This and That

Recently there have been a number of interesting sports stories. Not in any chronological order, here goes:

Mike Miller's PSD brand of underwear going one on one against Michael Jordan's Hanes. Miller has The Birdman on his side. Don't know how the underwear can compete with the tattoos.

I've never liked Mike Brown as a coach. Why is he such a defensive genius, anyway? Someone has to show me what he does that's so great. However, kudos to him for getting rid of Andrew Bynum. And kudos to Miami for not picking up Bynum and going with Greg Oden instead. Oden is a serious player with a mature head. If he can overcome his history of injuries, he'll provide a much stronger center to face off against Roy Hibbert in the playoffs.

Sunday, December 29,2013. Metta World Peace admits to being an alien with a galactic mind who will not allow the controversy between gluten free pasta and pasta with gluten to interfere with his quest for a championship

Wouldn't you know it, the Yankees have signed Masashiro Tanaka. There was never any chance of a small market team such as the Arizona Diamondbacks signing the Japanese All-Star. Small market teams in all sports have a tough time competing.

I read where another EX gay athlete, soccer player Thomas Hitzlesperger came out of the closet. The real story will be when the first active major league player comes out of the closet. I'm thinking that my entire generation must die off before it becomes realistic for a gay athlete to be openly gay while in mid career. I'm betting that my grandchildren's generation will consider gay or not gay a ho-hum topic.

Dennis Rodman sings happy birthday to North Korean President Kim  Jong Un. I wonder if he did the Marilyn Monroe bit? I think it is time for the media to stop providing news coverage for Knuckleheads. It just encourages them. What's next for Rodman? A Happy Birthday sing along for Bashir Assad?

Has there ever been a more pompous color commentator than Bill Walton?

I loved viewing the Bobby Petrino return to Louisville, especially the part where the Athletic Director said he had hired the old Bobby Petrino, not the one involved in a scandal in Arkansas. Petrino, for his part, vowed to be a"better person." What pray tell does being a better person have to do with being a great coach? Francois Mitterrand was a damn fine French President and he had an affair, maybe a couple of affairs. President Clinton was one of our country's best presidents even though this personal life was a bit sketchy.
When are we going to get over this Puritan thing, and get real?

Lot's of hoopla over the recent scoring outburst in the NBA. Durant knocks down 48 and Carmelo, 61. The talking heads mentioned not one word about Wilt Chamberlain's 100 point game and that Wilt AVERAGED, read my lips, AVERAGED 50 pts a game in the 1961-62 season. And, there was no three point shot in those days. Sorry 21st century players, my century wins.

Got to be for Peyton Manning in the upcoming Super Bowl. After all he went through recovering from neck surgery, doesn't he deserve this last glory? I had a friend, George Gudiikunst, owner of Ondine, a five star restaurant in Sausolito, who called the Super Bowl the Stupid Bowl and every year had a Stupid Bowl party, the purpose of which was to avoid watching the game while carrying on conversations about literature. George's parties were always filled with some of the Bay Areas best writers. He served his guests his famous Osso Buco. Sad to say George and  his Ondine are no longer with us. But the notion of the Stupid Bowl lives on. Is it a sporting event or a contest to see how many commercials can interrupt the flow of the game?

It's been revealed that Richard Sherman's raging testosterone poisoned outburst on National Television is being used by Stanford University to demonstrate their reputation as a school that develops logical thinkers.

Back to Greg Oden. If Oden makes a comeback and is playing healthy in the playoffs, it's going to be hard not to cheer for him and the Miami Heat. Indiana certainly deserves to win an NBA Championship, given how they have taken the patience to build a team through drafts and trades. Best scenario: Pacers win and Oden has a great series.

Winter Olympics coming up. For awhile I think I'll end my blogs with winter sports poems. Here's one I wrote that is in my new book of poems entitled Sweat: New and Selected Poems About Sports.

Short Track Speed Skating

Like second hands,
the skaters spin around the ice
in a crouch, arms swinging
back and forth like pendulums
until two break away;
one silver, one gold.

So close to each other.
No truer alchemy exists than this:
with one frozen circle left,
metal to metal, they kiss,
setting off sparks, and fall,
as all lovers must who dare
to be so intimate, so fast.