When the extraordinary becomes commonplace

Home, sweet home.

Nice.

Not much has changed, Super Dog wanted to go for a walk three minutes after I got in, couch still comfortable, TV still works, life goes on.

Didn’t miss much, it seems.

But now, the regular grind, it seems. Or something approximating it since all I’m doing between now and at least Monday is just this each day and I’m really thinking one weekend mailbag and one day of total rest and relaxation.

But it was nice getting a bit caught up last night with …

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What’d they do? Move the major league mound back up a few inches and not tell anyone?

Remember when major league no-hitters were rare and perfect games were truly scarce and if we got one of the former it was a big story and one of the latter it was front page news for a couple of days?

Now?

Ho hum.

Felix Hernandez throws a perfect game yesterday and it’s like it’s already forgotten because it’s the third this season to go along with six no-hitters and it’s commonplace.

I have no real idea why they happen with such frequency – I’ll leave that to brighter minds than I – but I still put no-hitters up there with the greatest single-day accomplishments in sports and perfect games are even better because, well, because they’re perfect.

You need a combination of incredible skill and every now and then a wee bit of luck but, think about it, how hard is it to catch lightning in a bottle on one day like that?

What’s comparable?

A 50-point game? They happened with far less regularity than no-no’s or perfect games now. No, I’d guess maybe a 60-point game would be the equivalent.

A 200-yard rushing game in the football? Nah. Maybe 300.

Five goals in a pucks outing? Maybe, but six is better.

No, a perfect game, to me, is so far ahead of all one-day sports accomplishments that it’s not even close.

To have seen so many this season – there’ve been, what, 21 all time – is quite incredible.

It’s not like Felix Hernandez or Matt Cain or Phil Humber are super pitchers (well I’d say Hernandez and Cain are among the very best in baseball today) from whom we expected such dominance on one day.

Yet they did it, which makes it so special and such a memorable event.

Until the next one comes next month, that is.

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Hang on a sec!

Horshack died?

How come no one told me?

Not sure where Welcome Back, Kotter ranks on the all-time sitcoms – can’t imagine it’d crack the top 15 in my list if I sat down for a long time and thought about it – but who among us Of A Certain Vintage didn’t at one time in our lives go ..

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Attention all Raptors fans.

We may see the pre-season schedule in the next little while – don’t know if it’ll be this week or next – but that’s going to be about it.

August, especially a post-Olympic August, is pretty much shutdown time for NBA teams. Coaches and GMs take a break to get ready for the season, players are just putzing around working on their games at home and it’s deadly quiet.

So, if we don’t mention them every day, it’s because there’s nothing going on and some of us need to catch our break a little bit, too.

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As I mentioned, maybe just one mailbag this weekend (I could probably use a day) so help a fellow out, if you would.

Click. Write. Send.

It’ll be nice to hear from some of you.

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Hey, Pearson Airport People:

Go to Heathrow, watch how it works for about a week and come back here and make this inadequate airport a wee bit more functional.

Go to Heathrow yesterday and it worked like a charm. Lots of people being moved through check-ins and security with little or no trouble, nothing at all intrusive, lots of idle time distractions once you cleared security (try finding something remotely interesting once you get on the other side at Terminal 1 here and Terminal 3 on the international end is downright embarrassing for its lack of services).

We had heard all kinds of horror stories before heading over there about the airport but they simply didn’t exist. Everything ran swimmingly and I can only hope Pearson gets its act together.

Not going to happen but it’s a nice thought.

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It was, however, very cool riding a cab out to Heathrow in the Olympic lanes. Bet the cabbie, who had to drive all those inner city streets with just one lane available to them for the duration of the Games was thumbing her nose at the officials while she was driving in them.

Me? I was napping.

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Wait a minute!

Something landed on Mars while we were gone?

I really should have turned the TV in my room on once or twice, seems a few other things happened.

What else did I miss?

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Comments

[sam]

Welcome home Doug....
My experiences with Pearson haven't been so bad. It's just too big and if you are a novice traveler like me, you can get lost pretty quickly. My recent experience flying into St Johns, NL was excellent. Within 25 minutes we had collected our luggage, got our rental car, and were on the road to the Yellow Belly Brew pub for lunch. Coming home, landing at Pearson was another story....

