In other news

I saw this headline on ESPN.com

Top two females are sole Horse of Year finalists

and couldn't help thinking it was about time Julia Roberts and Sarah Jessica Parker got the recognition they deserve.

Oh Beloved Europe

I heard this story about the Spanish basketball team the other day (though this is more commentary than reporting, and identified as such, happily):



Gasol, Calderon question fuss over photo



What it brought to mind immediately is not the particular childishness of the Spaniards here - most of the rest of us stopped doing this in Kindergarten. It made me think of the liberals who go on & on about how we need to be more like Europe, how the Europeans are more in touch with their feelings, how they're nicer, more sophisticated, etc.



A dirty little secret about Europe these people never acknowledge is the incredibly casual racism that you bump into over there. I've been to England three times (and no, this makes me neither particularly experienced nor a jet setter), and each time I've run into people making the most disparaging comments about other races without a second's thought. The most interesting case came from a taxi driver of clearly foreign extraction (South Asia as I remember) ripping into members of another ethnic group as being dirty, classless, etc.



I'm not all that surprised, frankly, at the behavior of this basketball team. The ancient tribalisms and the powerful nationalism of European countries hasn't really died out - it's available anywhere you choose to listen carefully enough. I don't much care - I still vote by the "Sticks & stones will break my bones" theory, and I think all the hypersensitive types (yes, I mean you Sharpton & Jackson) need to relax a little. But I am disturbed by the constant drivel coming out of the left that all we need to do is be more like the Europeans and the world will magically be a happy place.



Europe is a beautiful place that has many wonderful people and culture, but let's not miss the crap that comes along with it.

I don't normally

do what the sports & politics geeks refer to as liveblogging, but I am sitting with the laptop and the MNF game on. All I can say from the half attention I am paying is that so far it ain't exactly a barn burner.



The Bears have fallen mightily since last year's Super Bowl appearance, and other than knowing there was an adult situation a few years back, I don't know the first thing about Minnesota. Seems so far to be a game full of dopey penalties and zero offense. Even Devin Hester can't save this game for me right now.

Homina Homina

Check this out:



Drury, Gomez agree to deals with Rangers



This is unbelievably big - they were two of the top three free agents available, and the Rangers got them both. But it's a LOT of freakin' money, and long freakin' contracts. I think I'm happy about it, but the Rangers have gone this route in the past with terrible results (Eric Lindros / Theo Fleury / Valery Kamenski etc., etc.) They have to sign Lundqvist, and I really want them to sign Shanahan and Avery, so I have some concerns that they've picked up two guys and ignored the rest.



What's also up in the air is Jagr's desire to play with either Drury or Gomez. He played well with Nylander (who I am sure is now gone), and he can be tremendously temperamental. If the pouty, whiny Jagr shows up instead of the committed player of the last two years, it's two steps forward, one step back.



I'm pleased with the signings, but concerned. Thus a word to the lunatics - let's not award ourselves the Stanley Cup just yet. Buffalo's performance in this most recent season should serve as a warning - unbelievable regular season, followed by a disappointing post-season. When Drury and Gomez help the Rangers win the whole shooting match, I will happily apologize for being an unbeliever at the start of this.

Speaking of bowling

as I was last week, me & Missus went out on one of the local Hebrew Bowling Nite Outs this past Saturday eve. Now that shabbos ends some time before Tuesday, we can actually get out at night.

One of the local shuls does a couples bowling night every year, and that's actually how we met a number of our friends in town. So we went again this year to a new place a bit farther away. I bowled lousy, but a bad night bowling beats most other entertainments.

I suppose if I went more than once a year I'd do better, but it would also help if the numbskulls would stop turning the freakin' lights out. I grant you some people find a darkened bowling alley with unintelligible music blaring and airplane landing lights the only source of vision romantic, but I'm not one of those people.

Bowling should take place in the bright UV light of flourescent bulbs, and snuggling should be reserved for the back seats of cars and public phone booths.

