Saturday, December 22, 2007

THE OAKLAND RAIDERS OF CYCLING?
"Tyler Hamilton signs with Rock Racing"

"If you look at the team across the board, with bringing on the riders from last year, where a lot of people wouldn't have given them a shot, or had kind of written them off, it's similar, but we're kind of taking it to another level. We've elevated it, but we're still the underdog, we're still the outcasts. We're still the misfits, if you will." -Mike Ball, Rock Racing

"Throughout the years, Al Davis has looked around the league and brought in misfits and outcasts from other teams. What he saw in these misfits is the fact that they still had the desire and ability to play great football. " -from CBS Sports Community

Monday, December 17, 2007

Hubris

"hu-bris" [noun] excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance

"In many myths, mortals who display arrogance and hubris end up learning, in quite brutal ways, the folly of this overexertion of ego. The Greek concept of hubris refers to the overweening pride of humans who hold themselves up as equals to the gods. Hubris is one of the worst traits one can exhibit in the world of ancient Greece and invariably brings the worst kind of destruction." -from the Mythology Study Guide by Edith Hamilton

Why all this discussion on hubris you ask? Well my kind reader, click here: Hubris

Thursday, December 13, 2007

NEED ANOTHER ASTERISK?
Anyone who wants to put an asterisk by Barry Bonds' home run record keep this in mind, Bonds may have been juiced up when hitting all those baseballs out of the park but now what everyone was thinking appears to have some weight behind it, so were the pitchers he was hitting against. Roger Clemens, Mr. Ageless Seven Time Cy Young Award winner was named in the Mitchell Report as having partaken in steroids and HGH as well. (Wetzel Column, Yahoo Sports)

I wonder if we can just call it all even now.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Evel Knievel, R.I.P.

I couldn't believe when I read the news in the paper, Evel Knievel was dead. The greatest daredevil the world has ever known died, not in a fiery ball of flame but of a rather mundane illness typically earmarked for more mortal types.

I grew up in the 70's when Evel was a brand in of himself. On that topic check this post out:
The Last Gladiator Passes

I can still remember going to an elementary school friend's to play and anxiously awaiting my turn to send his Evel Knievel stunt cycle tearing off the launching ramp and up and over whatever we had assembled on the floor. Or the countless hours spent riding my Schwinn Stingray Fastback over our makeshift ramp set up in the driveway imagining that I was Evel.
Evel Knievel was one of a kind. RIP Evel.
CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY:

A big thanks to Old as Dirt who sent me one of the best things ever last week in preparation for the big Steelers-Patriots game (which turned out not so big, more on that later). I anxiously tore open the UPS delivered package to find this:

That's right, my very own Steelers hard hat for game day. Nice.

OAD requested a picture with me wearing it so he had "proof that I got you to wear a helmet".

Well, game day came and once again I had reason to hate the Seachickens, or more importantly, that I lived in an NFL city that was not Pittsburgh. Why you ask? Because the NFL has some stupid licensing agreement that dictates that if a team is playing at home then no other games can be televised on the local affiliate. So that meant that even though we pay a bajillion dollars for our cable, I was stuck with the stupid Chicken Hawks versus the Cardinals. Ugh. The worst was when I was watching the NFL pre-game on CBS and at the end when they went to their scheduled televised game they made a point of taunting me, "...and later, most of you will be watching the marquee game of the day between the Steelers and Patriots". Aaaarrghh!!!

Being resourceful though I resorted to old school meets new school by finding the game on an online streaming CBS radio station and hooked it up through my stereo:

After the first quarter I went very old school and took my lady's Walkman and listened to AM 950 in between trees blocking the signal on my ride. The last time I listened to a game on AM radio whilst on a ride I didn't like the outcome of that either. It was November 25, 1995. I know the date exactly because it was when #2 and unbeaten Ohio State with standout players like eventual Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George, Mike Vrable, Shawn Springs, Terry Glenn and Orlando Pace played the 8 and 3 Wolverines in Ann Arbor. It was the day that Wolverine running back Tim Biakabutuka ran all over the Buckeyes, finishing the game with 313 yards and a Michigan upset over the Buckeyes.

The lesson in all of this: no more listening to games that I care about the outcome on a ride. Superstitious? You bet.

