As far as PR stunts go, having the Republican VP candidate and Alaska Gov., Sarah Palin, drop a ceremonial hockey puck at an NHL game was a good move. After all she is a self-professed “hockey mom.” It could have been a well orchestrated maneuver. But where the stunt may have gone wrong is when her handlers inexplicably decided to have her drop a puck at Saturday’s Philadelphia Flyers opening night.
“I am surprised that the candidate would go on the ice in Philly — Philly fans threw snowballs at Santa Claus and booed Beyonce(*) because she was wearing a Michael Jordan dress,” said Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Capitals, a conference rival of the Flyers. “This is dangerous territory.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a former Philly mayor and big fan of the town’s sports teams, also said before the game he didn’t think the puck-drop was a good idea.
“Sports and politics, I believe, never mix,” the governor said. This is the same city that threw batteries at baseball player J.D. Drew and pelted Santa Claus with snow balls, as mentioned above; a citywide fanbase whose reputation is one of the most passionate and often vitriolic in the country. Did they think that Flyer-fans would do anything other than shower Palin with a chorus of boos?
Though I often wonder about the sanity of the city due to the pent up aggression of not having won a major sports championship since 1983, I can honestly say that I’m proud of Philadelphia. Big ups for all involved in showing how they really feel about Sarah Palin.
The question has to be asked. It was a close race and anyone that saw it had to think “holy shit how did Phelps make up the distance at the final lunge?” That was my thought. Still, he won and on Saturday night during the relay it amazed me how many people were pumped up for that race. A swimming race, no less.
At this downtown Portland bar, people were chanting “USA! USA! USA!” at the start of the race, banging their tables during it and yelping after Phelps secured his eighth gold medal. It was a moment of pride for an American athlete the likes I have never seen in my life. Ever (born months before 1980 Miracle on Ice). Perhaps not since Michael Johnson in Atlanta 1996 has the country rallied around one particular individual, you know just to see if they’ll live up to the lofty expectations.
But did Phelps win the 100m Butterfly? At this point does it even matter? I say it doesn’t. Of course, the crowd on Saturday would have been considerably less animated if Phelps lost his previous race. But it’s an interesting conspiracy theory, nonetheless. Someone needs to call Mulder and Scully and get on this.
Curiously, Omega sponsors Michael Phelps and also created the timing system used in the Olympic Pool. It’s accurate down to the 1000th of a second, which is more accurate than the pool itself. Meaning that the pool lengths aren’t guaranteed to be even, so the race is timed to the 100th second. It goes without saying that Omega has a vested interest in the success of Phelps.
Still, who really cares? In a year or month from now no one will remember any of this, only that Phelps is arguably the greatest Olympic athlete of all time and has all but assured he will be Athlete of the Year.
I still think Mark Spitz could outswim him though, given that he swam with a mustache and a quasi-afro and Phelps is all sleek, shaved and benefits from Speedo’s swimwear technology. A debate for another day.
If only all conflicts could be settled in bikinis on the beach by attractive women. One would think the supposed ceasefire between Russia and Georgia would ease tensions between the two countries, enough so that they could have a friendly match during Olympic Beach Volleyball. Ah, but the match only heightened the tension.
Unfortunately for the Russians, Georgia decided to import their players from Brazil, which is like beach volleyball capital of the world. That’s just low.
We were not playing against the Georgian team today, sniffed Natalia Uryadova after losing 12-15 in the third and deciding set. We were playing against the Brazilian team. If they are Georgian, they would have been influenced [by the war], but certainly they are not.
Alexandra Shiryaeva, her slightly less sulky team-mate, quickly tired of comparisons between the match and geopolitics.There was no politics in this game - these girls are Brazilian. I dont suppose they even know who the Georgian president is, she said.
Oh snap! As if killing peace keepers and civilians weren’t enough. But they’re right. Beach volleyball is no place for geopolitics, especially when it’s so difficult to ascertain exactly what the hell is going on in South Ossetia.
[Minor aside: Yes, Russia is being painted as the bad guy by the traditional media since Georgia is a pro-USA democracy. But none of the reports have parsed what exactly brought on the tension between the two countries and how South Ossetia, a breakaway republic for the past 20 years, fits into that tension. Can anyone explain?]