In my many

years wasted at bowling alleys, this sort of approach (bowling joke there) never once occurred to me. After watching this video, I don't think I was mistaken for skipping this idea.

Each to his own, I guess.

So

I'm home today, given that other people in the family have been laid low by some kind of bug or the other. Well, one other person, who made the mistake of checking with WebMD about her condition. The good doc suggested that her aches & other symptoms were signs she was suffering from Neoplastispoziphlebomitisosia. And to find a local practitioner and give him all our money.

So I stayed home to nurse her through her illness. And drive carpool for youngest in about ten minutes.

On a far more salubrious note, I have a Very Important Piece of Advice. Always. ALWAYS. Make friends with the secretaries/Admin assistants. They can make your life outstandingly wonderful, or they can make it a living hell. In my case the former comes true tonight. The CEO's assistant slipped me four seats to a local hockey contest, gratis. And the good seats, not the nosebleeds. (I did drop a hint about getting the skybox, but that is nearly impossible to pull off.)

So, despite the fact that it's an Islanders game, and that they're playing Chicago, I will be sitting front (though not center - the seats are to the right of one of the goals) at the game tonight. We'll have to see if Mrs. will join us - call it a gametime decision.

And to answer

Jim's question, the season begins this coming Thursday, October 5th. The Rangers open at home against Alex Ovechkin and the assorted scrubs calling themselves the Washington Capitals. It's a pity, but typical, for a great player like Ovechkin to spend a lot of his early years surrounded by a terrible club - lousy team = high draft pick, after all. If there's some patience and shrewdness in Caps management, they'll build him something to work with before he gets fed up and demands a trade.

I expect Jim's Cup-champion 'Canes are in for the usual post-Cup hangover. They also lost some key character guys, so we'll see about their chances of a repeat. I'd expect them to be competitive and make the playoffs easily, but I don't think they'll pull it off again. I don't see the kind of strength to them that previous dynasties had - Detroit, the Devils, etc.

My beloved Rangers are probably in for a rougher road this season. They surprised a lot of people last year, and I think other teams will be geared up more for them this season. Everything hinges on Jagr and Henrik Lundqvist - as they go, so go the Rangers. If Jagr's shoulder is not up to snuff, their already worrisome Power Play is in deep trouble. My guess for them is a 5-6th place spot in the playoffs (i.e. 2nd in their division), and I expect a much better playoff performance from them this year.

Consider this my NHL Season Preview.

Slow sports news day

So Lacrosse is the next big thing? Kids are leaving baseball to go play hockey without skates or ice? This is the next soccer or professional beach volleyball league, folks. A niche sport that works really well for some people, but is never going to be the next big thing.

There are an estimated 382,000 people playing lacrosse in the US, according to the story. If my math is right, that makes slightly more than .1% of the US population. On the flip side, Little League alone states [media guide, page 47 - warning - PDF]that more than 2.6 MILLION kids played organized softball or baseball in 2005. Add in the adults, and I think you're looking at well over 3 million people playing baseball in the US. I believe that would be about 10 times the number of lacrosse players.

Sorry lacrosse folks, but I wouldn't count on becoming the top sport in the US anytime soon.

Talk about

Team Turmoil. As a Ranger fan, this sort of thing warms my heart. I'm delighted to see the Icelanders totally, utterly confused and inept.

As a hockey fan, I cannot imagine what is possessing Charles Wang. GM by committee is a ridiculous idea, and Smith's abilities as Rangers GM were mostly his own. He drafted well, mostly traded & signed free agents well (with the notable exception of letting Messier go in 1997, which was horrendous). He was clearly a guy determined to be the man in charge, which is why Mike Keenan was fired right after the cup win.

I think Smith is a tough guy to work with, but I think he did his job well. Hiring your own backup goalie as GM strikes me as odd, and asking him to negotiate with his own teammates is going to get weird. Whatever - nice for hockey to make the back cover of the paper in the summertime.