Good series and a good table tennis story

Hmm.

Getting to be a time of many, unrelated little items.

Hope you don’t mind.

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This is turning into one pretty good World Series, no?

Outside of that one blowout, it’s been the best one in a while and I really hope it gets to a Game 7; that kind of drama is a perfect way to end a season.

Even casual sports fan friends seem to be interested, which flies in the face of the commonly held perception that you need big markets or traditional teams to generate a lot of buzz.

Never quite believed that; I don’t really care about ratings because I’m not in that business. I do care about competitive series with compelling storylines and figure that’s enough for the true fan. Remember Cleveland-Atlanta? Anaheim-San Francisco?

Hardly Yankees-Dodgers or Red Sox-Mets but all of them turned out to be great series that caught the attention of everyone and laid waste to the feeling that no one will care if it’s not “big name” teams.

Of course, this story from last night about a breakdown in communications between the dugout and the bullpen was the big sidebar of the evening.

Seems Tony LaRussa called down, the noise was too loud, wrong guy got up and it was a total schmozzle.

Seeing how I can get in touch with about anyone in the world through the magic of the bbm and phone, you’d think that would be the least of the worries in a major league baseball park.

Here’s what they might want to do: Since LaRussa uses more relievers in more matchups than any manager I can remember, maybe about the sixth inning everyone should get up and get loose.

Just in case.

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From the Department of Your Favourite Grunt As Susan Lucci …

Heartfelt congrats to our boys and girls over at the photo department for copping Best Blog Award at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards last night.

As you know, they do great work; I’ll get ‘em next year. No disgrace in losing to that group, they really do fantastic work.

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A question.

Are we in such a hurry as a society that people can’t wait for me to get off an elevator on the ground floor before they go rushing in?

Just wondering.

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This, folks, might be as good as there’s been in this whole NBA thing from one of the most under-rated general columnists out there.

We miss Dave D around the game.

A lot.

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Story time.

So, I make one of my few forays down to the Mother Ship yesterday (life seems to be keeping me away) and plunk myself down amid the Tall Foreheads ‘cause my desk is just south of Queen’s Quay and I need to be close to chat during the NFL thingamabob we do.

Anyway, for some reason you don’t need to know (well, if you insist, it’s because TTN is the wire-service code for table tennis) one of the big shots mentions that some tennis table icon (Kjell Johansson of Sweden) has died and there’s a story on the wire.

Now, perhaps because I’ve written marathons and tennis and golf and NFL more in the last two weeks than I’d care to mention, it got me thinking about my one brush with big league ping pong.

It’s at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics – I’m there for The People’s Wire Service and we are all things to all people – and this dude from Canada, Johnny Huang, somehow pulls of a miracle upset of some dude from Sweden, with the King of Sweden or some luminary of that ilk, in the crowd.

Well, now Johnnny’s in the quarter-finals and we all race over to cover the next big match/game/set/period/quarter, whatever it is. As you can imagine, the collective table tennis intelligence of the five or six of us caught up in Huangmania is rather limited so we’re figuring we watch, we talk to him, we write some compelling tale of greatness.

Doesn’t Johnny go and lose the quarters and we’re all waiting to chat with him and lament his loss while praising him for prior glorious ping-pong triumphs.

We’re in the mixed zone, tape recorders at the ready, when Mr. Huang comes and goes, blows us off and we’re told something to the effect of “he doesn’t want to talk.”

Blown off. By a table tennis player. A guy in a sport who should be so willing to get his game and name out there he should come to your room to be interviewed if that’s easier.

We register somewhat vociferous angst over this turn of events, Mr. Huang comes back to chat and all’s right in the world.

First and last table tennis story I think I ever wrote.

Some day soon: The time the PR flak lost the medal winning boxer in Barcelona and how Stephen Brunt might have saved my career.

And thanks to the magic of youtube …

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We love our Mayor and the people in Big Neighbour To The East don’t.

Nyah, nyah, nyah.

Long Live Hazelville.

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Oh yeah, reports are now that we don’t get an “indefinite” postponement of the NBA season, we’re going to get a couple more weeks chopped off the season today.

Around the office, the deal is I can’t jump in a write too much about the NBA until something actually happens but even then it is a rather taxing endeavour.

As I was telling Tall Foreheads, not sure what the fourth paragraph of any story would be.

First: League cancels more game.

Second: No new talks scheduled.

Third: Dispute about how to share $4 billion or so in revenue.

