Second time not around

In early January, I had to choose to attend one of two major weekend events in 2018. Since both events require a large amount of money to attend as well as over a week of vacation time and attending the first one would make the second one more difficult as far as weight, a choice needed to be made.

Since I have never attended a major disc golf event before after missing out in 2015 and 2016, I registered for the 2018 Tim Selinske United States Masters Disc Golf Championship being held at the Lemon Lake disc golf facility in Crown Point, IN May 3-6. (FYI: In disc golf Masters means 40 or older and I will be playing in the 50+ men's amateur division.)

I know that my winning the championship is highly improbable as out of the 45 currently registered for the event, I have the 37th best rating and the top players in my division would be expected to beat me by at least 30 shots even at a place which I have played before. Thirteen of the other players have a rating that is higher than my best ever rated round. Similar to many that competed in the Olympics and others in "ball golf" major tournaments, I am going for the experience.

When I registered, I knew that meant losing weight since my right knee failed in the fall of 2017 and though I have lost 8lb since I registered in January, I still need to lose more. Attending Marscon would definitely be difficult for someone who is trying to lose weight as I eat poorly over 5 days most notably at Kahn's Mongolian Buffet.

To be honest, it was difficult last year to not attend Marscon especially with how bad my knee was. Though it was not the first time I did not attend a con after 10+ years, it was different. As I was thinking about it today and after looking at past posts about Marscon, I realize there are two major changes that have made Marscon not as special as it was.

1) Parties: The party floor at Marscon is always done well with many amazing decorations and themes. Between music, beverage, and college level "fun", there were epic moments. As much as I want to list some of them, the fact that this is written for my daughter, I won't but damn, there were fun times.

However, in 2018, the now 52 year old man takes medication that has been used in chemotherapy to make his white blood cells less aggressive to allow him to function with minimal pain. Alcohol with that medication or the pain medication that is occasionally needed does not mix and the idea of staying up past midnight now seems late.

The last time I was at a con party was the weekend I turned 50. On Saturday shortly after midnight, I felt old and realized no more.

2) Music: For 10 years, Marscon was the place to see a weekend of awesome comedy music being performed and it was unique and worth the 400+ mile trip and I am grateful for the work Luke Ski does to make it that way. Now there is FuMPFeST which is only comedy music. No real parties. No media GOH, no other items on the schedule to force comedy music sets to be cut short.

It is nice to see one hour sets of awesome music as opposed to a rushed 30 minutes as well. Even though recent Marscon GOH Rob Paravonian, Luke Ski, Judy Tenuta, and Brentalfloss are fine, they are not the Arrogant Worms, Paul and Storm, Henry Phillips or the Four Postmen (who are the 2018 GOH for the event held Memorial Day weekend). 

While Marscon for me is an uncomfortable 400+ mile drive or ride each way possibly in winter weather, FuMPFeST is a 5 mile drive for me in the summer and I have literally walked the direct 4.5 miles from my house to the hotel. Attending FuMPFeST is significantly cheaper for me and I get much more music for the money since I don't need to stay at a hotel.

In spite of all that, had the 6 horse won the 8th race at Hawthorne Race Course on Feb 19th allowing me to win $1,008 in an off track betting pick 6 pool, I would have seriously considered trying to find a way to get to and stay at Marscon.

Happy to be wrong

As most who read this know, I will watch any sport at any time. In November 2003, I woke up at 3AM on a Saturday morning and paid $30 to watch Jonny Wilkinson make a drop kick in extra time to lead England to the Rugby World Cup championship over host nation Australia. I streamed Sri Lanka finally winning the D20 cricket title over India in 2014. I can name the men's soccer world cup champions the same way that I do the Super Bowl Champions.

Of course I was happy to see curling added to the Olympic lineup in 2002. I would have to figure out when and what channel the matches were being shown since the main coverage would be focused on events that were more popular in the US most notably those where a person gets a score based on a perception of a performance. Even though the US won bronze in 2006, there was not much coverage and often that coverage would be preempted to show other events.

