American gymnast George Eyser won six medals during the 1924 Summer Olympics, despite having lost his left leg as a young boy after being run over by a train. Wearing a wooden prosthesis, he won gold in the vault, an event which then included a jump over a long horse without aid of a springboard.
This is definitely one case of NOT having a leg up on the competition!
The longest rally in a tournament was one in which the ball passed over the net 643 times and the point lasted for 29 minutes. The competitors were Jean Hepner and Vicky Nelson at Richmond, Virginia USA in October 1984. Nelson went on to win the match 6–4, 7–6 (13–11), which also holds the record for the longest match, taking 6 hours, 31 minutes. (source)
Let's get a deal done, Mr. Jones...take off the tag and pay the man. I know you have to watch the cap, but how often does a talent like this come along?
1. left-handed.
2. of, pertaining to, or on the left side; left (opposed to dextral).
3. (of certain gastropod shells) coiling counterclockwise, as seen from the apex.
Origin:
Sinistral is related to the word sinister and meant "unlucky" when it entered English in the 1400s. It was extended to mean "on the left side" in the early 1800s.
After Obama was first elected President in 2008, a slew of articles popped up on the 'net saying his being left-handed was more proof that he is the Antichrist. Now, I don't care for his policies, but I'm fairly sure he's not the Antichrist, but who knows? For that matter, Tim Tebow is also left-handed.
My childhood friend and classmate Janice is left-handed, but she couldn't be the Antichrist either, as she was and still is a devout Christian...although I always thought she was a little bit evil for not letting me copy off her during tests. To be fair, it wasn't just that she wouldn't let me, but she sat to my right and her writing hand was curled around her test paper and blocking me from seeing her answers.
Wiki says 10% of people are left-handed and that they are generally more successful, talented and make more money than righties. There have been many great left-handed athletes. (not that Tim Tebow can be included in that group)
So, being left-handed doesn't mean that President Obama is the Antichrist, just that he needs special clubs for all the golf he plays.
You know, maybe God is left-handed, if only out of necessity. After all, the Bible says that Jesus sits on His right hand.
I saw that posted on the Facebook and other Dallas Cowboy fan sites today after the blowout loss by the 'Boys Monday night against "da Bears". I also saw "I'm embarrassed by them!"
I was disappointed, sure; a win would have kept them tied with the Eagles at the top of the division, but embarrassed? Ashamed? No, of course not. I slept like a baby last night and only got annoyed today when turning to a sports show on TV or on the radio where I had to watch/listen to so-called experts who list all the things wrong with the team or what they would have done differently.
Sure, it's easy to look back with 20-20 hindsight and say what should have been done, but if they're so smart, then why are they not coaching an NFL team instead of calling in to a radio or TV show (or hosting one) and griping? It's one thing to have a former player or coach critique the team's play, but for some schmuck on the couch to pretend to be an expert...well, that's too much. Those armchair quarterbacks upset me more than how the Cowboys play.
Look, if you're ashamed of your team, then maybe it's time to root for another one; I know I would. Then again, I know I have absolutely nothing to do with the Cowboy's success OR failure. Wearing a Dallas jersey and screaming at the TV doesn't help, no matter how loud you yell.
Embarrassed by the team? Not me; I get embarrassed when I accidentally pull out in front of someone while driving, or look down after I've been into a half dozen public places and see that my fly is unzipped. (so THAT'S why people were giggling!) If you're embarrassed by one or more of your friends - who root for other teams - making fun of your team...well then, you really need new friends. Both your and their priorities are in the wrong place.
I used to get upset when I was a kid and Dallas would lose...then again, I was 12 yrs. old and they were an important part of my life - along with many other things I now wonder why I set so much store in when I was that age. I was immature, and I think that's the problem with a lot of these "ashamed" and "embarrassed" fans.
Grow up. It's just a game. At the end of the season, only one team's fans will be happy, that's the way it works. If you really want to be upset by games, then watch C-Span and the games our politicians play. Now THAT'S something that should make you embarrassed and ashamed.
I've only been to a "gentleman's club" a few times in my life; a couple times with a bunch of friends as we celebrated one's upcoming nuptials and once to go see Morganna and her huge snake. Well, not so much the snake. To be honest, I always felt uncomfortable at those places, not because I'm a prude, but because I felt sorry for women who had to debase themselves for money.
