Write The Future

With the World Cup set to start tomorrow, I thought I'd post Nike's latest epic ad, which you may or may not have already seen if you've been watching any sports — or TV in general — lately.

I got the biggest kick (pun intended) out of Wayne Rooney's alternate futures. The English striker's segment also contains a funny pair of cameos by some members of the U.S. squad, which is hoping to pull off "Miracle on Grass II" on Saturday.

Speaking of Rooney's portion of the ad, our loyal readers who are fans of tennis — of the table and non-table varieties — might enjoy the five seconds starting around 1:40.

As Seth Stevenson points out in Slate, this ad probably had a budget exceeding those of some of director Alejandro González Iñárritu's feature films. The resulting product, in any case, is marketing at its Nike-est.

Sampras Serves and Agassi Returns ... Animosity!

The charity doubles match between Pete Sampras & Roger Federer and Andre Agassi & Rafael Nadal in Indian Wells took an awkward turn when Sampras and Agassi switched the tennis balls with insults:



I'm guessing Rafa's wedgie suddenly got more uncomfortable than usual!

Spin to Win

On this Super Bowl Sunday, let's take a moment to recognize those other warriors of the sporting world—competitive pen spinners:



Boing Boing guestblogger Kristie Lu Stout sez:

I had no idea this subculture existed beyond the brio-spinning guy who sat in the back of my high school Trig class. But, yup, they're out there.

More U.S. Open

I'm sure everyone has seen this shot already, but I figured I'd post it for posterity, and to cancel out the clip of Fed falling. Also, if he needs something to boost his spirits after the outcome of the Final, he can come here and watch the clip again and again.

Finally, here are a couple of interesting blog posts from The New York Times:

What it Takes to String for the Pros

When the string bed of each racket is struck, both should ping at precisely the same pitch, indicating the string tension is identical. But Heydt’s were slightly off.

“I could hear it right away,” he said. “Yat said, ‘Your tensions are different. These may be one pound off, but this is unacceptable.’”

A Speed-of-Serve Snapshot

But how is that 148 miles an hour determined? Rallis Pappas, president of Information & Display Systems and a U.S.T.A. consultant who works in the IBM Statistics room at the Open, says it’s not as simple as putting a radar gun on the court. “It’s Doppler radar, but there’s a lot of software that’s part of the system,” Pappas says. “We really refer to it as a serve speed system because of that.”

a Bolt and a Bullet

Those who were wondering just how fast Usain Bolt could run if he didn't start celebrating before the end of a race got their answer this week as Bolt broke his own world records in the 100M and the 200M by 0.11 seconds apiece.

Tyson Gay ran the non-tailwind-assisted 100M of his life with a time of 9.71 — the third fastest ratified time in history — and was still clearly in Bolt's wake at the finish line. (The 200M was no contest at all.) In fact, had Bolt run through the line without looking for Gay and easing up slightly, his time might have been even faster.

With a few years left before he hits his prime, how fast will Bolt eventually go?



When talking about Bolt's feat at lunch one day, and trying to put the 100M race into perspective, I noted that it's like running over the length of a football field (100M is about 109 yards) in under 10 seconds. Two questions then arose: First, how many of us could do it in under 20 seconds? (The jury's still out on that one.) Second, what would Bolt be like in the NFL? Would he just make a fool of everyone?

Not necessarily.

The NFL actually has a history of sprinters joining its ranks as running backs or wide receivers. Even those who never ran track in high school, college, or international competition have shown world-class speed, especially when considering that running in football rarely involves going in a straight line all the way.

Take, for example, one legendary figure, as described by TIME:

Among then was Bob (Bullet) Hayes, who won the gold medal in the 100-m sprint at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo and recorded what some observers consider the top time ever achieved by a human with an 8.6 split in the 4 x 100-m relay. (Relay marks are faster than regular sprints because runners receive the baton while in motion, enabling them to accelerate quicker.) Hayes later parlayed his speed into a career as a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys; his passing in 2002 prompted one columnist to remark that Death must have tied his shoelaces together to catch him.

When looking for some videos of Hayes to link, I stumbled upon the YouTube holy grail — a video for which the comments are an actual intelligent conversation! (Compare that with the comments on the Bolt videos, which are a mind-numbing mix of inanity, sheer idiocy, and outright racism.) The debate that the commenters are having is whether or not Hayes could best Bolt's time on a modern surface, with today's equipment and advanced training techniques (and drug testing).

Whatever would happen on the track, from watching Hayes on the gridiron, it's clear that he had the ability to run routes, make the catch, shake a tackle, juke a defender, and get into the endzone — something one can't be certain that Bolt would have.

So, which would be more likely, Bolt breaking the 9.4 second barrier (I won't even pretend that 9.5 is out of his reach), or scoring an NFL touchdown?

Playing Hurt

(click to enlarge)

Despite my begrudged respect for the defensive prowess and overall championship-worthiness of this year's Boston Celtics, I've been reading about how torn up Tiger's knee was during the U.S. Open, and I had Photoshop running already, so I decided that the above photomontage was not going to make itself.

I do think Pierce deserved his Finals MVP, though; not only for the way he continually attacked the Lakers on defense and hit big momentum-shifting shots on offense, but for the way he carried his team through two crucial Game Sevens earlier in the playoffs. Plus, he's an L.A. guy at heart, even though he plays for the bad guys now.

Just, please — fewer theatrics next time.

How to Beat the Pats

For alliesglove, here's Slate's analysis of how to beat the New England Patriots:

The Patriots aren't unbeatable, but if you want to take them down, you'll need great players, great strategy—and some luck wouldn't hurt. If the Steelers, or any other team, want to end New England's reign, here's the master plan they'll need to follow.

The Eagles and Ravens came close, and provided the "blueprint", but it's hard for a team that hasn't executed for a full four quarters all year to suddenly do so in a single game, especially its biggest of the year. The Steelers don't fall in that category, though, so let's see what they can do.

Slate also re-printed an older article about why journalists deify Brett Favre, which asks, among other questions:

While Favre is lionized for playing through tragedy, Terrell Owens' success has never been given the same kind of context. [...] Why is every hurdle Favre has jumped over presented as the Pillars of Hercules, while a guy like Owens is dismissed as a loudmouth?

It's always good to remind ourselves that our perceptions of famous people really are shaped by the media, whether or not they fit those perceptions in real life.

The Past Wasn't Always More Civilized

Robert Edward Auctions is not sure it wants to auction a piece of "blue" baseball-related memorabilia (contains images with potentially NSFW old-timey language):

Among the items was the 1898 document pictured above, entitled "Special Instructions To Players," regarding the use of obscene language by players at the ballpark, to intimidate umpires and opposing players, and to verbally battle with unfriendly fans. [...] This piece is ironic as it provides many examples of exactly the kind of "brutal language" that was being outlawed. In fact, it is so over the top that at first we thought it was some type of a joke.

It's somehow comforting to know that people living in the 19th century said things like, "You ****-****er!", "**** my **** you *** of a *****!", and "I'll make you **** my ***!". Heck, I even learned a couple of new ones!

[via]

Golf Tips

Two ends of the same game.

Swing from Sir Charles:



"Easy" tips to make golf fun:

Tennis Court Surfaces

The NY Times' concise graphical explanation of how clay, hard, and grass tennis courts differ, and why Rafael Nadal fares better on one versus the others. [via Kottke]