In 2010, the coverage increased and there was optimism since the lead from the 2006 team, John Shuster, was the skip (captain) who threw the final two rocks (shots) for the team and the coverage of the regular matches increased. What that meant was that in 2010 many saw Shuster fail multiple times on shots any Olympic curler would be expected to make and it got so bad that he was demoted then benched from a last place squad.

What I started to do (as well as the person who created the shustersucks Twitter handle) was use the word "shuster" to describe a person screwing up at the end of a sports event. Another poor performance from Shuster in 2014 with a squad that finished 9th out of 10 kept that phrase relevant. When I blew a 5 shot lead with 5 holes to do in a disc golf tournament in November 2016, I said that I did a "shuster".

During FuMPFeST 2015, Canadian guest of honor The Arrogant Worms made a reference in their song "I Ran Away" describing in technical terms how bad a person was at curling which I immediately responded, "so he is John Shuster". No one around me understood what I meant but when I later mentioned that to Mike McCormick, the band member who did the rant, he laughed.

Apparently the US Curling Federation was not happy with Shuster's Olympic performance either as they sponsored 10 other curlers to try to get a more competitive team in 2018. When I was watching Curling Night in America, I was relieved to not see him in the US lineup. However, to my disappointment I discovered that Shuster was able with a new squad win the US Olympic trial and represent the team in 2018.

For the first week, things went as expected and after two bad games over the weekend, I mentioned that a sick coworker on Monday must have watched the matches. The next day, I was surprised to hear that the US beat Canada and when I saw the difficult last shot that Shuster executed to win the match, I was shocked. The next two games, he was even better and the US qualified for the semi-finals against Canada.

Again, he played a top level match perfectly executing the type of shot to win the match that he likely would have missed in 2010 and 2014. Though Shuster missed a couple shots in the final after making a great one early, the Swedish skip missed some too including one that allowed Shuster to make a relatively easy shot to take a huge lead to win the gold medal.

I was up until almost 4AM to see everything live and 10 hours later, I am still in disbelief over what I saw. 

Missing a miracle

I am writing this shortly after the expected finish of the gold medal men's curling match between the US and Sweden (which I did not realize at the time was going to be held 15 hours later). I do not know the result and am hoping to not know it when I watch the broadcast after I get home from work today.

Yesterday, I knew the result of the semi-final match against Canada right as it ended since due to multiple circumstances, I was in the car listening to sports radio at the time. During the day at work, someone who knows I have been following the sport since it became an Olympic event 16 years ago mentioned it to me (and was informed that it was NOT a good thing to do) and during the day I saw three FB posts about the match.

I still watched the match when I was home but much of the thrill was gone since I knew how it was going to end. The last shot of the match that decided who wins (a shot every Olympic curler would be expected to make every time but is not made 100% of the time) had no drama for me since I knew that the US had won.

Watching that semi-final match reminds me of the 1980 US/USSR Olympic men's hockey championship pool game. Though it was played at 1:30 PM local time and not in the evening as the movie Miracle portrayed, it was not broadcast in the US until that evening and since there was no internet, most people had no idea what happened until that evening.

I was a freshman at St. Rita H.S. at the time and the boys' varsity basketball team was playing De La Salle which was a big deal for me since the starting center for St. Rita was a sophomore who was a teammate of mine in grammar school and De La Salle finished 4th in the state in 1979.

As I was getting ready to go, my mom mentioned the hockey game that was going to air and I stated that I don't want to see the USSR blow out the US again like they did 3 weeks before in an exhibition. I had no idea at the time that the Soviet players partied hard (what I now refer to as Hope Solo style) with the pairs gold medal winners the night before and were so hung over that they lost to the US. During the 4th quarter of the basketball game, the announcer mentioned the result and there was a standing ovation from the overflow crowd.

I have seen the "miracle on ice" game played multiple times since then but always with the knowledge that Mike Eruzione scored a late third period goal to lead a bunch of college amateurs to victory against one of the best teams in the world missing out on the real experience of the event. If there was one thing I would want to change in my life that would not have future consequences, me staying home to watch that game would be it.

