The Manliest Sport Of All

I have spent a good portion of this week watching rugby. This is because, for my television production class, I am putting together a piece on the Long Island Rugby Club. So, I spent Saturday at a game, Tuesday night at a practice and then yesterday I edited for hours.
I have always been intrigued by rugby and this project has enlightened me on what rugby is really all about. First of all the rules are simpler than I was expecting. It is pretty much nonstop play for 80 minutes. There is a very short break half way through. When this break happened at the game I was at a wife or girlfriend of one of the players brought out a big bowl of orange slices for the boys to eat for the few minutes. The most well known rule of rugby is that there is no forward passing only lateral and backward passing is acceptable. The ball can also be kicked at anytime in the game. A guy can only be tackled if he has possession of the ball. There are no substitutions and if you go out of the game for any reason you cannot come back in.
When the ball goes out of bounds there are a couple of ways to get it back into play. The first is called a lift; this is when one to three players are literally lifted up by their teammates to catch the ball as it comes in bounds. The second way is called a scrum, this is when each team links arms to form this giant huddle and the ball is placed in the middle. It is kicked around in the middle until it manages to get out of the huddle and into the hands of player that was not in the huddle. Both of these moves are very interesting to watch.
One of the funnier things I observed during the game is that the players consider water the magical cure. Anytime a guy went down a bottle of water was run out to him and after a few sips he got up and was ready to play again. Someone nailed the ref at one point in the knee and he went down hugging his knee to his chest. He was down for a while and I thought he was going to have to stop calling the game but some water was brought out to him and like magic he got up and refereed the rest of the game.
Guys of all shapes and sizes play this game and as one of the players in my piece said, “We are not getting paid to play we do it for the love of the game.” In most of the player’s interviews they said they liked the physicality of the game but also the brotherhood that is created on a team.
The Long Island Rugby Team is ranked in the top nationally and they play internationally every year. I would recommend to anyone to go see this team play or any team for that matter because it is an exciting game to watch.

Game story

This is my first game story of a Hofstra baseball game. I am pretty proud of it because I haven't been to a baseball game in years or ever written a game story.

Hofstra University let another win get away from them. The Pride was defeated, 6-2, by James Madison University in game two of a Colonial Athletic Association series at home this afternoon. This lose brings the Pride to 8-18 overall this season and 0-11 in the CAA.

“The 6th inning is the only thing that stands out in my mind.” said starting pitcher Nick Panzarella. The game had been scoreless until James Madison short stop, Mike Fabiaschi, hit straight up the middle allowing right fielder, Matt Browning, who was on third base, a chance to score a run. James Madison proceeded to score four more runs while rotating their entire line up though to bat. By the end of the sixth inning James Madison was up 4-0.

The Pride changed pitchers from Nick Panzarella to Drew Luedtke to Ryan Radke, during the inning to try to stop the string of hits. At the top of the eighth inning they changed to Brody Fontaine to finish the game.

Head coach, Chris Dotolo, admitted, “We didn’t swing well that’s for sure.” The Pride managed to score two runs in the seventh inning. But before that Elliot Hagburg was the only Pride player to have even made it on to a base, and that was in the fourth inning. The first of the Pride to score was Matt Prokopowicz. James Madison first baseman Steven Caseres dropped a pop-up in the infield allowing Prokopowicz enough time to reach home from second. Then Jeff Guthridge hit a single into left field, which lead to Hagburg, who was already on second base from an earlier error, to score Hofstra’s final run of the game.

James Madison scored one more run in the eight inning bringing the final score to 6-2. The James Madison pitcher Justin Wood completed the game and gave up only one hit.

Coach Dotolo was upset with the team’s performance. He feels that the biggest improvement that needs to be made is in the hitting area. His spirits are not completely crushed over this lose, “in all of the years that I have been coach a team has never been this far in the hole but we only have one way to go and that is up.”

Awesome

Monday night was almost too much to handle. The Jayhawks came so close to losing but then Mario Chalmers saved the day with an amazing three pointer in the last seconds to take the game into overtime. The Jayhawks then proceeded to take the lead and become national champions.

