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Ride on, American Pharoah

June 6, 2015

Saturday, June 6 is D Day in more ways than one. American Pharoah will attempt to become the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 to win the Triple Crown. Post time is 5:50 p.m. on NBC, though coverage begins at 3:30 p.m.

The odds, the experts say, are not with the Pharoah. There will be fresh horses – Frosted and Materiality, among them – gunning for him. Belmont Park, with the longest of the three Triple Crown tracks at 1 ½ miles, is not his home track as it was in the 1970s for Affirmed, Seattle Slew and Secretariat, the last three Triple Crown winners. Horses are bred today for speed not endurance. Yada, yada, yada. ...

Open season: a fashion report from the French

June 3, 2015

What’s with the men at the French Open? I don’t mean their play, which, while not exactly setting the world on fire, hasn’t been terrible. I mean the way they look.

Any discussion of men’s style on the courts of Roland-Garros must begin (and, please God) end with Stan Wawrinka. With his stocky physique, pug nose and rough skin, Stan has always had a certain animal magnetism. One of his nicknames is even “Stanimal.” But his bed head and thin plaid shorts that look like boxers, complemented by a polo shirt that does not flatter his chest, suggest nothing so much as a bus-and-truck Marlon Brando in “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Honestly, even Roger Federer – known for his sartorial superiority, thanks in part to Anna Wintour – has fallen short, as he did in his match against Stan, with a Nike ensemble that consisted of hot pink shorts and a deep periwinkle shirt. The contrast is too jarring.

Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal’s fashion sins have been less in his choice of outfit (blue Nike ensemble, meh) than that of accessories. On court, he sports a $750,000 watch that recalls something you purchased at a convenience store while on vacation, having forgot your real watch at home. We’re not talking croc-embossed, rose gold-plated Longines chronometer here but something with an orange grosgrain strap and lots of gears. And why, pray tell, does Rafa need a watch on-court? It’s not like he’s going anywhere. His matches last hours. Plus, tennis stadiums have clocks. So why does he need to wear the watch, except that he’s being paid to wear the watch. ...

Rafanole revisited: Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic meet in the French Open quarterfinals

June 2, 2015

Well, the match that we’ve anticipated since the French Open draw May 22 (Novak Djokovic’s 28th birthday), is now at hand, the 44th meeting between him and Rafael Nadal, the longest – and, I think, greatest – rivalry in tennis’ open era.

For both men, this is a crucial contest. For Rafa, it represents a chance to return to former glory after a dismal winter and a surprisingly mediocre season on his favorite surface, clay. A win against Nole in the quarterfinals Wednesday, June 3 – his 29th birthday – would cement the return of the King of Clay. He could still go down in the semifinal or final, but the Big Mo, momentum, would be with him.

For Nole, the quarterfinal represents an opportunity to bury once and for all the notion that he can’t beat Rafa at Roland-Garros, that he lacks the Rafa-esque mental fortitude to close out a match that means the most. He would be the only man to take Rafa down on every Slam surface, and he would position himself not only for a career Grand Slam, since the French is the only Slam he hasn’t won, but propel himself toward winning the Grand Slam in a calendar year – something no man has done since Rod Laver in 1969. ...

Goodbye, Bruce. Hello, Caitlyn

June 1, 2015

And Godspeed. Reaction to Bruce Jenner’s metamorphosis into Caitlyn Jenner on the cover of Vanity Fair has been predictably all over the place and, just as predictably, says more about the commenters than it does about Caitlyn.

There’s no point in dwelling on those who think she’s sick or out for publicity. They just don’t get it.

More interesting are those comments that criticize the pinup aspect of the Annie Leibovitz cover. Let’s face it, if you’re going to transform yourself physically into the sex you believe you always were, well, then you and we want to see that transformation. As for the poster on The New York Times’ site who said that the way to be a smokin’-hot woman at 60 is to live the previous 59 years as a man, well, he – I’m sure it was a he – has a point. I’ve often said on this blog and elsewhere that men are the more beautiful, sexier and thrilling of the two traditional sexes. It’s part of the reason I write about beautiful, sexy, thrilling men in my novel series “The Games Men Play.” ...

