SportsGirl

When I began writing this blog about a year ago I only had one self-imposed rule; stay away from all things personal. No one cares who I’ll be voting for in the upcoming election. If you want to learn about politics, the economy or anything else other than sports, you wouldn’t be visiting a site called Sports Girl Blog. My passion is sports and that’s the only subject I care to cover. But dear readers, I’ve learned something about myself recently that I think deserves to be shared, thus breaking my own boundary. I have learned that I am something of a dominatrix. 

Now, I don’t mean that I’m a dominatrix in the typical sense of the word. No, we won’t get that personal. But I have learned that I absolutely love dominance. It’s why I love the Yankees. Sure, they’re not in top form at the moment, nor have they been in the last few years. But I started watching the Yankees in the mid-90’s when they were at their peak. You just knew every season that they would contend. And it’s only been in the last 3 years that it’s even been a question of whether or not they’d make the post-season. Their hitting was phenomenal. Their pitching was lights out. The team chemistry was off the charts. They basically could not be stopped. 

My love of dominance is why I root so hard for the New England Patriots. Granted, last season was really a failure since they couldn’t win in the one game that counted. But for the regular season they man-handled their opponents. Sure, they took a lot of flack for that since the domination sometimes resulted in an embarrassing loss for their foe. I happened to love watching them, week after week. 

I had never really stopped to find the common thread in the teams that I follow. I’ve been accused of being a band-wagon fan. And on the surface I can see that argument. But it’s not that only root for the winner. Quite the opposite actually; I love a good underdog story! But I love to see one team rise above all the others in the field and those teams do usually go on to win overall. 

What lead me to my self-discovery was the beginning of the 2008 Olympics. Every time the Olympics are approaching I think “eh, who really cares?” I had fully planned to watching almost nothing but football this weekend. But I tuned into the Olympics on Saturday just in time to watch Michael Phelps win his first gold medal. And by win, I mean absolutely demolish anyone else in the pool with him. You want to talk dominance? He is the definition. He is head and shoulders above his competition, and not just because he’s freakishly tall. Then, I had the immense pleasure of watching the men’s 4×100 relay last night. Phelps lead off and got the team off to a great start. The middle two swimmers did their parts, though Cullen Jones did leave some length to be made up at the end of the 3rd leg. And then Jason Lezak entered the pool. All evening, the announcers kept saying that, no matter how many times they ran the scenario on paper, they just didn’t see how France loses that relay. Cut to the video of the French team warming up with the footnote that, weeks prior, they were quoted as saying that they’d smash the Americans. All of this is in the back of my mind as Lezak makes the final turn and begins the final lap. Somehow, he managed to overtake his French rival in the last 25 meters of the lap and wound up beating him by 7/100 of a second. That, my friends, is dominance. To watch the elated expressions on the American team in direct contract to the anguish on the faces of the French swimmers was a great feeling. And hearing the National Anthem play as the four men stood on the podium, gold medals around their necks, really reminded me of how much national pride I feel. 

Tonight, Phelps continued his quest to be the most decorated American swimmer of all time. He easily won the gold in the 200 freestyle. Personally, I think he’ll beat Spitz’s record for most gold medals in an Olympic game. And it doesn’t hurt his status in my eyes that he swam for Michigan. I’m not sure that he can be beaten. Certainly Ian Thorpe would beg to differ, but this year, Thorpe is watching from the stands while Phelps dominates in the pool. And that may be the most disappointing factor of all. I would love to watch Phelps out-swim him this year. To prove that he truly is the most dominant swimmer in the sport.

Summer is a time for relaxation. People go on vacation, leaving the responsibility of their jobs behind in favor of lounging on a beach somewhere. The Sports Girl has taken something of a vacation as well. It’s not that I haven’t been watching sports; quite the contrary actually. I’ve watched more baseball this year than ever before. And I’ve developed a bit of a fancy for the sport. But baseball is difficult to blog about. It’s too stats driven. And you can read those stats anywhere. Why recap them here in this space? Well, lo and behold, football season (or really pre-season) is upon us again. And though the Hall of Fame game isn’t exactly the road to the playoffs, it’s enough to officially end my summer vacation. It’s back to work for the Sports Girl. And what better place to start then by declaring my new-found disgust for Brett Favre. 

