Impolite Company

Giro Stage Five: Armstrong Cracks

Lance Armstrong's loss of fifteen seconds in yesterday's stage of the Giro was at least partially blamed on an equipment problem (derailleur) but on today's full-on mountain stage, he looked spent by the end and lost right at three minutes on the stage which was won by Denis Menchov.  This is not surprising as Armstrong is coming off of almost four years of retirement and is recovering from a broken collarbone.  It would make more sense if we looked at the Giro as an opportunity to see if he can ride himself into shape to be a factor in this years Tour de France and so celebrating or agonizing over his performance in the Giro could be a waste of emotion.  What doesn't make sense to me is that Astana sent back three riders at one point to pace Armstrong and try to keep him in contact with the leaders.  From the coverage I saw, this left team leader Levi Leipheimer with just one teammate up front with him and Levi wound up nine seconds behind the stage winner Denis Menchov.  I'm not saying that if Levi had more support up front he would have won the stage but it might have put him in better position.  And Lance probably wouldn't have lost any more time with one less teammate babysitting him.  If nothing else, it was interesting strategy.

Presidential Perks--Finally, A Reason to Run

I'd never thought that running for president was anything that I would be even remotely interested in doing.  But the president gets to hand out with Carolina's national championship basketball team and that's not to be lightly dismissed.  I'm sure there must be easier ways to hang with the Heels but if you're president you get your own personalized jersey...

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

Giro d'Italia

Stage 4 of the Giro d'Italia just ended, with Danilo Di Luca taking the victory.  It was an uphill finish at the end of the first stage with any significant mountains, Lance Armstrong was in the mix but dropped back at the very end, while his teammate Levi Leipheimer finished up front with the big dogs du jour.  They're still figuring out the General Classification as the current race leader Alessandro Petacchi was well back on today's stage.  Looks like a Swede named Thomas Lovkvist will be tomorrow's race leader, with Di Luca right behind him and Astana's Popovych, Leipheimer and Armstrong in 4th, 5th and 6th. 

This is the first grande tour of Armstrong's comeback.  He dropped back at the end today but I didn't watch enough to know if he did this because his work keeping Levi up front was ended or if it's in doubt who the main man for Astana is this race. 

The Real 'Hand of God'

Folks with an internet connection or maybe with an eye on The Cable Newses over the past week may have seen the following picture of The Hand of God:

However, those of us with an eye on football history know what the real Hand of God looks like on video:

The Franklin Street Riots

As per a reader's request, here's footage from The Great Franklin Street Riot of 2009 in Celebration of the UNC National Championship in Men's Basketball.  According to one report, there were two arrests on Franklin Street (one for "intoxification"--apparently a spell-checker was broken in the melee as well) and a few minor injuries (warning--don't watch this if you find it difficult to look at masses of people wearing Carolina Blue):

National Championship #5

UNC won their fifth collegiate basketball national championship tonight--classic times.  I worked at a restaurant on the main intersection of Chapel Hill for five years, the intersection you'll see behind the reporter in the following video.  I wish I'd have seen a national championship while I was there, but it's still pretty sweet from Austin! Though I gotta tell you , the second half didn't look that sharp!

UNC in the Finals Tonight

I'm sure there are some of you who will be glad when the NCAA tournament is over and we go back to our more regular programming around here, uninterrupted by reports on Carolina's march to a possible national championship.  But I'm sure you're surviving.  Since Kentucky isn't involved in the proceedings, it gives Lynn and I something we can discuss without too much disagreement (I'll be interested to see how well Calipari fits at UK and whether he brings players with him and how the recruiting issues shake out).

Armstrong Breaks Collarbone

The new title represents the extent of this update:  Armstrong has broken his right collarbone.

It appears that Lance Armstrong was taken to the hospital with a shoulder injury after being involved in a thirty person pile up around 20 km from the finish in the Castilla y Leon five day race.  This might put an end to his comeback if it's a serious injury--not only would he lose invaluable training time but he would also lose the opportunity to prove his mettle during upcoming races and show that he can be more than a over-hyped domestique in the Tour de France. 

At a party the other night I clinked beers over a statement about Lance that was a bit overly harsh--unfortunately from what I've read and heard it appears that Lance is an asshole.  But whatever his motivations and attitude, I fully support his work to bring awareness and funding to cancer research.  So, I wish that I could unclink and only give qualified support to the clinking in question.  For the available scant details on the Armstrong crash, go to Armstrong Crashes Out of Castilla y Leon.

UNC=Sweet Sixteen

Yesterday afternoon, Carolina was in a tight spot.  LSU came roaring out of the gates after halftime, scoring something like the first eight points and cutting an nine point lead down to nothing.  And then Ty Lawson, after a desultory first half, took control of the game hitting threes, driving to the basket, distributing the ball and moving like he didn't have an injured big toe and as if he hadn't missed the last three games.  He'd been shaky in the first half--serviceable but not the elite point guard UNC needs to make it to the championship game and there were some points when he was obviously in pain.  It made me wonder if they might have given him a pain shot at half-time and I'm really curious as to what sort of day-after Lawson's going to have. 

