Tag: sports

June 12, 2025 – Convalescence, For the Body and Soul

June 12, 2025 /

In the days before modern medicine, treatment used to involve avoidance and to a large degree living with chronic diseases. I trace my recent family roots to convalescence in fact. My great-great grandfather came to Salem, Oregon to live out his life in a Tuberculosis home. As fate would have it, it wasn’t very long and my great-great grandmother was a single mother of some young children.

You know that I am a sentimental sucker. Why else would I keep, let alone write about 30 year old boots and batteries? When I read a book or see a movie talking about sitting on the front porch every night, it sounds so appealing. And yet I have a hard time sitting still. It is not that I am not patient but that I am always worried about the efficiency of doing nothing.

One of the reasons I love audio is that I can be listening and doing something else at the same time. That makes it doubly difficult for me to just sit and listen to music or a ball game. And yet, radio is my favorite way of taking in sports. It reminds me of a life that I do not lead, a life of leisure and nothing better to do.

One of the things that I have been trying to do this year is go back to my roots and following OSU Beavers sports primarily football, basketball and baseball and largely on the radio. As luck would have it, the Beavers have a pretty good baseball team and were hosting a regional College World Series tournament. As luck (unlucky) would also have it, I got knocked down with some kind of sickness that had me in bed all weekend.

We have had significantly better than average spring weather this year. I decided that I would sit in the sun on the front porch with the radio on listening to the final game of the Corvallis regional. It was win or go home. I had listened to other games in the tournament, but this was the one. I was going to dedicate the time to a game, this is the one to pick.

I did feel guilty that I was just sitting there so I brought my laptop out thinking that I would write with the game on. But, as luck would have it, the laptop was causing electromagnetic interference with the AM signal reception. The signal was clear as day until I flipped the screen open. I repeated this test twenty times or so just to definitively prove the point.

I know, I will move the radio away and turn up the volume. But, I couldn’t find a way to use the computer and have the game on with clear reception, so I gave up. I had to make a choice, listen to the game or work on the computer. I went into the house and grabbed an old bag of sunflower seeds that were stale and enjoyed the Beavers cruise to victory and on to hosting a super regional.

That mid-seventies sun was a good contrast to laying in bed watching television. Both were comfortable but there was something about the fresh air that felt cleaner and invigorating. I hardly had had a cough while I was sitting there. As I was sitting there just being, I thought to myself that I do not know how to relax. To me, relaxing is for when all the work is done. But when is it ever done?

I don’t know what makes us tick. I know that my dad enjoyed sports even though he never really ever sat down to watch or listen. I am sure that is where my behavior came from. My kids could care less about sports even though my wife and I fans. It is more likely she will watch a game with me than they will. I just don’t make the time unless I can find something else to do at the same time.

Even reading is not the same. While reading I am interacting with a book or magazine while the world drives by. It is different than watching the constant stream of cars and wondering who is listening like me as I pump my fist for the double play or home run. Since I am never out there, I am just a crazy guy watching everyone go by.

End Your Programming Routine: I know that I have problems with resting. But, I really enjoyed sitting on the front porch going through a bag of sunflower seeds and cheering on my team. It makes me think that I need to do more of it be it a beer or iced tea. It made me forget that I was sick for a couple of hours and I feel a tiny bit better than I did before I went outside. I probably would have never done it had I not been sick.

April 17, 2024 – The Purer Game

April 17, 2024 /

This is old news by now. But, given the success of the OSU Beavers women’s basketball team I have been watching more women’s college basketball. Honestly, I think that I like it more than men’s basketball.

Photo by USA Today.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not encouraging or looking the other way about bad behavior. I think that basketball players at all levels are the worst. It is no secret that the Trailblazers nickname a few years ago was the ‘Jailblazers’. There are plenty of thugs in football too but I guess what drives me crazy is the selective calling of fouls and violations in basketball. NCAA is much, much better than the NBA but I am finding that I like women’s basketball because it is purer.

I see more teamwork and fundamentals. Maybe it is the differences in the sexes, but I also see less athleticism or may it is ego. Few can dunk or make ridiculous power moves to the basket all the while travelling, fouling and getting fouled. This encourages passing and leverages matchups and strategy. Honestly, I have seen more blocked shots in women’s basketball too.

The Beaver’s well outperformed their expectations, I knew were going to meet their match at some point. They lost all three games to USC (including the Pac-12 tournament) and both games to Stanford. So, when they drew undefeated South Carolina I figured there run would come to an end. And it did. Make no mistake, all of the media hype has been on LSU (the defending champions) and the Iowa Hawkeyes with the record setting guard while USC (So. Car.) just kept winning.