Part of me wishes I could have been in Lawrence to see it explode into jubilation but then the other part of me doesn’t like big crowds of screaming drunks. So, my celebration probably would not have been much different than what it was here in my dorm. Since I know you are all dieing to know the celebration involved some jumping up and down and yelling.

Hurray!

As you all can probably guess I am pretty excited about the Jayhawks making it to the Final Four. It was a close heart wrenching game with that close of a score the entire time. They also had a lot of people rooting against them for a couple of reasons. The first being that people did not want just number one seeds in the finals. The second being that people wanted the Cinderella story of number ten seed Davidson continuing. The Jayhawks crushed the hearts of all those aforementioned by taking the win.
Now that the team is continuing they are playing the North Carolina Tar Heels. This is interesting because the North Carolina coach is Roy Williams (as you all probably know) who you might or might not know coached for the Jayhawks. Williams coached 15 seasons at Kansas from 1988-2003. After taking the Jayhawks to face Syracuse in the NCAA championship game and losing Williams left for UNC.
This caused an uproar in the Kansas University community. People felt betrayed by him especially some of the players. This distraught has all but been forgotten. Bill Self has kept the reputation of the university’s basketball team alive. And even Self has been accepted although rumors fly about the town about him having a toupee. It is one fine looking toupee if it is one or maybe he just has a hair phobia?
Anyway, I cannot wait for the show down between Williams and Self. It is going to be a grand game. I also cannot help feeling that the Jayhawks might be doomed against the mega-force that is the Tar Heels, but that won’t keep me from screaming at the television screen.

The Madness

When I was a little kid my father was given a big dry erase board that had the NCAA Basketball bracket on it and from that day forth I eagerly awaited the tournament. Now, at that age I was most excited because I liked writing on dry-erase boards (which seems incredibly lame as I think back on it). Anyways, I took it upon myself each year to write in all 64 teams and then keep track of all of the winners on that big board. In my younger years I rooted for the Jayhawks, of course, and then chose other teams by if I liked their names, like Gonzaga and Xavier. As I got older I switched to just rooting for the Jayhawks.
It became a yearly tradition in my house for me to fill out the board, so I did it until I moved away for college. Now, the board sits in a closet year round. Over this spring break I was home for the first time in two years for the beginning of the tournament. I did not drag it out, I guess because writing on dry erase boards has lost it’s flare and I was pretty sure no one would continue to fill it out after I left. Regardless of where I am whenever the tournament starts; I think of that board.
The point of this story? March Madness will always remind me of fond memories from my childhood.
I am excited to see how far KU will go this year. They were looking pretty good through the first two rounds so I am hoping they can keep it up.

Number Four

The Internet has brought me some sad news this morning. It told me that Bret Favre has retired. His name was the most recognizable football players name to me as a child. As I grew up and started watching football more I always looked forward to watching the Packers.
My favorite thing about Favre was how happy he seemed to be while playing the game. A lot of times those guys act too serious for getting paid to play a game they love. Favre though, I never got that feeling from him. One memory that sticks out from this last season is when the Packers were playing that game in the snow and he started throwing snowballs at people on the field. Although he was older than the average age of a quarterback he never acted like it.
His true love of the game is apparent in the way he played the game. He went for plays that others would have not wanted to take the risk on. And he was a fierce competitor when it came down to it.
He retires with 5,377 career completions in 8,758 attempts for 61,655 yards, 442 touchdowns and 288 interceptions, just passing Dan Marino's touchdown mark last season. Finishing with a streak of 253 consecutive regular-season starts, that’s 275 if you include playoff games.
Not too shabby.

Just getting prepared...

