Christmas in. . . August?

This maybe doesn't deserve its own post, but I'm hoping someone out there can help me.

I'm up late watching a re-air of the US vs. the Netherlands in baseball. In the top of the third, a Netherlands player fails on a pop fly in foul territory (in such a way that helps me understand why this is the last time Baseball will be in the Olympics). After he drops it, the stadium starts loudly playing. . . Jingle Bells?!

Why? Can someone out there help me with this? And it wasn't a quick tune, either, it was the whole song. And it was loud and clear, definitely Jingle Bells. Please? Anyone?


Also, watching this game reminds me of what it was like to watch Expos games. There's no one in the stands, so you can litterally hear individual conversations and hecklers. There's some guy who's louder than the announcers who still thinks it's cool to say "no batta no batta no batta SWING!"

. . . maybe I won't miss Olympic baseball. . .

Spain's Olympic Basketball Team Fouls Out with Ad

From The Guardian

"Spain's Olympic basketball teams have risked upsetting their Chinese hosts by posing for a pre-Games advert making slit-eyed gestures. The advert for a courier company, which is an official sponsor of the Spanish Basketball Federation, occupied a full page in the sports daily Marca, the country's best-selling newspaper."

As a kid, I remember this thing some of the other students used to do where they would do the same gesture as a way to tell the difference between the Japanese and Chinese. Though I didn't know about stereotypes or political correctness at the time, I had a feeling that it was pretty pointless and dumb.

Congratulations! You have now confirmed my elementary school hunch.

The Epic Baseball Week: Day Two

The Astros won 12-4 against Tim Lincecum. They only got the win after they tried to take out the kid's kneecaps though. As the runs started piling on and those around me commented on the Astros offense being "good," I said, "Welcome to the Giants bullpen."

Update on the physical tolls of aspiring to seven games in seven days: the jetlag is killing me slowly. I first noticed it when I was taking a picture of Barry Zito holding my stuffed dolphin and the shakes overtook me. I had to lean back because hello, I am short and not only is Zito tall, but the field has a couple inches on the spectator portion of the building, and my abs decided to rebel. Thus, Zito's face is a funny-looking mess. Some would say that's normal.

Apparently, asking a baseball player to take a picture with a dolphin is a strange request met with an apprehensive look. I said, "Swisher did it" and that must be the key phrase. "Oh, Swish did it? I love that guy." I think Zito has more fans in Houston than he does in San Francisco.

The difference between Zito and Swisher? After finding out that Snorky is good luck, Swisher rubbed the dolphin all over his body. Zito was just kind enough to avoid getting Sharpie on it.

Omar Vizquel came over to sign after a woman from Venezuela yammered on at him in Spanish.

A kid got a ball signed and asked, "Who ARE you?" Vizquel, always (?) the comedian, said in his highly-accented voice, "Barry Bonds." He then walked away.

In other sports-related news, Michael Phelps (please, do we have to keep using his last name? Let's just call him Mike. Yeah. I went there!) won his fourth and fifth gold medals of this Games, making him the most championest Olympian of all time. He has no finals tonight, but he does swim a semi-final in the 200IM, a race Ryan Lochte thinks he can win. I love the kid's optimism, but ... really? When a guy breaks a world record in the 200 fly with his goggles full of water (yes, young swimmers, it even happens to Mike!), it's going to take more than Jon Horton-like confidence to win it.

And Natalie Coughlin is half Filipino.

More from Chef Karolyi

Wow I am writing things on this web log a lot lately. I should coin a verb for it.

We here at And That Happened are not so much here to report the sports stories of the day to you as we are to cover the people who report those sports stories of the day. Maybe that makes us pathetic, but I enjoy it because I don't have to stand in a sweaty locker room trying to talk to someone in a bad mood hoping he'll say something your editor likes (I've done it, it's not fun).

I mentioned in a previous post, I've become quickly enamored with Bela Karolyi's very unique presence in the NBC olympics booth next to (my hero) Bob Costas.

I also mentioned I couldn't understand a word he was saying, and was unsure of whether he was discussing vaulting form or how to make donuts. Apparently what was being said was far more entertaining.