But back to the war at the nets. The two Georgian players have only visited the country twice! Twice! They promise to visit the country after the Olympics to say thanks because the two were drafted by President Saakashvili’s wife, who’s an avid beach volleyball player.
Doesn’t this trivialize the Olympics? I mean would it be fair if the US offered citizenships to Kenyan runners? Or began importing Chinese table tennis players? When the spirit of the Olympics (which includes fighting wars during the games) is compromised by offering athletic positions to more dominating players from other countries than what’s the freakin’ point. I get that even professional athletes compromises the Olympic Spirit, but this takes things to a new low.
And then the President was like, everything looks good from hear and Misty May-Treanor was like, can you believe those opening ceremonies? Be gentle I like a little tap and then Kerri Walsh was like we are so totally taking the gold medal.
But it’s close. Like all things WNBA, though, it just doesn’t compare to the boys. Lots of shovin’, lots of pushing, a few good takes downs, but unfortunately no one pulled a Kermit Washington. Though is we had to guess, we think Candace Parker has some potential to go all Kermit on another player and give one of them gals a Rudy Tomjonovich (video evidence).
So Candace Parker was just one of man players involved in Tuesday’s “brawl.”
“I have been covering women’s basketball for 18 years and the WNBA since its inception in 1997, and I have never seen anything even close to this,” ESPN game analyst Doris Burke said. Look, girls will be girls and it was nice to see them take a break from layups and midrange jumpers, but it’s not like there were any good punches landed.
What’s up with the water in Detroit? Between this and Ron Artest reigning hellfire on the Palace crowd there’s got to be something going on right?
While searching Portfolio for the recent article about Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, I stumbled into this article about superfan Cameron Hughes. He’s paid by team owners to whip the fans into a frenzy during the games.
Teams like Toronto Blue Jays, Los Angeles Dodgers, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs and numerous minor-league teams pay him on average $2,000 to show up and rile up the crowd. Which could mean anything from dancing with old ladies to screaming his lungs out to spinning his shirt wildly in the air.
In other words, Cameron Hughes is the guy everyone hates at sporting events and he’s getting paid two grand to be there. Do the math, but by Hughes’s estimates he works about 80 to 90 games a year to bring in a very comfortable six-figure salary. All because he’s the annoying “drunk” guy at your teams sporting event.
“I basically just play myself,” says the 36-year-old Ottawa native. “It’s just amazing when you put on a team jersey that people are loyal to, how much they’ll cheer you and how much they’ll support you.”
Not surprisingly, Hughes started out in L.A. trying to be an actor and ended up doing something else, fortunately it wasn’t porn. He booked some gigs through a specialized agent and then word of mouth spread and he’s been booking gigs ever since.
“It’s not just a job, it’s something I live to do, so I get antsy sitting in the dugout,” says Hughes.
It almost goes without saying that these teams are wasting their money. For the cost of two tickets, teams could probably find their own local superfans and have them attend the game for the same effect.
The last time the Boston Celtics won an NBA Championship was in 1986. I was just old enough to remember it but not old enough to appreciate or understand it. This time around though, the organization gave the city a team they could be proud of. High on character guys and hard workers and certainly talent.
It was immensely satisfying to watch the Celtics blowout the Lakers, really they snuffed them out like an insignificant bug, last night 131-92. There is nothing more wonderful than watching your team play it’s most complete and best game of basketball for all four quarters during their final game of the season.
And to be honest, this wouldn’t nearly have been worth it, had I not stuck around and rooted for them during tankapalooza last year, the Rick Pitino era, the original tankapalooza when they hired M.L. Carr as a head coach and lost out on Tim Duncan, watched Reggie Lewis and Len Bias die, and had the Finals MVP Paul Pierce almost taken from us as well when he was stabbed at a night club in 2000.
It’s been a long and bumpy ride as a Celtics fan for the past 10-15 years and last night was pure gravy. Great way to end a great year for Boston sports. Had you told me the Patriots would be the ones to crap the bed this year I woulda laughed. As it is, it’ll be nice to savor this and then sorta nice to half-heartedly ignore sports for a bit until the baseball homestretch and the NFL regular season starts.
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