jessica von Bredow-Werndl just just scored a big 84.379
And she rode TSF Dalera, and she didn't crash; the Lord had mercy
And your horse, if it's a dud, you'll never catch this rider from Germany
Well, hold on tight, stay up all night, 'cause we've got four or five more riders
And by the time we meet the Tokyo morning light, we'll know who holds the medals in their arms
Isabell, "Queen of Equestrian," it's not too late for dreamin'
ReplyDeleteYou haven't won individual gold for 25 years, could Bella Rosa 2 be redeeming?
Werth, my queen, your strong horse is reviving
No, you're not going to quite make it; your German teammate is rising
Riding now is Charlotte Dujardin
ReplyDeletePenultimate competitor in individual dressage
Riding now is Charlotte Dujardin
Looking for a spot on that medals podium
She flew in from London City
Where the horses are few once you get outside Hyde Park
Riding now is Charlotte Dujardin
She won the last gold medals in Olympics dressage
She didn't come 6,000 miles to drop
She got Tom Hunt music blasting in Equestrian Park, singing,
"Sha la la, sha la la la la
"Sha la la la, la la la
"Sha la la, sha la la la la
"Sha la la la, la la la"
Tape-delay NBC Sports Network women's individual dressage love:
ReplyDelete-- Jessica von Bredow-Werndl, Germany, gold
-- Isabell Werth, Germany, silver
-- Charlotte Dujardin, Great Britain, bronze
Top Team USA performer was 52-year-old Sabine Schut-Kery, originally of Germany and now of Thousand Oaks, California, who finished fifth.
Jessica Rae Springsteen, a 29-year-old from Los Angeles, is scheduled to compete next week as part of the Team USA jumping squad.
And Team USA won silver!
DeleteThe bronze-medal game in men's rugby is down to about 30 seconds, and Argentina is leading Great Britain, 17-12. And they're starting to fight a little ...
ReplyDeleteThis is a tape-delay deal on NBC Sports Network.
ReplyDeleteIt's over. Argentina wins. I think that's an upset.
ReplyDeleteYes, is. Great Britain was the silver medalist in men’s rugby sevens at Rio 2016 (Fiji won gold; South Africa, bronze.) That was the first rugby of any form had been played at the Olymics since 1924.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia: "The practice of sports in Argentina is varied due to the population's diverse European origins and the mostly mild climate. Association football is the most popular discipline and other sports played both professionally and recreatively (include) athletics, auto racing, basketball, boxing, cycling, field hockey, fishing, golf, handball, mountaineering, padel tennis, polo, roller hockey, rowing, rugby union, sailing, skiing, swimming, tennis and volleyball. Argentine achievements can be found in team sports such as association football, basketball, field hockey and rugby union, and individual sports such as boxing, golf, tennis and rowing. Pato, the national sport, is not very popular."
ReplyDelete"In modern pato, two four-member teams[5] riding on horses fight for possession of a ball which has six conveniently-sized handles, and score by throwing the ball through a vertically positioned ring (as opposed to the horizontal rim used in basketball). The rings have a 100 cm (3.3 ft) diameter, and are located atop 240 cm (7.9 ft) high poles. A closed net, extending for 140 cm (4.6 ft), holds the ball after goals are scored. The winner is the team with most goals scored after regulation time (six 8-minute "periods")."
ReplyDelete"It is the national sport of Argentina since 1953. Pato is Spanish for 'duck', as early games used a live duck inside a basket instead of a ball. Accounts of early versions of pato have been written since 1610. The playing field would often stretch the distance between neighboring estancias (ranches). The first team to reach its own casco (ranch house) with the duck would be declared the winner. Pato was banned several times during its history because of the violence—not only to the duck; many gauchos were trampled underfoot, and many more lost their lives in knife fights started in the heat of the game. In 1796, a Catholic priest insisted that pato players who died in such a way should be denied Christian burial. Government ordinances forbidding the practice of pato were common throughout the 19th century."
I'm fine with pato's never having achieved an Olympic pictogram.
ReplyDeleteBut now back to rugby sevens at Tokyo 2020, where defending gold-medalist Fiji is about to face traditional-power New Zealand in the final on NBC Sports Network tape delay ...
ReplyDelete"Every TV in Fiji is tuning into this," says the color commentator. "The island has stopped to watch this match."
ReplyDeleteMaybe so. Per the Fiji Mission in Jakarta:
ReplyDeleteSports culture is unique as different racial mixes and cultures come together in a common interest. Fiji is fanatical about sports and the most dominant sports being rugby union, association football and Rugby League.
Soccer was a minor sport but over the last decade with further international funding from FIFA and sound local management of the sport has grown in popularity amongst the Indian community initially but now also the Fijian community.
Many sports exist in Fiji, and in many ways has its own cultural following. There are sports such as golf, which has been made famous by Fiji athlete Vijay Singh.Cricket and surfing which was brought to prominence by former world champion and Fiji Athlete Tony Philps. Sailing in varying forms, various adventure sports, athletics, various Asian martial arts, and boxing. Whilst a handful of players of Fijian heritage currently play in the Australian Football League to date there is still no AFL competition in the country.
It's 12-5, Fiji, with 2:30 to go in the first half ...
ReplyDeleteA player for Fiji whose nickname is "The Marvelous Mustache" dashes around right end and stretches the defending champs' lead to 19-5. Forty-five seconds to go in the half ...
ReplyDeleteFiji won! 27-12.
ReplyDelete