Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category

So I saw the YouTube of Kobe Bryant “jumping” over an Astin Martin.

To be honest, I thought it was pretty cool. But it’s obviously both a commercial by Nike as well as a trick of the camera. Use of perspective can easily fool anyone. Kobe is jumping behind or in front of the car as it races by. It looks like he jumps high enough to do it in reality, but the car is on his left or right. He’s not jumping “over” it meaning, he’s not jumping in front of the grill.

Here’s my stills from the video to support this:

Note the perspective here. The shadows on the ground are probably put in (i.e. post-effect) to make the perspective seem legit, but I think they help show how he isn’t over the top of it. Look at Kobe in relationship to the “light post” shadow. It looks like Kobe is closer to the camera than the middle of the car in this one.

Note length of Kobe’s shadow and car’s shadow and perspective. Still looks like he’s closer to the camera to me.

This one he just looks closer too. But the car actually does drive over the shadow of the light pole - a nifty illusion.

It’s also highly likely that Kobe and the car weren’t even in the same state at the time of the “stunt”.

Anyway, do you think the Lakers would let him do such a crazy thing? Not a chance.

And yes, I had too much time on my hands today.

I like sports. In fact I love them. Love the NFL, love college basketball and MLB (probably in that order). My favorite event is March Madness by far, however. I’m also a big fan of watching the premier sports at the Olympics, like boxing, track and field and swimming in the summer and downhill skiing, bobsled and hockey in the winter. Even NHL hockey is fun (in person). I’m part of a fantasy football team every year and while I don’t always do so hot, I know the best players and who generally to draft. I love the pre-season NIT and the Hall of Fame Game.

But man, NASCAR is boring.

About 2 years ago I moved down south for work and family. At the office, guys talked NASCAR all the time. This driver and that, this kind of car and that, alot of talk about restrictor plates and the Car of Tomorrow. Most of which went over my head. I probably know slightly more about cars than Mikhail Baryshnikov. I’m not trying to make a statement about the knowledge of Russian ballet dancers, but…ok yes I am. Anyway, I don’t know much about cars. I can change my own oil and can flush the radiator if I care to. (I did both a few times, but it was a pain to dispose of the old fluids so I just go to Jiffy Lube or whatever now.) Windshield wipers and all the other fluids aren’t confusing. I even once changed the thing that charges the battery when the car is running…er…the name of which escapes me as I write this. It has belts and what not. The converter? No that’s not it. Bah. See? Regardless, I’m no gear head by any stretch.

Hilariously, I joined a Fantasy NASCAR group last year. And won. Seriously! I won the group and was paid $60 bucks for first. Everyone was pissed because I kept chiding them about how I knew nothing, never watched and still was winning. My strategy consisted of putting in drivers every “expert” said to. Who the hell is Boris Said? I didn’t care. He was picked on “road courses” and in to the line up he went. An interesting side note, one of the road courses for NASCAR is Watkins Glen, which hosted one of the largest rock concerts ever with one of my favorite bands, the Grateful Dead. (BTW, do yourself a favor and listen to the soundcheck jam - choice 10. Even if you don’t like improvisational music, this one is inspired.) 

Ok ok…on topic…

I tried this year to watch the whole Daytona 500race and found it so freaking tedious that I had to give up and go edge the yard. (For those of you in cold climates, the yard never stops growing in the South.) They go around and around for hours and get gas and tires occassionally. Sure the cars are fast and sometimes they bump and even crash. I joked with my dad on the phone that I think people watch to see if someone will turn right at some point. See, they go one way on an oval track…always turning left…if they turned right, they’d crash. It was funny if you were there.

The drivers are likely very skilled at what they do although I would hesitate to call them athletes. I’m sure someone will bristle at drivers not being athletes but someone always does. Those same people probably would’ve liked to have seen poker in the Olympics. OK perhaps they are athletic and it seems pretty draining to sit for 4 hours in a 120 degree (or more) car in full body asbestos underwear, even though they now have said underwear cooled the whole time. And you probably have to concentrate pretty damn hard for the entire time. That said, NASCAR drivers are no Michael Jordan, Bruce Jenner or even Brian Bosworth. I will however concede that they are more athletic than John Daly or Fernando Valenzuela.

All that aside, I tried to watch for the nuances. Although the hillbilly announcing the race was no help, I guess there were some…drafting and bumping or some such. Yes changing the tires fast seems to get people back into the race ahead of the guy who was slower. Also, some pit crews mastered the art of the calculator as someone was able to judge if their guy needed to get gas when others didn’t. I’m not sure why they couldn’t just put in a guage of some kind in the car saying how many miles they have left… Apparently it’s a risky thing staying out on the track without getting new tires and more gas. I get it that new tires grip better. Again though, will this keep me awake?

One thing I do know. NASCAR looks GREAT in hi-def.