I knew who she was because I had seen her on the news after she had ran onto the field and kissed a ballplayer. Sometimes she got into trouble, getting beaten up after one attempt and arrested several other times. She stood trial in Houston, Texas, where her lawyer used what he called the "gravity defense" to explain her unauthorized presence on the field, arguing: "This woman with a 112-pound body and 15-pound chest leaned over the rail to see a foul ball. Gravity took its toll, she fell out on the field, and the rest is history." The judge laughed and dismissed the case.
Reggie Jackson hit a record three consecutive home runs in a World Series game, all on the first pitch thrown to him by three different pitchers. His post-season exploits earned him the nickname of "Mr. October".
In 2010, Bethel University in McKenzie, Tennessee started offering athletic scholarships in competitive bass fishing. The school is one of over 200 to have a competitive bass fishing team.
Playing for the Seattle Mariners in a 1990 game against the California Angels, Kenny Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. became the only father and son teammates in major league baseball to hit back-to-back home runs. They were also the first father and son to play on the same team.
Boxing great Joe Louis (on the left, below), who served in Army during WWII and actor Lee Marvin (on the right), who served in the Marine Corps during that same war, are buried next to each other in Arlington National Cemetery.
Anyone who knows me or has followed this blog for any length of time knows I am a Dallas Cowboy fan. (there's a Cowboys news module in the right-hand side column) I don't post much about them because frankly, it's been hard to be a fan for the last decade or so and I don't want or need trolls coming in and blasting my favorite team. I know they've sucked for a long time, I don't need to be reminded of it.
That said, I'm still a fan, although not as much of one as I once was. As I've grown older, I've become less and less interested in football...and all sports, for that matter. I try to watch the Cowboys on TV, but if they're playing badly I have no problem changing the channel. I've done that a lot over the last 15 years. I'm no fair-weather fan, but I'm also not a glutton for punishment.
I still keep up with them, however, reading articles about them on the Dallas Cowboys website and subscribe to a few fan sites in my reader. I was glad to see this article yesterday: Cowboys Sign Long Snapper LaDouceur To Five-Year Deal. I couldn't find the exact terms of the contract, at least none that sounded correct. Most sources said it was a five-year deal for $4 million, but LaDouceur has been in the league long enough to get at least the veteran minimum wage and the math doesn't work for that number.
Doing some quick research, I found that he made $790,000 for the 2012 season. Considering that all he does is "long snap", I decided to research a little more to see how much he made per actual play he was on the field. I figure he played during 31 field goal attempts, 68 punts and 38 PAT (subtracting three 2 point tries) for a total of 137 plays....without making a bad snap. That works out to $5,766.42/play. Not bad wages, huh?
That made me wonder about other player's wages per play. I thought about figuring what certain of my favorite players made, but the task would have been daunting, trying to find out the exact number of times they were on the field, taking off their substitutions, injuries, etc. It was fairly easy to calculate the number for the team's highest profile player and quarterback, Tony Romo.
(and I don't care what other people think of him, he's a favorite of mine and a good player. I don't care if anyone disagrees with me on his worth to the team; you can point out his mistakes, but I'll point out your lack of football knowledge.)
According to the Cowboy website's statistics, Dallas ran 1,049 offensive plays in 2012. The site says the backup QB Orton attempted 10 passes, but there's no breakdown of how many times he handed off the ball. So, let's just say for the matter of simplicity that Tony Romo was on the field for 925 plays, taking off the extra point kicks, adding back the 2 point tries, taking away the punt plays and estimating however many times Orton handed off. 925 is close enough for me.
Romo's listed salary for 2012 was $9,000,000. Now, I'm not sure, what with the signing bonus and the "funny money" salary cap implications, if it was more or less than that amount, but again, for the sake of simplicity, let's go with the figure of nine million. That means he got paid $9729.73 per play.
(for all you anal-retentive stat freaks: if you have a problem with my figures for that or any of the other calculations I've done, send me an email with detailed corrections, screen captures of your calculations and verified links to your sources to: idonotgiveadamn@buzzoff.net)
That's a pretty decent wage, wouldn't you say? Especially considering that a good percentage of those plays were just handing off the ball and not getting touched. Then again, there were far too many plays like this one:
That wasn't even close to the worst hit he took this last year, but I'm sure he would have given up part of his per-play salary to have avoided that hit. Hell, I would have given it ALL back, plus another couple of play's worth. LaDouceur might make only half of what Romo does per snap, but it's a wonder Romo's neck hasn't been snapped.
Maybe Google is celebrating the return of ice hockey, but it's also the birthday of Frank Zamboni, the inventor of his namesake, the iconic ice resurfacer.
The game is easy to play; Press the arrow "start" button and a little skater will come out, skate around and leave a trail on the ice.
