Archive for category sports
The Nevada Caucuses aren’t the Super Bow, Thank God: Who will win the really big game and why
Mitt Romney may have won in Nevada as predicted, but a caucus is not a Super Bowl. It’s not even the AFC wild card game. If you’re a candidate, the best thing you can say after leaving Nevada is, at least Sheldon Adelson still likes me. And if you’re Romney, you’re happy that your Mormon homies thought enough of you to back you. And then you move on to the next state before you say something dumb about poor people.
I’ll refrain today from saying any more, except that Newt Gingrich, who lost in Nevada, was on “Face the Nation” this morning referring to what he called Obama’s attack on Catholics.
What he do? Take away their rosaries?
This is a real B.S. GOP ploy, and I’ll have more on that tomorrow.
But you know it’s B.S.GOP ploy when Bob Schieffer, the FTN moderator doesn’t take the bait. Nor should you.
The GOP sure likes to take up religious wars.
No, the only war that applies this Sunday, even among Catholics (especially those who pray to “Touchdown Jesus”) is on the football field.
Today is Super Bowl Sunday. We are now in the middle-aged Super Bowls, where the Roman numerals require translation. I remember seeing the first one on TV with my buddy Frankie Veracruz over on 18th Street in San Francisco, just down from the Castro. A lot has changed since then.
When your team(s) aren’t in the big game, it just feels like an obligatory thing. Like going to church. So my heart’s not into it, but I’ll genuflect to the NFL just the same.
Here’s my analysis:
I’ve been following the NFL more this year than in the past because I realized I needed a new mid-life addiction: Fantasy Football.
Because of this, I know the Giants well. If Eli Manning can throw to Victor Cruz regularly, it’s a signal that his game is on and the Pats defense is vulnerable. If you see Manning throwing more to Nix and Manningham more, then the game will be much closer.
Cruz is the key to the air attack. When he gets open, Manning marches down the field. As the defense adjusts, then the running game does its thing. On the ground, it’s all about Bradshaw. When he was hurt in the middle of the season, Jacobs filled the void well, so well that Bradshaw had a hard time getting back into it. If Manning establishes the run with both running backs, the Patriots defense will be struggling to keep up.
I like Brady to Welker for the Pats, and my days around Boston, as well as Brady’s local Bay Area ties to his Catholic high school, make me want to root for the Pats.
But I think the Giants will be too much for the Pats’ D.
Besides, actress Rooney Mara is a granddaughter of the Giants’ owner. Have you seen her in “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”?
MY PREDICTIONS
The score goes 7-0, 7-7, heavy eating ensues, 14-7, 14-14, halftime, all toilets flush, Madonna has a career malfunction when at least half the audience wonders why Lady Gaga has tamed her act and is singing all those old songs, 21-14, 21-21, we all eat more bad food, 28-21, 28-28, drink more here, 31-28. … done. NY Giants over the Pats.
The “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” beats “Victoria’s Secret.”
Too bad, 49ers. Coulda shoulda…
It is now 9-12. Back to the diversions…the NFL, the dying SF Giants, and coming to the aid of a real charity– “Kate plus 8″
Yesterday was appropriately somber.
Let’s see if we can keep up the memory of 9-11 long enough to let the spirit of unity seep into all the things that polarize us and keep us a part…at least politically.
http://aaldef.org/blog/taking-the-leap-the-horror-and-the-love-of-911.html
Yesterday, the diversions came back. Football was an escape—from baseball. My SF Giants won, but they’re on an egg-timer running out of sand. Attention turns to the gridiron. Hey what about that Cam Newton? People doubted his smarts. The guy is the real deal. The 49ers win, but not because of Alex Smith. Ted Ginn Jr., take a bow. The Jets come to life on a Reavis INT. Hey what about that Cam Newton?
The morning news tries to revive American Jobs Act in the news cycle. I think Obama should have added reality TV stars to the list right after teacher layoffs.
Did you see poor Kate Gosselin on “The Today Show”? Her shows being cancelled tonight and she’s out of a job. Boo-hoo.