Friday, December 07, 2007

THE UPDATE:

I have once again been lame and not updated this thing in some time. I guess being busy will do that to you. Not that I have had a lack of topics to blog on, just a lack of time. I will try to hit the highlights to catch up.
OSU 14, That team from up north 3
For the 6th time in the last 7 years, The Ohio State Buckeyes handed the Wolverines a defeat. The maize and blue were unable to send out Loyd Carr with a victory over the sweater vest.


STATE CROSS CHAMPIONSHIPS:

We had a great turn out at the Fairgrounds Cross Classic/ Washington State Championships back on Nov. 18. We had close to 200, not quite what the Series has been getting every weekend, but considering that we had 28 total last year, I would say it was a success. BRI went 1-2 in the men's main event. And then there was G. Brown. Let's just say, at least he beat one guy.

LA BOUND:

The very next day after the cross race, I flew to Los Angeles. Business trip. Don't laugh, it's true. Seigler sponsored the SBW Elite Women's team in 2007 with our Komen for the Cure Bikes and they were having an open house. I met up with them and some other clubs down there to see about 2008. Oh yeah, I took my bike too. Sunshine, shorts and short sleeve jersey, sunscreen, Ipod, and 2 great rides along PCH and up some climbs in the Santa Monicas. I did Mulholland on Tuesday and Latigo on Wednesday. Half of Wednesday's ride was on the bike path along the beach. I got to see stuff like this:

That's right, it's a beach volleyball game....with girls in bikinis. This was the day before Thanksgiving. I had a lot to be thankful for.

THE IDIOT TAX:

Yeah, I had a lot to be thankful for. Until the next day that is, when I went downstairs from where I was staying to get into my rental car, which had my bike box with bike inside of it, to drive to the airport. Only to discover....the rental car was no where to be seen. Nowhere, zip, zilch, nada, gone. You know that sinking feeling you hear about? I got it. I didn't like it. Especially not at 8 am in the morning, before I had any coffee. I called the Redondo Beach Police and told them my car was missing. They had no record of a car getting towed from that street. That meant the car was stolen. Fantastic. I did not pop for the extra rental car insurance either. This was going to suck. A lot. There was a guy out front drinking coffee. I talked really loud on the phone to my lady hoping he would eavesdrop and maybe be able to tell me something. He did, said his daughter told him a car got towed last night. Right then, the Redondo Police called me back. Turns out my car did get towed. Apparently when I parked the car the night before I had inadvertently put part of the car in front of a driveway. So they towed it. Says something about your day when the good news is that your car got towed. Well, a cab ride and $275 later I got my rental car out of the tow lot. I got to pay the idiot tax, because I was an idiot. That left me little time to get to the airport in time for my flight. I had to speed, very fast. My day would be complete if I got a speeding ticket. I didn't. And I made my flight....because it was 1 hour late. Happy Thanksgiving.

THE DELUGE

What the hell was up with the weather this week? It rained over 10 inches in a 24 hour period over here. I think I saw animals assembling in pairs. Why couldn't it be snow, at least then there would be some fun to be had after it was all finished. One of my routes out of town is no more because there is a giant SUV swallowing sink hole where the road used to be. My basement got extra wet. No standing water though, just a few more damp seepage spots. We were lucky by the sounds of it. The next day the winds came. I was preparing for another power outage like we had the month before where I had to resort to this to get my morning java fix (I like my coffee):

BUCKEYES!!!
(and more importantly: PITT! and SOONERS!)
Yep, the improbable (or impossible) happened and the Buckeyes are playing for the National Championship against LSU. After their loss to Illinois (at home), my thoughts were that they did not deserve to play for a national championship. No one, including myself, really thought the Buckeyes would be towards the top of the rankings when the season started and they were ranked 11th after losing a number of last year's team to the NFL in 2007. Well, the regular season is over, and they are ranked number 1 and will be playing for the National Championship against LSU. Now, I don't want to hear about how they only got in because of their weak schedule or any of that other BS. According to the guidelines set out by the BCS, the Buckeyes are currently ranked number 1. I am happy they are playing LSU too because I am sick and tired about hearing about friggin' LSU and how great they are and how they are undefeated in regulation. The last time I looked, if you were tied in regulation, you went into overtime, whoever had the most points at the end of the overtimes got 1 marked in the "W" column, the other team got 1 marked in the "L" column. I believe LSU has 2 marked in the "L" column. Buckeyes, they have 1 there. Bottom line: Buckeyes are playing for the National Championship for the second year in a row and for the 3rd time since the BCS started.
Go Buckeyes!!!