I can listen to the races, but...

Folks who have been watching the Nascar races over the last couple of weeks in this area have had no problem seeing them. Well, except for the last four laps of the Busch race at Bristol.

As far as hearing the action, I just have not been able to adjust to ESPN's commentary crew - going into the season, there were somewhat high expectations, with them coming back after a six-year absence from Nascar coverage. It was expected that they'd have a high quality of coverage, but it just hasn't seemed to click.

My choice has been now to do the old trick that we all do in this area for football - listen on the radio and watch the pictures on TV. By doing this, you generally get a better idea of what's going on with the whole field instead of just the drivers the director decides to cover - and that's usually a choice of: the leader, the points leader, or Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The problem is that over the last couple of weeks, the races have been at night. This means that it's nearly impossible to find a good signal for the races, as one station that broadcasts races during the day is a daytime-only station and hand over the broadcast to a weaker station that's hard to get during the day, and the other station goes down to something like 250 watts.

Last week, I wound up listening to WSM radio. From Nashville, which is about 800km (500 miles) in a straight line from where I am, mostly because I couldn't get the FM station that is covering the race in clearly.

Luckily tonight, I can get the FM station (even though it is somewhat staticy) from about 50km (30 miles) away. At least there I can hear all the restarts... ;)

If you're interested in following the discussion of the race broadcast, you can visit The Daly Planet.

But it's only the preseason!

Living where I do, there are a few things you always know the dates of - one of them happens to be the schedule of the Green Bay Packers - though I suspect that there are a lot of other fans around the country who are in the same boat.

It just happens that tonight is the second preseason game of the year - two more, and it's the regular season opener against the Eagles at Lambeau Field.

Admittedly, however, I haven't been following the team as closely as in past years - partly because there's actually something to follow down at the baseball stadium, with the Brewers in a tight race for the lead of the NL Central Division (they lost first place last night after holding it since way back in April or May, and are only a half-game behind the Cubs). Also, the fact that it's still summer and that it is just the preseason has a handle in that as well.

Nevertheless, I did listen (and watch - you never listen to the TV commentators unless you have to ;)) to the whole game, and it was great - a 48-13 result over the Seahawks of Seattle, even though the Pack did give up 5 turnovers. The next game is on Thursday, and it will be interesting to see what coach McCarthy does in regards to player moves; I don't think there are any required cuts between now and then, but there are still some issues that need to be dealt with.

I think it might be too early to give a season prediction, but I'll put myself down now for a 9-7 season, and in the running for either the division outright or a wild card slot.

What are y'all thinking for this season for your team - it doesn't have to be NFL, it can be in any code of football, or any other sport, if you like. ;)

Some strange identification there...

In the paper I found this headline -

Ultralight crash survivors identified

Uh, wouldn't you name the survivors? By saying identify, you're implying that there's other evidence than asking the people their names which led to their identity.

Le Mans update - I didn't make it the whole 24 hours. I wound up sleeping from about 4:30 until 7:30. I watched the finish and then we went out and did some shopping, one part involved me buying an espresso from the local coffeehouse, and it was very bitter. I tried putting some sugar in it, but that did no good at all, and they didn't have any regular milk available to put in. Just hazelnut-flavored creamer... I'll stick to my own coffeepot or other kinds of coffee from now on I think.

Le Mans

For a lot of folks, the 24 Hours of Le Mans has become an annual tradition of trying to stay up all night. For me, it has become quite the same. Though I haven't ever managed to make it all 24 hours (at least that I can remember), I've tried each year since 2000, the first year that the Audis dominated the race. Of course, I didn't see the finish of that race because that Sunday was the day that I had to head off to band camp.

In 2002, I discovered Radio Le Mans and their fantastic free streaming of race coverage. It fills in the time greatly when our broadcaster, Speed have to go to other events (this year, they were interrupted by USGP Practice 3 and Qualifying, along with the Nascar Truck race (something that could have been put on Fox - we don't need to see *another* Yankees game) - I should note that they went back to coverage about 20 minutes early though). In fact, I keep it on when they have coverage on the TV as they are much better with the commentary, and don't have many breaks.

So, here goes to lasting until 8:00 AM when the race ends. :)

I see you watching me watching you

This story in the SMH caught my eye yesterday; you wouldn't really know what it was about from the title, though it is a hint - "Obese, gun-happy and violent; but that's half the story". The point is that Fairfax sent Michael Gawenda over here a couple of years ago to be their Washington Correspondent, and in that time, he's seen both the stereotypical America along with the country that most of us know.

