Hey, no posts for a while. That's because of health stuff, and the health stuff was shitty and not fun to talk about.
What's fun to talk about? Sports.
So, April. A very nice and green-everywhere spring making up for a shitty, shitty winter. (Seriously. No outdoor skating? No cross-country skiing?). Well, Southwestern Ontario is as it is, and not much can change this.
Spring = Baseball and Cricket are under way! By the way, who else couldn't believe that the Jays were having Arencibia try to bunt before he hit that three-run homer in the sixteenth? Arencibia is a very good hitter, especially for a catcher. Do not make him bunt!
But it was a sixteen-inning game, we got to see crazy stuff like Vizquel as like an extra-inning defensive replacement and then having him play first base (?), a five-man infield getting the double play, Jose Bautista hitting home run the first of what will hopefully be another illustrious season, before ending up in the infield again, and the Blue Jays won, and their new (old) uniforms are so much better than crazy-bird-on-black was, so I forgive them. So long as they don't do it again.
And, by the way, was Masterson's stuff filthy or what? The numbers were crazy, like 99 pitches for eight strong innings, tons of strikeouts, few walks, two balls hit out of the infield. But mostly, holy crap did his sinker move! I've gotta say, maybe they should have let him pitch the ninth, even Bautista's bomb came when he tried to change his approach; no-one was doing well against that sinker that night.
And I have newly discovered two SportsNet half-hour shows: Jays in 30, and Cricket Report. Cricket Report is especially welcome, since it seems to be more highlight-based than the interview-centred ICC Cricket World. With the IPL starting up, I'm pretty excited, especially to see if Muralitharan has still got it. That guy is unreal. Although, maybe Malinga now is the guy that most makes you question physics when he bowls. Especially that s-shaped-swerve he gets into his full tosses, how the heck does he do that? It must be pure terror taking guard against this guy, because it feels like he'll spoon-bend your bat out of the way and you're clean bowled while feeling damn sure you had a rock-solid forward defensive.
Then there's Ruby Sevens: was there ever a team sport more perfectly adapted to the Olympics? The special, short version of the game fits perfectly as a modular sport in a multi-sport event and is easy to organize, besides being super fast, physical and entertaining. I am falling in love with Rugby, ever since the match capsules from the World Cup, and now Total Rugby covering the Sevens World Series; so much so that I'm wanting to learn to kick drop goals now.
And then there's local sport: new pro baseball team is moving into town, and I'm going to sign up to join the local cricket club to see if I can make my ideas about quick finger-spin work. Also, I'm going to learn to referee Roller Derby, a wonderful sport I was introduced to by the wonderful Paper Ecdasyast (I'll fix link and spelling later, sorry).
What I'm trying to say is, sports-wise, I'm a super happy camper. There's so much out there in the Wild World, and AC Milan are still at the top of the table and I get to watch them match up against Barcelona again (awesome, awesome stylistic matchup, even better than Milan-Arsenal) in the Champions' League, and I don't even really care who wins the tie. (Did you see the smile on Messi's face when he did his superhuman thing and broke free, then out of nowhere had his shot slide-tackle-blocked by, I think, Nesta? Even the players know how much they're elevating each other).
And Joe Posnanski's Sports Poscast is back on iTunes, and it's led me to discover Slate's Hang Up and Listen, all of which = awesome.
The only blot is that the Habs, going into the last day of the season, mathematically can't catch the Leafs. But hey, the Leaf's don't make the playoffs either, it's a rebuilding year, and really they've earned some slack after that amazing run to the semifinals. One cannot have everything.
No comments:
Post a Comment