| Home | |
|
| NFL | NBA | MLB | NHL | Combat Sports |
NCAA Football |
NCAA Basketball |
Soccer | Golf | Racing | 1 on 1 | Other |
| Non-Traditional Sports Fan | PimpSlap | Winter Sports | Cycling | Tennis | Lacrosse | Poker | Columns | Archive |
|
Volume XXXIII After four months in my new apartment, the time finally came this weekend to get myself really squared away. My wife was out of town on a business trip, and so I was free to wow her three days later when she came home to a scrubbed-fresh house... and my writing palace. Diminutive yet unmistakably my own, this is for better or worse the new home base for the Non-Traditional Sports Desk at Informative Sports. (The MAD calendar in the background should be the dead giveaway as to whose space this is...)
UEFA Champions League action, also, is in full swing.
Already we are halfway through the first group phase, and powerhouses such
as There have also been some pleasant surprises so far
this year. The best Italian side in the competition to this point hasn’t
been Inter or cross-town rivals AC Milan; nor has it been Juventus of
Turin. Instead, it is Gabriel Batistuta’s former Florentine club,
Fiorentina, which looks to have the best chance of any to reach the next
round. Russian champions FK Rubin Kazan and Ukranian champions Dynamo Kyiv
are both playing outstanding football at the moment, holding level in the
standings at four points apiece with defending champion As much as the names and faces change, things remain
the same. Where there are powerhouses, there will always be upsets. Where
there are upsets, there will always be upstarts to glory in them. And no
matter where I might be writing from, there will always be a spark in my
fingers when I get to discuss sports less traditional to American
audiences. So pile on into my nook, because we’re about to dive into the
cerebral vortex for another week with A
Non-Traditional Sports Fan in
GILBERT
TAKES FOUR Philippe Gilbert has put on a dominating display in
recent weeks, winning the last four races of the year -- including
victories in both of the one-day fall classics in The last classic of the road cycling calendar each
year, La classica delle foglie morte
(The Race of the Falling Leaves) has been run along the roads of the
Piedmonte region, around the waters of ... that is, until Gilbert came along and spoiled the
party. Breaking away over the last climb of the day, San Fermo Della
Battaglia, Gilbert was matched by only Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
The two worked together with less than six kilometers remaining at the
summit, holding off the splintered field to contest the sprint on the last
of the 242 kilometers. Sanchez, the Olympic road champion from Gilbert, though, has been on a tear since taking
sixth at the UCI World Road Championships in As the roads blanket over and riders hang their
bicycles up for a short rest before training resumes anew for next season,
none can say they finished the year in better form than Gilbert. After
coming so close several times in 2007, 2008 announced Gilbert’s arrival
to the peloton; 2009 was the
year he finally placed himself on the regular shortlist of contenders for
any classic he attends. If he can maintain this pace next spring, we might
just see him better his third place finishes at Milano-San Remo and the
Ronde van Vlaanderen or take Liege-Bastogne-Liege on the classic route
just southwest of his hometown of
BOLT MORE
THAN JUST A SWIFT PAIR OF LEGS On Sunday, while households across Usain Bolt might best be known for his exploits on
the track, but he was about to prove to Gayle that he was as much at home
on the cricket field as when he gleefully danced his way to three Olympic
golds ahead of packed fields of specialists in Beijing. Taking a long run
up, Bolt put nice speed on the ball, getting a rising bounce off the
throw. Chris Gayle quickly, unexpectedly, watched with shock as Bolt
quickly castled his stumps. Waving toward the pavilion, Bolt playfully
dispatched Gayle from his place as the batsman for his Curtly Ambrose, a former West Indian pace bowler who
was playing on Gayle’s squad in the charity event, said after the
contest was over, “I liked his first delivery to Chris Gayle, short and
very surprising -- he’s an athlete and he loves cricket and football and
obviously he can’t fit it all in but he looks good.” The crowd was
drinking it in, imagining how this athletic marvel might’ve drastically
changed the fortunes of a Ambrose, himself marveling at the crowd in the stadium and what might’ve been for the Windies had Bolt stuck to the field instead of turning to the track in high school, continued, “He’s good with the bat too -- after his six I asked him ‘Where did that come from?’ and he said ‘It’s all coming back now.’ He’s a good decent cricketer.” Despite showing expected rust from not having played competitive cricket in years, Bolt bettered his compatriot Gayle yet again with his bat, hitting a straight six of him in an innings that saw him take ten deliveries for 13 overall. It is unlikely that Bolt would ever jump ship at the prime of an athletics career that has seen him better his own world records, but should the challenge of besting himself repeatedly on the track ever get dull, I’m sure Chris Gayle and the rest of the West Indies greats past and present would only be all-too-happy to get a shot at watching Bolt come pitch for the West Indian squad. They could surely use an injection of his lightning in a bottle to jolt a beleaguered squad that seems to currently lack the intimidation factor to get them over the hump...