Watching the finals, I knew that the game was over when South Carolina was leading by nine with about two minutes left. The ball was inbound to Caitlin Clark and she took the ball all the way down and attempted a failed shot without anyone else touching that ball. I know that this is counter to what I am generally saying but this is the type of play that is so pervasive in men’s basketball. There is no doubt that she is one of the best players in the game today and there is no doubt that she was a key factor on the team, but instead of playing a winning strategy one player tried to win the game despite the odds.

I also do not doubt that women’s basketball is really the haves and have nots. South Carolina was undefeated until they lost in the final four last year and they were undefeated this entire season. That is one loss in two whole seasons or over seventy games. I think back the the dominance of UConn in the 2010s or Tennessee in the 1990s.

End Your Programming Routine: I used to be a big basketball fan. Now, I can hardly stand it between the ego, sloppy play and unequal rule enforcement. Did you see the score of the last NBA all star game (211-186)? Watching women’s basketball has renewed my interest in the game. Now the season is over, I probably won’t watch much more than the tournament next year, but I enjoyed it.

September 21, 2022 – Is ‘Cutting the Cord’ Really Better?

September 21, 2022 /

We were early adopters of the concept, cutting the cord. That means that we don’t pay for cable. We did it for purely financial reasons, we couldn’t afford the service. At the time (2005), we owned a house in South Carolina, we were renting a house in Oregon, we had no furniture, I had just took a permanent 17% pay cut and my wife was unemployed. I am not saying that we were starving but we did make sacrifices.

It actually took a career change (four years) to get back to making the same amount of money that I was making. We did sell the house in six months and it took a few more years to recover from our move financially. By that time, we really didn’t feel the need to pay $50-70 a month for cable.

I liked to watch HGTV before it was all ridiculous makeover shows and property buying and I liked to watch TNN (Spike) for the auto programs on Saturdays. But, what I really liked was sports. That is the thing that I have always missed since we went cable-less. I watched Monday Night Football on ESPN, NASCAR on Fox Sports, baseball play-offs on TBS when I had the chance.

Free of the ability to watch sports, I started really not paying attention to that much. I still followed Beavers football, the NFL and watched the World Series. Since I was local to OSU, I could listen to the games on the radio, my first love. Racing was over along with bowl games and a lot of other time killers but life moved on.

In the last 10 years, my wife has been adding streaming services. It started with Netflix. Then, because we had Amazon Prime we got another service for free. In the last three years she has added Hulu. And the last two years, we have turned on Sling during football season.

Now, I have to say that I barely ever turn on the TV. I am not totally sure I even know the passwords to the services. My wife wanted to watch Yellowstone with me, I made it a couple of episodes into season 2. I wanted to like it but it took too much commitment and the ridiculous story line drove me crazy, so I quit. I really cannot get into any kind of ‘soap opera’ because no matter what, I don’t think that there is a compelling story line year over year that appeases my sense of logic and reason.

We turned on Sling again the other day. I was just checking out to see what was on and I left it on MotorTrend. The show All Girls Garage came on. I was cooking and I looked up and saw a knife on one of the host’s hip. I was asking myself was that a tool? Does she use the knife for repair work? I am just going to watch and see.

I didn’t see any use of the knife after an episode or so. So, I decided to look up the host Faye Hadley. It seems as though she is a certified mechanic that graduated from Harvard with a psychology degree. Despite the dreadlocks, tattoos and piercings, I think the knife is schtick. And here is where the rubber meets the road.

There is too much entertainment in the world. Sports is no longer TV and/or cable but now NFL network and Amazon Prime. In order to compete in personalities a capable mechanic needs to dress like a badass assassin. When it comes to cost, I don’t think I am saving any money by picking and choosing different services. In fact, to see what we want this method may very well cost more. At the very least, it is a lot more hassle.

The only reason we added Sling TV in the first place is that it is the only streaming service that has Pac12 Network. I guess I would describe the service as streaming cable. I really will never take the time to really watch what is available, but I do like to tune in every now and then to see what is there.

In the end, I will answer the question, is it worth it? For me, I will say no. I have enough income that that cost of cable would be insignificant. What isn’t worth it is the time. And that is the most valuable commodity to me. I am also getting to the place where I just want stuff to work. I don’t want to fiddle with a bunch of different ways of getting to the same end. I really don’t want to turn on and off services and deal with managing all these different subsriptions.

End Your Programming Routine: Ultimately, if it was up to me I would probably leave Sling TV on. I am much more likely to browse on any given day than binge watch a series or even watch a movie. That being said, I likely wouldn’t watch enough to justify the cost of $65/mo. In fact, I don’t even think that my current interest is worth the cost. It is nice to turn on and turn off when you are done. It is almost like a more mature pay per view.