Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Random notes: December 5, 2012.

Wednesday, December 5th, 2012

So has anyone been following the Indian Olympic Committee story? In brief: India wants to elect people to their national Olympic Committee following their rules, the IOC says “No, you’ve got to follow our rules”, and suspends the Indian committee. Suspension means that Indian athletes can’t compete in IOC sanctioned events, there will be no IOC funding for Indian athletes, and Indian sports officials can’t attend international meetings.

The Indian committee has basically said “F you” and elected Lalit Bhanot secretary general of the committee. Bhanot was unopposed.

Bhanot also spent 11 months in jail before he managed to make bail. Why? Corruption charges, specifically related to the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

The humiliating Olympic suspension follows India’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games in 2010 in which a pedestrian bridge collapsed, suppliers went unpaid, human excrement was left in athletes’ quarters and the budget ballooned to $8 billion from $75 million, much of it unaccounted for. Local newspapers, citing internal documents, detailed $80 rolls of toilet paper, $61 soap dispensers that normally cost $1.97 and $250,000 high-altitude simulators that usually sell for $11,830.

“to $8 billion from $75 million”? Wow. That’s corruption on an epic level: gold medal worthy corruption, if you ask me.

And speaking of corruption, the NYT explains how a Ferrari crash led to a change in the leadership of the party:

China’s departing president, Hu Jintao, entered the summer in an apparently strong position after the disgrace of Bo Xilai, previously a rising member of a rival political network who was brought down when his wife was accused of murdering a British businessman. But Mr. Hu suffered a debilitating reversal of his own when party elders — led by his predecessor, Jiang Zemin — confronted him with allegations that Ling Jihua, his closest protégé and political fixer, had engineered the cover-up of his son’s death.

“The Maid of the Mist” folks, who run the tours on the NY side of Niagara Falls, have made a new deal with the state that should keep the boats running. (Previously. Also.)

“Restaurant Impossible: The Musical!” All singing, all dancing, all Robert Irvine!

Okay, we kid. Slightly. But Adam Gopnick of the New Yorker is working with some other folks on a musical based on Gopnick’s book The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food.

As long as we’re on the theatre beat:

The musical “Scandalous,” Kathie Lee Gifford’s Broadway debut as a lyricist and book writer, will close this Sunday after 31 preview performances and 29 regular performances, the producers announced on Tuesday night.

It is a little late now, but perhaps, if we’re lucky, this will free up Ms. Gifford for more Christmas specials.

Also closing: “The Anarchist”, David Mamet’s latest play.

Posted in Clippings, Food, Law, Sports, Theatre | Comments Closed

Tom Landry’s hat!

Wednesday, December 5th, 2012

(Tom Landry is part of that group of folks I referred to earlier; the ones who have monuments in the state cemetery, but are actually buried someplace else. Here’s his actual grave from Find a Grave.)

(I wonder if winning a national championship in any sport is enough to get you a slot at the state cemetery. Darrell Royal has his. Will Jody Conradt and Rudy Tomjanovich get one? Seems to me they’re deserving.)

(Subject line hat tip. (Ha!))

Posted in Obits, Photography, Sports | Comments Closed

TMQ watch: December 4, 2012.

Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

We apologize for the lateness of this post. We are dealing with some personal issues that put us a little behind this afternoon.

Let’s just go ahead and jump into this week’s TMQ. Before we get started, though, we’d like to note something that strikes us as unusual: there is no mention of Jovan Belcher or Saturday’s events in this week’s column. We don’t think TMQ is the type of person who would say “Everyone else has said it better, so there’s no point in my saying it”, so his silence strikes us as unusual.

After the jump…

(more…)

Posted in Geek, Guns, NFL, TMQ watch, TV | Comments Closed

Random notes: December 3, 2012.

Monday, December 3rd, 2012

Jim Washburn is out as defensive line coach of the Eagles. Yes, already.

Obit watch: David Oliver Relin, journalist and co-author of Three Cups of Tea. I wish I had more to say on this, but right now I’m not sure what I can say.

As I recall, the case of the lawyer who shot at a census worker was well publicized at the time. The lawyer. Carolyn Barnes, denies the incident ever happened. But she was declared incompetent to stand trial and sent off to a state mental hospital.

