Rick Reilly puts on his Holier-Than-Thou hat

Before I give my opinion, check out his article from ESPN here

I think Rick Reilly is sometimes entertaining. He plays the similar card as Bill Simmons from a different angle ('I'm just a normal guy who gets to live a life that revolves around sports') and most of the time it works fine, if forgettably. But, he can also be an annoying little bitch. I do have to allow for the fact that he has to crank out an article on regular intervals that fits within his normal-white-guy niche and this story had been floating around the interwebs.

He makes a valid point that the Northrups didn't mention any of the pseudo-sexual contact in their reasoning for having their son default to Cassy in the opening round. To me, that's a good thing. I would tend to think that it is them trying to rock the boat the least and give the most bland answer to a story-hungry media and move on. Boys and girls are different. That is an awkward fact, especially when you're in HS.

As you may know, I wrestled in Texas for a little over a decade. Fortunately, I never had to deal with wrestling a girl, but I had friends that did. There are various ways to deal with it (some guys even molested them, which is the worst outcome in my opinion), but for the guy, its a no-win situation: win and you beat up on a girl. Lose and you lost to a girl. That is a fate worse than death for an adolescent boy. I know that losing is something you have to learn to do, yadda yadda, but I can understand his desire to avoid it.

The biggest issue for me here, is not Reilly's difference of opinion or his logic. Its the fact that he (like many other sports writers) think there is something to be gained from taking this imagined moral high ground and that they can't fathom any other line of logic. His closing line is the kind of thing that would get your ass kicked in most any athletic environment:

Neither he, nor his coaches, nor his dad, had any comment. He was reportedly on his way back home to Marion, Iowa, where his mom was about to deliver her eighth child.

For the kid's sake, I hope it's a boy.

I hope he has some hint as to how big of a self-righteous douchebag he is. Maybe he can share his enlightenment with Easterbrook and King. 

Wake Coach Donates Kidney to Recruit

There's a really amazing story out today in many publications about second year baseball coach Tom Walter and a freshman recruit,  Kevin Jordan. Kevin was a highly recruited outfielder out of high school and was drafted in the 19th round by the Yankees, but decided he wanted to play ball at Wake first. Early in 2010, Jordan was diagnosed with the flu, but couldn't really recover. It turned out his kidneys were functioning at about 8% capacity and he would need a transplant.

None of his family were a suitable match to be donors, so it appeared that Kevin would have to join the long list of people waiting for a kidney and that he would have to undergo about 18 hours of dialysis treatment EVERY DAY. He decided to attend Wake anyway, which is an impressive display of dedication. Meanwhile, Coach Walter decided to see if he is a suitable match to be a donor. He is. My favorite quote from WFU AD Ron Wellman:

"I asked Tom if he was sure he wanted to do this and his response was that when he recruits young men, he tells them they are coming into his family and will be treated like a family member," Wellman said. "He had everything so well planned for Kevin, for his family and for his team. He is a unique individual."

Both player and coach are apparently out of surgery at Emory University Hospital and doing well. There is always some risk of complication in both donor and recipient, but we'll hope and pray for the best.

This has been a really hard year to support Wake Forest athletics with both football and basketball struggling mightily to live up to even paltry expectations, but this makes me extremely proud of our Deacon family. I hope Coach Walter gets the recognition he deserves and that Kevin is able to live a normal, healthy life whether or not he ever gets to play ball for the gold and black.

Read the USA Today article here (Thanks Tom!)

For Your Friday Consideration

Nothing on the docket for this weekend.

Amazing street trials video (watch it in HD) (H/T Outside Blog)


Hard Shells are evolving to keep up with the breathability-obsessed outdoorsman (namely, me) (Gear Junkie)

Clothing made from 'bamboo' is apparently neither 'green' or really bamboo. I had no idea. (Adventure Journal)

Meet Quadroid: Android-Qualcomm combo smartphones may be the new equivalent of Windows-Intel for PCs (Reformed Broker)

Fell like doing The 7 Summits? Here's is the gear you would need to do Vinson (Outside Blog)

You'll notice I haven't posted anything related to sports in awhile. Here is my sportsyear in a nutshell: Rangers had their best year ever BUT Horns suck (4-6!!!), Deacon football is abysmal (2-8), Deacon basketball is off to a roaring 1-2 record before even getting into the real schedule, Stars are playing decent hockey (but might as well take the year off since I won't see a single game and they are broke) and the Mavs are playing decent (7-3).

Weekend Update: Nada Mucho

Nice slow weekend around London. It was cold, but saw a little sunshine. Ran some errands, read, played video games, went to the gym, bought all my grass-fed and exotic meat for the week, etc. Good to have a weekend like that every once in awhile.

Woke up at 4am Saturday morning to watch the last few innings of the Rangers beating the Yankees!! Also, went to the London ski show, which was just a bug tease since the season doesn't even start over here until January. Still provided good fodder for the imagination and wanderlust.

