A busy Monday kept me from getting this out yesterday, but allow me to share some brief sports notes from the weekend.
Friday we took the entire family to the 5A #1 Cathedral matchup with arch rival and defending 3A state champs BCHS. Well, L rode with S and I and then ran off with her friends the entire game. And M and C both rode to the game with friends. But we were all there!
BCHS is having a rough year and it continued as the Irish pounded them 38–14, a score that was closer than the game was. BC only scored because CHS fumbled twice deep in their own territory after the game was already pretty much over.
It was a beautiful night for football and the stadium was jam-packed for the rivalry. Or at least it was until halftime when a lot of folks checked out thanks to the 28–0 score.
I got home in time to see Coastal Carolina pull away from KU in the fourth quarter. Sounds like there were some encouraging moments, but the Jayhawks still have a lot of work to do. Quarterback Jason Bean might be the real deal, but will likely spend much of the Big 12 season running for his life. I’m cautiously optimistic that Lance Leipold is more like Mark Mangino than the last four coaches. It’s going to take time, though. As always…
Saturday I sat on my ass and watched a lot of college football. I was able to watch much of the Oregon-Ohio State game on the outside TV, which was fun. It got hot in mid-afternoon, though, so I had to scurry back into the air conditioning for the later games.
Sunday brought the Colts opener against the Seahawks. This season just has a stench about it that things are going to go poorly, between maybe too much hype for the team, one of the lowest vaccinated player rates in the league, and a quarterback who is almost guaranteed to get injured or play shitty. Or likely do both.
Seattle took care of the hype, dominating the Colts for four quarters. The offensive line, which should be a huge strength for the Colts, was awful. Maybe that’s just because a bunch of them had to sit out two weeks because of a positive Covid test and contact tracing. The Colts have a difficult front half of the schedule, so things could get ugly if they can’t figure their shit out quick.
Across all three days I caught big chunks of the US Open, including almost the entire women’s final on Saturday.
That final didn’t end up being very competitive, but didn’t take away from how fun it was to watch Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez march to the final. For Raducanu to be the first man or woman to win a major as a qualifier is absolutely astounding. Even more so because she didn’t lose a single set through the tournament. Raducanu and Fernandez coming along just as the Williams Sister Era seems to be ending might save women’s tennis, at least for viewers in America.
I’ve never been a big Novak Djokovic fan. But I couldn’t help but admire how he just refuses to lose. Which made his straight-set loss in the men’s final to Daniil Medvedev a massive shock. There was a moment in the third set, when he found himself down 4–0 and managed to win four games before Medvedev closed him out when Djokovic created a little burst on energy that he might charge all the way back. Only with him would you even entertain the possibility of coming back from two sets and two breaks down to win. None of us would have been surprised if he had pulled it off. Like him or not, he creates energy and drama, which makes watching his matches compelling.
It had been a few years since I watched much of the Open. I really enjoyed the matches I tuned in for this year. It helps that both the men and women have groups of exciting, young players beginning to make their presence known. If we could just get some Americans sprinkled among them I might be connived to pay as much attention to tennis as I did 30 years ago.