I never was a big fan of the Olympics, even if a long time ago did watch a t.v. movie about the first modern games in 1896. Some aspects seem particularly off. First, the games no longer only come every leap year. We have "summer" and "winter" games that do not match the leap year calender. Likewise, soccer and baseball are two examples where various nations match up outside of that format. Of course, they are of limited variety, in no way matching the numerous obscure sports that can be found at the Olympics.
Anyway, more importantly, we no longer really have skilled amateurs from the individual nations competing, and not only (though this is blatant) as shown by the use of NBA stars in basketball. For instance:
The two players for Georgia, it turns out, are not native Georgians. They are Brazilian, and the two Russians made a point of that.
"If they were Georgians, perhaps they could have been influenced (by the invasion)," Natalie Uryadova said. "Clearly they are not."
Her partner, Maria Shiryaeva, was even more direct.
"They don't even know who the Georgian president is," Shiryaeva said. "How can you call them Georgians? They're Brazilians."
Filip Bondy, a playful but skillful local sports writer, is over at the Olympics and wrote a column today entitled: "Hammon Russian into new Cold War," concerning an American basketball star now playing for Russia. You have to actually have citizenship to play for a team, though we do allow dual citizenship in this country. Thus, Becky Hammon probably still, you know, can vote for Obama or McCain in November. And, she did want to play for the Americans -- they didn't show interest. OTOH, there are limits to this sort of thing, a recent Doonesbury story line notwithstanding.*
[Hammon claims ignorance about the Georgia/Russia conflict. For those who wish a quick lesson, check out various posts here. More on Hammon here. A quick Google search suggests various other interesting pieces on the whole matter as well.]
Meanwhile, in baseball land, look who is in first place again -- yes, akin to a biker riding up and down several hills, the Mets came back (after Willie Randolph -- remember him? -- left) from seven game deficit, dropped back to three back, and now are back one over the Phillies. Playing bad teams while the Phillies struggle against decent ones helps. And, with Wagner coming back soon, and Daniel Murphy having some opening week (now that he has a week of MLB experience, he is suddenly starting to have problems at the plate), the Mets are doing okay. Don't be surprise if more yo/yo action is in their future.
Meanwhile, the Yanks ... this time via a Rivera wild pitch (as common as an independent Republican member of Congress), lost again. Now, let's be fair -- Gil Meche is a credible pitcher, even if we are talking about the Kansas City Royals. OTOH, when the guy you call up to replace a slumping OF gets picked off first (after a much more experienced player failed to lay down a bunt), helping KC eventually to escape what turned into a bases loaded situation, well you have reason to be upset. Not me personally since I want them to not get to the playoffs already, but you know the deal.
Anyways, lots of talk about how far out of first they are. But, their first concern cannot be the Rays. The Twins are next up on the Wild Card depth chart, even if the Red Sox passes by the injury laden Florida wonders. And, baseball of course has lots of foreign players, but they did not tend to play for the "U.S." team when we had that true "world series" of global ball teams.
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* I also like the current story arc about calorie counts being displayed, including today's bit about the nuances of the Nuremberg doctrine involving taking and following orders. I can relate to some of the customers in the strip -- eating a five hundred calorie muffin is a bit off-putting. No wonder after eating a muffin and bagel on Sundays, I am at times barely hungry at dinner time.