Tag: sports

Caption says it all

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

It’s no secret that when it comes to college sports, I have a team in Virginia Tech, no matter how disappointing they are in football, no matter how mediocre they are in basketball, and no matter how much of a non-factor they are in baseball. However, I have another team that I favor pretty often: whomever is playing against Duke.

Last night, North Carolina defeated Duke, which the fact of that alone is pleasing, but the visuals that accompanied the discovery of such news were absolutely abhorring. After the clock wound down, the people of the Dean Dome stormed the court.

The University of North Carolina stormed the court after defeating Duke in men’s basketball.

Now I believe that there is a lot of importance in the act of storming the court (especially when it’s after defeating Duke), but in addition to the importance of doing it, there’s as much meaning behind in when storming the court isn’t done.

UNC is one of the few basketball programs in the country that should absolutely never storm the court upon defeating Duke. They’re supposed to be Duke’s greatest rivals; equal, if not better, having a superior educational program and students and alumni of a higher class.

Doing it might have seemed cool and like a great idea at the time, but it’s probably going to have some petty, obnoxious (and very much white) repercussions. Articles (again) about opponents storming the court on Duke by the Duke studentpubs, and heaven have mercy on all UNC fans if Duke wins the rematch on March 8 in Durham, because retribution will be insufferable and cringeworthy when Duke fans storm their own court in defeat of Carolina.

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Atlanta sports fans and the importance of antagonists

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For the vast majority of the game, his back was to the field, and he instead was facing his fellow attendees in the stands instead of watching the game transpiring on the actual field itself.  Repeatedly, he would pace back and forth through the mostly-empty row of seats in which his own ticketed seat was located, and seek out fans wearing gear of the opposing team.  Whenever he located one, he would either pantomime that he was watching them, make a throat-slashing gesture, puff out his Atlanta Falcons sweatshirt, or all of the above, among a few other taunting gestures, like the “loser” L on the forehead gesture.

It did not matter if those he taunted were grown adults, or young children.  If they were wearing the other teams’ colors, they were fair game for taunting.  A grown man, taunting young children, and essentially calling them losers.

This wasn’t just an Atlanta Falcons fan; this was a typical Atlanta sports fan.

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This “gamers as athletes” is going a bit too far now

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The guy on the left is Shin-Soo Choo.  Shin-Soo Choo is a Major League Baseball player, and an extremely talented one at that.  Aside from that, Shin-Soo Choo is something of an international hero, as he has been a chief member of the Korean National Baseball team that enjoyed moderate successes in tournaments such as the World Baseball Classic as well as the Asian Games.  Shin-Soo Choo is considered a genuine five-tool player; he hits very well, he hits with power (read: home runs), plays excellent defense, has a great throwing arm, and runs very effectively.  It is safe to say that Shin-Soo Choo is the most talented and successful Korean-born Major League Baseball player in history.

The guy on the right is Dong-Hwan Kim.  Dong-Hwan Kim plays Starcraft for a living.  He sits at a computer for a living, staring into a monitor, playing a video game.  The only physical thing he really demonstrates is dexterity with his fingers, or as those in such a scene like to refer to as “Actions per minute (APM)” which is basically just how good a guy is at repeatedly clicking a mouse and a few keys on the keyboard.

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The Big 10’s logo sucks

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

The Big 10 is a pretty big deal in the world of collegiate sports; it’s no secret that amongst all college sports, football and basketball reign supreme in terms of popularity, and the Big 10 represents strongly in both.

But when the day is over, I can’t take the Big 10 conference seriously. It has nothing to do with the fact that it’s been over ten years since any sort of National Championship has been brought to the Big 10, or that Ohio State has turned into the Buffalo Bills of college sports, or sour grapes at Michigan for getting a referee-aided victory over Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl.

No, I can’t take the Big 10 conference seriously, because their logo is absolute rubbish.

I mean seriously, look at it – it sucks.

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Isn’t this a crazy story?

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Long story short: student multi-sport athlete has one too many concussions, is hospitalized and told to give up contact sports. After recovering, it’s revealed that he’s now a musical savant and can pretty much play any instrument.

You know something, in a way, this is almost not fair. Injury and concussions are sort of supposed to ruin lives, not keep them on the same track, or possibly make them better. I speak partially in jest, because obviously I don’t want to necessarily hear of people I don’t know lives getting ruined by injury, but the other part of me would be lying if I didn’t say that I was jealous of this kid’s fortuitous “brain re-wiring.”

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Some men just want to watch the (sports) world burn

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I had a conversation with the one guy at the gym I actually speak with occasionally, about the current state of ACC football, namely the Coastal division that we’ve both got vested interest in, as I’m a Virginia Tech fan, and he’s a Miami fan.  Naturally, I had to rub in his face about how bad the Hokies decimated the Hurricanes last Saturday, but to diffuse the taunting, since he is pretty much a body double for Michael Clarke Duncan and could probably literally throw me head first into the ceiling like a dart, we got to talking about the current ACC Coastal standings.

At the time I’m writing this, the scrubs from Georgia Tech are leading the Coastal with a 5-2 division record, despite the fact that earlier in the year, they jobbed to Virginia Tech as if they were the Honky Tonk Man jobbing to the Ultimate Warrior.  But division wins count more than overall wins, and they didn’t lose to fucking Duke.  But speaking of Duke, they’re tied for third with Miami, both of them behind Virginia Tech.  This is something notable, because we’re talking about football and not basketball, and Duke is very much alive in the bowl selection picture.  And it’s Duke’s unexpected presence in the football scene this season that sparked this train of thought, and it all boils down to the fact that thanks to the ACC Coastal division, the remainder of this season has the potential to be one gigantic chaotic mess; this is typically no different in the overall college ranking systems, but the fact that several bowls can be potentially impacted by the outcomes of two weeks’ worth of games from one division in one conference is pretty interesting.

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Virginia Tech, Miami and the mass exodus

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Whenever one of my teams wins, the rest of the day is pretty much a good one.  Every game watched afterward becomes a little bit more tolerable, and it’s easier to enjoy and appreciate the little things about a game, whether it’s watching an offensive line setting a nice screen, when a pitcher nips the outside corner with an unhittable curveball, or when a basketball player actually makes two consecutive free throws.  It doesn’t matter the sport, whenever a team I favor gets a W, everything else is just a little bit better.

Earlier, Virginia Tech slaughtered Miami, in Miami.  Once #14 now unranked VT marches into what I used to refer to as “SunLiphinSharkRobbiePlayer Stadium,” based on how many times the venue had changed corporate sponsorship but is currently the home to the NFL Dolphins and University of Miami, and slaughters the #11 ranked Hurricanes on their home field.  Whether or not this puts Tech back into the Top-25 is irrelevant, since it’s obvious they’re really not supposed to be anything more than a team in transition, but it’s always a pleasure to see them actually get a win.

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