Olympics
 

It's the production that's unwatchable, particularly at night.

This past olympiad, I tivo'd the stuff on Bravo, Telemundo, MSNBC, CNBC, etc. during the day. Much, much better. It was pure sports, as one would want. Handball, water polo, field hockey, cycling, ping pong, soccer. All the good stuff that you never see at night with the fluff. In particular, one significant highlight was listening to Bill Clement calling the water polo games. Wow--the guy can announce. And, unlike the NHL, the goalies don't have padding to block all but 3" of net, so "Score!" comes out a bit more often.

The night time sucks. Of course, that's when track is and the other glamour events, although I could do without gymnastics and swimming, really (too slow to develop).

Olympics
 

I find it unwatchable, largely because I don't really care to know Bob Costas that well, yet after 30 mins of watching any of the production, I feel so used that I should be asking Bob for a post-coital Canadian cigarette.

Olympics
 

Oddly, in watching Costas do this, I've always gotten the feeling he's feeling the same way towards Dick Ebersol.

Costas has always struck me as a genuine sportscaster, who's instead gotten opportunities to be more of a show host, but would prefer otherwise. Maybe he's sufficiently photogenic and glib, but he strikes me as the type that if the money were as good in local radio, he'd be there, not at the olympic village.

Olympics
 

Costas is a melodramatic clown. He may like sports, but he is unwatchable. What sport does he do well? Certainly not basketball. He barely knows the sport. He's OK at baseball, but I'll take Joe Buck, Al Michaels, Vin Sculley, Jonny Miller and a host of others over him. Football? Please. He is horrendous, and certainly not of the caliber of, say, Keith Jackson, Al Michaels, Marv Albert, or the guy on ESPN whose name is escaping me. Hell, I'll take a senial Pat Summeral over him.

All-Star Game
 

Things I like and don't like:

Like
1) Comerica Park. Looks like a great stadium, and I like the fact it's not a pure hitters' park. There actually is some foul territory.

Don't Like
2) Tiger Stadium. But you had to give up a classic (albeit crumbling) to get it.

3) A-Rod's white shoes. You wear black shoes, as you should, 162 games a year (I don't count the post-season, because you don't show up). What's with the Charlie Finley white shoes? They make you look like a clown.

4) This time it counts. For? It counts for two teams that are yet to be determined. That means it counts for a small percentage of the players, even if you assume it matters to the contenders.

5) Scooter. Why is this animated jackass still being used by Fox? Could one of those glowing fox-pucks please hit him square in the teeth?

6) Jack Buck. Dude--this isn't a videogame or streetball. Not every batter is "one swing away" from changing the complexion of the game. Have we come to a point in baseball where it's all home runs and Ks?

7) Tim McCarver. Did you have a stroke before the game? You mumbled your opening lines, and they were incoherent anyway. You were good. A long time ago.

Like
8) Jeannie Zelasko still has her job despite being pregnant, and gets to do on-field interviews.

Don't Like
9) That they allowed the camera to show her below the neck in that hideous wrap. Did she get a remnant from Central Park?

10) The rule requiring one player from every team. I like it in principle, but it made more sense with fewer teams, so the rosters weren't so bloated. What about every other year. I suspect that much of it would balance out. Probably all but one or two teams can produce an all-star caliber player every other year. So the rule should be that the roster must have at least one player from any team that didn't have an all-star the year before.

ETA: #10

The Sonics
 

Out of courtesy to the people who are bored by sports talk.

Although Howard Schultz generally acts as the public face of Sonics ownership, he has many partners, many of whom have not been publicly revealed. It took 58 people to put up the $200 million to buy the team in 2001. They had made their fortunes selling coffee, cellphones, car stereos and legal advice, and saw the Sonics as a different sort of investment — a civic icon that might also turn a profit.

It hasn't turned out as they'd hoped. The owners' partnership, The Basketball Club of Seattle, has lost nearly $60 million over the past five years, and local politicians so far have rebuffed owners' pleas for a $220 million KeyArena expansion. While they speak of their stake in the team as a kind of public service, the owners now say their patience is running out, and there are rumors the team already is for sale.
At a quarterly meeting today, the owners' nine-member board will consider the Sonics' future in Seattle. A public statement may be released after the meeting, though spokeswoman Valerie O'Neil said a final decision on the franchise's fate is unlikely.

With a combined wealth in the billions, the owners represent a cross section of Pacific Northwest money and influence. They include several of Schultz's lieutenants at Starbucks, cellphone tycoon John Stanton, University of Washington Regent Stan Barer, and former Microsoft chief financial officer Greg Maffei. The group also includes partners at two of Seattle's biggest law firms, the local inventors of the popular board games Pictionary and Cranium, and the man in charge of ending homelessness in King County.

The Sonics operate under one of the least-lucrative deals in the NBA. Schultz has called the team's lease, which expires in 2010, "probably the worst economic arrangement of any professional sports team in the United States of America."

They only need look across town to find cause for envy. The Mariners and Seahawks get to keep all the profits from their taxpayer-subsidized stadiums while the Sonics must share cash from luxury suites and concessions with the city of Seattle. As a result, the Sonics say they can't turn a profit even if they fill every seat at KeyArena.

If the Seattle area won't follow that national model, agreeing to the KeyArena expansion and a better lease, the Sonics may find suitors elsewhere. Cities as close as Bellevue and as far as Oklahoma City are being talked about as possibilities.


The rest of the story.

Bellevue would suck, but Oklahoma would suck a lot harder.

The Sonics
 

Are you saying Oklahoma is a fat girl who tries harder?

Integrity
 

I keep hearing (blasphemous) rumours that the Hawaiian Ironman World Championship might be moved from the Big Island/Kona at some point in the next few years and want to register my state of being appalled. I think that such a move would seriously undermine the historical integrity of the race on a going forward basis.

To draw an analogy, would/could the Boston Marathon still be the Boston Marathon, if, say, it moved to Orlando, FL, for example????

I say no.

Integrity
 

IF they offered the prize money, and got the same field, it would still be a pretty good race.

Integrity
 

Sure, the Walt Disney World/Orlando Marathon. In the same way that London or Amsterdam et al are well-prized prestigious races, but they are not Boston. You can't just move hallowed ground and pretend it is the same.

It's the same reason why Adam Carolla's idea to solve the ME problem by moving the Israelites to Baja doesn't work.

Integrity
 

Olympics in Athens every year then, eh?

Integrity
 

And naked.

Integrity
 

I am in favor of moving it to somewhere else. I would like for the swimming not to be against ocean currents, and the biking and running not being up a mountain and through lava fields- if they moved it someplace easier I could do it, i think, provided they shorten the distances.

Integrity
 

The modern day Olympics changed that equation. PLus the spirit of the games involve moving them around to international locales.

Integrity
 

IronMan Florida is a flat and fast one. Not shorter though.