Soccer – international sport, American problem

May 30, 2015

I certainly hope NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has gotten out his Crane’s stationery to send a thank-you note to FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

As the NFL’s season of deflated footballs and inflated fists fumbles into the post-season, along comes a corruption and bribery scandal in soccer that makes the NFL look like “The Sound of Music.” Football officials must be wiping their brows and going “Whew!”

Usually when there are billions of dollars at stake and charges ranging from vote-selling to slave labor – brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, no less – the person who heads the organization under siege steps down. But no, no. Blatter – Is that a great name, or what? – was just reelected president of the soccer governing body, vowing to make the organization stronger.

And we can just imagine how he’s going to do that. Human rights abuses? Slave labor? Whoo-whoo, World Cup for you, Qatar. To paraphrase the New York Lottery commercial, all it takes is a (few million) dollars and a dream.

The nation that has decided to take on FIFA, with help from Switzerland (home of FIFA and tired of its image as bank vault to the corrupt), is of two minds about the situation.

On the one hand, the only thing America likes more than a scandal is a scandal set in a five-star hotel. (It was at the Baur au Lac on Lake Zurich that several officials were roused in the early morning hours May 27 and arrested. Ooh, Is it like “The Grand Budapest Hotel?” I love that movie.) ...

The NFL and the theater of violence

May 28, 2015

The Chicago Bears’ hiring and firing of defensive end Ray McDonald – he of the three arrests for domestic violence, the second of which got him cut from the San Francisco 49ers – tells you that the NFL remains ambivalent about domestic violence.

There are a number of reasons for this. First, we as a nation remain ambivalent. McDonald’s first two arrests were dropped, so who’s to say the third won’t be? Isn’t a man innocent until proven guilty? Shouldn’t he have a chance to redeem himself, earn a living and express his talents?

Except that three arrests aren’t an anomaly. They’re a pattern of behavior. So what to do?

“The league has not really thought through its own message,” said Paul H. Haagen, co-director of the Center for Sports Law and Policy at Duke University. “They are definitely making it up as they go along and leaving themselves areas of discretion. But by leaving themselves discretion and not making clear what the required processes are, there is constant uncertainty and questions.”

The NFL can’t even figure out how to process Deflategate. The players’ union wants Commissioner Roger Goodell to recuse himself but as arbitrator Goodell gets to decide if he should be recused. Huh? How’s the league going to implement a cohesive policy regarding domestic violence when it fumbles procedures regarding the rules of the game? ...

Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris – the best of rivalries

May 26, 2015

One of the fellow customers I met in the jewelry store said I should write about baseball on my blog.

Well, here it is, a post inspired by a Sunday New York Times’ column by presidential historian Michael Bechloss about a friendship/rivalry – should that be frivalry? – between the New York Yankees’ Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.

In the summer of 1961, the “M & M Boys,” as they were known, electrified the nation as they pursued Babe Ruth’s single season home-run record, 60, together. It helped that they were teammates who had a lot in common. (Although not all teammate rivals are friendly: Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, anyone?)

Both Mantle and Maris were big corn-fed blonds from the Middle West, Mantle from Oklahoma and Maris from North Dakota. But they were also complements. Mantle, whose father had died young, lived a life of reckless abandon in the big city. Maris never lost his small-town, family roots. Long before “The Odd Couple,” Mantle and Maris roomed together with outfielder Bob Cerv in Queens – cooking out and shopping local. Once a stock boy was so stunned to see the diamond demigods doing something as mundane as grocery shopping, that he took out a row of cans as he fell off the ladder. The M & M Boys had that effect on people, who would reach out to touch them everywhere they went. ...