Farewell, Jennie Finch

Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hit streak was very, very special. But let's not forget Jennie Finch's 60 game win streak as a pitcher for Arizona in NCAA softball. She was brilliant in college, maybe even better for the USA, winning a gold and a silver medal and any number of world titles, and has been a major star in the professional ranks for Chicago. Alas, Jennie Finch is now retiring to concentrate on family. My fond hope is that she'll come back again for a second pro career in a few years. She's too good not to...

Wrong, wrong, wrong

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has handed back medals to the other members of relay teams tainted by Marion Jones' illegal drug use at the Sydney Olympics, reports the New York Times.

This is so very wrong. When three runners run fairly and the other cheats, you really didn't finish the race. You can't stop running after 3 legs of a 4x100m relay and say "well, we are leading, give us the gold." Despite the technical nature of the way the rules were written at the time, which is the basis of the decision, the court should have shown the flexibility to simply do what is right. And the runners should show the moral fortitude to stop claiming medals they did not properly win. Gloating about the result now isn't making them look good, either.

Juan Antonio Samaranch dead at 89

Farewell to the Robert Moses of the Olympic Games. There's some good and a lot of bad mixed in there. Good: ending the stupidity of the "amateurs only" Olympics. Bad: a legacy of gross IOC corruption dressed up as political savvy. Good: Unified Team in 1992. Bad: turning the Olympics into the most crassly commercial enterprise outside of the American film industry. Good: women integrated into the old boy's club. Bad: members of murderous regimes integrated into the old boy's club. And so on, and so on...

A brand new sport

Through the history of competitive sports, there has been a trend for combining events into multi pronged contests: the biathlon, triathlon, pentathlon, and decathlon being fine Olympic examples. I want to take it to the next level: let's combine the combinations. The icosathlon would consist of the following events:

• Cross country skiing
• Rifle shooting
• Ocean swimming
• Road cycling
• Road run
• Epée fencing
• 200m freestyle swimming
• Show jumping
• Pistol shooting
• Cross country run
• 100m run
• Long jump
• Shot put
• High jump
• 400m run
• 110m hurdles
• Discus
• Pole vault
• Javelin
• 1500m run

The 1500m would be set up so that the first starter would be the points leader, with a staggered start so that the first finisher wins the event. Or dies. One of those. Given the mix of winter and summer and coastal events, the best location for this would be somewhere with mountains very near the water, such as California.

Anyone up for the challenge?

Bits and pieces

I've added a few new photos to the other parks page of the Brooklyn Ballparks site, including the one shown here. It was a lovely day at Red Hook last weekend, with all of the Central American food vendors out in force and serving the best baseball food you will find anywhere.

The Silver Ball page has also been updated, reflecting Texas' new status as champion. With 17 wins in Silver Ball matches, Texas is now tied with Nebraska and St. Mary's (CA). Next weekend they face a difficult road trip to Lubbock to meet undefeated Texas Tech.

Grant Hackett has retired with two Olympic gold medals for 1500m freestyle and some brave silver medal finishes at 1500m and 400m, too. At last it seems Australia's run of greatness in men's distance swimming might be at an end. It took a long time for Glen Houseman to appear and fill the shoes of Steve Holland. I hope this gap isn't so long.

I was going to post a long piece about Isiah Thomas, but I haven't the heart. Although he's been mocked a great deal in this blog, we wish him well and hope for the best. It's apparent to us that he needs some help right now.

Finally, a word about corporate naming rights. Could we have some kind of international treaty to prevent a change of name? I believe that once a stadium is named, that's it. Even if the company collapses in disgrace. Once Enron Field, always Enron Field. The latest example to catch the eye is back in my home state of Victoria, Australia. When under construction in 1998, the Docklands Stadium was generally known by that name or Victoria Stadium. However, a short term naming rights deal saw it open in 2000 as Colonial Stadium. In 2002 it became the Telstra Dome, and after a record 6 1/2 years it will become Etihad Stadium in March 2009. Five names in a decade. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

And while I am on this topic

It's not just the athletes who get stars in their eyes and a bizarre sense of invulnerability. Liu Zhihua has been convicted of accepting around one million dollars bribes in his role (which ended abruptly with revelation of the scandal in 2006) as supervisor of construction for the Beijing Olympic Games, among other projects.

