Tossing Batting Practice….while admiring in as heterosexual a way as possible the difficulty of men’s gymnastics.

The reason why you don’t see many Americans succeed in men’s gymnastics, is every time they hang from a cylinder, they’re whistled for a technical foul.

(1:09 a.m) So let me get this straight, Cuba has an indoor volleyball team, but not a beach volleyball team, yet Latvia which from what I understand is near Scandinavia has a beach volleyball duo. Apparently they maximize those two weeks of training they get a year on the beaches of the North Sea.

A request from the audience has come to try and explain scoring in Olympic Boxing, so far I’ve come up empty.

The first bout of the day (or in this case early night) features a Brazilian pugilist, and I can’t help but wonder if given the national obsession with soccer, is a Brazilian who is good with their hands an outcast to most of his country?

You learn something new everyday I guess…there are in fact minorities in Australia, and even down under they take up the sports affluent Australians won’t do (oh wait that’s supposed to say jobs). Case in point, this Australian minority boxer.
The guy has lightning quick hands, and is light on his feet. Which begs the obvious question, does he shadow box against kangaroos for practice? I think there is no other acceptable form of training in that country.

I’m Pretty sure this is not what Lenin, or Mao envisioned years ago….
The men’s beach volleyball duo of Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser (who looks like Matt Geiger’s long lost brother, which is not a compliment) suffered from their sunglasses fogging up in their stunning opening round loss. But they are unable to ditch the glasses in round two because of a sponsorship deal, so what do they do? They take the lens off, but continue to wear the frames, in some sort of ode to the Revenge of the Nerds.

Why isn’t team handball more popular in this country? It kind of looks like the NBA, lots of perimeter passing, and nobody goes near the net, say for the occasional penetrator off the dribble.
The difference though, is that players are not allowed within six meters of the net.

One second left, down a goal and the Hungry women’s team handball squad pulls out a miraculous goal and salvages a tie, you know you’re watching the Olympics when you and your roommate simultaneously let out a loud yell at women’s team handball at 4 p.m.

Upon further review, there is one Olympic sport that doesn’t get more exciting because it’s the Olympics. And that is Tennis….Until it’s a Federer/Nadal final, who cares?

Ok, if you’re watching Bode Miller, this is how you’re supposed to back up all the talk of multiple gold medals at one Olympics. Phelps just blasted the field in that 200 meter, he needs a cool nickname like the Australian guy, the Thorpedo.

For the record, I could not remember what Bode Miller’s name was, until I googled the phrase “drunken skier and 2006 Olympics” and he came up.
Probably not the phrase he wanted associated with himself prior to his failed Olympic experience.

I’m starting to understand the complaints and questions surrounding those swimming body suits as world records have been falling like the 50 home run barrier in the mid to late 90s.
I trust someone at NBC will bring this up and inform the viewing audience when the swimming equivalent of Brady Anderson breaks a world record in a prelim.

If the oldest baseball record on the books was a mere eight years old, like in swimming, would Bob Costas have the same fondness for the old days?

Why the rest of the world hates us Part LXIVXI …The post race hug/handshake in swimming.
When an American loses, and the victor gets all Jim Valvano on the field looking for congratualtions, they always get this sour, “I will do this because I have to, and it’s on TV” look on their face, sort of like the post series handshake in playoff hockey.
Meanwhile, the competitors from other countries generally congratulate the winner and celebrate as if they won, I think that’s a sign the rest of the world is rooting against us, in more ways than one.
I guess that makes us the Yankees huh? (pun intended).

Day One of softball is on the slate for the start of tomorrow’s blog…..Jennie Finch gets the ball for game one, and if you know me, you’ll know I won’t be too distracted to discuss the nuances of her game.