According to Tampa Bay Online*:

"These people think we are stupid," Karolyi said. "We are in the business of gymnastics. We know what a kid of 14 or 15 or 16 looks like. What kind of slap in the face is this? They are 12, 14 years old and they get lined up and the government backs them and the federation runs away. There is an age limit and it can't be controlled."

The Washington Post also has some nifty quotes:

"They are obviously kids -- 12 or 14 [years old], max -- and you're telling the world they are 16? What arrogance!"

"The passport is made by the Chinese government," Karolyi said. "They can do any kind of documents."

As mentioned, we cover the people who cover the news, not the news itself. I'm sure you've heard speculation of the Chinese gymnasts' ages not being up to snuff, but Karolyi's vehement, biased and insulting statements of fact that the host country of the Olympics are pulling one over on the rest of the world is taking it to another level. Of course, Bela knows how communist countries operate, and also knows what a 14-year-old Gold Medal gymnast looks like, but this is still rubbing a lot of people the wrong way (notably poor co-anchor Bob Costas, doing a full-on Mike Myers).

Me? This sort of outrage makes me love Mr. Karolyi even more. Bring him in for Sunday Night Baseball in place of Joe Morgan. AND Jon Miller! There's nothing better than a studio analyst saying crazy things that make everyone around him so uncomfortable they feel their own jobs might be in jeopardy (yes, I miss Rush Limbaugh on ESPN). Unless, of course, they can't be certain if said studio analyst just said something that should make them uncomfortable because they can't understand what he said in the first place.

And I'm certainly not making fun of him or saying there's anything wrong with that. It just makes him more awesome, even if he is known for bringing up young female gymnasts with the same loving care and patience shown by a guard when bringing up a POW in a concentration camp. Are you not picturing how epic this would be, people?

I can't wait until I get that petition started and Karolyi is greating me every Sunday night before I have to listen to John Madden.


(Note: This author does not know nearly as much about gymnastics as he pretends to.)


*I feel the urge to top this by finding even more random and obscure sources in the future. I dare the rest of you ATH writers to try and out-do me.

Jayson Stark Sums Up the Absurdity that is the MVP Award

"...Remember that this award is about "value," not numbers."

Interesting. And all this time I thought the numbers were the very thing representing that value. He also provided this valuable new age statistic for us:

My "runs produced" definition is RBIs plus runs scored, then subtract homers. Here's how they rank:
Hamilton 160
Kinsler 147
Morneau 142
Quentin 140
Youkilis 125

Sorry, Alex Rodriguez, Grady Sizemore, and Milton Bradley, you are not MVP-worthy. The reasons for this are three-fold: either A) the players in front of you don't get on base enough B) the players behind you don't hit good enough or C) you hit too many homeruns.
Now, I know that Stark didn't exactly use this to back up his stance on the MVP, but the fact that this type of statistic is being used in any context is cause for concern. This is essentially one of the worst ways to determine how well a player produces runs.
Let me show you why this "statistic" should never be used in any argument ever again.

Runs Produced-2008
Mark Reynolds
127
Albert Pujols
122

Thank you.

Bela Karolyi for Football Night in America

This man has just become my single favorite studio analyst. Ever. Easily.

He's just so excited about everything, and I can't understand a word he's saying. And I love it. His exchanges go something like this. . .

Bob Costas: Well, Bela, you saw the US floor routine. What do you think their chances of winning the gold are?

Bela Karolyi:



NBC seriously needs to use Karolyi as their analyst for every event. You say all he knows about is gymnastics? Screw that, that would only make it more entertaining to hear his thoughts on Saber or Handball.

Or Luge. Yes, bring him out in the winter, as well. (Also, Street Luge should be a summer event in the Olympics!)

In fact, NBC has a darn good football show on Sunday nights. Pair him back together with Bob Costas and let him loose on football. No need to educate him on the sport. We won't know what he's saying, anyway. Just let him watch, and then let us listen to what he has to say!

I'm getting on this now! Someone help me start a petition!

Olympic coverage often makes me go "huh?"

Does anyone here watch the olympics to hear a former tennis player explain Pandas to us and why, if you go to China, that's the most important site to see?

Anyone?