Sports

For those who missed this when it happened, the story behind what was almost the 21st perfect game in the history of Major League Baseball, is a perfect example of why I am so passionate about sports.

It is a beautiful story of human error, forgiveness, and humility.

A few weeks ago, Sports Illustrated ran a fascinating cover story about evolution, genetics, doping, and sports. I think the insights into human evolution will be interesting even to those who are generally uninspired by sports.

It notes that all human are fundamentally built to be distance runners... and they mean distance! In fact, there is an argument that running was fundamental to our human development.

Even our large brains developed because we ran, growing only once our endurance enabled us to gorge on animal fat and protein. We are who we are—the only sweating, largely hairless bipedal mammals—because we ran. As Lieberman puts it, "Endurance running is hardwired into our anatomy and physiology."

The article goes into a great discussion of investigations into why the Kenyan runners have succeeded so well at long distances ... and it seems far more behavioral than genetic.

The discussion turns to brain injuries and what we can predict based on genetic markers and predisposition to slow healing from brain trauma:

The more ApoE has been studied, though, the more it has been associated not only with Alzheimer's but also with the ability of the brain to heal from all manner of trauma. People with ApoE4 variants who hit their heads in car accidents, for example, are more likely to have permanent damage or to die than those who have other variants. And a series of small studies suggests that athletes with ApoE4 variants who get hit in the head are more likely to recover slowly and to suffer greater dementia later in life. It is not entirely clear how ApoE affects brain recovery, but the gene is involved in the inflammatory response of the brain after injury, and people with the ApoE4 variant appear to take longer to clear their brains of a particular protein called amyloid, which floods in following head trauma.

I highly recommend the whole article, but I also wanted to note that our intelligence evolved because of our ability to maintain a high-fat and high-protein diet... from our ability to hunt animals. Those who argue that eating meat is inherently unnatural are wrong. Not only is it tasty - it was essential to our human development. Now, I do agree with those that argue much of our modern meat industrial complex is unhealthy, but that is different from arguing we should simply avoid meat because eating other animals is somehow wrong.

I just finished editing and posting the photos from Macalester's 2009 football season. Here are the best in my opinion...

I have been remiss in posting photos - both on my Macsportsphotos.net site and here. The photo below is from this gallery of Mac volleyball v. Saint Olaf.

Weekend is flying bye for me - shot a lot of soccer yesterday, football and volleyball today. I rather liked this photo below, came from the U volleyball game. More soccer tomorrow, then editing editing editing! Also, hanging out with James and Autumn! Yeah for visitors!

It almost never happened. Though he was a world-champion cyclist at 21, by 1998 Lance Armstrong was a 26-year-old cancer survivor who'd never finished better than 36th at the Tour de France and was struggling to reenter professional cycling. The big teams didn't want him, and he wasn't sure he wanted the sport. His first race back was the five-day Ruta del Sol, a February warmup for the long season ahead. He finished an encouraging 14th. But just two weeks later, while contesting the much more difficult Paris–Nice, he rolled to a stop in the middle of a cold, windy second stage and got off his bike. Even he doubted he would ever get back on.

Pretty incredible story from Outside magazine. He won his first Tour de France in '99 - but hours before the race started he very nearly crashed into a car. The world would never have known him. One wonders how many other people come that close to stardom and something intervenes.

This is a good article looking at the start of a legend - and a reminder of how incredible he was back then.

Today, he showed some of his age. He gained enough time in the Individual Time Trial to get back into 3rd place but his teammate Contador proved that he is the best rider in le Tour this year. Contador smoked everyone in an impressive ride - this Tour will definitely go down as one of the most interesting.

Controversial, undoubtedly. But watching the Tour de France today, I think Lance will soon prove to be the greatest athlete alive in my eyes. The Tour de France is probably the most grueling sporting event. On any given day, it is less challenging than the Ironman competition (sorry Iron-Kimmi) but it runs for 3 weeks with 2 rest days.

Lance dominated it for 7 years, an unprecedented achievement. After several years off, he came back this year at 37 (the oldest rider in the tour this year is 40). Today he proved that he can control his ego and work for his team when he is not the leader. There was some doubt that would work for Contador (the current Tour leader and a teammate to Lance) if that were best for the team. But today he did what was best for the team by hanging back to keep an eye on a guy named Wiggins that could threaten Contador's lead. The price for doing that was dropping from 2nd overall to 5th overall in the standings (something he hopes to reverse in the time trial on Thursday).

His reward was yet another poorly thought out move by Contador that screwed over another of their teammates, Kloden. Lance has previously questioned Contador's tactics and Contador's actions today again suggested that he has little strategic understanding as he hurt the team with a poorly timed acceleration. Even then, Lance has put the team above his ego by not calling Contador out on it.

Lance may yet prove me wrong - in the coming days he might try to go for an overall win but I hope he doesn't. If he continues working for the team rather than just himself, I think it will cement his legacy in ways his 7 wins alone would not. It will show that he is even more well-rounded than most give him credit for.

I should mention that the NY Times and ESPN coverage of today's race was disappointingly poor. Neither of these outlets appear to have any understanding of cycling strategy or even that it is a team sport. The idea that Lance is falling behind because he is not up to the task ignores the fact that his teammate is leading and in this situation, Lance is not supposed to go all out for himself.

Go ahead, attack me.

A few months ago, Kimmi partook in a dodgeball tournament as a fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society - I tagged along to snag some photos. Unfortunately, the lighting was horrible.

I enjoy watching sports on TV. I suspect that most people don't spend a lot of time thinking about all of what goes into televising a sporting event. Having been on the ground, shooting at major events, I have some respect for all the folks that make it possible. But there is a whole lot of work that I don't see - what goes on in the production truck.

If you ever wonder what goes on in that truck, you should read "The Hardest Job in Football" from The Atlantic.

Most of the people who witnessed this seesaw battle were watching on CBS. The capacity crowd in Giants Stadium was 79,276 that afternoon, but was less than 1 percent of the game’s total audience. More than any other professional sport, football is primarily a television show. Many die-hard fans have never even attended a contest in person. For them, a football game is something that unfolds on their screen in a smooth and familiar way, so commonplace that few give it a second thought. The broadcast arrives in their living room, packaged in stereo sound and in full-color high-definition, shown from constantly shifting angles, from stadium-embracing wide shots to intimate close-ups, all of it smoothly orchestrated and narrated, and delivered up as though from the all-seeing eye of the supreme NFL fan, God Almighty.