Rauzulu's Street - July 2009

 

The World of Sports

July brings us one of sport's best events with the Tour de France. It is a test of human strength, endurance and most importantly a true meaning of teamwork. No single rider can win the event but each can surely lose it with an unexpected fall or an off day in the mountains. This year marks the return of Lance Armstrong to the race, this time in as a supporting rider. Three weeks of entertainment awaits.

We get to watch tennis in the morning from Wimbleton and then watch the British Open golf match. Nothing stirs my heart more than watching professional golfers smack a ball around a mowed cow pasture, dig themselves out of sand filled moon craters and putt on burnt out greens. If this is the home of the sport, I am amazed it ever became popular.

Last month the NBA season finally drew to a conclusion with the LA Lakers winning the title. So much of the press coverage delt with Koybe Bryant and his struggel to win a title without Shaq. I really think there had to be better story lines out there than that.

The NHL season also wrapped up with Pitsburgh defeating Detroit in seven games. The scheduling of this series was a mess to say the very least and the NHL office should be ashamed.

Golf's US Open was held and the true winner was the weather. Rain gear with snorkels and flippers was the order of the day. The weather efectively eliminated half of the draw including Tiger Woods from any chance to compete. Of course that view tended to ignore Tiger's lack of putting stroke during the week.

My interest in horse racing has passed for another year with the running of the Belmont Stakes.

NASCAR continues to morph itself into Formula 1 racing...if you lead the first lap you win. The Sprint Series has become boring, too many politically correct rulings, cars that don't allow for passing and races that are run on cookie cutter tracks. I am (was) a huge race fan but even I cannot watch the current series and coverage.

Comments - The World

June 2009 will be remembered as the month we lost icons in the wold of entertainment. Ed McMann, Fara Faucet and then Michael Jackson all passed away during the month.

Coverage of Jackson's untimely death was over the top by all of the media outlets, fueled by speculation of how he died and what would happen to his children. He was an entertainer, not a world leader and a tarnished one at that. How soon we forget that this was an individual that was surrounded by child molestation rumors throughout much of his life. He underwent numerous plastic surgeries during his brief life in an attempt to accomplish....well I don't think anyone rally knows. To now put him on a pedestal as a person that accomplished "great" things in his life is hypocritical. He was a tremendous entertainer, innovative and in some aspects a creative genius when you look at his body of work. His influence on today's entertainers cannot be minimized, however that is the limit on his sphere of influence. He may have socialized in the world of kings and queens but he did not advise them in matters of state.

The North American automotive industry financial troubles continues to drive a trampling of legal rights in the United States. Even the Supreme Court stepped back from protection of secured creditors in the Chrysler bankruptcy case. So does this mean I can now declare bankruptcy, sell my house to a relative, rent it back and tell the bank to pound salt? Makes you wonder doesn't it?

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