It's items like this that make me glad for being able to access newspapers and news from around the world, as one point that he makes is very prescient -

It is not surprising that so many Americans consider America to be a world unto itself, which partly at least, explains American provincialism and why many Americans are so apparently incurious about the rest of the world.

If I have failed to convey the complexity of America, I am not alone. Much of the reporting of the place by most foreign correspondents - British, European and Australian - fails the complexity test.

The truth of the matter is that most of the my fellow citizens really only pay attention to what is happening in their area, along with the areas that get coverage from the major news programs and channels. I will disagree with his point about the homelands of the journos who cover this country being complex. If I were sent to, say Australia, with just basic information, or maybe info that I'd culled from a travel guide, there would be a lot of nuance that I'd miss - for example, the split in football codes - Rugby League in NSW, the ACT and QLD, Aussie rules in the other states and territories; Rugby a quiet third, soccer lurking there, and gridiron completely nonexistant.

Nevertheless, it is refreshing to see someone who comes to the country go around and visit the parts of our vast land that don't get media coverage (read: anywhere other than the Northeast Corridor (that's Boston to Washington and down into Northern Virginia), Los Angeles, and to a very very much lesser extent, Chicago) to find what I guess you would call the quintessential American.

I have to say that I'd be very interested if they did decide to market his upcoming book here, but I do know that the chances of this happening are likely very small, but you never know.

The curse of searching

Well, I'm guilty of it again ;)

I've been checking the keywords people are using to get here. The latest entry in that contest is someone searching for ESPN's Thursday Night Thunder on tapes. They of course found this post about YouTube and copyright. I must say that this is something that you don't see a lot of people having tapes of anymore. (It's not to say that there are folks out there with it on tape, it's just that I haven't seen anyone with it out there.)

However, there is another type of racing that is even rarer to have on tape - broadcasts of local auto racing action. About 17 years ago, one of the local independent stations decided to do a trial broadcast of racing at one of the racetracks in the region. Personally, I think it was a great thing, but I'm guessing that there were not enough viewers to sustain such a broadcast every week. Also, it's hard to squeeze advertisements into a program such as the main feature race of the evening. Maybe they ought to try it again, but I'm not sure people would watch considering the tons of extra choices out there nowadays.

In related news, I have a working VCR and hopefully I'll find good stuff on my videos. Unfortunately, the tapes of that racing are quite literally lost, with not much hope of it coming back, but it'd be cool to have it again.

Lastly, to the person in VIC who searched for pictues of sephiroth - there's probably a better way to find those pictures - Google Image Search... :)

American Arrogance?

I am well aware of the fact that many of my countrymen act quite arrogantly when they are overseas (you know, the "I'm from America, give me what I want damnit!" types). However, there is some arrogance that can be seen, especially when you have a chance to discuss something that isn't in the mainstream here.

This particular example focuses on the sudden death of the coach of the Pakistani cricket team, Bob Woolmer. At first, it was suspected by his family that he probably passed away due to a heart attack from stress, but it would seem that the autopsy that was performed in Kingston, Jamaica (which is only 581 miles/935 km from Miami) has proven inconclusive.

This has now sparked rumors of how he died - from suicide to even one report that claims he might have been murdered. I have to be honest in saying that when I had first heard of his death, my first thought was that I really hoped it would be of natural causes as if it wasn't that, it would certainly bring cricket to the attention of the US media, and for all the wrong reasons. After the autopsy, it now has. Aside from this, the only time cricket is mentioned on ESPN's site is in a link to cricinfo in the "More Sports" section of the toolbar.

Apparently something ESPN have started to do is allow people to make comments on stories. And here is where my discussion about our perceived ignorance comes to light. Right now there are three comments, which are as follows -

- C_lopez_13 (3/21/2007 at 9:30 AM): Not an important story in the US, never seen a cricket game in my life

A fair point, it is not an important story here, if it wasn't for the fact that it's the coach of a major world side dieing the day after his side was defeated by one of the lower-order sides (more commonly known as the minnows), Ireland.

The next comment is this -

- k.9stl (3/21/2007 at 9:38 AM): This is why we need to protect our borders!!!!!!!

What exactly are we protecting ourselves from here? Pakistani cricketers? Is that some new kind of terrorist that nobody, not even themselves, know about? I think they'll be glad to know that it's highly unlikely that any of the participants will be visiting our airports for transiting while on their way back home.

And the last comment -

- ammille2 (3/21/2007 at 9:51 AM) Any reaction to this story? I hear crickets....

The natural bad pun that one would expect ;)

Let's see Fox or ESPN do this...