In preparation of March Madness I thought I would blog about the man that made it all possible, James Naismith. He was born in Ramsay Township, near Almonte, Ontario, Canada. He earned a BA in Physical Education at McGill University where he was a star gymnast, lacrosse player and football player. He moved to Springfield, Massachusetts and in 1891 and came up with what would become basketball. While working as a physical education teacher at the YMCA International Training School he was asked to make a game that would not take up much room, could be played indoors, was not too rough, and that could help track athletes physical condition. He modeled the game after, “Duck on a Rock”, game he used to play as a child. The original hoops were made out of a peach basket attacked to a post, thus why when the ball goes through the net now a day it is called a basket. Naismith officially published the rules for basketball on January 26, 1892. Here are the original 13 rules of basketball by James Naismith:
1. The ball may be thrown in any direction with one or both hands.
2. The ball may be batted in any direction with one or both hands, but never with the fist.
3. A player cannot run with the ball. The player must throw it from the spot on which he catches it, allowance to be made for a man running at good speed.
4. The ball must be held by the hands. The arms or body must not be used for holding it.
5. No shouldering, holding, pushing, striking or tripping in any way of an opponent. The first infringement of this rule by any person shall count as a foul; the second shall disqualify him until the next goal is made or, if there was evident intent to injure the person, for the whole of the game. No substitution shall be allowed.
6. A foul is striking at the ball with the fist, violations of Rules 3 and 4 and such as described in Rule 5.
7. If either side makes three consecutive fouls it shall count as a goal for the opponents (consecutive means without the opponents in the meantime making a foul).
8. A goal shall be made when the ball is thrown or batted from the grounds into the basket and stays there, providing those defending the goal do not touch or disturb the goal. If the ball rests on the edges, and the opponent moves the basket, it shall count as a goal.
9. When the ball goes out of bounds, it shall be thrown into the field and played by the first person touching it. In case of dispute the umpire shall throw it straight into the field. The thrower-in is allowed five seconds. If he holds it longer, it shall go to the opponent. If any side persists in delaying the game, the umpire shall call a foul on them.
10. The umpire shall be the judge of the men and shall note the fouls and notify the referee when three consecutive fouls have been made. He shall have power to disqualify men according to Rule 5.
11. The referee shall be judge of the ball and shall decide when the ball is in play, in bounds, to which side it belongs, and shall keep the time. He shall decide when a goal has been made and keep account of the goals, with any other duties that are usually performed by a referee.
12. The time shall be two fifteen-minute halves, with five minutes rest between.
13. The side making the most goals in that time is declared the winner.
Naismith went on to coach some of histories best coaches, although he is the only Kansas University coach to have a losing record of 55-60.
Feel like you learned something? I sure do.

Whoever thought throwing pointed sticks could be so dangerous?

Seven months ago in Rome at the Golden League meet Salim Sdiri did not achieve a record-breaking long jump but rather a javelin to the back. One of Finland’s finest javelin throwers, Tero Pitkamaki, missed his target by 80 meters that day. Sdiri was left with internal injuries to his right kidney and liver. While he has started training again he, understandably, is frightened to compete in an arena where a javelin event is taking place simultaneously. The International Association of Athletics Federations has looked into isolating the throwing events from the rest of the meet but they feel that accidents such as these are related more to “stadium configuration”.

The most interesting part of this story is that Sdiri is expressing how bitter he is about this whole situation. He feels that Pitkamaki, the guy that impaled him, has not been apologetic enough toward him. He is obviously upset that Pitkamaki gets to go on with his career as if nothing ever happened. He is also attacking The International Association of Athletics Federations for not checking up on him. He feels that the I.A.A.F is more concerned with steroid testing top athletes than monitoring his recovery.

Because Sdiri is alive and well I have to admit I find this situation a little comical. Americans go to car races in hopes of seeing a crash and hockey games in hopes of seeing a fight but who thinks of going to a track and field meet to see life threatening javelin throws?

If you want to know some more details here is the article in the NYTimes
I don't know why but I did not expect to find video of this but YouTube has everything and it is not bloody or anything, so enjoy.

It may not be my place...

Inside The NFL

A true tragedy in sports television has taken place today. “Inside The NFL” has been cancelled after being on the air for 31 years. This is extremely upsetting because this show by far is the best NFL highlights show. For one, the narrator for the highlights has the best voice. But seriously, the highlights make the viewer feel as though they are part of the team. Along with the great footage there is constant audio from the players and coaches on the sidelines. It is outrageous for HBO executives to think that since ESPN runs highlights 24 hours a day that viewers are no longer interested in a once a week sports show. The NFL highlights are also much better quality than those on ESPN so even if a viewer has been watching ESPN when they tune into “Inside The NFL” they are not seeing the same footage.
It is a shame that executives seem to think that since the face of television is changing that traditional shows are not worth keeping around. Hopefully after this becomes more widespread news there will be a public out roar and the show won’t be cancelled after all.