Why do all the boring sports like golf and NASCAR look so good on TV?

I took about a year and a half’s worth of muay thai classes at Knockout Fitness in San Diego. For me it was mostly about fitness and working out stress on the heavy bag. There were some typical gym goers there (not too fit, not too dedicated), but there were also some serious boxers and kickboxers training for competition. One boxer had the most amazing hand speed I’ve ever seen in person, and although he was maybe a welterweight, the sound he made hitting the bags was like a shotgun going off.

Several women at the club also had chops. Even though I had maybe 90 pounds on them, I am certain that several of them could have sent me home in a body bag if we ever sparred seriously.

Gina Carano, I am certain, could knock my head off. I will readily admit I’ve had a crush on Gina Carano since stumbling upon (and subsequently watching the last 4 episodes of) Fight Girls on the Oxygen channel. What can I say? She’s beautiful, athletic, and seems to have some serious fighting skills. You gotta respect that. And as long as my wife is cool with my innocent media-personality infatuation, then we’re good to go. Hey, she used to think MacGyver was cute, and he’s got a mullet.

Whoever decided to bring Ms. Carano into the American Gladiator fold made a brilliant marketing decision. With mixed martial arts (UFC-style fighting) growing enormously in popularity and ratings, the addition of MMA heartthrob Carano will undoubtedly draw at least a few more thousand eyes to the show, if only out of curiosity. American Gladiators is sneaking back onto the air in large part to the screen writer’s strike, and smart decisions like this just might keep it alive for longer than 3 episodes.

Follow this link to MMAjunkie.com to see Ms. Carano whomp her opponent into a Steve Young-style concussion. Her Gladiator name is, appropriately, “Crush”: “American Gladiators,” Gina Carano Make Strong Television Debut

Over the last several years amateur athletics has gotten a lot of attention, especially at the collegiate level. And the reason is exactly what you’d think: money. Like everything else, if it makes boat loads of money, everyone wants a piece of the action and everyone has an opinion on it, me included.

I was a collegiate swimmer in the late 1980s at a Big Ten school. I loved it. Swam all four years on a partial scholarship, lettered all of them. It was like a job – 5 hours a day every day. I travelled with the team, had to work in classes and studies around practice time and meets. It was hectic but a fantastic experience – one I’ll always be proud of and remember. However, collegiate swimming makes very little money and man is it expensive to operate. Sure we had a few people come and watch the meets, pay a ticket fee of a few dollars. When we travelled for training or meets, we’d have fund raisers to help defer the costs, beg from alumni etc. But in general, pools are big time money to operate and my University has two worthy of Olympic competition – they’ve hosted many Olympic qualifying meets. They also have several other pools, both indoor and out.  It’s really a status symbol to have so many and of such high quality. We also have excellent weight rooms and other state of the art facilities to maximize our techniques. All in all, we had it good. And my school is not alone.

I owe my whole collegiate athletic experience to football and basketball.

10s of thousands of people came to see our basketball and football teams. They went to bowls and the NCAA Tourney. I don’t know the money they gave our school for that, but I’m sure it’s gobs. And my sport wasn’t the only one. Pretty much any other sport uses football and basketball money. Gymnastics, baseball, soccer, volleyball, track…you name it. And not just scholarshiped sports either, club sports too. I was on the water polo team too, and it got some small amount as a club sport. Basically, without these two big time money making sports, universities could not support modern sporting. And that’s not fair is it?

I’m torn as the football players I knew did not care that much about such things. It just never came up and they liked their friends in other sports. Would even come and watch sometimes. But now? Now Universities are selling jerseys with the student athlete’s name on it. Marketing the individual. Reports are that Tim Tebow’s jersey alone netted Florida 6 million dollars just last year. He gets none of it. Now Tim is going to make a mint one day - so he’ll probably be ok. But without HIM, the University does not get that 6 million.

Here’s the other thing. Tim can’t even have a REAL job. Nope. Not allowed under NCAA rules. I had to keep my lifeguarding job over the summer a secret. Friends worked at BW3s and what not but if they had been found out, they’d have been reprimanded or kicked off the team. And I only had a partial scholarship. So where was that money going to come from without work? Now Tim likely has a full ride, so he’s not in the same boat, but is that fair compensation? It really doesn’t seem so. Seems to me the NCAA and Universities are having it both ways and it’s not right.

In the same breath, I’d hate for the small, non-revenue sports like mine to go away. I do think the smaller sports provide alot of value that makes the whole Univeristy experience better for all, including football and basketball players. Keep in mind, even in football and basketball, not everyone is Tim Tebow or JaMarcus Russell, so they benefit by getting a good education in a good environment like every other schlub.

I’m not sure what the answer is. Maybe a percentage of funds a player makes on jersey sales goes into a fund he can get after college? Or a stipend? I bet some enterprising young lawyer will file a creative lawsuit one day and let us all know…