How can I explain to all of my karate cohorts that in the midst of all of the black belt brouhaha of extra classes and testing this weekend, some little portion of my brain will be thinking of the marketing juggernaut that is March Madness and how my Tar Heels are doing?  Dude, it's the NCAA tournament!  And it's the Tar Heels!!

For a great first-hand perspective on what makes a hotly contested NCAA tournament game such an incredible experience, check out Adam Lucas's post over at TarHeelBlue.com, Just A Game:

That's exactly how it felt inside the Greensboro Coliseum. Every time one team brought the ball across midcourt, you wanted to make sure you were watching for fear of missing something memorable. Blink, and you might have missed Lawson's ridiculous crossover dribble. Turn away, and you might miss Thornton draining two consecutive three-pointers to tie the score at 63. Look down for even a moment, and you might miss Ellington saving a loose ball before it trickled out of bounds, redirecting it to Green, and the senior knocking down a three-pointer to force an LSU timeout.

Whew! (ACC Tournament)

Carolina just squeaked out the win versus Virginia Tech in their first ACC tournament game a moment ago.  Starting point guard Ty Lawson wasn't playing because of an injured big toe--this is starting to sound familiar.  Last year UNC got drubbed out of the NCAA tournament and I think a huge factor was an injury that Lawson sustained that limited his speed and effectiveness.  I hope they'll find a way to win the ACC tournament without using Lawson and give him a chance to heal before the NCAA tournament starts.  Ugh.

T.O. Released

The Dallas Cowboys are releasing the one-man three-ring circus, Terrell Owens according to numerous news outlets.  Does that mean it's time to put our popcorn away?  Though aging, TO could be a game-changing force, though opposing defenses were able to shut him down in several important games last year.  Without another dominant receiving threat, teams were able to focus on TO--though Jason Witten had another solid season, he was injured much of the second half of the season and his production suffered some.  There was always talk about TO complaining about not getting enough touches, the cameras always focused in on him whenever anything went wrong on the field and whether the issues were more in the minds of the media than in reality doesn't matter--the hoopla surrounding him was a constant distraction.  While I think his presence and his desire to be involved in the offense caused the Dallas offense to force things through him on occasion and made their offense a little unbalanced, I'm not entirely sure if this is a scapegoating move or a good team decision. 

I guess we'll see next year what popcorn sales look like in the new stadium.

101-87

Since I know that all of you came rushing over here this morning because this is the only place you wanted to come to get the Carolina-Duke score, there it is kids, right up there in the headline.  Oh, and Carolina had the 101!  I'd like to thank Lynn for his support--I'm not sure they could have done it without his leaning and I promise I'll pull for UK the next time they play Louisville (hmmm, I wonder how many total wins UK would have if they played in a real basketball conference...).  It was a good night.  We had about four hours of promotions at the dojo and then I rushed home and caught about 2/3's of the game via ESPN360 online, an internet TV option that shows a small selection of sporting events online.  The picture has improved dramatically and it's now almost comparable to watching on TV.

Carolina v. Duke

Once again, it's time for the sporting world to invade our comfie little enclave here at ImpCo so, for those of you who don't like sport, take a cigarette break and come back later.  Not that I'm encouraging smoking, I'm just saying you're not going to be able to talk me out of doing this so do whatever it is you do when you're not reading my blog.  Because tonight is the first of the two annual meetings of the UNC and Duke men's basketball programs and, as per usual, it should be a killer.  Carolina's ranked number three, Duke is number five and the winner will have the best record in the ACC for now.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to follow UNC as much as I might have liked to this year, mainly because without The Cable it's just not that easy.  Plus, living in Austin, it's not like being in NC where every single game is televised.  Bygones, we take what we can get.

Anyway, here's a little preview of the game and if you get to watch it, yell for the Tar Heels (T, you are more than welcome to yell Heel-Star if you prefer), UNC-Duke Game Guide:

No. 3/3 North Carolina (21-2, 7-2) will travel to Durham to face No. 6/5 Duke (20-3, 7-2) in a battle for first place in the ACC and the first of two meetings between the rivals. This game begins a stretch in which four of its next six ACC games and three of the next four are on the road. Carolina has won seven games in a row in conference after dropping its first two and beat Virginia at home on Saturday, 76-61. Duke is coming off of a 78-75 overtime win over Miami last Saturday. Duke began ACC play 5-0 and is 2-2 in its last four games. Duke and North Carolina are tied atop the ACC standings.

Carolina leads the all-time series, 128-97. Duke leads the series 47-45 in Durham. Carolina has won four of the last five meetings and the last three in a row at Cameron Indoor Stadium, but has lost eight of the last 12 games there. If Carolina wins the game, Danny Green and Tyler Hansbrough will be the first Tar Heels to play in four wins there in the Mike Krzyzewski era at Duke. The last class to win four at Cameron was the 1982-85 group. The only other ACC class to do it was Tim Duncan and Rusty LaRue at Wake Forest from 1994-97.

