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Down in the antipode this week, an international scuffle broke out and it had nothing to do with the criminally atrocious officiating last night in both the Germany/Serbia and US/Slovenia matches…* Russel Norman, MP and leader of the New Zealand Green Party, marked the arrival of Chinese heir-to-be-but-we’re-still-not-telling-anybody-officially-yet Xi Jinping to Wellington by waving a Τibetan flag [...] James Montague and Jaime FlorCruz have a feature piece up on CNN.com on the state of soccer (sorry, football) in China. It details the trials and tribulations of establishing a professional league in the PRC and FIFA’s hopes to tap into China’s legions of soccer fans in the face of corruption and match fixing. The whole [...] I want to come clean: I am a Red Sox fenqing. Mao may have had his Red Guards but I’m a card-carrying armband-wearing brainless slogan-chanting member of the 红袜兵.* Hey, we’ve got our catchy songs and marching anthem too. You have a problem with that? Didn’t think so, because there’s a bleacher full of guys behind me [...] Another week another column for The Global Times. (And in case you’re wondering, my soul feels no less decayed than usual.) This one is on basketball with a little foreign relations thrown in by way of [...] What’s the point of having students if you can’t organize an NCAA pool and take their money? Yes, it’s that time of year again and in the spirit of exposing my stupidity to the public, I submit my picks for this year’s tourney: Louisville, Michigan State, UConn, Memphis, Syracuse, Gonzaga, Duke, Florida State in the Eight; Florida State, [...] Run, do not walk or stop to collect your bling, and read Brendan O’Kane’s vivisection of the recent NYT article “Now Hip-Hop, Too, Is Made in China.” I saw the subject, read Brendan’s title (“[HELP], [HELP], [HELP] THE POLICE!”) and just went and got some popcorn because I knew it was going to be fun ride. [...] Down 2-1 in the series, and 5-0 in the bottom of 7th in game 3…we need some karmic assurance. I don’t have any, but I do have a link to one of the greatest pieces of sports writing ever: John Updike’s 1960 essay on Ted Williams’ last at bat “Hub Fans bid the Kid Adieu.” Simply [...] And so the Red Sox squeezed past the Angels into the ALCS against the…Tampa Bay Rays!?!? Doesn’t matter. What is important is deciding where to watch the games as the playoffs heat up. Last year it was the Rickshaw, but I’ve been hearing about quirks in service as management focuses its attention on the hyper-successful Sanlitun’r [...] From yesterday’s [...] YJ and I went to the US-China baseball match last night at Wukesong Stadium. I was at Wukesong this past spring for the LA Dodgers-San Diego Padre AAAA international tour, and the experience last night was more or less the same…with the addition of a few thousand rowdy China supporters making up in exuberance what they might have lacked [...] Many, if not both, of my regular readers know that I am both a history geek AND a bit of a sports nerd, and one of the biggest events of the year for sports nerds was last night…the NBA draft. As part of the tradition, ESPN columnist Bill Simmons does an annual ‘running diary‘ which–if you [...] I know, I know…NCAA pool brackets are like children, never talk about them because either people have some of their own (and so don’t care about yours) or they don’t (and so wouldn’t understand anyway.) Nevertheless in the interest of holding myself up for public ridicule, here goes: UNC, Tennessee, Kansas, Georgetown, Memphis, Texas, UCLA, and Duke (though [...] Some notes from Saturday’s Dodgers/Padres game here in Beijing. Overall, we had a great time. It was a beautiful day for baseball. A little chilly and windy perhaps, but nice sunny skies. Wukesong Baseball Stadium was not particularly impressive, but suitable for the purpose. It has an obvious “won’t be around in 2009″ feel with temporary bleachers [...] I flaked on Froog last night. I was completely beat from a day of translating documents and just didn’t have the energy to go out after midnight to watch the FA Cup game between Manchester United and Arsenal. I have a hunch that I’m in for a raft of crap about how my tepid support for [...] So…the Patriots lost. Proof–if such was necessary–that betting against the I-Ching is just not the best of ideas. Nevertheless, it was an excellent game watched in good company,* and Tim of Texas Tim’s proved a congenial host. And hey, 18-1 ain’t too shabby. Now, I will go and repeat that line over and over to [...] |
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