Ten percent

As many of the best winter athletes in the world compete in South Korea, it is time to revisit complaints about the 2016 games in Rio. I do agree the stories that were presented (which I purposely pause then fast forward through) had a male bias and am hoping that those which I will ignore this year won't.

However, I have to disagree on two other points many have made. One is the talk about what the athletes are wearing. Many who only follow major sports events don't realize that team uniform designs are often discussed in the world of North American professional sports. In 2016, the person who started the MLB All Star game was suspended by his team after he took a scissors to a bunch of jerseys that he did not want to wear since he claimed that the style of them was distracting to his pitching. In Facebook, I have in the 18 months since the games made 6 posts about jersey colors or designs teams wore in certain situations including the NFL color rush jerseys for Thursday night games and the pink/blue uniforms baseball teams wore on mothers/fathers day.

What surprised me the most was reaction to my comment stating that men perform in sports 10% better than women on an elite level. I am not saying that I can beat my younger sister who is a triathlon racer in any footrace nor even come close to beating #1 women Paige Pierce in disc golf or even a local area female pro. I am referring to world record times in events where men and women compete under equal conditions. (In the 2017 US disc golf championship Paige Pierce finished 87th out of 99 players 54 shots out of first.)

Here is a chart of some summer and winter sports world records by men and women:

The one big surprise was the shot put which the female record was established by a Soviet athlete in the 80s. 6 of the other 9 were within 1.5 percentage points of 10%.

Another issue with sports that I have arguments over is the definition of a female athlete. I grew up seeing East German and Soviet female athletes that look more like men than women as well as Renee Richards who could not compete on the men's tennis circuit and tried to join the ladies' one after a sex change. Unlike in all other parts of life, I don't consider identifying oneself as female good enough to compete as a female in sport. I know there are people who have far more medical insight than me on the subject and have either established a guideline or a test or will do so.

All members of the Professional Disc Golf Association have a player rating based on how they performed at tournaments over the past year. Out of all the 50-59 year old male amateurs, my rating is tied for 1,219th best. It is also better than all 105 female 50-59 year old amateurs. No, I don't think Candace Sherlock would work.

prop time 2018

What I would bet for the NFL Championship game on Feb 4, 2018:

NE -4.5 (-115) 460 X
NE -7.5 (+155) 100 X
Under 48.5 (-115) 345 X
First half Phi +3 (-125) 125 W 225
MVP Brady (-130) 260 X
Under 44.5 (+140) 100 X
NE wins 7-12 (+400) 100 X
NE wins by 10 (+1,400) 100 X
First TD Agholor (+1,600) 100 X Jeffrey
First score is PHI TD (+230) 100 X PHI FG

Phi scores first (+110) 100 W 210
First TD jersey under 32.5 (-110) 110 W 210
Team that scores first does not win game (+140) 100
NE scores last (-135) 135 X
Less than 5.5 TD in game (-115) 115 X
Less than 2.5 PHI TD in game (-115) 115 X
PHI less than 21.5 pt (even) 100 X
Less than 3.5 FG (-115) 115 X
More than 1.5 INT (+120) 100 X
Brady throws INT (+115) 100 X

Brady more than 26.5 com (-110) 110 W 210
Brady more than 294.5 yd pass (-110) 110 W 210
Gronk first rec less than 13.5 yd (even) 100 X 17
Hogan first rec more than 8.5 yd (-110) 110 W 210
White scores TD (+260) 100 W 360
Amendola scores TD (+190) 100 X
Hogan scores TD (+220) 100 W 320
Gostowski more than 1.5 FG (-130) 130 W 230
Harmon INT (+400) 100 W 500
Foles over 22 com (-110) 110 W 210

Agholor first rec over 9.5 yd (-110) 110 X 5
Agholor over 43.5 yd rec (-110) 110 W 210
Agholor has over 16.5 catch (-110) 110 W 210
Agholor over 3.5 rec (-110) 110 W 210
Agholor scores TD (+190) 100 X
PHI no rushing TD (+110) 100 X
Mills INT (+500) 100 X

Total wagered: $4,690
Winnings: $3,525
Loss: $1,165