danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

Although it is raining lightly as I write this, the weather has lately improved.  Highs near seventy degrees, clear or partly-cloudy skies, beautiful sunsets, and so on.  So, last night I went to a baseball game with my friend Marty.  He’s as big a sports fan as anyone I know.  He’s the kind of guy who actually keeps score while watching the game.

Florida State University was playing Florida at McKethan Stadium here at UF.  It is a lovely park, with a particularly fine view of great pines and some of the taller campus landmarks.  Marty met me there.  He even brought me a drink down from the press box.  My free ticket also entitled me to a free “Beat FSU” t-shirt, which I gave to Marty.  We sat up on the third base side, above the Gators dugout.

The game got off to a rough start.  FSU scored three runs in the first inning, then another two in the second.  UF scored a couple runs early on, which kept me from feeling hopeless.  But that would be it for FSU.  They hardly got another hit after the second, and their pitching deteriorated in a manner that was uncomfortable to watch.  Literally.  The changed pitchers at least six times, and by the seventh inning, with the sun having already set, and the wind having picked up, it was cold.  Hundreds–maybe even thousands–of fans who had arrived at the game wearing only shorts and short-sleeved shirts fled.  Those who stayed–Marty and me included–just wanted the game to end.  But FSU’s pitching troubles continued, and they had so many conferences on the mound, followed by pitching changes, and new-pitcher-warm-ups, that the dedicated fans who stayed nevertheless felt the urge to boo.  It got ugly in the bottom of the eighth, with the wind howling through the stadium, when the catcher once again walked from the plate out to the mound.  It wasn’t Disco Demolition Night, but there was loud, angry heckling, and many cries of “let’s just get this over with!”

Florida won eight to five, and I biked home in the dark and cold.  But it was great, and I look forward to doing it again.

Filed under: Friends, Meteorology, Sports on March 17th, 2010 | No Comments »

The 2010 Winter Olympics concluded this week, and I could hardly have watched more of them if I wanted.  I tuned in every night for two weeks, and even though there were sports I didn’t care to see (snowboarding, ice dancing, etc.), and even though I wish NBC weren’t so captivated by a cult of personality, focusing too much attention on big celebrity athletes, I enjoyed most of it a great deal.  And, in spite of the fact that the weather sometimes didn’t fully cooperate, and some of the venues experienced technical difficulties, Vancouver seems the ideal place for Olympic games.

But not everyone likes the idea of the Olympics moving from city to city, country to country.  In an op-ed published in the New York Times on Monday, former Olympic rower, Charles Banks-Altekruse, argues that the Olympic games–both summer and winter–should move permanently to Switzerland.

Banks-Altekruse correctly points out that the Olympics are hugely expensive events that can be financially crippling to the host cities and countries.  Part of Greece’s present fiscal turmoil is due, no doubt, to the 2004 games in Athens.  Meanwhile, I clearly remember how worried people were about whether the Olympic facilities and venues would be complete in time for the games.  The paint was still drying when the 2004 Olympics began.  That Greece had to build arenas and a stadium from scratch is emblematic of what makes the Olympics so costly for host cities.  Beijing built hugely expensive facilities that now lie dormant.  Sochi is building a new Olympic park from scratch that will, no doubt, cost a fortune. Rio de Janeiro will spend billions of dollars it simply doesn’t have to host the 2016 summer games.

Atlanta spent tons of money, too, but did things a bit smarter.  The stadium that hosted the opening and closing ceremonies as well as track and field in 1996 was converted to host baseball after the games concluded.  Other Olympic events were held at facilities at universities in northern Georgia.  Los Angeles, too, used existing infrastructure in 1984, and made money.  But times have changed, and expectations have changed.  I suspect that, like professional sports teams do, the International Olympic Committee now expects the latest and greatest, and an old stadium–the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was over sixty-years-old when the 1984 games began–simply wouldn’t do.

Meanwhile, Banks-Altekruse argues that potential political conflicts like the one that thwarted his Olympic hopes in Moscow in 1980, and kept Eastern Bloc nations away from Los Angeles in 1984, make it essential that the Olympics find a permanent, neutral home.  I acknowledge that that was a big shame, and, in retrospect, neither of those cities was the ideal choice, since the IOC certainly must have realized that boycotts would occur.