Yes, it takes one of the greatest players making one of the largest mistakes to draw me out of relaxation mode. I can’t seem to wrap my brain around what Brett is doing with his current stunt. Two seasons ago, when he hemmed and hawed for months during the off-season about whether or not to return, I was annoyed but figured he had earned the right to take his time with the decision.  I thought it was fairly clear at the end of last season that he was going to retire, and retire he did. And at the time I thought “good for him! It was a heck of a career and you ended it in good fashion”. Why, then, dear Brett, have you decided less than 6 months later that you still have the competitive drive and want to play the game? Really? You miss the game that much based on 6 months of off-season? You miss it more now than when you ended the season with a loss in the NFC Championship game? One would think that the ubiquitous fire in the belly would burn strongest right after a loss like that and would die down the further removed one got from that game. Apparently Brett defies logic. He’s decided he wants to come back and has been officially reinstated by the league.

That alone is enough to draw my ire and place him atop my “persona non grata” list. What earns him a life-long space on the list is the fact that he’s even considering taking the “marketing agreement” he’s discussing with Green Bay brass, where he would receive approximately $20 million over the next several years just to remain retired. If the whole point of this dramatic exercise is that he just can’t stay away from the game, then this wouldn’t even be on the table. If what he really wanted was to play the game he loves so dearly, he would have requested a trade at the end of last season. But to allow Green Bay to go through the draft and get nearly to the beginning of training camp and then decide it’s time to think about coming back is just poor taste at best. I might even deem it calculated and malicious. And thus, if he does come back to play this season in the NFL, I will actively root against him and will hope he shows his age with every throw.  

Another person on the dislike list is Manny Ramirez. I can’t stand that guy! Yes, he’s an amazing hitter and a pretty good outfielder. He has won the Red Sox more than a few games this season. What I dislike the most about him is that you can actually see that he’s bought into his own hype. He stands and admires his handiwork when he knocks one out of the park. He apparently finds it acceptable to knock down the support staff of the team when he doesn’t think he’s getting the star treatment. And he speaks out publicly to air his grievances with his team instead of keeping them a private matter. I guess Boston finally took the Roberto Duran route and said “no mas”. Because Ramirez is now in Hollywood, which really is a good fit for him, and Jason Bay has replaced him on the team. I’m frankly a little surprised at that move. Most of the analysts figured the Bo Sox would deal him when the season was over so they could get more for their money. I guess the situation deteriorated faster than expected and the deal is now done, making Manny persona non grata in Bean Town. 

Watching the Hall of Fame game brought me a surprising amount of joy this evening. Normally in a Colts-Red Skins match-up I’d be pulling for the Colts but since Manning wasn’t playing past minute 2, my interest swung to a different colt–watching Colt Brennan lead the Skins.  He looked surprisingly sharp! I think out of the group of QB’s from this year’s draft, Brennan’s stock dropped the most at the NFL Combine. I really figured he’d be a bust, and not the kind you find in the Hall of Fame there in Canton. But tonight he ran an efficient offense and completed some impressive passes. Granted, that was while facing the second-or third-string Indy defense, but a good pass is a good pass. Last season we had a bit of a Todd Collins resurgence there in DC which, by law, I should support seeing as how he played his college ball at U of M. With the Brennan performance tonight, you can’t help but wonder if Collins won’t become persona non grata in our nation’s capital. 

So, while the vacation mode was nice, I’m all too happy to return to the blogosphere for another season of my favorite sport. I will be attending the Cowboys-Texans pre-season game on August 22 which should be quite interesting, since I may openly root for the Texans. There will be a full report as it will be my first change to get a feel for the Boys this season. Now let’s just hope I can manage to unpack my suitcases by the time the game rolls around!