Sports

Having been busy tearing up carpet and padding, etc, and preparing the house and dinner for a birthday feast (my wife’s birthday), I hadn’t much time to pay attention to the last bits of the swimming season.

My only prediction for the day was the kind that doesn’t count: the kind that no one else hears you make.  I predicted (to myself) that Ryan Lochte would break his own 200 yard backstroke record, and of course that he did.  The new record is 1:37.68, which is about six-tenths of a second faster than his old record.  Call it about three and a half feet improvement at the touch.  Lochte also had the second-fastest leadoff leg in the 4×100 free relay, which is an amazing stat given that he’s not really considered to be a world-class sprint freestyle swimmer.  Overall Lochte had an outstanding meet, setting four NCAA records, winning three individual events and contributing greatly to Florida’s place in the team standings.  If Lochte doesn’t get the MVP award (can’t recall offhand what it’s called exactly) then there is no justice.

Other outstanding swimming today had Michigan senior Davis Tarwater scare Melvin Stewart’s fourteen-year-old 200 butterfly record; missed it by 0.06 seconds.  Georgia sophomore Sebastien Rouault also put the scare on Chris Thompson’s record in the 1650 with a 14:29.43.  He’s got 2.8 seconds to go, but he’s also got a couple of years in which to bring the time down.

Purdue (my alma mater) had an unusually high scoring day, with breaststroker Giordan Pogioli grabbing fifth place in the 200 breaststroke finals, and diver Steven LoBue earning third place in the platform diving.  LoBue also took sixth on the 3m board and seventh on the 1m board.

I don’t have access to all of the final team scores, but Auburn took first, Arizona second, Stanford third, Texas fourth and Florida fifth.  Purdue placed sixteenth overall with 59 total points.

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by Slartibartfast

UPDATE:  I predict that Tom Dolan’s NCAA, American and US Open record in the 400 IM will fall tonight (3/24) to Ryan Lochte.  He’s just qualified 2nd for the finals.

Not much time to post details, but NCAA men’s swimming began today and the records, they are a fallin’.  Peter Vanderkaay of Michigan wiped Tom Dolan’s eleven-year-old American Record in the 500 freestyle off  the board, clocking in at 4:08.60.

Next, if you’ll recall one of my few recent posts, I predicted that Ryan Lochte would bring it in the NCAA championship meets.  Here’s the headliner:

Men’s NCAA Div I. Championships, Finals: Ryan Lochte Destroys Phelps’ American Record in the 200 Individual Medley — March 23, 2006

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Not that this is news, but it hasn’t been exactly front-page, so while we’re posting odd bits about gorilla/sand flea crossbreeds and the like, we can certainly make a diversion into the realm of sports.

One of the older (American and US Open)* Records on the books is (was, actually) Janet Evans‘ 1990 time of 4:34.39 in the 500 yard freestyle.  Seventeen-year-old Kate Ziegler has wiped that record off the books, by taking over one second from the old mark.  Way back in December, Kate erased another of Janet’s records from the board, knocking the old 1000 yard freestyle standard down by six-tenths of a second.  We’re looking at SCY because at present most swimming at the High School level is done in 25-yard pools, and Kate Ziegler is still in High School.  Last month Kate whacked over a second and a half from Sippy Woodhead’s quarter-century-old 800m (short course) freestyle American and US Open record.  To understate, this is a name to look for in upcoming competition.  Also noteworthy is young (16 years old) Katie Hoff, who surpassed Evans’ 500 free record just a week too late.  Katie has wiped a couple of American & US Open records from the books; this performance in the 500 free shows a deepening of talent.

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A couple of readers have expressed interest in talking about the game of bridge.  I’m altogether too happy to do so, but the interests of not boring regular readers who come here for political discussions, most of it will be found below the fold. 

But before we get there I figured I might as well talk about the game a little bit and explain why I like it so much.  For those familiar with other major card games, bridge has elements of similarity.  It is a trick-taking game along the lines of hearts or spades and it usually is a trump game like spades.  It is played with two pairs at a table with each pair bidding how many tricks they think their combined hands can take depending on what suit is trump.  It is easier to take large numbers of tricks than in the game ‘spades’ because at the end of the bidding one of the pair ends up putting his hand on the table for all to see and the play of that hand is controlled by the other member of the pair.  There is an incentive not to underbid by large scoring bonuses at the game level (9-11 tricks depending on the contract) the small slam level (12 tricks) and the grand slam level (all 13 tricks).

What is special about bridge?  It has two defining characteristics which appeal to me more than in other card games.  Complexity from simple framework, and skill.  The first is fairly obvious, but the second seems strange to those who are unfamiliar with bridge.  In a tournament setting, the effect of luck is dramatically reduced.  This is done using what are called ‘boards’.  After shuffling a hand at the beginning of the day each hand is put into boards with designations for which hand goes to which player.  When they are played, instead of being returned to a full deck, each hand is placed back into the board and the board is passed on to another table.  You compete not with the players you sitting down against, but rather the players who are sitting the same direction as you.  After a few boards are played at one table you move one direction and the boards move another.  That way you can’t complain about getting all the ‘bad hands’ because everyone is playing the same hands and doing the best you can with them.  (Techinically these forms of bridge are called ‘duplicate bridge’).  As a result, good players can almost always outperform bad players.  This is kind of nice because it allows you to directly compare results at a card game.  (Which is the explanation for my little joke in the category).  One of the interesting things about bridge is the numerous bidding systems which people have developed off the rather simple core bidding language allowed. 

If you are interested in starting bridge, I suggest either that you find an ACBL chapter nearby and take lessons, or do what I did and read a few good books on the subject and play on the internet.  I don’t have a good book for learning the most rudimentary mechanics (though I think there is a "Learn Bridge in 30 days" book and a "Bridge for Dummies" book.)  But once you understand the mechanics I would strongly suggest Dorthy Hayden-Truscott’s "Bid Better, Play Better".  The bidding system she teaches is slightly outdated, but her analysis of how to think about a bidding structure will serve you well no matter what you choose later.  I would specifically not recommend any of the teaching books by Root which are so popular.  They are too dense for an average player to understand.  I would also reccomend any of the "Points Schmoints" books by Marty Bergen.  He has an excellent writing style and is able to break down some common judgment problems into easy-to-understand thought processes. 

The rest of this post is likely to be completely incomprehensible to those who don’t already know bridge.

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As some of you might remember, a couple of months ago my girlfriend and I went on an off-season vacation to the Outer Banks (Kitty Hawk area). Said girlfriend had been there years and years before and had done beginning hanggliding, which sounded like a lot of fun, so we went to go do some.

The photos have come back.

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Alex Rodriguez, quite possibly the best all-around player in baseball today, is going to be traded to the New York Yankees.

A-Rod will move to third base to fill the hole created by Aaron “What Do You Mean, ‘My Contract Won’t Let Me Play Basketball?’ ” Boone. The Yankees get A-Rod and some money from Texas (coal to Newcastle, if you ask me), while the Rangers get Alfonso Soriano, a “player to be named later” who might be Jose Contreras and might be a minor-leaguer, and some payroll flexibility at long last. The Red Sox, and the rest of the AL East, get a bad case of heartburn.

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