But I think the political climate around the world have changed in the past twenty-five years, and I doubt that we will see another significant Olympic boycott, unless future games are, somehow, awarded to Tibet or Somalia.

And, though the financial issue is a serious matter, I don’t believe that that justifies moving the Olympics permanently to Switzerland, which would, according to Banks-Altekruse, be able to afford its hosting duties by averaging out the construction costs over a long term.

No, I think too much is gained by having the Olympics move around the world.  The experience seems richer, and the international goodwill, I believe, is genuine.

Filed under: Current Events, Musings, Politics, Sports on March 4th, 2010 | No Comments »

Though I love Olympic figure skating, ice dancing generally leaves me cold.  I keep waiting for jumps and throws, but they never come.  Furthermore, ice dancers seem to choose the worst music to skate to.  Not so Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir from Canada.  They won last night by skating to the Adagietto from Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.

Filed under: Current Events, Music, Sports on February 23rd, 2010 | No Comments »

The men’s figure skating competition concluded last night, and, of course, I was pleased to see the American Evan Lysacek win gold.  I was nervous because the Russian skater, Yevgeny Plushenko, skated so well, and at the conclusion of the short program Tuesday night he was ahead of Lysacek.  Both Plushenko and Lysacek skated extremely well (I don’t think either fell down at all), and it really could have gone either way.  I actually like Plushenko, so I wouldn’t have been heartbroken had the result been reversed.

But it was fascinating to read an interactive feature in the New York Times today that explains the diminishing returns skaters receive by attempting quadruple jumps.  Plushenko had a quadruple jump in his program, Lysacek didn’t.  But Plushenko’s quad only increased his score by a point or less over these Olympics.  Recognizing that a failed quad jump would cost him up to three points, Lysacek avoided it, and concentrated on other moves that brought more points.

The data seem to show that quad jumps only get you a little if you succeed, but cost you a lot if you fail.

UPDATE: Lysacek was just on NBC talking to Bob Costas, and he seems like a class act.  Costas asked for his reaction to statements made by Plushenko about the quad jump.  Plushenko–understandably, in my opinion–believes that the quadruple jump has an important place in figure skating – that it is, in effect, the future of figure skating, and not doing it is looking backward.  Plushenko’s point is that the old scoring system made the quad more profitable.  Lysacek’s attitude is that the quad is just one element of many.  Still, both of these guys seem like nice guys who are serious about their sport, and either of them is worthy of the gold medal.

Filed under: Current Events, Sports on February 19th, 2010 | No Comments »

I confess that I do not know very much about the technical aspects of figure skating.  I cannot distinguish an axel from a salchow, or a toe loop from a lutz.  But I know what falling down looks like when I see it, and almost every pair skating in the finals last night fell down at some point, either in a jump or a throw. Don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t do better.  But I’m not in the Olympics; they are.

I suppose that advances in the sport make every skater feel like he or she needs to do the hardest trick.  I admit is is impressive to watch when it’s done well.  But when it isn’t done well it looks like a disaster.  Yet, teams that fall or only double jumps that ought to be triples still win medals and teams that appear to do everything right wind up way down the score card.  That’s the part I really do not understand.

I don’t dispute that the gold- and silver-winning teams from last night’s pair skate skated exceedingly well.  But the third-place German team–who looked great the night before–fell all over themselves.  On the other hand, the team I liked, who didn’t fall at all, weren’t even in the top five.

I suppose someone who knows a lot about figure skating will say that it comes down to artistic presentation, or complex technical elements.  Again, I may be missing some fancy foot movements, or not realizing that a backwards lift is much more difficult than a forwards lift.  But no one can miss the falling down.

That said, there was some good music last night.  My favorite pair, Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett, skated to Scheherazade, which was a fine complement to the Firebird they chose the night before.  But, later in the program, another team skated to Scheherazade, and not as well, I thought.  Another team skated to Rachmaninoff.  I was most pleased last night, though, that someone chose to skate to Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite.  That’s one of my favorite pieces of American music.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the figure skating.

Filed under: Current Events, Music, Sports on February 16th, 2010 | No Comments »