Things That Please Me Today
My best friend for 40 years, calling out of the blue from his home in Tucson, AZ.
Sheryl Crow's new disc, Detours, which I found at the library.
UC's record for football season-ticket sales. Helps a financially strapped athletic dept., gives media folks something else to discuss in the fall besides the mediocre monopoly on the river.
Chuck Weber. Cyclones coach. Media star in waiting. On The Show tonight at 6.
West Coast baseball. Headphone, in bed, listening. Just like I'm 10 years old again.
The sprinter with the prosthetic legs, Oscar Pistorius, earning a chance to compete in Beijing. What is it about disabled athletes that frightens us? Baseball can post record attendance #s to watch juicers, and yet we freak out when Pistorius or Casey Martin enobles his sport by attempting the heretofore unthinkable.
The NL after years of decline, catching up the AL. For me, the NL is the league of younger, better players now. The AL is a haven for older, overpaid boppers.
posted by Paul Daugherty at 9:30 AM
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Another losing season said...
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Post a Comment*"What is it about disabled athletes that frightens us?"
I for one welcome our new cyborg overlords.
Hey Paul...
The fact that you were able to "kinda" interview the un-intelligible Robbie Knievel last night should please you!!!
why isn't there one sentance pointing out the great NBA playoffs that have local players and great basketball? Dont you care about the majority of people who live within the "city limits"? Where ever there is an "inner city" you are bound to find massive amounts of basketball fans. DUH.....can we please expand our small town thinking? Not all of us are stuck in time. many of us have progressed in the last 30-60 frickn years.
The AL is a haven for older, overpaid boppers.
Yes, true, in large part due to the DH which you just said the NL needs.
Mark me confused again.
Sorry, Paul, but the olympics are about little girls in tights jumping around with twirly streamers.
I think they canceled the running this year.
I've heard that all the basketball players have streamers woven into their hair. They get style points if they can spin in the air and balance the basketball on their heads.
A panel of judges will award the points on a ten point scale. We now have the 1 point free throw, the 2 pointer in the paint, the 3 pointer beyond the arch, and up to 10 style points during judges' timeouts.
John 10:52, yeah it took me all of 90 seconds to change the channel from that disaster. I'm guessing that Paul had no choice on that cross-promotional mishap. I wonder how many people decided to go to church or purchase tickets for the event based on Knievel's ramblings about eternity?...
why isn't there one sentance pointing out the great NBA playoffs that have local players and great basketball?
Perhaps, like many others (myself included), NBA playoffs don't please Daugherty. Who wants to watch terrible shooting, foul after foul, no defense, nothing but dunk street ball followed by chest pounding and camera mugging? It's simply an intolerable product for many.
"Mark me confused again"
You need not be confused ALS. I believe that someone is slipping something into Mr Daugherty's Keystone lite.
Let us all join together now for a big group hug. Isn't life just wonderful?
But I still couldn't care less about what happens to thugs like O'dell Thurman. No matter how many times you delete my posts.
Smell the sweet honeysuckle,
St CSA
Inner, Outer, oblongular, wester, easter, norther, and souther, cincinnati doesnt have an NBA team. infact we havent since 1972. The fact of the matter is some people (inner or outer) just dont have interest in a sport that isnt in there city. We have a Baseball team that just so happens to be playing some time around, lets say... yesterday, today, tomorrow, the next day, the day... (i wouldnt keep going but i dont have the time), A Hockey team in the playoffs, A football team that keeps making news, and a controversy between "cyborgs" and the flesh feet. No, lets stop and take a look at some guys that have no appeal to our city just for the sake of being with the times (1972).
Did you know most of AMERICA voted that they would watch the NFL draft and an MLB regular season gamer over the NBA playoffs. No your right though, it is OUR "small town thinking". Hey, good job though. (seriously)
Carson Palmer will be MVP (just sayin)
Mike from the 56th largest city in the US
Judging by Today's Matt Lauer interview, Mr Pistorious is the most engaging personality you're ever likely to encounter. The issue is hardly that we are frightened by disabled athletes like him, it's whether the solution confers superhuman powers. In his case, exhaustive scientific testing has confirmed that his Cheetahs are not cheaters. Look for him to be the darling of the Olympics, if he gets there.
Meanwhile, The Crawl to 600 Continues!
St CSA
If you haven't seen this, check out Griffey in his true form.http://www.tmz.com/2008/05/20/ken-griffey-jr-stumbles-home/
ST CSA
Paul,
The column on Pistorius doesn't make a ton of sense. Why the references to Bonds, Belichich, et al? We enjoy sports in spite of those people. Are you encouraging us to enjoy Olympic sprinting in spite of Pisorius??
Another Losing Season: It's obvious from your comments that you don't watch the NBA playoffs. While the regular season in the league can bring some terrible games (and what league doesn't have that anyway?), from the second round on in the playoffs is some of the best basketball you will see played. You should give it a chance, if you like basketball at all.
Funny, the same peole who say the NBA is boring, are the same people who find baseball exciting. The same people who dont like the NBA are the same people who beieve Pat Boone is great entertainment.