If he behaves well for two years, his death sentence will be commuted to life in prison.

When will someone step up and prosecute Juan Antonio Samaranch for similar crimes?

Gender confusion in gymnastics

Sports Illustrated reports that Chinese gymnast He Kexin may have been two years too young to be eligible for the Olympics. That's fine. No problem. My problem is the clash between Chinese names and English pronouns. It is a little jarring to read sentences like these referring to a teenage girl:

He is also a favorite for gold in Monday's uneven bars final.

A May 23 story in the China Daily newspaper, the official English-language paper of the Chinese government, said He was 14.

But worst of all:

He herself told reporters after Wednesday's final that "my real age is 16. I don't pay any attention to what everyone says."

26 miles too far

According to an article in the NY Times, a study shows Marathons aren’t likely to kill you.

Well, I don't know about you, but they won't kill me, because I won't be running one. Of course, I could always be the unlucky victim of a stampede on the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge.

Blast from the past

After seeing Washington fullback Michael Sellers hurdle a Giant defender, Al Michaels commented that it was an Edwin Moses move. Which it was. Which made me think back and realise just how long ago the 1976 and 1984 Olympics were. And how much we missed the great man in Moscow in 1980.

So here's to two time (and all time) 400m hurdle champion Ed Moses- probably the fittest chain smoker who ever lived.

I wonder if he'll mention Lasse Viren or Waldemar Cierpinski...

This should be really simple

The IOC has formally stripped Marion Jones, the Steroid Sprinting Star of Sydney, of all five of her medals from the 2000 Games. This is moot, of course, since she returned them anyway. But now there is to be a hearing to determine the status of her 4x400m and 4x100m relay team-mates.

It's not hard. She cheated. You can't run four legs of a relay with three runners. The rest of the team, sad though it is for them, must lose their medals too. I don't understand why this is even up for question.

In other possibly drug tainted news, Miguel Tejada is now an Astro. Interesting that he was traded just in advance of the Mitchell Report. Do the Orioles know more than we do? Or has he just been the unlucky vitamin B12 supplier of choice for other players all along?

Five medals, zero ethics, many friends

In September 2000, before the Sydney Olympics, Graham began providing me with a substance he told me was flaxseed oil. I continued to use this substance until July 2001. By November 2003, I realised that what Graham had given to me was a performance-enhancing drug.

- Marion Jones, in a statement to the court in White Plains, NY

Uh, yeah. Flaxseed oil. Have we heard this before? Pardon my scepticism, but if she thought that, then Maradona thought he was snorting corn flour. At least she admitted it. Sort of. Not that our image of the Olympics was exactly squeaky clean beforehand.

Incidentally, her letter to family claimed the drug use went on for a longer period, but let's not be picky about details. Marion Jones cheated. C.J. Hunter cheated. Tim Montgomery cheated. Barry Bonds cheated. Jason Giambi cheated. Gary Sheffield cheated. And these are just the clients of one company.

Point shaving, match fixing, knife assaults on teammates, rampant drug cheating, strangling your players, strangling referees, exchanging IOC votes for prostitutes and guns... Some days, it's only schadenfreude that keeps me watching this circus we call major sport. Mind you, I remember playing against kids who cheated in under 13 table tennis. It's human nature.

Pick a sporting idol of yours. (S)he probably cheated at some point. Or committed a major crime. Or at least told a kid to fuck off when asked for an autograph. I'm beginning to think they all did.

But I'll keep watching. What else is there to do?

Disclaimer: I purchased a signed Pete Rose baseball at Caesar's Palace. I'm complicit.