Did I Leave The Iron On?
Created | Updated Mar 21, 2005
Another Quiet Week
Sport has really entered the silly season now. Other than the Tour De France, the First Test against the Windies and the German Grand Prix, very little has happened in the last week. I shall start, as it's an area in which I have some knowledge, with the cricket:
You Spin Me Round, Like A Record
I hate to say it, but England's Test team really are looking very very impressive at the minute. I still maintain Trescothick is weak at the top of the order, but Strauss is rapidly becoming world class; Vaughan is a fine captain and in a rich vein of form; Butcher is consistent (and Robert Key makes a mockery of people who think he's too fat to play cricket - the next Mike Gatting, perhaps?); Thorpe is classy; Flintoff is exciting and unpredictable; Geraint Jones has filled the worrying 'keeper slot very nicely; Giles is beginning to show his class; Hoggard is steady and tight; Simon Jones and Jimmy Anderson are both flashy but capable of showing true quality; and Harmison? Well, Steve Harmison is quite simply one of the best bowlers in the world.
On a flat, slow, boring Lords pitch last week, England's attack outclassed the West Indies when everyone thought a draw was on. Giles rightly got the plaudits for picking up 9 wickets, but Hoggard - despite minimal movement - was accurate enough to take a handful of wickets and Harmison - despite acknowledging that he finds it difficult to bowl at Lords - was perhaps even the pick of the fast bowlers. On the surface he did nothing special, but I suspect the average TV viewer appreciates the work rate required to bowl 21 overs in each innings at a pace to match the world's finest. Harmison did it, and managed very respectable figures into the bargain in a high-scoring match.
While I'm on the subject of TV viewers, I would like to congratulate Channel 4 yet again (sorry, Beeb) on the quality of their coverage. The knowledge and personality of the presenters, the obviously high standard of camera and technical crews and, yes, even the flashy gadgetry make for a thoroughly wholesome viewing experience. But for one thing. Geoffrey Boycott. It is well past tme to get this man off the telly. He is whiny, over-opinionated, excessively vocal, and does absolutely nothing to enhance my day's cricket. Such a contrast with the legendary Richie Benaud.
Oh Good. Schumacher's Won Again
Well, he has, but at least the British Formula One afficionado1 had something a bit more exciting to watch at Hockenheim this weekend. Our very own Jenson Button, who I will acknolwedge as seeming like quite a decent sort of bloke - the kind of chap you wouldn't mind a couple of pints with, stormed up the grid from 13th to finish 2nd - almost certainly the best result of his career to date. Even the great Schumacher (and I make no pretences, he is indeed great, and I admire what he has done in the sport without reserving any of the apparently traditional British xenophobia) lauded Button after the race. I would predict JB to be World Champion next year, but that almost certainly means that he'll lose, so I won't.
Men and Their Saddles
Lance Armstrong wins Tour de France. I expect my column-mate, several, will have something to say on this, so I'll be brief. I am not terribly knowledgeable about cycling, but I can appreciate that a gruelling several thousand kilometre race is one the extreme tests of endurance and physical condition, not just in this sport but any, and Armstrong's achievement in winning it six times is little short of phenomenal. I gather he won one of the Time Trial stages (those ones where everyone usually pours over the finish line at the same time) by over a minute, which pretty much beggars belief.
Several A/K/A Random's 'sporting blues'
Hello again from cyberspace, home base America! Congratulations are in order for Texas' own Lance Armstrong, winner of his sixth Tour De France, who has passed every drug test. Not so lucky is a cheerleader at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, who was charged with three other cadets, two football players and a non-athlete with steroids violations and is subject to courtmarshal. The cheerleading captain/ coach explained thusly, 'Guys are throwing girls anywhere from 100 to 130 pounds 5 to 7½ feet in the air, straight up.' (Ah, the wonders of youth!)
I just received an e-message that Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isenbayeva cleared 16 feet, one-half inch in the Norwich Union International meet in Birmigham, England for a world vault record, which would set up an impressive matchup in the Olympics between her, comrade Svetlana Feofanova and American Stacy Dragila, both former vault record holders. (I can't jump out of bed.)
In baseball news, the trading deadline comes this weekend, so any clubs wishing to 'stock up' for a pennant run are sitting with telephones glued to their ears, trying to make deals. It's divisional rivalries week, highlighted by a full-scale brawl between the Noo Yawk Yankers and Boston Red Sox involving a hit batsman and several unprintable words, which is expected to be subject to fines and suspensions for players on both clubs.
The beloved Cleveland Indians swept a weekend series from the Kansas City Royals, but face a 25-games-in-26-days in five cities stretch at one game over the break-even point, the first time they have been above .500 this late in the season since 2001, their last playoff year. (They're playin' good ball, and if they had a bullpen2.)
Pro football camps open this weekend - the first 'official' gathering of the tribes to prepare for the season's September start. Already the Miami Dolphins have a bit of trouble in that their starting star running back called the team from Hawaii and said he was going on a trip to Southeast Asia and thinks he'd like to retire at age 27.
On the very local sporting front, perch are being caught in 40-50 feet of water on Lake Erie, with walleye somewhere in the 50-70 foot depths. Fisherboats have electronic 'fish finders' which can give and indication where schools are, but not what bait or technique will put a catch in the cooler.
In a different kind of sport, the Perseid3 meteor shower is occurring now through August 24, with a peak 11-12 August. One to three meteors can possibly be seen per minute, especially during the very early morning hours.
And that would be a wrap for the weekly AmSports report. Questions and comments will be cheerfully ridiculed at leisure. Ours, not yours. Over and out.
Did I Leave The Iron On? Archive
Master B
with Several a.k.a. Random
So named because they're usually beyond the outfield fence, behind the advert signs that, in the old days, promoted Bull Durham chewing tobacco. Nowadays you could call them the dotcoms, I guess - that's mostly what's advertised in stadiums.3See Preview and A report for h2g2 activity for previous Perseids showers... ed.
