dr_phil_physics | Entries tagged with sports

Saturday was Stage 20 in the Tour de France -- the fourth day in the Alps and the last day before the somewhat ceremonial run into Paris. Two brutal HC, Beyond Category, climbs today -- including the finish on the legendary Alpe D'Huez. This Tour was very heavy on the mountain stages, and it shows in the results.

Chris Froome (U.K. -- Team Sky) earned enough points today to take over the Polka Dot Jersey of the King of the Mountain competition as best climber. But he won't wear the Polka Dot Jersey tomorrow, because he is still in the Yellow Jersey of the overall winner. And Yellow takes precedence. He's worn yellow for 15 of the 20 stages so far and has 29 yellow jerseys in total. Tomorrow will be 30, a new Tour record.

Nairo Quintana (Columbia -- Team Movistar) earned enough points today to take 2nd in the Polka Dot Jersey. But he won't be wearing the Polka Dot Jersey tomorrow either, because he is still in the White Jersey of the best young rider. And White takes precedence.

Romain Bardet (France -- Team AG2R) had been leading the Polka Dot Jersey -- and despite being in third place after today, he will wear the Polka Dot Jersey into Paris as the Honorary King of the Mountain. He is also second place in the White Jersey competition, but to show how good Quintana is, Bardet is 14 minutes behind.

Froome is leading with a time of 81:56:33 and is just 1:12 of Quintana. But... by tradition, the jerseys are set, so Stage 21 into Paris is more of a coronation for the winners than a race. Froome also won the 2013 Tour de France.

To round out the results, Peter Sagan (Slovakia - Team Tinkoff-Saxo) clinches the Green Jersey for best sprinter. And Team Movistar wins the Team competition (Yellow Helmets) with a combined time of the first three riders*** of 246:55:21 and 57:23 ahead of Team Sky.

Whew. It has been a spectacular Tour de France and I am sorry to see it go. Til next year, au revoir!

UPDATE: The end was as predicted. There's another award, but not a colored jersey, for the Most Aggressive rider -- given to Bardet, the man who wore but didn't win the Polka Dot Jersey.

Quintana came in 2nd overall behind Froome, but won the White Jersey. Some result as 2013. For 2016, I guess he'll be over 25 on January 1st, so I suppose he'll just have to win the Tour outright.

Dr. Phil

*** -- This is the first year that I recall NBCSN actually explaining how the team competition works in detail. It's the sum of the three fastest riders on each team, except that the time for the Team Time Trial is taken from the fifth team member to cross the finish line. There were 19 teams of 9 men each -- 160 riders started Stage 20 and I believe that this morning there were only two intact teams left.

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

It is July.

It is Bastille Day.

Vive la France!

It is also up to Stage 10 of Le Tour de France.

I don't know why I like watching this so much every July, but I do. Those three weeks of 2013, during my Year Without A Summer, were something special.

In college my last bicycle was a fairly decent Raleigh I'd bought new from a bike shop in Evanston freshman year, using the proceeds from my first Federal income tax refund. (grin) Alas, my bicycle days are long gone. The bicycle itself was destroyed by the elements in North Carolina - it should never have been stored outside under plastic, but that wasn't my decision. Sad, really. It was silver with blue accents. But Greensboro in the summer was brutal hot, humid and hilly -- not the freewheeling flats of Chicago and Evanston. And those tires were wholly unsuitable for the rough streets of Laurium.

The race begins on the Fourth of July, this year in Holland, then Belgium, then cobblestones (!) and finally into France by Stage 5, I think. Monday was a rest day, but the first nine days were amazing. The coverage on now NBCSN, previously Outdoor Life Network/OLN/Versus, is superb. But there were conflicts with other Fourth of July events and so the on-screen NBCSN schedule didn't match what they showed, so I saw very little of Stage 1. But I've pretty much been able to catch parts of the morning live coverage, afternoon and midnight repeats for the rest. Thankfully our big trip South was before all this. (grin)

Lord knows who will win, because there were a couple of horrendous high speed crashes and some amazing breakaways that actually worked. An Eritrean rider has become the first African to lead any of the divisions -- the polka dot jersey for the King of the Mountain points. I've been watching this for at least ten years and am finally beginning to understand how the teams, the peloton, the breakaways work. And how wind changes things, etc. Fascinating. And quite beautiful to watch.

I know of no other sport where the spectators can literally be in your face until the last moment during the steepest mountain climbs. Today was the first day in the Pyrenees. A couple of Category 4 climbs, second easiest, and 12 miles plus of an HC -- beyond category -- climb. Nine miles of greater than a 9% grade. Twice this tour they've been on grades of 19%. Uphill. And racing to beat the other guys.

Anyway, only three days in the Pyrenees, then a few days until the Alps. All too soon Le Tour de France will be over until next year.

We'll always have Paris... (sn*rt)

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

It's Friday night. And I just discovered Curling Night in America -- 11pm to 1am -- NBCSN / NBCSports Network / Versus / OLN / Outdoor Life Network. The inaugural US Grand Prix of Curling. USA men versus New Zealand. ***

Guess the program began two weeks ago on Friday 23 January 2015. Who knew?

That is all.

Dr. Phil

*** Really Google Chrome? New Zealand isn't in your spellcheck?

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

Current Music: Turn The Page -- Bob Seger

The End of March Madness... Well Into April

So, Louisville was creamed in the NCAA Championship game, 93-60.

What, you thought I was talking about Men's Basketball? No, that was won by Louisville on Monday night. Tuesday night was all about the UConn Lady Huskies. I'm sure some will complain about UConn winning again, that it's always the same teams over and over again. But really, the 2013 Women's tournament had some real spectacular games. I missed all but a few minutes of the Louisville win over Baylor, but both ESPN and NPR were referring to it as the greatest upset victory in basketball. And then Louisville took out one of my favorite teams, the Tennessee Lady Vols. And Notre Dame has beaten UConn like three times this season, except when it counted. Some exceptional basketball, great talent and a lot of fast breaks up and down and up and down the court.

I know the women don't get the respect and the ratings that the men do, but kudos to ESPN/ESPN2 for giving them the coverage and taking it seriously.

As for the Men's tournament, my brackets and re-brackets were blown away time and time again. Wisconsin over Georgetown in the Final? Never going to happen. The Big 10 had a lot of representation, but they fell by the wayside, leaving the wrong Big 10 team from Michigan in the championship, where they lost. Some wonderful upsets and gosh, dare we dream that Wichita State could make it to the final? Well, Final Four had to be good enough.

I've said before, I don't follow basketball very much, college or pro, but somehow the NCAA March Madness and it's one-and-done sudden death attrition has some great appeal to me. An overload of games the first weekend, and then a steady dropoff in the number of games, even as the intensity picks up.

NPR's Morning Edition had a nice piece the other day pointing out the "magic" of the Final Four -- in no other sport does making the semi-finals have the cachet of the NCAA Final Four in basketball. They even ditched the old Third-Place game in favor of keeping the narrowing brackets to a final single concluding game. But part of their point is that while 64, er, 68 teams make the big dance on the Men's side, there are over 300 D-I programs competing, so getting into the top four is a much smaller percentage than say being the one best MLB baseball team out of thirty.

So the Final Four is a giddy goal to be sure. And something I manage to look forward to every year.

Good games. Good year.

Now on to baseball and summer movies and other passing fancies...

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: thrilled

This Was Quick

Though they call it the Second Round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, aka March Madness, the "round of 64" is really the First Round, after Tuesday and Wednesday's four play-in games. It matters not. But it's this round where the seedings are traditionally in play and upsets are made.

I love upsets.

At the same time, I know that historically I cannot ever root for a team. Illinois, for example, finally prevailed. But during the course of a few minutes of watching the Illini play, they went from beating up on Colorado to losing by a point. Mrs. Dr. Phil, who did Library School in Champaign, told me to leave the room. (grin)

Anyway, the first big thirty-two games aren't even over yet and my so-called Bracket is officially...

BUSTED.

Yeah, I went out on a limb and had Wisconsin and Georgetown in the championship game with the Badgers winning it all. And both teams are now out of the hunt. Geesh, I usually blow things badly, but typically only one side of the bracket.

And Harvard won? That perennial hockey and eight-man crew school? Won a game in March Madness?

I love this time of the year. It's one game at a time, with up to four games pounding away at the same time. And the TV remote is spinning between 3.1 (CBS), 6 (TBS), 54 (TNT) and 61 (TruTV).

And pretty much I don't care too much who wins. As long as it isn't Notre Dame or any school from Florida. (evil grin)

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: devestated

Confession

I am an Olympic junkie -- Summer and Winter -- nearly all the events. In a way, it's a perverse thing. Every four years, for a period of about two weeks, we can become experts in a dozen plus diverse sports. Well, of course he over-rotated on that dive. You can clearly see the large splash from the entry. That's not a foul, that's just water polo. Will they JUST learn how to pass a bloody baton?

Friday 27 July 2012

We missed the opening of the Opening Ceremonies, coming in just as the workers began to transform the pastoral lands into the industrial age. The pageantry was gorgeous. But unlike the Beijing Opening, I was more familiar with the story, the narrative that they were showcasing. Loved the Queens "entrance". The Corgis. Rowan Atkinson -- ah that British sense of humor. Paul McCartney way off-key. Mary Poppins. Smokestacks. Dickensonian men of business. The torch. Did anyone else watch the forging of the Olympic rings and start reciting One Ring To Rule Them All...?

Saturday 28 July 2012

How can life and work intrude when there's Olympics going on five time zones away? Ah well, family obligations made Saturday a day trip run to Chicago. Before we left, caught part of the men's 250km cycling race. Team GB was expected to win, since they had Bradley Wiggins, winner last week of the Tour de France and tremendous sprinter Mark Cavendish, plus the hometown Olympic advantage. But they were talking about the breakaway possibly getting away with it. And the medals didn't go to Great Britain.

Later in the day, in Oak Park IL, we flipped between men's badminton doubles USA vs KOR, women's fencing foils between two Italians, women's volleyball USA vs KOR and men's beach volleyball USA vs RSA (South Africa). Heard about Michael Phelps coming in fourth in his first medal race. Ah, as in everything, eventually you have to play the game.

Sunday 29 July 2012

Water polo, dressage from equestrian three-day event, Kazachstan's second gold medal of the games with a 19yo female weightlifter, American woman skeet shooter 99/100 for the gold, women's table tennis, cycling, beach volleyball and swimming. Cold rain for part of the day. Men's swimming, 4×100m freestyle relay -- FRA (in lane 6!), USA, RUS. Favored AUS in 4th.

If I have it right, the beach volleyball venue is at the Horses Guard parade grounds, which helps possibly explain the glorious white building behind the stadium. The color scheme is so very purple -- purple and magenta -- and nary a corporate logo to be seen. Ah, I do love the Olympics.

There's a GVSU grad in the women's rowing team -- the two Sara(h)'s. Qualified Saturday.

More. Much more.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: happy

On The Road To The Frozen Four

While the rest of the world indulges in March Madness in the NCAA Men's and Women's Division I Basketball Championships, there are in fact other collegiate athletics going on. While I knew that the Western Michigan University Broncos ice hockey team was having some success this year, I wasn't following the sports scores closely -- partly due to The Grand Rapids Press' decision to only do home delivery three days a week. So I was very pleasantly surprised to see the following announcement in the WMU Today e-mail newsletter:

Point of pride--For the first time since 1986, the hockey Broncos won the CCHA Tournament Championship, defeating Michigan, 3-2, Saturday at Joe Louis Arena. They will play North Dakota in the NCAA Tournament West Region semifinals Saturday in St. Paul, Minn.
http://www.wmich.edu/wmu/news/2012/03/057.html

KALAMAZOO--Western Michigan University's hockey team makes its fifth NCAA Tournament appearance and second in a row as it heads to St. Paul, Minn., to battle the University of North Dakota Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
The Broncos earned a No. 4 seed after winning the CCHA Tournament Championship with a 3-2 victory over the University of Michigan Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

In previous matches with North Dakota, WMU is 0-4, but the two teams have not meet since two games each in Kalamazoo in 1997 and at North Dakota in 1998—and in 1997, North Dakota won the national championship.

The game will be carried live via ESPN3.com and replayed on ESPNU Sunday at 12:30 p.m. The game is available for syndication in local markets, and WMU News will be updated if the broadcast is picked up in the Kalamazoo area. Live radio coverage will be provided by the Bronco Radio Network on 96.5 FM WKZO and at wkzo.com.

The Broncos enter the tournament on a five-game winning streak, with all five wins against teams that qualified for the tournament.

WMU is 0-5 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, including two losses to Harvard in a best-of-three series in 1986. The Broncos fell to Denver, 3-2, in double-overtime at last season's Midwest regional.

