I've been pretty into the Olympics for the past 6 days, so it's about time I gave my random thoughts on the Athens Games, and maybe some quick hits about the start of NFL and the dog days of baseball too. On to the ramblings-

 

 

-  I've never been a big fan of the major events at the Olympics, i.e. track and field and gymnastics, so I'm very happy that NBC has done a great job handing out the small sports to their various sister networks. I know more people want to watch gymnastics than badminton, and there's no reason to think otherwise, so it's nice that NBC at least is giving the small sports plenty of attention on USA, CNBC, Bravo and MSNBC. Kudos to NBC for that.

 

-  And on a related broadcasting note, they have actually done a really good job of getting competant announcers for all of the sports. I don't know where they found color people with such good TV skills, but they've done great. Good job by the fencing, field hockey and handball girls doing color. Plus Karch Karai has done a good job with beach volleyball and Bill Clement has been excellent during badminton and table tennis. And I'm glad NBC got Paul Sherwin and Phil Liggett to do cycling, even if it was an uneventful race and it wasn't shown live. And yes, I've actually watched all those sports at length.

 

-  My crappy commentator awards go to Al Trautwig and the annoying color lady for diving. They are both brutal to listen to. The diving lady, no I'm not researching her name and no I don't care, has a brutally annoying voice. And Al Trautwig is a little too excited to be covering gymnastics. Just because your biggest gig during the rest of the year is the AFL, doesn't mean gymnastics is really that big of a step up. And Jimmy Roberts gets a special mention in the suckiness category, not only because he doesn't actually call any sports, but because he actually managed to make NBC's annoying "behind-the-scenes" stories EVEN WORSE. I don't care what astrological sign Natalie Coughlin actually is so I certainly don't care what astrological sign you think she should be.

 

-  Speaking of Natalie Coughlin though, she's easily my favorite Olympian of the games so far. Probably will remain so for the rest of the week and a half too. It's been way too since I've seen an athlete so completely overjoyed to not only win, but just to compete. Okay, okay, fine, I'm turning into Jimmy Roberts, I'll shut up now. I do like Natalie Coughlin though.

 

-  I don't think I mentioned it in my About Me section, although I might have, but I am a huge fan of badminton. I am in fact, a pretty good player too. I would've loved to have tried to compete some in the sport, but it's not exactly an easy task to find a place to do so. Anyway, loving the badminton coverage, although I'd like to see some more singles action. I'm not a big fan of doubles, in badminton or really in any racquet sport. Howard Bach is pretty nasty though. He has an incredible jump smash, plus he's young, so I hope to see him in the next couple Olympics too. And hopefully he'll be able to win more than just once.

 

-  There are plenty of dumb sports in the Olympics, but Dressage by far takes the cake. Seriously, come on, it hurts to watch. I'm sure it takes tons of skill to make a horse walk fancy, but just come on. Seriously people, you're killing me.

 

-  I suppose I'm obligated to say something about USA Basketball. I love how everyone has jumped on the "We need a shooter" bandwagon. Bill Simmons of ESPN.com said it months ago when they named the team. Personally I don't think they need a shooter to win, I think they need a good team with good players. But that's just me. I love how people are killing the selection committee for choosing Carmelo Anthony over Michael Redd. That's certainly a legitimate beef, but what about the fact that Redd is around the 6th best option at SG. Kobe, T-Mac, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Allan Houston would all have been better choices. So we're killing the selection committee for accidentally choosing the 7th best player instead of the 6th? Come on. This team isn't a joke because of not having a shooter, it's a joke because no one wants to play on it. And seriously, what is with all this talk about foreign teams bridging the skill gap since '92? They've gotten slightly better sure, but we've sent progressively worse teams every year too. Whoever wins the Olympics this year, even if it is the Americans, will not even be close to the best team in the world. Kidd at PG, Kobe at SG, Artest at SF, Duncan at PF, Shaq at C. That means last year's MVP would be coming off the bench. Seriously. Give me that team, and we'll see if Puerto Rico can keep up with the amount of laundry they'll need to do after the team pees their pants, let alone see if they can keep up on the court. Enough of that.

 

-  I just read a column by Janet Evans, former US Olympic swimmer '88-'96, on Yahoo! Sports. Really pissed me off, so I think I'll call her out. You, and by you I mean Janet Evans, are an idiot. Here's a link-

 

 

Amy Van Dyken spitting in the pool and calling a competitor a man is very distasteful. And the 4x100 US sprint team was slightly annoying in their celebrations. But the rest of the column is a joke. You're calling out a 15-year-old girl who cried after she lost? She lost, you want her to be happy? It's made even more ludicrous by the admitted statement that she almost, and by almost it means she definitely did, cried upon finishing 2nd in '96 in one race. But let me get this straight. Read the column and she criticizes 1.) Katie Hoff for being disappointed after losing, 2.) Michael Phelps for showing no emotion on the medal platform, and 3.) Maurice Greene, et. al. celebrating after winning in '00.  So not only is she mad at people for being sad, she's also mad at people for being happy, and last but not least, mad at people for being neither. That's beyond hypocritical, it's like tri-hypocritical. As Joey Tribiani would say "that's so far past the line, you can't even see the line. The line is a dot to you." I hope the next time someone wins a medal they just run away from the competition. Maybe hop out of the pool, sprint to a nearby taxi, and just take off for the Olympic Village. And you can guarantee Janet Evans will criticize that too.

 

-  In non-Olympic news, the MLB season is really struggling right now. There is really only one race of any consequence, the AL West. If you want to consider the AL Central, then maybe two, but I really don't see the Indians making the Playoffs. Both Wild Cards are fairly interesting, but it's hard to get hyped up about them until September, since they change everyday but at this point it means nothing. And the only individual story worth noting since Maddux has won his 300th, is Ichiro who seems to have forgotten how to NOT make contact with the baseball. Once the Olympics are over, I'll be able to get back into baseball more though.

 

-  And my quick NFL hits- start Eli Manning, start Vinny Testaverde, start Lee Suggs, start Jay Fiedler, and let's all laugh at the Chargers for not being able to sign Philip Rivers.