Here’s the punchline: her law license is still valid, and she’s representing at least one client.

From Barnes’ perspective, the fact that she has been permitted to continue practicing law is clear evidence she should be released from her forced confinement in the state hospital and be allowed to proceed to her own trial. Her logic: If she is legally able to represent Gourley, as she has been doing, then she is more than capable of understanding the charges against her and participating in her own defense – the legal standard used to determine if a defendant is mentally competent to stand trial.

So, in other words: if the state hasn’t taken away her law license, she’s sane and can be tried for shooting at the census worker. If the state takes away her law license, that just certifies that’s she’s insane and can’t stand trial. That’s some catch.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Firings, Law, NFL, Obits, Sports | 2 Comments »

Obit watch and a bit of personal indulgence: December 1, 2012.

Saturday, December 1st, 2012

This has not been a good week for various reasons. Add another one to the list.

Jeff Millar, columnist and former movie critic for the Houston Chronicle, and also writer of the “Tank McNamara” comic strip, has passed away.

Millar’s time as a HouChron columnist and film critic overlapped my childhood and teenage years. I’ve written before that he was one of three people (Siskel and Ebert being the other two) who made me love movies. (My teenage years were a time when teen slasher flicks were approximately every third movie in the theaters. It was so bad, Millar came up with the “teen scream checklist” format for his reviews of those movies; I laughed every time I saw he’d done one of those.)

(And I’m glad somebody mentioned “Murray the Wonder Publicist”. I had almost forgotten about him.)

“Tank McNamara” was a hoot in those years, too. It still is, but sports have become so ridiculous that they’re hard to satirize any more. And I was a big fan of “Second Chances”, too: it was often funny, but also deeply moving (and I wonder how much of it was autobiographical). (Somebody should do a complete collection of that comic, damn it.)

I even saved up my pennies and purchased a copy of his novel Private Sector. (I had to wait for the paperback, because I was a broke kid. Sorry, Mr. Millar.) I still think that’s a pretty spiffy thriller; even though it was published in 1978, the core concept doesn’t seem that far-fetched to me today.

And the columns. Most of them were side-splittingly funny. But the one that I remember best right now was one he wrote about his first wife (the legendary “Spot” of his columns) after her death. I’d love to find a link to that, but the HouChron doesn’t go back that far.

I had it in my head that, at some point, I was going to write Mr. Millar and thank him for his influence in my life. I met him once, when I was a teenager, at a book signing. But I was too shy and intimidated to talk with him much. We had a brief email correspondence shortly before he retired as a reviewer, and that was the extent of my contact with him. I tried several times to see if he had a presence online, and couldn’t find any contact information, so I gave up on it.

Too late now. I guess this has to be my thank-you note.

Domo arigato, Millar-sensei.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Movies, Obits, Sports, Theatre | 1 Comment »

Random notes: November 29, 2012.

Thursday, November 29th, 2012

Zig Ziglar obits: NYT. LAT.

Coaches’ salaries have soared in recent years at colleges throughout the country, often reaching several million dollars a year, as university officials have intensified efforts to claim some of the sport’s growing riches that come from billion-dollar television contracts, merchandise sales and alumni contributions. But college officials do not seem encumbered by the large contracts; rather, they appear willing to pay the coaches handsomely to go away and make room for new hires — despite little evidence that coaching changes generally result in better teams.

More:

The results, tracked over a five-year period following the coaching changes, might surprise many. The lowliest teams subsequently performed about the same as other struggling teams that did not replace their coach. Mediocre teams — those that won about half their games in the year before a coaching change — performed worse than similar teams that did not replace their coach.

The Washington Wizards beat the Portland Trail Blazers last night. Narrowly, but they did win, and there are now no NBA teams with a chance of going 0-82.

Posted in Clippings, Loser, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: November 28, 2012.

Wednesday, November 28th, 2012

Zig Ziglar, prominent motivational speaker and author. I suspect there will be updates to this.

Not exactly an obit, but Jack Pardee, former coach of:

is terminally ill.

Posted in Clippings, NFL, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

TMQ watch: November 27, 2012.