Granted that this is from 1991, but it's something that isn't done enough (or if they do it, like ESPN have for the last couple of weeks in their Busch coverage, they hardly ever use the option and then overhype it). What would happen if you put a live microphone with a driver and let him have discussions with your commentary crew live on air.

(You'll note that I didn't mention TNT - that's because they are going to do something like this for at least one race)

Anyway, back when they had the rights to broadcast these races, Network 7 in Australia would hook up a driver and let them be their (as ESPN put it now) "in-race reporter". In 1991, it wound up being the Neil Crompton/Brad Jones Telecom Mobilenet Holden. Here are a couple of clips ;) -

By the way, both drivers are involved in racing media - Cromley as the colour commentator for 7 (after a stint with ten) and Jones co-hosting a show with Crompton available on broadband from Bigpond.

Let us all sing along

Well, you might not know the melody unless you're from my area and are a football fan, but here we go -

The Bears still suck
The Bears still suck
They really really really really really really suck
Yes, the Bears still suck!

Repeat a few times

As just about everybody who isn't in Chicago expected, the Colts defeated the Bears to win Super Bowl XLI, an event that was seen live in well over a hundred countries (including some countries where there were upwards of three different versions of the same game airing concurrently - Aussies, I'm looking at y'all ;)). For a few minutes in the first half, it didn't look too good for those of us cheering for the Colts to do it, but sure enough, they pulled it out and took control.

However, nowadays, the game is almost a sideshow compared to all the other entertainment you see during the game - in particular the commercials. This year's halftime performance by Prince seemed a touch off, but maybe that's just me; I think two of the most memorable ones came in the early '90s - the first was the 1991 Super Bowl where there was no halftime broadcast because of an ABC News brief on the Gulf War. The other was either just before or just after that one - where you had to get Coke products to get some 3D glasses to watch the halftime festivities. Ah well, we can't have much fun anymore thanks to the last time it was on CBS, with the nipple that nobody would have noticed if not for Tivo.. :)

So, the commercials. The most lauded one was the ad for Nationwide Insurance featuring Kevin Federline first rapping and then boxing fries -



Personally, one of my favorite commercials was the NFL's "Super Ad" - an ad pitched by a fan in Buffalo about what happens to fans at the end of the season - you know, washing the body paint and having to say goodbye. Of course, for some players, it's harder; honestly, that's the best part since they pick on our own "can't say goodbye" player Favre, who, unlike was projected in December, will be coming back for another go in '07. Here it is -



If you want to see just about every ad that aired you can see them on YouTube

Third fiddle in a one-fiddle location

That's pretty much where (at the best) Formula 1 is in the USA. Of course, the major motorsport here is Nascar. The split between Indycar CART and Indycar the IRL has all but decimated the domestic open wheel competition. The only other major open wheel series, for all intents and purposes, is F1. The story of the series in this country is an interesting one, and one to which, over the last 25 years or so, stability is something that has been fleeting.

Consider that between 1980 and 1991 (the last race until it moved to Indianapolis in 2000), the series raced in the following locations - Long Beach CA, Watkins Glen NY, Detroit, Dallas, Las Vegas and finally Phoenix. Add to that the fact that TV coverage had gone from the occasional race on a regular network to all races being on cable, and you have a recipe for near-disaster.

However, Indianapolis' plan to get the cars there has worked somehow. It has been reported that this race sees some of the largest paid attendances in the series. If it weren't for the mishap in 2005, the likelihood would be that the track would have a long term deal alredy.

The head of F1, Bernie Ecclestone, recently had an interview with Sports Illustrated, in which he says that part of the problem with getting F1 to succeed here is not having it airing on regular TV. He is right, and I think his people did something quite smart when renegotiating into the rights contract a proviso that says that some races will be shown on Free-to-air TV. Fortunately, unlike the last deal that led to races being shown on regular TV, two of the races selected for this are the ones from Montréal and Indy.

Bernie says that he thinks part of our problem stems in the fact that the whole series isn't aired on FTA TV. I think that this time, they're doing the FTA thing right (i.e. using the announcers from Speed, who actually know something about the sport they cover instead of the CBS-all rounder they used last year). It's likely that there will be more than the 4 races on Fox next year, but right now I think that if the shows acually rate, it will be considered a success.

So, here's to having a good year of being in third place again, but maybe closing the gap to drag racing. :)

There's more on PitPass

I don't think I missed much

So, the State of the Union address was tonight. I watched classic baseball instead, thanks to one of the channels here airing older games from the Brewers. Tonight's installment was a game from August 1992, against the Toronto Blue Jays (apparently not Bluejays as I had said yesterday) at Skydome. Of course, since it was on you know that the Brewers end up winning - with a (then) record of 31 hits - 22-2. One comment made by the CBC commentators was that the next day's game would be much closer. It was, but the Brewers still won, 7-2.