BRAWN
ENGINEERS BEST WIN YET As Bolt was showcasing his skills in his first sporting love, Jenson Button was breathing a sigh of relief -- 3500 miles to the southeast and ten months removed from near-unemployment. But on Sunday, the ten-year Formula 1 veteran sealed his first series title and clinched the eighth constructors’ title in team owner Ross Brawn’s own legendary career. From the Honda scrap heap to the best season he’s ever had behind the wheel of a car, Button emerged this year on a revamped team with a revamped shot at glory. Before this year, few would have assumed that the 29-year-old British driver would make many waves on the Formula 1 circuit in 2009. He had won all of one race in his career to that point, the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix. Button was five years removed from his highest series finish, third, which came in his most consistent year of 2004. With compatriot Lewis Hamilton having taken the drivers’ title last season, few expected that it would be Button who would dominate the year to take the overall. Hell... last January, few expected that Button would even be getting a chance to show what he could do behind the wheel in 2009. Honda, citing the need to rethink its expenditures in the wake of the financial recession, decided not to continue putting up its $300 million annual budget for its Formula 1 team and was in the market for a buyer. Several rumors floated around. Brazilian driver Bruno Senna’s personal sponsors were said to be ready to put up the money for him to drive alongside Button in the upcoming season. Mega-billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group put in a bid for the team on February 18, just weeks before the start of the 2009 season. But ultimately it was the man who helped mold Michael Schumacher into a seven-time world champion as the technical director in both his Benetton and Ferrari days, Honda team principal Ross Brawn, who ended up buying out the team outright. Almost immediately, the release of any constrictions allowed Brawn to run rampant with this team. In the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Button finished first ahead of teammate Rubens Barrichello. Button would sweep five of the next six events and both he and Barrichello would place top-five at every race until June, when a gearbox malfunction forced Barrichello to retire from the race after 47 laps. In their previous three seasons racing together at Honda, Button and Barrichello had both finished top-five in the same race just once -- that same 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix where Button earned his first Formula 1 victory. Now they were tearing up the circuit, unleashed and uninhibited. At the Belgian Grand Prix in August, Button suffered the only setback of his season when Renault’s Romain Grosjean ran into the back of his car, spinning him out and forcing the retirement. Other than the mishaps two months apart, though, Button and Barrichello earned points for Brawn GP in every race of the 2009 season save one (when Barrichello finished tenth at, funnily enough, the Hungarian Grand Prix which had previously been their one hallowed venue). With the team’s revolutionary new BGP001 chassis reaping dividends immediately and often, Brawn GP is positioned to remain a powerhouse in Formula 1 for years to come. The car, after many a formal complaint was lodged by teams who felt the rear diffuser did not fall within parameters and thus gave the car an unfair advantage, was deemed legal under repeated appeals and was formally accepted by the FIA. As long as Ross Brawn and Jenson Button remain on the same team, they have the chance to replicate Brawn’s previous successes. After years in Schumacher’s shadow, Brawn can now live vicariously through Button, who this season finally emerged from the chrysalis of mediocrity and burst through the barriers to become a champion...
It is always rewarding when an also-ran breaks through the wall of everyone’s expectations to take a title. It is always fun to see the prey become the predator in an athletic event. And, as Usain Bolt proved this Sunday, it can be really fun to see what an athlete can do outside of what we assume to be his natural domain. So as the leaves change, the elite open-wheel racers of auto and bicycle shut down their seasons for a few months of respite from what has increasingly become a year-round endeavor. Tennis nears the end of its season, with the ATP and WTA staging its final tournaments and preparing to crown its season champions. And all the while the Champions League keeps building to its crescendo, where teams discover whether they are better or worse than expected when push comes to shove. But even as the athletes take a break, there will always be more for a voracious sports fan to drink in. Keep your head on a swivel, because just when you expect a break might be coming there is more coverage to bombard your brainwaves. And be sure to tune in every week as winter draws nearer, as I’ll be here to keep you abreast of all the latest developments. Think of me, now sitting here in my little writing kiosk, as your virtual information booth into the myriad delights of international sport...
Submitted 10/22 Comment on this article to Comments@informativesports.com
|
Contact the Mailbag if you have any
Sports Questions
|
And
from this base, I have already been able to witness some amazing feats in
the sports world. Philippe Gilbert pulled off the Paris-Tours/Giro di
Lombardia double on Saturday to punctuate the end to his best season yet
as a professional. Usain Bolt dazzled a capacity of his Jamaican fans...
but he didn’t do it on the track. And Jenson Button, long an
afterthought in Formula 1, emerged as a champion. And that was just this
weekend!