Pathetic. It may as well be a job interview.
The gal had the gall to dis her ex- who said it’s good that the kids could have a normal life. Instead of seconding the thought, Kate rails on about how John wants a “mediocre” life for his kids, and how going back to “normal” is cruel and unusual for the now reality TV addicted Kate and family.
I felt sad for the hapa kids who now have a media mother who has been sucked into the consumer culture big time. Reality is no longer good enough. Only the fake world satisfies.
Maybe we can find her a half-way house, a show on local cable. Or maybe a YOUTUBE channel.
The best idea to avoid John’s idea of “mediocre,” is to pimp herself and the kids out to a “mediocre” reality show. Since interracial forays are her thing, maybe she can hook-up with FlavaFlav and his big clock on BET? Or maybe Erik Estrada or George Lopez would like to do something with her on Telemundo. Or maybe she can have celebrity babysitters. The Kardashians? All of them.
But I think it’s sad for the half-Asian kids.
Their lives could use a different kind of Tiger Mom.
Baseball’s poetics: Down the stretch with the “2-1″ Giants, and then Velez scores
I have refrained from commenting too much on the Giants this year. I’ve watched or listened to every game, and lived and died with every one run victory.
Last night may have been the last straw for this SF native.
Maybe the difference was that it was the Dodgers and Lincecum was on the mound for us. These are always meaningful games beyond the standings. Once again, Timmy was brilliant. But for a Giants pitcher to win a game by himself, he has to be brilliant plus.
The Giants staked him a 1 run lead.
A one-run-lead should be like giving salad to meat-eaters. It’s just the appetizer, right?
For the Giants, it’s the whole meal.
It takes four runs for the Giants to be bullet-proof. Unfortunately, this season it takes them four games to score that many.
Last night the Giants barely got three hits.
For this reason, I dub the 2011 team “2-1” Giants. No typo, it’s “Two to one.” It’s emblematic of the ideal score and the most vigorous display of team offense this year. When we win, that is. Otherwise, it’s 2-1, Giants lose. Like last night.
We have been talking about this lack of offense for the last 5 years at least.
“Get a slugger” has long been a refrain since the lament, “When Benjie Molina bats cleanup you’re in trouble.” But the Giants have always managed to be entertaining. Hapless, nerf-bat swinging, not so-giant Giants. I watched, I rooted, I cried. Losing was the norm. Close, but not close enough. Whatcha going to do? Root for the A’s?
Then 2010 came and the timely hitting and the luck played out. I went to every post-season game, to the parade, bought every T-shirt, the works.
Our reward in 2011 has been a return to pre-2010. No laughers here. It’s baseball by the pitch. When you have a pitching team, that’s the way it is. You score one run, and your pitchers have to hold. Makes for a tense, frustrating game, because arms can’t score.
Love the K’s. But you can’t throw the ball over the fence and call it a home run for our side.
And when the defense fails and a cheap run for the other team scores, a pinprick turns into a dagger.
That happened last night with the Dodgers and their pinch-runner, Eugenio Velez.
Velez was part of those pre-2010 Giants teams, the ones that made us sift and sort the Giants of the future. Would it be Bowker? Would it be pre-panda Panda? Freddy Lewis? Velez? Who would be Giant enough?
Velez had his shot. He did things with his bat and his speed, then he undid most of it with his glove. He had his time as a stick-figure lovable hero. Amy G had him on. I was always bothered by how they pronounced his name. “Ay-you-henio? ” “You-henio” seems more like it. “Gene”? “Gino”? The guy didn’t get to nickname status. No panda, no baby giraffe. No gazelle (for his speed).
When he was out of a job and found guys like Burriss and Ford back, it must have been tough for him. How oddly satisfying it must have been for him to put his spikes on home plate and score the run that would put the Giants eight-and-a-half games back.
That’s baseball’s poetics, folks. The tragedy has a beginning, middle and end.
The Giants were like a mythic tale last year. This year, they’re still an entertaining page turner, but just a summer read, and now not likely at all to go deep into October.
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