My mother-in-law and sister-in-law competed in a triathalon this weekend. What they probably didn’t know is that apparently winning is all about finding the worst competition so you can beat them. How stupid is this?

There’s a trend of wannabe winners gauging the competition at rinky-dink local triathalons and only entering if they think they have a good shot at winning. It’s not about the sport or the thrill or the fun of it–they just want to brag about winning a triathalon. Never mind that they bested only a handful of competitors so their win really doesn’t mean anything.

You have to be a certain kind of messed up to want a meaningless trophy that bad. I think my mother-in-law scored a much cooler prize: finishing. (link via kottke.org)

The 10-month long NASCAR season started up again last week with the Daytona 500 and once again I can spend my Sunday afternoon sabaths in the horizontal position on the couch, zoning out to the drone of stock cars. I usually don’t watch the entire race because I just can’t give up four hours of my Sunday, but I do like to catch an hour or two.

I’ve also started NASCAR blogging again, at least a little bit here and there. I wish the ads paid better because I enjoy writing about NASCAR, but I just can’t invest the time into it.

And it still amazes me that NASCAR teams have such boring, out-of-date web sites. At best they have a list of news headlines cribbed from somewhere else, most of which are at least a few weeks old. Where are all the race team blogs? I know I’m a bit of a blog addict, but it is a great medium for connecting with fans. I can’t believe so many racing sites just plain suck. Reminds me of a certain other type of industry.

Like many guys my age I have boxes and boxes of baseball cards stashed in a corner of the basement. Thanks to an exploding market that everyone my age dove into, plus the stories every dad told of grandma throwing away his Mickey Mantle rookie card, there is an incredible glut of late 1980s and early 1990s baseball cards.

Meaning all those pristine Topps, Donruss and Upper Deck baseball cards in the corner of my basement are worth about as much as the paper they’re printed on. Blogger Jason Kottke has been talking about baseball cards lately and pointed to a few blogs and articles bemoaning this trend.

Continue reading The Baseball Card Collection in the Basement →

Ah, the video dorkiness continues. This time around it’s a quick 10-second video of youth group floor hockey from a few weeks back when one of the leaders managed to bean a student in the head. And we caught it on tape. Watch the upper left corner of the video.

Ball in the Head: Youth Leader Hits Student on Vimeo

The other day I was driving around St. Paul taking notes for a trail guide project I’m working on. When I pulled into Hidden Falls Park I about stopped the car when I saw a teenager fly off the roof of the picnic shelter. I quickly pulled into the parking lot and realized a couple teens had climbed up on the shelter’s roof and were using it as a skate ramp.

Sweet.

After a long silence, hockey is back. I’ve missed you, old friend. Let’s hope pro sports can learn a thing or two and stop arguing over millions. Now let’s get on with the game.

Steve Yzerman is back. In a 2004 playoff game against the Calgary Flames Yzerman took a puck to the eye in what was a horrific scene to watch. With the NHL lockout wiping out all of this year’s season, that could have been Yzerman’s last game. Thankfully he resigned with the Detroit Red Wings this week and will play again.

On the downside, the Wings have lost toothless Darren McCarty to the Calgary Flames. I’m sad to see him go. You check out the current Red Wings lineup, which includes many familiar names. I just hope they keep my boy, Pavel Datsyuk.

Formula One is supposed to be the world’s most popular racing series. But when the elite worldwide series came to Indianapolis Motor Speedway they weren’t so popular. 14 cars pulled out of the U.S. Grand Prix on Sunday, leaving a meager six cars to fight for the victory. Fans booed, threw debris on the track and many left early.

The 14 cars pulled out over safety concerns with their Michelin tires. Michelin informed the teams that their tires were unsafe for the track but a compromise couldn’t be reached before the start of the race. So the six cars on Bridgestone tires has the race to themselves.

Michael Schumacher, the series’ champion for the past five years (that’s right, can you say dynasty? I’ve also heard that Schumacher is makes more money than any professional athlete in the world) won the race, though he didn’t exactly stick around to celebrate.

And you thought NASCAR was weird.

All the buzz at Indy this year was the fact that Danica Patrick became the first woman to lead a lap of the Indy 500 and her fourth place finish is the highest a woman has ever placed. All of that brought the best TV ratings for the 500 in a decade. Woo-hoo.

But does anybody care about Indy racing anymore? I know some of you think NASCAR is boring, but Indy has to rank higher on the yawn scale.

In another peculiar development, NASCAR driver and former Indy driver Robby Gordon complained that Danica Patrick’s 100-pound frame was an unfair advantage. Some point to other athletes with physical advantages (Shaq) and say that’s the way sports are. Maybe Robby Gordon should just go on a diet.

Disclaimer: I doubt many of my readers are NASCAR fans, so I’ll try to keep this short.

Last night I watched the opening event of the NASCAR year, the Bud Shootout. It’s basically a short race (70 laps) with 20 of the series stars (drivers are eligible if they’ve won a pole position the previous year). It’s not for points, so it’s usually lots of fast, no-holds barred action. It was a good race last night, but what I absolutely cannot stand is NASCAR on FOX.

Last fall I watched a lot of NASCAR and I’d gotten used to NBC’s coverage. But FOX covers the first half of the season, so Darrell Waltrip and the other horrid announcers were back. I’ll admit that NASCAR has a southern hick image, but it’s quickly fading–though no thanks to folks like Waltrip, who when the green flag drops shouts “Boogety, boogety, boogety!” What the hell is that?! And it just got worse from there.

Maybe it was a bad night. After all, it was their first broadcast in seven months. But it couldn’t have been just rustiness. They were full of hick sayings, bad metaphors, inane comments and just plain poor coverage. NBC had cool graphics to explain how all these technical things worked–Waltrip just told old stories. If it continues like this, I’ll have to spend my Sunday afternoons doing something else.

All of which is sad for NASCAR, which makes an international debut of sorts this year when the Busch series heads to Mexico.

$49.27 – Average amount Super Bowl watchers spend on snacks for the game.
$2.4 million – Cost of a 30 second Super Bowl commercial.
25% of young adults (18-24) watch for the commercials. (you mean I’m not a young adult anymore?!)
20% of young adults watch for the game. ( the other 55% watch the Super Bowl to socialize with friends, for the half time show [?!] or don’t watch)
(via adfreak)