Weekend Notes

A laid-back, restful holiday weekend is in the books. Friday was the highlight in terms of number of things going on, so that will be the focus of my notes this week.

Friday

As happens this time of year, my attentions were pulled multiple directions Friday evening.

The Cathedral game started at 7:00 on the radio. They were taking on 6A #1 and defending state champs Brownsburg, now ranked #35 in the country. I wasn’t expecting much. I was not disappointed. BHS won 29–0, the first time the Irish have been shut out in a decade. It could/should have been a lot worse. BHS turned the ball over inside the CHS five yard line three times. 50–0 was absolutely in the cards. The Irish need to get their offensive line figured out if they don’t want this season to be a disaster.

At 7:30 the KU-Wagner game started on ESPN+. I didn’t expect much from this one, either, and again was not disappointed, but in a good way. KU won easily, 46–7. The only Wagner score came on a defensive error so bad I honestly wondered if KU blew that play intentionally to make future opponents think their defense is terrible. And KU had two red zone turnovers, so 60–0 was in play.

The big bummer of that game was that Bengally Kamara, KU’s top incoming defensive player, did not play because of an injury sustained in practice last week. Early word was that it could be season-ending, a brutal blow given he is the best, most disruptive player on the KU D. That has softened a bit, and now thought is he could return this season. Still a major blow with Missouri this week, and then the beginning of Big 12 play two weeks after.

So that was on the radio and TV, although I turned the CHS game off once they got down 22–0. When game one of the big Royals-Tigers series started, I pulled that up on my computer and had it sitting next to me on the couch. That was fun, with the Royals jumping out to a quick 3–0 lead. But they blew it, and by winning only one of three over the weekend slipped behind Texas as the first team out of the Wild Card race. They really need to sweep the Angels and Twins this week and hope both the Rangers and Mariners have bad weeks.

Finally, I was flipping over to the US Open during commercials in the KU game and once it ended. More on that in a second…

US Open

Like, literally a second.

A pretty good first week of the Open. We’ve watched at least part of the action each night, and quite a bit between football games over the weekend. Lots of good story lines this year.

Taylor Townsend, the #1 doubles player in the world, reaching the fourth round was one highlight, although her failing to capitalize on eight match points to advance to the quarterfinals brought her run to an unfortunate end. If you don’t follow tennis, there was some controversy on her journey, although not of her making.

Coco Gauff firing her coach and adding a new one a couple weeks before the tournament and trying to rebuild her serve in the midst of the final major was kind of a wacky story. She had a couple too-tight matches then looked great Saturday, before getting blitzed by Naomi Osaka Monday. Amazing that she won the French Open just three months ago. Hopefully she comes back with a stronger, more structurally sound game next year.

But the story of the week has to be Venus Williams’ return to the Open. She lost her first round singles match, but has reached the quarterfinals of the doubles tournament playing with Layla Fernandez. They both look like they are having a wonderful time, and doubles tennis in general looks way more fun than singles. All kind of ridiculous shots that leave the viewers and players laughing. I’m glad Venus’ presence has meant a little more time given that side of the tournament.

It’s also been hilarious just to watch those two together. Venus is 6’1” and 45 years old. Layla is 5’6” and 22, and looks even younger because she is so tiny. We keep laughing every time we see them standing next to each other. They look more like a mother-daughter combo at the local park than highly accomplished players in the biggest event of the year.

Also interesting that because of a partnership with the WTA, Venus earned an online degree from IU-East and Layla is working on her degree through that program. They should have worn their school gear!

Oh, dumbest announcing moment of the tournament came Friday, when Ben Shelton had to retire from him match after injuring his shoulder. As he walked off, one of the B team announcers on ESPN declared, “He’ll be back, and he’ll be back better than ever, you can rest assured of that.” Really? How does he know? Maybe Shelton just destroyed his shoulder and whatever surgery/rehab required to repair it robs him of his powerful serve, or leaves scar tissue that makes him inconsistent? With modern sports medicine, odds are he will come back and be competitive. But how can an announcer insist all will be well, better than well even, before any diagnosis? This guy was British so I blame the way British announcers jump to wild conclusions.

Premier League

The first massive game of the season was Sunday, as Arsenal traveled to Liverpool. It was a tense, at times disjointed game, with Liverpool winning on an other-worldly free kick late in the game. Bummer for Arsenal but not unexpected. It’s a long season, although naturally some British commentators are suggesting the title race is over after just three games.

One of the odder things about European soccer is that the summer transfer window, when teams can sign players from other squads, extends three weeks into the season. So there is this summer-long drama in the soccer press about who will sign where, but it doesn’t stop when the season begins. Even after having an entire summer to bolster their roster, or unload players they no longer need, teams can continue to make moves through their first three games. Then suddenly they can’t, until a brief transfer window opens in January.

In US sports, we always get the rush of activity when free agency begins, then things usually calm down. Same with trades, there seems to be a flurry just after the season ends then things quiet down until just before the trade deadline.[1] My brain is used to that, so the Euro system seems weird to me. I think some of the European restrictions are because teams there are always playing in more than one competition, and players need to be locked into rosters before the Champions League begins.

Anyway, that’s your Euro soccer education piece for this week.

Rest Of The Weekend

S was on call all weekend, and Saturday was listed as one of the occasional weekends she had to go into the office for four hours. Friday she found out since Monday was a holiday and the office would be closed, it wasn’t opening for Saturday clinic. To celebrate we took L to brunch that morning. Then Sunday we already had plans to meet friends for brunch. That’s right, two brunches in two days! We are getting wilder as we shed kids! Then Monday evening we strolled across the street and sat around our neighbors’ firepit while sharing a few beers with them. Unprecedented levels of socializing for us!

I watched a fair amount of college football all weekend. The games didn’t match up all that well, so I did not launch YouTube TV’s multiview. I’ll save that for this coming weekend, when the schedule is jam-packed.

Finally, L and her teammates began fall conditioning at 6:00 AM this morning. For the first time I did not have to get up at 5:15 to drive her there. Naturally, I still woke up when I heard her banging around. I hope that’s just a day one thing and I can sleep through her preparations on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next month.