“Wouldn’t it be nice?”

Obviously, I haven’t been posting for awhile again, even though there has been much to write about. ASA events have been amazing:
1. Another laid back, fun, Deep Eddy Mile
2. Close races throughout the World Championship of Texas 3-on-3 Tournament – and lots of rain and even more fun.
3. ASA Open Water Swimming Collegiate National Champs continues to grow and go great. The college kids had a blast.
4. A wonderful Lake Travis Relay, which included a close race with many lead exchanges for almost the entire 12 miles for the top two teams.
5. The 6th Annual Tex Robertson Highland Lakes Challenge begins next Wednesday, October 24th and goes through the 28th.

Nevertheless, I want to write about baseball today. I can’t get Jeff Nelson’s wrong call at 2nd base in the 1st ALCS Yankees v. Tigers game. Replays clearly show Infante was tagged out prior to putting his hand on the bag. Nelson admitted he got the call wrong.

As a result, the media is spending much time talking about an increased use of video replay to review more calls. No one is suggesting what I keep wondering about: what would have happened if Infante told the umpire he was tagged before he touched the bag and should have been called out. After the game, Infante admitted he was out.

Could the umpire have reversed his call if Infante immediately told the ump he was out? Golf is expected to be played with integrity. Its players are expected (and often do) self-report infractions. ASA has an Integrity Rule and a Self-disqualification Rule. Baseball should be played with integrity as well. Right. Good luck, Keith. But . . . to quote Brian Wilson: “wouldn’t it be nice??

Go ahead and screw up. It doesn’t matter

I heard a radio ad for a bowling alley here in Austin. They were promoting their gutter bumpers that ensure dropping bins on every roll.

Terrific! No matter how poorly one does, one gets to pretend he knocked some pins down. Next thing you know kids will be given trophies for just signing up.

Oh wait. They already do that.

Tarnished gold

A few days ago Cameron van der Burgh publicly admitted that he cheated by taking extra underwater dolphins in the 100 m. breaststroke at the Olympics. He said he had to, because others do; not taking extra dolphins would put him at a disadvantage.

Disqualify him. Void his world record. Take his gold medal away. He didn’t win. He cheated.

Ban him from the sport for bringing disrepute upon the sport of swimming.

And, oh yes, FINA should either allow underwater dolphin kicks for the first 15 meters after the dive and after the turns in the breaststroke (as they do for all other strokes) or allow underwater cameras for judging the breaststroke and go back to the rules forbidding any dolphin kicks in the breaststroke.

All’s not well with the wells

I swam at Deep Eddy Pool this morning. There’s nothing unusual about that. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve swum there more than anyone else ever has, though I have to be up there; but I feel pretty confident that I’ve put in more yardage there than has anyone else.

What is unusual, is that I swam at Deep Eddy Pool today and I miss swimming at Deep Eddy Pool. I miss it terribly.

Deep Eddy Pool used to be almost heaven for me. But now, the water is way too warm. It’s mostly green and often filled with silt. (A few times this year, they had to close the pool because it was so dirty the guards couldn’t see the bottom. Or, was it because the women all grew silt beards and moustaches.) It fills too slowly, which has led to routinely delayed openings. And, in spite of all that, it’s been much too crowded.

At least the deck is tremendously more slippery than before they redid it. And, they’ve banned diving in 8 foot deep water.

Man, I miss Deep Eddy.

Seeking a few good women volunteers

The plan is to swim 64 x 100s on the 1:30 tomorrow at Deep Eddy Pool starting at 7:30 am.

I expect the swim will be more difficulty than usual this year. I’ve added another 100. I’m getting older. And, Deep Eddy has been way warmer than ever before. (The cool water of yesteryears always helped me.)

It’s supposed to be about 100 degrees tomorrow. That won’t help either. And then, there’s the hot sun.

I’d like a few bikini-clad, attractive, upbeat, female volunteers to enlist (no, not in the marines) to camp out at each end of the pool at my lane to hold umbrellas to provide me with some shade between send-offs.

I haven’t even blown out the candles yet, but . . .

butterfly

Bridger sent gave me this link to a video on Dana Vollmer’s butterfly.    It’s cool.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/07/27/sports/olympics/dana-vollmer-100-meter-butterfly.html?hp

8 opinions and a quiz

Some thoughts on the Olympic swimming.

1. Wow!

2. The U.S. women were awesome. Watching (and hearing from) Dana Vollmer, Rebecca Soni, Missy Franklin, and Allison Schmitt was a joy (as if you didn’t already know that), as was their joy. What great models! And Katie Ledecky. Man! I was so excited watching her swim, I was yelling at the TV.

3. The U.S. men weren’t bad either. Nathan Adrian swam great, rejoiced wonderfully and said the right things. I loved Brendan Hansen’s reaction to his third place finish and his comment about the shiniest bronze medal ever. How could you not like Matt Grevers’, Nick Thoman’s, and Tyler Clary’s swims and their thrill? I really like Thoman’s comment about concentrating on keeping his hips high the last lap. And Phelps, who didn’t look healthy to me the first couple of days, well, what can you say about his performances, which were up there with the greatest ever, except, of course, for those of Michael Phelps in 2008? And, as a bonus, he handled his interviews better than ever before.

3. I loved watching Shaune and Brett Frasier of the Cayman Islands (both of whom were NCAA Champions at Florida) swim in the same seeded heat.

4. What a great 100 breaststroke from Cameron Van der Burgh.

5. I love watching Sun Yang and Park Tae-hwan swim. Their strokes are amazing.

6. I hate thinking about who is clean and who isn’t/wasn’t. But I do.

7. I sure would’ve liked NBC to have informed us viewers, one way or another, as to who was swimming what leg of the relays for all of the teams. Yes, even the ones that represented other countries beside the U.S.

8. Bartolo Consolo, Vice Chairman of FINA, once wrote to me in regard to my intent for ASA to sanction world records in short course yards, that he thought it would confuse the general public as to who the real world record holders are. I wrote back telling him, among other things, that it couldn’t possibly be more confusing to the general public than much of what FINA does (like, for example, certifying masters age world records for swimmers who swam slower, in the same heats, than others in their same age groups.) So, one more time: what could be more confusing, while diminishing the value of Olympic Medals, than to give Olympic medals to scores of relay swimmers who didn’t perform well enough to make the finals, let alone place in the top 3? How many relay medals were awarded to U.S. relay swimmers? Did anyone else notice, for example, that the U.S. swimmers who swam the prelims in the men’s 4 x 100 medley really (4 great swimmers, who swam extremely well) not only didn’t swim fast enough to place in the top 3 (their time would have placed 5th), but none of them swam fast enough to make their countries relay team for the final? Yet, while the Japanese and Australian swimmers who placed 2nd and 3rd respectively in the finals, got silver and bronze medals, the U.S. prelim swimmers, who didn’t swim fast enough to make their counties team for the finals or fast enough to win, place, or show, received Gold Medals. What’s wrong with this picture? This is an incredibly stupid policy and one that cheapens Olympic medals.

That’s some of what has been floating around in my brain today about the Olympics. Maybe more tomorrow.

In the meantime, here’s an Olympic quiz: Who was the last U.S. woman to finish first in the 100 meter freestyle in the Olympics and when was it done?