Then, using the arrow keys, drive the Zamboni around to resurface the ice.
Not an exciting game, but like most doodles done with a pencil and paper, it's simply a way to pass time.
As if there's not enough ways to do that on the Internet.
Here's another time waster, but at least it will increase your trivia knowledge:
Am listening to sports talk radio at the moment and the hosts are talking about the Academy Award nominations. They're raving about Lincoln, a movie I want to see but not enough to break down and go to the theater. I'll wait until it comes out on video or go to one of those sites that doesn't much care about copyright infringement.
They're especially gushing over the performance of Daniel Day-Lewis and from the short trailers I've seen, he does resemble President Lincoln. One of the male hosts asked the woman on the show if the actor did a good job portraying Lincoln and she said "Spot on! Captures him perfectly!".
Uh, I can understand saying he LOOKS like Lincoln, but how the hell would she know anything else about the man? Lincoln had his photograph taken several times, but there's no recordings of his speech or film of him. Photography was still in its infancy; there were certainly no movies, records or tapes then.
Aw, hell...these idiot talking heads don't know much about sports, why would I expect them to know much of anything about movies?
Yep, they're stupid...but maybe I'm more stupid for listening to them.
I've got a good online friend from England - her nickname is "Minnie". She's a devoted fan of the Chelsea soccer (footie) team. A long time ago when we were chatting on IM, she asked if I followed soccer and if so, what team did I like. I allowed as I really didn't like soccer all that much, but if I did, I might follow Arsenal because that was such a cool name for a team.
Oops, wrong answer. I knew soccer fans were...well, "fanatical" about their teams, but I didn't know about the hatred they could have for other teams. (I like American football, but have grown less and less interested in all sports as I've grown older. I do follow the Dallas Cowboys and have been a fan since I was a young boy, but I don't watch them if they're playing badly. Why would I want to suffer through that? Personally, I don't "hate" other NFL teams, but will admit to disliking Philadelphia mostly because of their obnoxious fans)
It wasn't very long until I got a pkg. in the mail from my British friend; in it were two Chelsea jerseys, one white and one blue. My allegiance to a particular footie team had been decided for me!
Chelsea played Barcelona yesterday; I wasn't for sure what was at stake, but I did some research and found out it was an important match (the Champions League Semifinal) and that the team from Spain was the World Cup Champs. (was? were? The British form of singular/plural confuses me a little. Where Americans would say "Chelsea is a great team.", the Brits would say "Chelsea are a great team." I guess it's something to do with the former thinking of a team as a singular unit while the latter thinks of a team being individual players. Just always found that odd. It's almost like the USA being considered a union of individual states pre-Civil War - "The United States ARE..." and afterwards being thought of as a single entity "The United States IS....")
Anyway....I watched a little bit of the match, but was confused a little bit by the Barcelona squad being able to keep the ball near the Chelsea goal as much as they were. I then found out that John Terry, a Chelsea star player, had been given a "red card" - being ejected from the match for a flagrant foul on a Barcelona player, Sanchez. Here's a video of the infraction:
Good Grief, that wasn't much more than a love tap. Sanchez deserved an Oscar for that acting performance. Terry could have shot him with a pistol and he wouldn't have gone down that fast.
As said, Terry was ejected from the match. I didn't know that a team would have to play short-handed the rest of the game. That doesn't seem right. Chelsea went on to play great defense and eventually knotted the score at 2-2. I know next to nothing about the game and even less about how that can be considered a win, but that's what happened and Chelsea moves on into the playoffs.
(I also don't understand how the various leagues work - my friend Min tried to explain it to me once but I was more confused after the explanation than I was before. I remember thinking at the time it would be like trying to explain the game of baseball to one of those remote Amazonian tribes. I did catch on that the worst teams have to "drop down" into another league and that sounds like a good deal to me and wish they'd try it in the NFL.)
The Terry "foul" reminded me of another foul committed by Albert Haynesworth, then of the Tennessee Titans, against Andre Gurode of the Dallas Cowboys from a few years ago.
What Terry did paled in comparison, wouldn't you say?
Note: Doing a little dab of research on this post has made me much more knowledgeable about soccer. I still don't know much, but I know more than I did yesterday. Now I need to find out what the fans sing during soccer matches. I watched a bit of a Liverpool match (scousers!) a couple of years ago and heard them singing "You'll Never Walk Alone". Odd.
I haven't asked her, but I bet my British friend Min might think Liverpool should sing the chorus of "Hair Of The Dog".