SNL: Kellogg's Drops Michael Phelps

This is the type of announcement that really makes the most sense in a fake news cast:  Kellogg's has dropped Michael Phelps as an endorser and United States Swimming has suspended him for three months.  Really? (1:51)

Parental Moments with Dick Vitale

I had a very funny parental moment yesterday involving a phone call in which I spoke with Dick Vitale, the uber-enthusiastic basketball analyst for ESPN and my folks used him to try to lobby me to return to NC.  Ah, the tangled webs we weave...wait a minute, there was no deception here.  Forget I said that.  Anyway, they were at a Sarasota restaurant where Mr. Vitale sometimes eats and he was there signing some books and doing a phone interview with ESPN.  Sometime after the interview, they waylaid him and stuck the phone into his hand.  The conversation went something like this:

Me:  Who's this?
Dick:  muffled garbled background noise
Me:  Well hi, nice to talk to you.
Dick:  something, garbles...about your North Carolina team this year?
Me:  Yessir, they look pretty good.  (though I failed to mention that since I don't have The Cable I haven't really been able to see what they look like more than once or twice)
Dick:  muffled garbled blahbage...
Parental Voice (offstage):  Ask him when he's coming back to North Carolina.

At which point the line went dead.

I'm kidding about the line going dead.  

I love my parents.  They do know how to crack me up sometimes.  And what a kind person Mr. Vitale is to gracefully put up with such shenanigans.

Here's a picture of what Mr. Vitale might have looked like while talking to me on the phone (I think he was actually talking to ESPN at the time):

I Love You, Sarah Vowell

I've been in serious like with Sarah Vowell ever since I started reading her book, The Partly Cloudy Patriot, a collection of her quirky essays.  Before that I had a periodic crush on her that coincided with the random times I'd run across her on public radio.  But she's now jumped levels, straight from "serious like" all the way up to "Forever Love" because she a) Loves the Cowboys and b) is the only other person I know of who has read the Christian comic book bio of Tom Landry.  I had somehow imagined that all those comic book titles like "God's Smuggler", "Attack", "In His Steps" and "My Brother's Keeper" were only found on the bottom shelf of the red bookshelf in my childhood room, but no, others have read them!  I'll give you a quote from Vowell's book on the other side, but first I want to make absolutely clear why the Cowboys have once again fallen apart and missed the playoffs--Jerry Jones fucked Tom Landry in the ass when he ran him out of town and brought in Jimmy Johnson.  I know, I know, they had some early success but after that the Cowboys haven't won a playoff game in over ten years.  In the wise words of Walter in The Big Lebowski, "This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass."  Or, in this case, a beloved coach. 

Moving on.

Classic Boxing Photos

These run the gamut from some shots of Sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson all the way through Mike Tyson (including at least one from Tyson-Holyfield--chomp!).  There are some really good shots of Muhammad Ali, my personal favorite.  I know not everyone likes The Boxing--maybe I'll throw in a slideshow of puppies or something in the future to balance it out:

Dynasty (Time-out for Sport)

As of yesterday, the UNC Women's Soccer Team has won 19 out of 21 ACC conference championships (Women's Soccer Claims 19th ACC Championship).  I want to be absolutely clear about this--the ACC Women's Soccer Tournament has existed for 21 years and Carolina has won 19 of them.  The only statistic that I think is more amazing than this is that there have been 26 National Champions in women's soccer and Carolina has been the champ 18 times.  Carolina won this ACC tournament by beating the dark horse Virginia Tech team 3-0, finishes the regular season at 19-1-2 and receives an automatic invite to the NCAA tournament.  The finals will be played in Raleigh, NC on December 7th.
Here's the trailer for a documentary about the 2007 UNC Women's team entitled Winning Isn't Everything:

Cowboys Pick Up Missing Piece

Yeah, yeah, those who don't care about sports can just go get a cup of coffee or something (chai?  tea?).  The Dallas Cowboys signed former UT standout receiver Roy Williams in a deal with the Detroit Lions, giving them the complete Roy Williams set (the other Roy Williams plays safety on defense).  This is bigger news than Tony Romo's broken finger or Pacman Jones' fight.  It means defenses can no longer key in on T.O. so exclusively and opens up the offense, which recent opponents had been able to bottle up by jamming T.O.  Of course, the offense won't really hum for the month or so that Brad Johnson is running things but hopefully they'll do enough to win two or three.

Okay, it's over.  No more sports for awhile.  Unless I decide to talk about UNC's resurgent football team.  Or the dynastic UNC women's soccer team.

Time Out for Sport

The North Carolina Tar Heels hadn't won a football game outside of the state of NC since 2002.  They've been bad, so very bad indeed ever since one Mack Brown left us, I mean, them high and dry so he could come to Austin.  So last night was a night to remember--my boys beat Rutgers 44-12 on national television.  I didn't even watch it because a) I don't have cable and b) as everyone should know by now, Thursday Night is Dominoes Night! (which I must say was particularly satisfying last night).  But I'm proud of my buddies in baby blue and now I'll shut up about sport for the rest of the day.  Well, unless I take it into my head to write about Lance Armstrong's announced return to the Tour de France; or the US National team beating T&T for their third straight win and ninth point in World Cup qualifying; or Levi Leipheimer and Alberto Contador putting the hammer down on Valverde in the Vuelta a Espagna yesterday...