Let me echo what has been the norm over the last couple of weeks. I really enjoyed your Olympic blogs and articles. It seemed like you were having a great time and doing some solid work. Much appreciated, and you had me searching for wifi hot spots in on our tour of small town Newfoundland just to read your blogs....

[Sam]

Hi Doug: Matt barnes wont return to lakers (i read in hoopsworld.com, Eric P). i know we got Fields for sf but is he an option for my Raps since we have 1 open spot? we tried to get him last or 2 seasons ago. Your thoughts?

Blogger's note: Rather have the open spot, actually. Don't see him as any kind of upgrade at all

[Wayne]

Welcome back Doug! I thought your Olympics coverage was some amazing work. The big heads should be thinking bonus (or at least a six pack of your fav. beverage).

[Shannon]

Hey Doug,

Great to have you back!

I'm about to navigate through Pearson on my way to Atlanta and Orlando, any good places you recommend to eat at?

Blogger's note: Not a big fan of either city, actually. Usually keep close to the hotel in both. Sorry. Some nicer touristy spots on International Drive in Orlando

[marc in panama]

Hola Doug,

I have always thought that a guy hitting for the cycle was more impressive than a no hitter. To me, a pitcher can get "locked in the zone" and gets in that special place where he's lights out, and that is really impressive, don't get me wrong. But hitting for the cycle to me is harder. You need come up to bat four times in a game. You need to get the triple, in an of itself a rare occurrence, and your chances to hit come scattered through out the game, so even if you are zoned in, and the baseball looks like a beach ball to you, you aren't in that same groove that a pitcher gets into because of that repetitive motion of the act of pitching.

Welcome home amigo,

marc in panama

[DannyFromFreddy]

Oh, some guy named Howard got traded finally.

[Peter]

What did you miss? You could be the only game in town down at the ACC in the fall. At least, according to the rhetoric that is being thrown around right now from the pucks. :)

[Lorie]

Hello Doug, and Welcome Back!
Now I'm assuming you want REAL news, the IMPORTANT stuff, the kind of information that fuels our little piece of the cyberworld here? So, here it is: DWTS!!! Season 15 starts September 24th so mark your calendar now. And it is an "all-star" cast according to what I've learned from Twitter, TMZ, EW and other reputable news sources. Which means you'll get to see Bristol get boo-ed again, Kirstie lose a shoe once more and Emmitt Smith get a blessed reprieve from those so-awful-they're almost good Just For Men commercials. Oh and south of the border, Mitt found himself a running mate. And when he introduced him to a gaggle of energized Wisconsin conservatives, he introduced him as 'the next President of the United States'. Ahh...this campaign's going to be some fun! Oh, and did you hear that Charlie Sheen threw out the first pitch at the Jays' game Tuesday night? Naturally, it was high. :) So, seriously, Doug, it's good to have you back and thank you and the other members of Team Star for the terrific stories, blogging, photo's from London 2012. Oh, and that wind-up piece you did with Robyn Doolittle was delightful - comparing and contrasting the Olympic experience of the eager rookie with the experienced, savvy vet (that be you!) was a fun read.

[Rob]

Perfect games might be a sign of the times after expanion of the leagues to as many team as there are now. With the player base diluted much more so than 30+years ago, some good pitchers have a better chance of extended runs of getting batters out, since the quality of average major leaguers has dropped to accommodate more rosters.

Same reason why home runs are going up too....good hitters being able to feast more on poor pitchers compared to yesteryear

[Peter]

"Oh, and did you hear that Charlie Sheen threw out the first pitch at the Jays' game Tuesday night? Naturally, it was high. :)"

That was awesome Lorie!

[Angelo]

Welcome back. What's your take on the introduction of 3-on -3 basketball in the Olympics?

Blogger's note: If it happens, it'd be all right. Not a whole lot of opinion either way right now

[james]

I spent most of the Olympics on the road to and from a Maritime wedding but I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your work over there. Thanks in particular for the August 8th homage to the Canadian women's team. That was as fine a capsule as any of what all athletes in all sports from all countries go through in order to compete at this level. I managed to follow most of that tournament to the end and, really, it was not at all implausible to imagine that team contending for the podium (if she's interested, the powers that be should extend Allison's contract; favourite TV line from Paul Jones, musing about Ms. and Mr. McNeill as co-coaches: "My wife and I have trouble painting a room"). The team had a great run, and so did you. How nice to be put in your place by the dog.