Mad Skills

First I want to say that Shaun White is ridiculous. He had a great run last night to take home the gold medal, but I thought that he could have pulled out more if he needed to. I wonder how you do that? He simply invents tricks on his own private half pipe in the middle of nowhere. Just for the record, Wikipedia gives the latitude and longitude of the half pipe, but when I tried to find on Google Earth there was nothing there, so maybe I should question the legitimacy of Wikipedia or maybe it wasn't all decorated with Red Bull. Wherever it is, it is a sweet half pipe that allows White the freedom to create. Also, it gives him a crazy endorsement opportunity because it is a basically a billboard for Red Bull. According to the TV announcers last night, White is the second-most marketable athlete in the world behind only Peyton Manning. For a guy only in his early 20s, that is pretty impressive. It seems like it's been around forever, but really a lot of that is because he started very young and has been in both the snowboarding and skateboarding worlds. I think that it is amazing how dominant he has been in the super pipe so far in his career.

Photo by bfishadow on Flickr

Make-Up Practice

So, I went over to work on my power soccer in the gym today because I wasn't at practice yesterday, and it went surprisingly well. I was very satisfied with the fact that I am beginning to realize how to land 180° spin kicks by learning how long my chair and guard are. Once you're able to learn the size of the chair, it is much easier to judge how far away from the ball you need to be. Also, another important part to landing them is learning how to time the ball. Fortunately, when I was younger I played a lot of catch and floor hockey, so timing moving objects has never really been a problem for me. Most of the time, my timing is all right, but I miss because I assume that my chair is longer than it is they really don't feel like getting the ball wedged under my tire. I know that that probably wouldn't happen anyway, but nevertheless I am trying to avoid damage to myself or my chair. I know, that is kind of insane. So, I am doing a lot better though, and I can't wait to get back on the court with my team next week.

Say It Ain't So

Well, I just watched the movie Eight Men Out, and we have just been doing a lot of work with ethics in finance, so that is kind of on my mind right now. What I'm thinking is that Joe Jackson should be in the Hall of Fame. Yes, he did take the money according to all sources, but he also had an amazing series. That makes no logical sense whatsoever which makes me think that Joe did not know what he was doing. Most people have made the claim that Joe Jackson was not very intelligent. I will not go there simply because I have not done enough research to make claims like that about people. Where I will go is that I wonder if he was told the whole truth. The only reason I make that claim is because even if he was not very intelligent, he'd know better than to cross guys like those gamblers. Even street knowledge of those guys would have led him to realize not to cross them. Therefore, why would he knowingly deal with the guys and then cross them? Perhaps he was told that it was a bonus from Comiskey. That would totally be out of character given what I have read about Comiskey, but framed in the right context, who knows? I guess that is my point. Who knows what really happened, and I do know that he was one of the best players in baseball history.

Photo from http://www.shoelessjoejackson.com/about/photos.html

The Date is Coming

On the power soccer side of life, you will notice that the Circle City Rollers literally plowed through the Ball State Cardinals 10-0 and 9-0 recently. Both of these are high-quality teams, but I know I've written before about how I think that Circle City will be extraordinarily hard to beat come tournament time. I would like to see them play Atlanta before the tournament however. Atlanta has been blowing everyone else out as well, but they have not quite put up that many goals against Premier level competition. That being said, Atlanta has played 10 games so far and has outscored opponents 90-0. Granted, many of those goals are from blowouts of lower conference teams, but the point remains that they have not really had one costly defensive error this year. I am sure that they have made a mistake or two, but they have been able to recover and not surrender a goal yet. Circle City has only played four games, but they have outscored their opponents 33-0. I don't I see how anybody will challenge these two teams, but I also know that power soccer is somewhat unpredictable. All it takes is one mistake to change a game, so we will see what the tournament will bring.

Photo by RJ Bailey on Flickr

Good Bye Frost Heaves

Well, I think that it is a shame that the Frost Heaves had to cease operations immediately. It is one of those things that I didn't go very often at all, but I will miss not having the option to go. It was cool to have a higher level of basketball right in our backyard and in my favorite venue ever. Even though the high school tournament at the Auditorium has a different atmosphere than the Frost Heaves ever did, it was still the ultimate venue in Vermont. Also, that venue is barely ever used throughout the year, so it was good to see it getting more use. Nevertheless, it is over. I understand why they had to shut down because it is difficult to run a team without much money, but on the other hand I don't think it was entirely their fault given the state of the economy right now. Even though ticket prices were incredibly reasonable, I would bet that some people still couldn't afford to attend the games, and the team can't fight the current economy. Also, businesses don't have money for sponsorships, so they might not have been as generous as they would normally be. It is regrettable because I think is a sign of the times that we live in.

Photo by RicLaf on Flickr