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Comments

[sam]

That article by Dave D was spot on to how I was feeling about the chess game these negotiations have become. There's always a middle ground and I'm certain it has been explored and agreed to in principle.
It's the rattling of the swords by some of the owners and big name players that is confusing. What purpose did Kevin Garnett serve attending the meetings to flex his muscles.
It appears the players can't agree amongst themselves and the same can be said about the owners.

[kyle]

Doug, re the elevator experience - one of my long-standing societal pet peeves. Always puzzled me - where do these people think that the people on the elevator are going? I'm usually pretty forgiving, "hold" the door for others, especially when I disembark. BUT.. If/when it happens to me, the perpetrator usually gets a shoulder, or if it's the end of the day, 20lbs worth of backpack.

[john]

Hey Doug, I have always thought that someone must know where the saw-off point is in the negotiations. If two professional negotiators discuss things for two years and hundreds of hours, there is no way both sides don’t know where the middle ground is. Its a great point the writer makes that at this point, it is all about saving face and the longer that Wade, Garnett and James et. all are defiant, the longer the process will take and the more the players will look like losers. Yes the players are giving up a lot of revenue, but where does it say they won't ever be able to negotiate it back? If teams are making money hand over fist, do you think they will want a long drawn out lock-out? Of course not, cause they will be losing more money than the players and the players will have the leverage.

[Mike D.]

Re the elevator situation, next time all you need to do is ask yourself "What would Charles Oakley do?" and emulate his approach. But first you might want to program the number of a good criminal defense lawyer into your cellphone.

[GM]

Yup, Dave D nailed it. A good friend of mine who's in a union told me he once asked the union head why they made such an outrageous demand right off the top. He was told that's just how these negotiations go; it's part of the game, as it were. The next day in the media the same head was all indignant at the insulting offer from management. Blah blah blah. It's such an inefficient system you'd think there could be a better way.

Loved the Ping-Pong clip! Table tennis is my second favourite sport behind basketball. And yes, it is a sport. And a damn hard one, too, when played seriously.

[Tim H.]

Is there any truth to the rumour that you're the instructor for this course?

http://www.thegridto.com/life/food-drink/the-abcs-of-beer? :)

[TLI]

Actually, Doug, it's not that those people are in such a hurry to get onto the elevator... they just don't SEE you as they go charging ahead with their faces glued to a 3x5 phone screen!

[Lorie]

Hey Doug!
Susan Lucci? Hope you don't have to suffer through 19 humiliating award ceremonies before you "get yours"! But you MUST know you're always #1 with us! And for those not familiar with the (god knows) resilient, and always gorgeously attired, Susan Lucci, here is a moment that many of us who skipped 3rd and 4th periods of high schools to get our Eric Kane and All My Children daily fix enjoyed so much! That Daytime Emmy Award ceremony in 1999 where Susan Lucci was at long, long last, finally and officially declared the winner. Try and watch this without crying. Brava! Susan, Brava! (That's Soap Opera Cheers.)
http://youtu.be/37nv9dHIuCc

[D-Mac Ottawa]

Table tennis now, eh? Ever see this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqGQ72bre30
I'm waiting for the rematch with Forest Gump... Cheers.

[m]

In basketball news, Jorge's Unicava defeated Sonny Weems' and Ty Lawson's Zalgiris Kaunas 85-78 in OT. Good basketball.

[Dave in BG]

Having lived in the Southern US for 12 years, I can tell you that the elevator experience down here is totally different from the one you described.
In the South, manners prevail. The protocol is: Ladies and Children exit first, then men exit, then women enter, then men enter. No exceptions.
Which crreates its own weirdness. If there is 1 woman and 8 guys on the elevator, and she is in the back, the guys look like DWTS performers trying to get out of the way and clear a path for the lady. Even if it takes a minute to make room for her to exit....weird and kinda illogical in its own way, but definitely good manners!

[Lorie]

The cure for the Rude Elevator Rushers? Here's something: when the elevator doors open and if you are standing beside your daughter and it is her wedding day and she is wearing her beautiful wedding dress, well...the crowd will part, and sighs of "how beautiful" will be heard as the you and the lovely bride glide by (yeah, yeah...a bit schmaltzy I know, but it was an unexpected moment of warmth and good manners in a city that's often cold and rude). So, the lesson here: go out and get yourselves fancy white gowns, you too may make people smile and stop 'em in their tracks - or at least from pushing past you onto the elevator. :)

[Brad W]

What is the significance of the -30- signature? I've seen a couple of authors use it.

Blogger's note: Old-time newspaper method of ending a story