As far as the SOTU goes, it's not like you don't hear about these things for days if not weeks to come, especially as the Presidential campaign for next fall has already started. Another thing - we all know what the reaction will be - Democrats will say that the President's policies are misguided, Republicans will say that the Democrats are full of it and nothing will get done. Just about everyone else (myself included) will say that they're all full of it and that they all just care about what the people who give them money want.

You'd think that as someone who got a Christmas card from the White House in 2004, I'd care more, but I don't. :)

Cricket in the US?

It's not exactly us managing to get our act together and put ourselves on the map, but there is a movement afoot to run a little experiment here in the States - a 7-match One-day International series between India and Australia. The current idea is to have the seven matches at, and I quote, "an indoor NFL stadium in New York".

There are a couple of problems, aside from the fact that there's a tussle over how the earnings are split up, with Australia wanting half of the take, and India not exactly in agreement. First is that cricket is designed to be played in more of an oval-shaped staduim (though they can create the boundaries necessary from any type of field really). Nope, the problem is that there isn't an indoor NFL stadium in New York. At least one that is ready to host sporting events this year.

Interestingly, the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) claim that they will be able to garner $6 million per match in TV fees, etc. While that's fine (and proven with the events in Kuala Lumpur in fall), they seem to miss the point.

If they want to promote cricket over here, they should start by finding someone who is willing to pick up the matches on a proper network; they can use the international announcers. As it is now, only people who subscribe to a premium service on top of a satellite service can see any cricket here. By allowing a proper network (ESPN, I'm looking your way, what with having the rights to the Ashes in SE Asia, along with your partnership with CricInfo) to cover the matches, it would be useful as there would be people who would be browsing channels to see this unusual sport with unusual voices speaking, and would stop to watch.

Now, let's discuss where to actually hold this. The organisers say that they are looking either at New York or Toronto. What isn't specified is the time of year they would be doing this. It would seem that the most likely time would be in summer, July or August based on the make-up of the Aussie schedule for their winter (Zimbabwe tour in June, T20 Champs in South Africa in September). It will likely be hot, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue - extra drinks breaks are easy to come by. It would also be baseball season, so that could rule out Toronto (as the most likely venue would be Skydome Rogers Centre, which is also home to both the Bluejays and the Argonauts) based on the scheduling.

In New York, you could feasibly pull it off at at any of three stadia (preferably a combination of the three) - Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium and the Meadowlands. The good news is that the first two are natural grass surfaces (though the sand in the infield would be a concern, as would be pitch placement); the Meadowlands is a synthetic field, albeit one that is meant to be a close replacement for natural grass.

Of course, they could always decide to try an innovative approach - have it around the country. Then you would only have to worry about late flights.

In any case, it is an interesting proposal - one that certainly would have a little bit of interest here, but not too much. Who knows? It might just come to pass that in a few months' time we *are* discussing the third ODI played at the Meadowlands.

It's not about the money?

Uhh...sure it isn't, Becks.

I mean, come on, haven't we all passed up offers of $50 million (US$50,000,000) per year to play in what is, really, a society who doesn't know you, except maybe for the fact that you are married to a former popstar, and might have had a movie do, uh, so-so in said country.

Ah well, I can't say that I ever got into MLS in the past; and bringing in Beckham won't pique my interest too much...

BBC: A lesson in using cool words

I had never heard of this word until about a year ago; it basically means the act of dawdling and generally not getting anything done. As I was reading through the commentary of the Twenty20 match from the SCG this morning, the commentary for this over stood out immediately -

5th over: Ponting is almost balletic as he swivels a pull shot into the crowd behind square but he has feet of clay next ball as he thick-edges four over point. A similar shot brings a relay effort by the fielders but the batsmen run four while they're faffing. DROPPED! Taxi for Lewis, who gets under a lofted drive from Ponting at mid-on and puts it down. He just dropped the Twenty20 international trophy. 52-1

Good on ya Martin Gough! :)

Now, I have to stop faffing and get some shit done myself. ;)

Don't have much for now

I've been busy with some new stuff - like exploring the alternative reality of Entropia Universe, and actually not feeling the greatest, with the stuffy nose and all that fun.