Tuesday, November 27th, 2012

TMQ is back from his bye week. And we’re back from the holiday. (Yes, we did have a nice Thanksgiving, complete with gun shopping and range time. Thanks for asking.)

Before we jump into this week’s column, we want to take this opportunity to observe that the Washington Wizards are 0-12, and folks are starting to take notice. We’ll come back to that.

(more…)

Posted in Clippings, Food, Guns, Loser, Sports, TMQ watch | 1 Comment »

Monday firing update.

Monday, November 26th, 2012

Widely reported yesterday, but noted here for the record (I wanted to let the press shake out a bit before linking): Gene Chizik out at Auburn.

33-19 overall, 15-17 in conference, 3-9 overall and 0-8 in conference this season. And, yes, he won a national championship in 2010, but what had he done lately?

North Carolina State fired Tom O’Brien: 40-35 and 22-26 in conference over six seasons.

Jon Embree is gone at Colorado after two seasons, during which he was 4-21, and 1-11 this season.

Danny Hope out at Purdue: 22-27 over four seasons, 13-19 in conference. And Purdue is going to a bowl game…

And, finally, as far as I know, Frank Spaziani out at Boston College:

The Eagles finished 2-10 in 2012, concluding with a 27-10 loss to NC State on Saturday, and won just six games the past two seasons. His teams got progressively worse each season under his watch.

(Loser update: the Washington Wizards are now 0-11, and still have a shot at being the first NBA team to go 0-82.)

Posted in Clippings, Firings, Loser, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: November 24, 2012.

Saturday, November 24th, 2012

Larry Hagman: A/V Club. LAT. NYT. Dallas Morning News.

I have vague memories of “Mr. Food” being on TV in Houston when I was young. Since a couple of people have sent me this, here’s the obit for Art Ginsburg from the NYT.

Edited to add: Hector “Macho” Camacho has passed away after being removed from life support.

Posted in Food, Obits, Sports, TV | Comments Closed

Oh, those Golden Bears…

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012

Jeff Tedford: out as coach at the University of California, Berkeley.

Tedford’s overall record is 82-57, “the most wins in school history by the longest-tenured coach in school history“. The problem was, Tedford went 15-22 in his last three seasons, 9-18 in conference, and 0-3 against Stanford.

The low point came in the last two weeks of this season as the Bears lost by a combined 90 points to Oregon (59-17) and Oregon State (62-14). Those two defeats are the biggest back-to-back losses in the 118-year history of Cal football.

And this one goes out to Gregg Easterbrook:

More damning still, the most recent NCAA figures showed Cal as having the worst graduation rate in football in the Pac-12.

Posted in Clippings, Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Updates on the loser front.

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012

Noted: this commentary from the Kansas City Star about the Chiefs and growing fan resentment:

Some perspective: Bill Self’s winning percentage at Kansas is .835. Nick Saban’s at Alabama is .831, Tom Brady’s in New England is .774, and Michael Jordan’s in playoff series is .806.
Opponents at Arrowhead Stadium since last November are at .889.

The Washington Wizards are at 0-9, and remain the only NBA team with a shot at going 0-82.

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Hang down your head, Derek Dooley.

Monday, November 19th, 2012

Out as coach at Tennessee.

Dooley was fired after posting Tennessee’s longest run of consecutive losing seasons in more than a century. Dooley owned a 15-21 record that included an 0-15 mark against Top 25 teams. Dooley was 4-19 in Southeastern Conference competition and had lost 14 of his last 15 league games.

My apologies for not noting this yesterday, but I was out with friends from early in the morning until late in the evening. Yes, I did have fun, thank you very much.

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

NBA loser update.

Thursday, November 15th, 2012

We’re down to Washington (0-7) as the last team that has a chance to go 0-82.

Not much else going on. Sorry.

Posted in Loser, Sports | Comments Closed

TMQ Watch: November 13, 2012.

Tuesday, November 13th, 2012

Unleash the kraken 1972 Miami Dolphins auto-text! Plus, we all live in a nuclear submarine, TMQ has a new book out, and more, in this week’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback! After the jump…

(more…)

Posted in Books, NFL, Sports, TMQ watch, TV | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »