Converse - "All Summer" - Music Video

I don't know if it is because it is the end of the summer and we are now in the fall season, but when I heard this song on the radio, I found that I really enjoyed it. Maybe but it has a very catchy melody. The video is also great. Converse is a great new band. Enjoy!

On the K side of history

As ESPN repeatedly reminded us today, this was the 38th anniversary of a travesty that occurred during the 1972 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, when after several extremely egregious referee decisions, the Soviet Union's men's basketball team was given a victory over the US team, the rightful victors. The US team refused to accept the silver medals during the awards ceremony and this moment of ignominy has festered in our collective memory ever since, sort of like Roger Clemens's insistent and almost laughable claims that he did not take performance-enhancing drugs. Perhaps more bemusing is the reaction of Mike Krzyzewsk, the US team coach to comments made  by the coach of the Russian team. It is one more clear example of why sports figures and history and current events do not mix. It seems that Coach K has an amnesiac sense of history compelling him to resort to righteous indifference as he prepares his apostles to take down an enemy that only exists in our memory.

The team that the US faced was Russia, not the Soviet Union, which ceased to exist in 1991. No player on either team was alive in 1972 so there is no is no direct connection to that fateful event. There really is no reason to view the game as incentive for US revenge. Had Coach K bothered to learn about his opponents he would  have realized that the coach for the other team has dual American-Israeli citizenship and is not Russian as Coach K so derisively dismissed him. Coach K commits the sin of "assumption of guilt by association." David Blatt coaches the Russian team so clearly he must be Russian. This book cover intimacy with history and current events is disturbing in someone who occupies such a prominent place in the American landscape.

The only history Coach K seems to be interested in is the kind that he can rewrite. Perhaps someone should remind him of another shameful event that took place on a basketball court in 1993 and involved one of his players--Christian Slater.

Pandy Andy

Andy complaining to the line judge.

It's that time of the year again....summer hits the final stretch, kids reluctantly return to school, baseball approaches the post-season, and Andy Roddick is eliminated from a grand slam tournament in an early round. I have never been a big fan of Roddick but last night's performance reminded me that this guy is nothing more than a big serve, a lot of hot air and no class. After being called for a foot fault Roddick proceeded to argue with the line judge and to throw sarcastic comments  her way and directed other mean-spirited comments about her to the chair umpire, who is also to blame for not chastising the obnoxious runt or giving him a warning. Instead, he had the line judge removed from the court. In other words, he took the easy way out. He was afraid to draw the ire of the blustery, infantile Roddick and punished the line judge for simply doing her job. How sad.

More disturbing is the the fact that Roddick's poor attitude seems to be representative of a growing trend at the US Open: US tennis stars throw tantrums over a call that went against them, and then are bounced from the tournament. Last year, it was Serena Williams putting on a shameless display of crassness and low education when she threatened a line judge for threatening a line judge. Last year, the chair  umpire and the tournament director maintained the foot fault against Serena Williams, which resulted in her loss to the classy Kim Clijsters. It is too bad that yesterday, the chair umpire didn't have the conviction or integrity to issue a warning to a pampered tennis player who happened to win the US Open so many years ago. Very sad.

Caroline Wozniacki

But there is hope for those of us who enjoy tennis. Caroline Wozniacki, the young Danish tennis star, has been graceful and gracious and her ever present smile and good cheer give me hope that the future of tennis will see a renaissance of good attitudes and class.

As the summer approaches its conclusion, I can't help but wonder (and hope) that the same thing will happen with Andy Roddick's  tennis career.