Bye bye summer?

Our weather is changing and are we skipping the fall and going right into our raining season? I am not ready for that, but it does mean more time is spent inside sitting on our behinds. It certainly helps getting back to writing another blog!


The summer in the Northwest was wonderful as always, but on many fronts too short. Seattle on a warm day has got to be the most beautiful city in the world, but of course we complain that we did not get enough of those. We didn’t make it on a family vacation this year, but my wife and I played more golf than ever and our handicaps have gone down. Unfortunately now I have to give people strokes. :(

It was definitely time to get our youngest back to school for his senior year (scary where the time has gone). Almost 3 months of summer break is way too much I believe. How does a family keep the kids busy if both parents work? I remember getting 6 weeks when I was growing up in Germany.

Random thoughts on sports activities this summer:

World Cup fever.
Wow. I love the competition and the spirit of it - the national pride, the singing and dancing and all the colors of the flags and outfits. But I could have done without the vuvuzelas. The traditional atmosphere of soccer was destroyed with these noisemakers. The singing, chanting and general positive fan behavior of international soccer competition couldn't be seen or heard in this world cup. Please no more in future competitions!

One of the reasons soccer is not as huge in the US as everywhere else in the world is the constant flopping and acting of the players. I agree that sometimes you have to sell a call in order to get it and it happens in most sports, but I must say in soccer it has gone overboard. What are we trying to market to our society and our kids - faking and cheating will get you ahead (don’t the guys know that TV shows it all in slow motion)? Not sure how and if it carries over to everyday life, but if you see this kind of behavior succeed over and over again by superstars why not try it elsewhere?

Shouldn't there be consequences for acting like that? If you roll around like you have been shot you should not be allowed to run full speed 30 seconds later like nothing happened. Off to the sidelines for 5 min to get treatments from the trainer. Let's see how many times a coach wants to play a man short. Another thing that amazes me is that soccer players can't play every other day. Are you telling me that it is more demanding than the NBA and the play-offs or the Olympics, where the teams play 3 days in a row? How about the US Open tennis tournament? Players do back to back 5 hour matches! One sport where I believe players need a week between games is American football because they take a physical beating and need time to recuperate.

Getting pampered is nice but getting spoiled is a disservice to the game. There are lots of issues in all sports and the NBA has many, but soccer has taken it a little further as far as training, pampering and entitlement. Time to man up and play the game like it is supposed to be played.

NBA news:
LeBron signing with Miami – apparently a big issue to many fans, NBA legends and the media, but a surprise? Loyalties in pro sports went out the window a long time ago on both sides. Owners will trade a player in a heartbeat if they think they can improve their team and it does not matter if the player has done everything perfect on and off the court for that franchise. It is a billion dollar business and the bottom line matters! On the other end the player will take the deal, he thinks will be the best for him long term. Of course there are always exceptions such as Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, etc. who most likely will finish their careers playing for one team. It just does not happen very often anymore.

And just because Miami has a couple superstars they might still not be the top team – other guys need to defend, shoot and rebound too! It should be an interesting year coming up with collective bargaining and a possible lock-out looming next summer! I will have to spend some time looking at rosters soon, because after all the movement I don’t even know where guys are anymore – which is another issue with the league. It is hard for the fans to identify themselves with their team, since most teams have more turn-over than the local Starbucks.

The other disturbing news this summer were the frequent stories about ex-NBA players, who had made huge amounts of money ($100+) and are now bankrupt – Antoine Walker, Vin Baker, Scottie Pippen – just a few names out of a large group – statistics say that 65% of all NFL/NBA players are bankrupt within 3 years after their playing days. It is a shame, but a tough thing to correct. Peer pressure, culture, life style and education seem to be enormous issues to overcome.

Tiger news:
One thought to finish up with – Maybe a reason Tiger is struggling is that golf used to be the escape for him – hours on the course without interference away from managing family and a large database of women. Now that is the sole focus of his existence and when he does step out to date/meet somebody the whole world will know. :)