I'll have something more substantial soon; in the meantime, if you're interested in some funny reading, I suggest checking out the BBC's live text coverage of the Ashes tests, of which the series came to a close earlier this evening. These BBC text summaries have some good humor even if you aren't a follower of sport, for example this line from the trophy presentation:

Presentation time at the SCG, and a number of faceless businessmen with over-inflated titles stand on the podium looking awkward.

See y'all soonish ;)

Happy New Year

First, I have to say that there is no better way to close out a year than having your favorite football team win the last game to finish the season with a .500 record. No playoffs this year, but they've shown some great improvements over the past few weeks (though their opponents were somewhat on the weak side).

Acutally, 2007 in the world of sports should prove to be a very interesting one - at least 3 World Cups are up for grabs - One-Day Cricket (West Indies, March-April), Women's Soccer (China, September), and Rugby Union (France, September-October). The US are participating in the Soccer and Rugby cups and have a far greater chance of doing well in the soccer considering that the group stage in the rugby includes both England and the Springboks.

For me, I look for it to be a good year, there are the photo projects - A photo a day and A photo a week; and of course, there are the lads to deal with; I'm kinda waiting for Skype to announce this disruptive pricing structure - it might mean more opportunities to call them on the phone and have some fun. Also, be on the lookout for my comments on movies throughout the year; I'll say that the first one is coming up pretty soon ;)

And for all of you reading, thanks for reading; if you're catching up on my posts via RSS, I'd love to know, and if you're stopping in and reading on a periodic basis, also feel free to say something. :)

Here's to a good 2007 for y'all.

Do they know something we don't?

From time to time I like to take a peek at Aussie TV listings, mostly the sports channels, and I noted this in the description of a game that's going to be airing on Fox Sports 1 from 11.30 AM my time (4.30 AM Friday there) -

It hasn't been a vintage season for the Packers but expect a big one as they face their old foes the 49ers. One more chance to see the great Brett Favre in action before his expected retirement at season's end.

I know that the Favre retirement question is a popular one in the offseason, but nobody here is expecting him to retire until the day that he actually says he's going to retire; of course then everyone here will be shocked and dismayed at the retirement of the legend. For a lot of Packer fans, he is the only quarterback that they have known; I kinda fall into that group because I can barely remember much about the days of Don Majkowski. The only thing that I can somewhat envision is the infamous Instant Replay game of 1989, but that's only mainly through radio calls. However, when you think of what Favre has done - starting every single game for 15 years or so even when injured - you have to appreciate what he has done.

Another interesting tidbit about the Fox Sports schedule is that I think that the game on the NFL Network tonight might be available to more Australians than it is here in the States since most cable companies don't offer the NFL channel citing the fact that the league are demanding 75-80¢ per customer, so the cable companies simply do not carry the channel. However, since the airing of NFL games internationally is separate (and the fact is that there are somewhat limited international options), it's available on more widely-distributed channels overseas (i.e. Fox Sports in Australia {though I think I've seen the Monday night games that air on ESPN here airing on ESPN there}, Sky Sports in the UK, etc.).

Broadcasting Rights

I like listening and/or watching sport from around the world such as the games on Telemundo mentioned below, and also the fact that as I'm writing this I'm watching the highlights from Matchday 2 of the UEFA Champions League on ESPN. I think that this is the only purely non-US sport that they cover at all. They have covered sports that are predominantly non-US, but most of the time (as they've done with their World Series of Darts, they think that the only way to make it interesting is to make it a "US vs. World" kind of deal. One of the more interesting aspects about ESPN is that internationally, they carry some cricket, but don't care to show any of it to us here.

One of the sports that they used to carry is Aussie Rules Football. Tonight (Saturday afternoon there) is the Grand Final; and there is one thing that I was looking forward to with it - the Festival of the Boot, or the broadcast of the game by comedians Roy and HG. However, I went to their site and found this message -

INTERNET STREAMING - PLEASE READ:
We regret that due to restrictions in internet streaming rights, we are unable to present This Sporting Life's 'Festival of the Boot' as a webcast. Our apologies to all lovers of the boot.

There's the outside chance that it could be available as a podcast, but it looks like I'll have to listen to a normal broadcast, which won't be too bad anyway; at least it's available ;)

As an aside, why don't Ten cover it in HD? I'd guess that they probably don't have enough HD cameras. From what I've read, however, it sounds like they're going all-out for the coverage, including a camera on the world's tallest apartment building. Also, with only three hours before their pregame coverage starts, it's nice to see at least one other sporting event with a similar level of pregame buildup (4 hours sorry, 6+ hours; I redid the math on that one ;)) as the Superbowl.

Lastly, my picks for the championships, based on nothing really other than the irony.

AFL - Sydney
NRL - Melbourne