Five CCHA teams made the 16-team field, the most from any conference. WMU joins Ferris State, Miami, Michigan State and Michigan representing the CCHA

When we were up at Michigan Tech, we went to a lot of hockey games. Alas, the Huskies were not in their glory years in the late 80s and early 90s. And the CCHA league tended to overwhelm the WCHA, which Tech played in. We frequently lost to Michigan or Michigan State in the over-Christmas tournament held in Detroit. So Western beating Michigan and taking the CCHA crown is a big deal. Well done, gentlemen.

Now go beat up on North Dakota and take the ice all the way to the national championship.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: pleased

Sacrificial Lamb Week

Seems a lot of big football teams schedule non-conference games, often against lower tier opponents, for their first game. So there I was, flipping channels after the Cubs game hit a 7th inning rain delay, and ABC was showing Western Michigan University at Michigan. While The Ohio State University was beating up on Akron 42-0, Western had bravely scored first blood, 7-0. Then 7-7, then the Broncos were about to score and Michigan intercepted and ran it back for a TD. Michigan scored again, but must've missed an extra point, 20-7.

At this point I changed channels. So color me surprised when I checked the score and saw the final as 34-10 -- not bad, Broncos. But there was a cryptic note, cut off. So I investigated on ESPN. Seems both teams agreed to call the game near the end of the 3rd quarter -- due to lightning.

The Wolverines were driving for another score when the game was suspended because of lightning. Nearly an hour later, the game was called with the result and statistics standing in what school officials say is the first weather-shortened game in the 132-year history of college football's winningest team.

Huh.

Not sure I've ever heard of a football game called before.

Meanwhile Northwestern played a more regular non-conference foe and had a more civilized win, NU 24 Boston College 17. Ah, a real college football game. (grin)

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: confused

Ah, The Capriciousness Of Reality

As we currently watch our local PBS rerun of Ken Burns' awesome The Civil War, the men's NCAA Division I basketball championship has just gotten underway. Though I've not been able to watch as many games as in some years, I have been delighted with both the men's and women's tournaments. Even the expansion of the single play-in game to a "First Four" pre-tournament has proved itself, with Virginia Commonwealth's unexpected escape from such obscurity. I didn't do a set of brackets for either men or women -- I always have some favorites -- but my main joy is just letting the games and the brackets unfold.

Who could've picked either Final Four? Or at least either Final Two? That #1 seeding was practically the kiss of death this year. That the women's championship tomorrow will feature neither invincible UConn nor it's record streak slayer Stanford, though both were in the Final Four.

We'll see how this plays out.***

Dr. Phil

*** The basketball, that is. I know how the Civil War ends. (grin)

Current Mood: amused

We Made It

First spring training game from Hohokam Park in Mesa AZ for the Cubbies on WGN. (Cubs ahead 1-0 over Dodgers after 1st inning.)

It's a lovely sunny day here in West Michigan today, too. So glad I arrived home on Friday night, because Saturday evening deteriorated into a sloppy snow/rain/freezing sliding mess. Left us with a nice clean white coating on the older snow, so it is very pretty now.

Next signs of spring? Daylight Savings Time (Revised) next weekend. And then March Madness and the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball marathons.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: bouncy

Go Pack Go

It's Monday after the Super Bowl. And I'm wearing a Green Bay Packers World Champions hat that I bought at a Citgo gas station in Crystal Falls MI in the U.P. many years ago when the Packers had also won. Michigan's Upper Peninsula, despite being Michigan, is also physically attached to Wisconsin. So the local loyalties up there tend to favor the Tigers for baseball, but the Packers for football.

The Commercials

Yeah, I know. It's supposed to be about the game. But who knows if the game is even going to be good? For the last two years the economy has hurt the Super Bowl commercials. Better than usual lot this year. But still far too many stupid, juvenile and embarrassingly sexist ads -- also per usual. (sigh) Didn't see all the commercials, especially as I missed the pre-game show. Was there even a Clydesdales commercial? And did FOX mention that the game was on FOX? Which has a bunch of shows they want you to watch?

Everyone, it seemed, was talking about the VW Passat ad with the mini Darth Vader kid. Cute. I actually liked the beetle in the New 21st Century Beetle ad. The Chevy Silverado pickup truck in the Lassie role was pretty amusing. "I didn't even know this town had a volcano."