Marcus
Avondale
I think it's time for another Cyclone's blog. I really wish the Enquirer would do some type of preview page for the Kelly Cup Finals. Not being a die-hard fan I don't know a whole lot about the players or the team they are playing Saturday. I'm definitely planning on being in attendance Saturday though.
Like 7:33, I also don't follow the logic of you column about Pistorious.
If you don't address the key point (does it give him an unfair advantage?), then you are in favor of allowing an unfair advantage, if there is one. I'm not.
9:40 AM. The Cyclones are a novelty act. A nice act, but a novelty none the less. What makes you think more than a few hockey fans would go to a Cyclones blog. If you want it, then create yourself. Up until they put their product on a clearance-like sale in January, NOBODY cared. They were getting less than 1000 a game, all while the team was winning, even back then. Then the desperation move of slashing ticket prices came and a few more people showed up. Now they have a chance to accomplish what no other hockey team has done in a long time and good for them. When it is done though, Cincinnati hockey will go back to being a seventh rung on the Cincinnati sports ladder, behind Reds, Bengals, UC, Xavier UK and high school sports.
However, not wanting to be all doom and gloom, I do agree with your thought about a Enquirer preview. I hope they do that as the players and team deserve that. A realistic hockey fan. Go Cyclones and bring home the cup!
Two things. 1, just watch Oscar P run and tell me that he doesn't have an advantage. Those carbon fiber legs he has are like jet packs and gives him an unfair advantage. I think that he is a great story and is one hell of a person, but I don't think that he should be allowed to compete in the Olympics. Secondly, the NBA is the best basketball in the world. The last 4 teams left play as good of fundamental basketball as you can find. They all play team basketball and I can't get enough of playoff basketball.
I guess I wasn't very clear with my point. What I meant was another entry regarding the Cyclones on THIS blog. I do think you're a little off regarding attendance though. The Cyclones averaged about 2,500 fans and had the highest increase in attendance in the league this past season. Of course major league sports will always rule this city and I wouldn't want it any other way. However, we are a SPORTS town and there is absolutely no reason we should not embrace this team and give them as much support as possible during the finals this week. I really hope this city gets behind them for this final series. It would be nice to have a professional title here in Cincy again.
Carbon fiber legs are like jet packs. Wow. Maybe we need to establish a baseline IQ on this blog, for those responding.
Paul, have you not seen him run? If they don't give him an unfair advantage, then why did the IAAF say that his high-tech Cheetah prosthetics give him an unfair advantage? He's only being allowed to compete for a spot because of a court ruling, not a governing sports body.
Paul--I love your work. But on this one, is it possible your passion and purpose in the area of those with disabilities clouds your judgement? You have a way with words that enables you to crucify my argument, and you might just do that in a comeback, but might the this be a case where you are wrong? I've seen the guy's apparatus that he runs with, and though they aren't jet packs by any stretch, they do seem to launch him beyond what his own muscles are doing. Heroic? Undoubtedly. Inspirational? Yes. However...possibly advantaged, and a part of me hates writing that, because I know how it sounds.
10:27...
"Clearance like sale"? The end zone tickets went from $12 to $10, I know that $2 may be half a gallon of gas now, but I wouldn't call it a "clearance" sale. People didn't care until they were given a reason to.
The running guy has a personal best time a full second off of the world record. If you're a world class runner that isn't good enough to really compete, but he should get the chance if he's one of his country's best runners. The video of him that I saw, he finished second. Then again, there are the disabled olympics as well, so how do you define the line between both? He has one good leg and one bad leg, does he get to do both?
Danielle,
Yes, Clearance like sale. ALL tickets (except the few front rows) are $10. It was not just the $12 tickets that got slashed in price, but ALL tickets (except the few front rows).
And 11:53, the team was winning before the ticket price slashing took place and no one cared. It was cheap tickets AND a winning team that got people to come.
And if getting to 2,500 a game is the biggest % attendance increase in the league, how bad was their attendance before? (really,what was it, cause I don't know)
I am behind them and think it is fun. I hope they win it all! I am also saying, it is a novelty act and next year hockey will be no more important in this town than it was before they cut ticket prices to the blue light special rate. Don't take it so personally, hockey has never been more than a novelty in this town with any of the teams.
So enjoy it while it lasts. Go Cyclones!
Oscar P's PR is not a full second off the WR, it's a full second off the Oly qualifying time. Huge difference, but not the point here.
I don't think anyone is afraid of him. I for one love to watch the guy run. There are a few things that trouble me and a lot of others in the sport though: 1) the cheetahs don't fatigue. He gets just as much energy return at the end of the race (when others are rigging) as the beginning. 2) For sure he is at a disadvantage at the start and this disadvantage seems to "even out" the late race energy return advantage, but where does that end? How can we subjectively determine when that disadvatage/advantage ratio becomes unfair? 3) Why does he want to have it both ways, competing in the para and able-bodied games?
He's a great story, a great athlete and appears to be a wicked cool guy, but he shouldn't be any more elegible for world champs or Olympics than handcyclists or wheelers. He's no more or less worthy, just different.
10:36 Keith >> excellent post - thanks, I have nothing to add.
Quiz Time: What caused the surge in Cyclones attendance this year?
1) $2 ticket price cut.
2) 55-12-5 regular season record.
3) $1 beer.
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