So Much Excitement!!

Almost too much excitement to bear, with the basketball team going into its final two weeks of the regular season, the baseball team beginning regular season play, and of course, the Winter Olympics on TV.  The Clemson basketball team learned just how important point guard, Shelton Mitchell, is against Duke on Sunday, as they struggled to bring the ball upcourt, and they were unable to inbound the ball under their own basket four or five times.  With Donte Grantham out for the season and Mitchell still out it’s going to be hard to win these last few games and maintain the outstanding season that we were engaged in.

But it’s a great day at Clemson when you can walk out of Littlejohn Colisseum and go across the street to Doug Kingsmore Stadium to watch the baseball team in action.  That’s what we did this past Sunday, as the baseball Tigers beat William and Mary by a score of 2-1 to sweep the weekend series.    You can see the excitement in our faces in the picture above.  Grandma slept through the final three innings of this thriller – terribly embarrassing.

And then there’s the Winter Olympics.  I’ve never been a great fan of Winter Olympics for several reasons.  I love the idea of the Olympics, with out best athletes competing against the best athletes from other countries.  But in the case of the Winter Olympics, are these really our best athletes, and is it really competition?  I think a lot of these so-called athletes, particularly the snowboarders who are riding their boards over obstacles and jumps and whatnot, are the hooligans you see cutting school and skateboarding in the park, totally ignoring the signs that say “No Skateboarding in the Park.”  Where and when else would they be able to practice these ridiculous stunts.  And unlike the Summer Olympics, which I love, other than in ice hockey, short track skating, and cross-country skiing, there is no real competition in Winter Olympics – no mano a mano.    I have a few suggestions that I think would improve the winter games immensely.

First, concerning the downhill skiing, which for starters is a little redundant.  Of course it’s downhill – it wouldn’t be skiing if they were going uphill.  But why do we need so many ways to determine the best skiers in the world?  We’ve got the downhill, the slalom, the giant slalom, the super G, whatever that is (is there also a G?), and all those events are included in Alpine Skiing.  Then we’ve got Nordic Skiing, which is cross-country skiing plus jumping.  At least there’s competition in Nordic Skiing where they’re all out there racing against each other.  I’d like to see Alpine Skiing reduced to one downhill event that combines all the features – curves, a few jumps, etc., but that has at least two competitors on the course at the same time, duking it out down the mountain.  As it is now, it is incredibly booring.   Every competitor looks identical; they all look like they’re winning because there’s no one ahead of them.  And the top ten finishers are separated by hundredths of seconds.  They could do like the track events in the Summer Olympics and run several heats of the race, with competitors actually beating competitors head-to-head and advancing to the next round.  And how about those sticks the skiers carry?  The only thing they use them for is to push off at the beginning of the run.  The rest of the way down the mountain they’re just carrying them.  Why not let them throw the sticks down once they get started?  Or, if they follow my suggestion of actually racing against each other, the sticks could really come in handy.

Ski Jumping is a misnomer.  While it’s pretty to watch them soaring off the apparatus and spreading out like a flying squirrel, they’re not really jumping – they’re falling.  I know, they try to jump when they get to the end of the sliding board, but they don’t actually elevate more than an inch or two.  They ski to the end of the slide and then they are totally at the mercy of gravity.

And why do we need a long program and a short program in ice skating?  Do a dadgum medium program and be done with it.

Did you notice they are now calling the bobsled a bobsleigh?  When did that come about?  And talk about athletes, how about that back seat person in the two-man bobsled?  He/she is just along for the ride after the push-off.  Why not let him/her push off and wave goodbye?  Or better yet, just do the one-man bobsled.  That poor guy in the back seat doesn’t even get to look at the scenery on the way down.  He’s looking at the floor of the sled.

And then, of course, we’ve got Curling.  Who ever finds the time or the place to practice or train for sliding rocks across the ice?  There’s got to be more to that “sport” than I see for the competitors to have to resort to doping (Russian curler failed drug test).  Why in the world would you need to bulk up to do what those guys do?  Would Mr Universe have an advantage over Grandma Jones?  But the real question in my mind is why do they even test the curlers for doping?  Who cares??

My final thought on the coverage of the Winter Olympics:  I’m really getting fed up with those Chevy commercials (or is it a J.D. Powell commercial).  One version has this obnoxious, whiny character setting up a table and chairs in the middle of one of the busiest Interstate highways in the country and bragging to three or four other idiots about how much J.D. Powell likes Chevrolets.  And another has this same buffoon meeting a couple in the middle of nowhere to show them a Chevy SUV.  He opens the side door and 14 people pile out.   What’s that all about?   I’ve never been a big Chevy fan, but this guy is really turning me off.

Oh well, time for Llama Lama to come on.