A lot of movie trailer ads this year. A lot. And why all the animated movies being advertised after 9:30pm in the 4th quarter? Who's the demographic? Half the trailers were ones I'd seen before, either in theatres or on TV. However, was intrigued by the Steven Spielberg/J.J. Abrams Super 8 trailer, as well as finally getting to see the Cowboys and Aliens trailer. (grin)

The surprise class act in commercials for the night, though, was the two-minute Chrysler 200 ad -- a love letter for Detroit narrated by Eminem. The tagline at the end, "Imported from Detroit", was a nice touch.

One Bright Spot

I timed my afternoon nap to end around kick-off. I was thankfully absent for Christina Aguilera's butchering of the national anthem. You know, I don't want to get maudlin about it, but I think the Cubs do it right -- many of their home games are sung a cappella by Wrigley Field announcer Wayne Messmer and sometimes with his wife Kathleen. Simple, basic, powerful, respectful.

Tron Takes Over At Halftime

Once again they spend millions to have a lavish halftime show, one without marching bands I might add, and then fail to get the mikes to work properly or balance the sound.

So Why The WMU Logo?

In case you were wondering why this particular LJ icon selection, it is in honor of Green Bay Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings -- a former Kalamazoo Central High School and Western Michigan University graduate -- who scored two touchdowns in the Super Bowl. Go Broncos?

Oh, The Game?

31-25, Packers defeat the Steelers.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: amused

A Dark Period 1997-2009

The National League has lost to the American League 13 times since the NL won the All-Star Game in 1996 -- the 2002 All-Star Game was a tie -- and the drought is now over. And for once, I managed to see the key plays.

We weren't watching the All-Star Game, they've been too depressing with the Senior Circuit's run of defeats, but at around 10:55pm EDT I tuned in to FOX and saw the Chicago Cubs' Marlon Byrd was at the plate, facing a Chicago White Sox pitcher with an 0-2 count, 2 outs, runners on 1st and 3rd and the AL league up 1-0 in the top of the 7th. This is a classic Cubs situation. The sole representative of the Chicago NL franchise in the game, Byrd managed to extend the count to 3-2 and then walked, loading the bases. Atlanta Brave Brian McCann then sent one to rattle around by the right field wall. One run in, two runs in. And then Byrd had a marvelous slide across home plate, beating the throw and the NL took the lead 3-1. And that would turn out to be the final score. With the inevitable pitching change for the AL, it was time to put the kitties to bed. So I saw the best five minutes of the game. (grin)

As for the title of this post, you can forgive a Cubs fan for taking his victories when he can. While McCann hit the ball and was named the MVP, it was Byrd who kept the inning alive and scored the last run and put the AL down by two. Why? What were you thinking?

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: surprised

Results Of The 2010 FIFA World Cup From South Africa

First Place... Spain
Second Place... Netherlands
Third Place... Germany
Other... Uruguay

I Can Live With These

Living in West Michigan, which has a heavy Dutch history and influence, there was a lot of pull for the Netherlands team to win the World Cup. And frankly, at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Mrs. Dr. Phil and I managed to catch a quarterfinal match between the Netherlands and Japan in women's volleyball -- and the orange bedecked fans were something of a hoot to watch. So I would've been happy with the Netherlands winning -- and thrilled if that enormous orange crowd in Amsterdam could've had the win. (An NPR story on Friday reminded me of an earlier Netherlands run for the World Cup touting something called Total Football. Wow, hadn't heard that term in years.) Alas for the Dutch, it was the crowd ESPN was showing in Cadiz which got to go wild. But in Extra Time, so that's a plus for Dr. Phil, who loves overtime and extra inning games, especially for a championship.

Still, in Spain we have a new country amongst the winners, so the 2010 World Cup will go down as anything but The Usual Suspects.

It's Not That I Don't Care

Actually I saw more matches and was more invested in this World Cup than in any other time in my life, and for that I can thank ESPN's valiant attempt to get more Americans watching World Cup by showing every game and putting some big games on ABC. But even ESPN I'm sure has to admit that an American team which made it into the second round helped a helluva lot, to say nothing of the drama of playing England "again" in the first round.

So we'll see if this makes a dent in America's interest in futbol, or whether it's like the Olympics and we only get interested in this stuff once every four years.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: accomplished

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Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

Those Who Lie In Wait, Dream Deep

Entries tagged with sports

20

10

Curling Night In America

1-2

Well The Pressure Is Off

It's That Time Again

Go Broncos!

The Start of the Season

Sometimes You Just Have To Play The Game

Whew

A Relatively Super Super Bowl

Cubs Win The All-Star Game!

For The Rest Of The World