Met up with some friends Saturday night at an ESPN-zone type sports bar (Sports Cafe) to watch LSU-Auburn. Cam Newton is a beast. It'll be interesting to see who comes out of the SEC this year as likely national title contenders.

...And the Cowboys suck. Romo broke his collar-bone last night. Maybe now he'll have more time to focus on his passion: being a full-time Dallas playboy. He's better at that than football anyway.

With the GBP/USD strengthening, the price of gold is down significantly in terms of GBP on relatively little news. I guess markets like the UK's austerity approach more so than the US's hyper-focus on QE and stimulus. Something about spending your way to prosperity or borrowing your way out of debt... Anyway, it's killing the pace of business, so most positive momentum has been scrubbed out and now its back to me trying to grind out a little profit every day.

Wing Suits are the coolest things ever

This is just all around ridiculous. I've seen similar videos before, but perhaps you haven't. In any case, I want one.

ESPN Magazine: The Body Issue

So Sports Illustrated has the swimsuit edition, which is of course cool, but its pretty much the same thing every year (except the body paint!). ESPN the magazine has The Body Issue. Basically, shows off the forms of some top athletes. Much more interesting to me to see what a supremely functional form looks like for various endeavors.

Check out a slideshow of some of these here

Vancouver will have a long hangover from Olympic party

Quick follow-up to yesterday's post about international sporting events and lavish stadiums being a financial parasite to the public municipalities that fund them. Exhibit #593: Vancouver

Hat tip Reformed Broker

Stadiums and the Sport Economist

If you have never checked out The Sports Economist, do so. Its interesting analysis of economic principles applied to sports. Their big kick has been about the public disaster that is new stadiums (and Olympics, World Cups, etc). The potential economic benefits are always overstated by biased consultants and then the unwitting (or is it witless) public is left with long term debt on an asset that no longer produces enough revenue to fund itself.

Today's example: The Old Giants stadium. According to the NYT:


The old Giants Stadium, demolished to make way for New Meadowlands Stadium, still carries about $110 million in debt, or nearly $13 for every New Jersey resident, even though it is now a parking lot.

Wheelchair Double Back Flip

OK, this is kinda dumb, but very cool. This guy lands a huge single backflip in a wheelchair and then decides that a double is possible. From Outside Online, video and article here

Deadspin is on fire... in a good way

If you are a sports fan don't read the anti-politically-correct sports blog Deadspin, you should. It does contain some adult humor, but doesn't censor their writers to maintain relationships (á la ESPN and SI). Here are some great links from recent week or so:

They were able to get financial statements from several small-market teams with disproportionate benefits from revenue sharing (specifically Pirates and Marlins). They also have docs for the Rangers. 

The fallout from previous post regarding MLB team financials.

Perfect example of what they don't do: Pull comments from their highest paid cheerleader (Rick Reilly) because he might have made a comment disparaging Bud Selig

ACC Power Rankings

Its almost fall, which means its almost time for college football. ESPN has already relegated Wake to the bottom of the ACC power rankings. With Riley Skinner having graduated, I can't hardly blame them. We have gotten some very talented recruits in the past few years and should be helped by a swarming defense.

No marquee names, but talent all-around and a defensive mindset? At the bottom of the preseason ACC rankings? Sounds an awful lot like 2006 to me. Not that I'm being optimistic or anything.


Now if only I can find a place to watch the games... Done.

Rick Reilly's Followup from the strangest non-athletic sporting accident

Read Rick Reilly's followup on the Word Sauna Championships death from this year. I posted on this about a week ago.

Tuesday morning reads

Quick links:

Unemployment: Structural or Cyclical? - Similar to a preivous post I made that I'm too lazy to find right now

JetBlue Pilot curses at passengers via the PA system, then pulls emergency chute on tarmac (after grabbing a roadie)

Finalist dies in World Sauna Competition - Rick Reilly did a write-up on this a few months ago and now someone dies. Coincidence?


WSJ: Cheap Money isn't free - What does it mean when IBM can issue debt below 1%? Great for banks, sucks for you. Remember macro-econ about savers v. spenders?


If anyone would like to lend me $4 million (its in US Dollars, so that's cheap right?) I'll buy this house in Montana and you can all visit (WSJ House of the Day) OR $15MM will net you this bad boy (also in Montana)

WSJ Opinions: Why I'm not Hiring. Interesting (if politically motivated) take on why a medium business owner isn't hiring.

Anything interesting that I missed?

Versus commercial almost good enough to make me remember that Versus exists outside of hockey season

Two Great, Short Videos

Two great completely unrelated videos:

1. Entertaining fireworks disaster (no one was hurt so don't get upset)



2. Miguel Ángel Jiménez shot off the wall at last weekend's Open Championship (British Open)