The train was a post-rush hour one, but not a late one. The Knick or the Ranger game, if there was one, hadn't let out yet. The train was fairly empty, and conversations were easy to hear. As I was about to get off at my stop one of the fellows facetiously said he hoped to make it home in time to watch the curling competition. I couldn't resist, and told him and his buddies that it's the instant replays that I really love. How that slight piece of ice made all the difference. A spike going to second base just before the glove swiped the leg.
So, we were all having our fun poking fun at a sport that all the networks seem to think we are interested in. Not.
So, today, when the NYT Sports section does a front page Sports Illustrated type of story about the "directional fibers" in the broom, well, you gotta read this.
It seems to boil down to brooms made by two different companies. These sound like the Addias and Nike versions of shoes. One company. BalancePlus is accused of making a new broom that makes curling too easy. The other company, Hardline Curling is the newcomer, and is trying to gain traction, if you will, in the curling market.
It's hard to pick a dog in this fight. I mean curling, with "directional fibers?" To me, the most famous directional fiber was worn by Janet Jackson at a Super Bowl halftime show when her left breast was exposed to tens of millions viewers.
Apparently, there is no sport, played for whatever stakes, where someone doesn't try and gain an advantage. I'm trying to think if we ever did something in stick ball that created an advantage over the other "team."
We didn't switch the Pinky to a dead one when the other team was up. There was only one ball, and one bat, a shortened broomstick wrapped with electrical tape at the bottom to improve the grip. If anything, arguments were meant to change things. Like suddenly calling a ball over the fence an out, because now we had to go find the ball. Games were played with a fluid use of ground rules.
But here's curling, joining the fray over equipment advances. Golf is going through this, and swimsuit design as well. Tennis rackets as well. Professional bowling has seen its sport pushed into specialized equipment. Different balls for different lanes, to follow the subtle tracks in the alley on the way to the sweet spot.
Curling has its origins in Scotland, like golf. It turns out the most highly rated stone, the 44-pound colorful top with a handle on top, comes from only one place, a quarry on an uninhabited island in Scotland. Now that's exclusivity! Whose island it is, is not mentioned, but the owner of the quarry apparently has the sport by the stones.
The sport cries out for attention. I think it was the Norwegian team during one Winter Olympics that wore such bright outfits that the team made a round of appearances on talk shows. They could have done well in Times Square.
And like any sport, there is perceived athleticism. The article tells us there is "strength and athleticism" in the sweepers. One top ranked curler has a book out titled: Brush Like a Badass: A Curler's Guide to Great Sweeping. Just what we need, a curling smack down. Can a steroid, performance enhancing drug (PED) scandal be far behind the brooms? Stonegate? Deflated Scottish stones from a rival quarry?
My only regret to what is a great story is that it didn't appear as a WSJ A-Hed piece with twelve puns in the headline and subheadings and lede.
Curling Swept by Controversy
Has the Sport on Ice
Fiber of the Game Needs Direction
I really do love the instant replays.
http://www.onoffrmap.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment