The gala which precedes the tournament is not a ball, but exhibition tennis, which featured legends Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, Patrick Rafter, and 2022 women’s champion Ashleigh Barty. Long-time OFB readers will know how much seeing Federer again means to me.
Just hours ago as of this writing, Mike Tomlin, head coach of the venerable Pittsburgh Steelers for the last 19 years, resigned. He coached them to a Super Bowl championship after the 2008 season, and represented the AFC in the Super Bowl after the 2010 season.
This year’s version of The Championships still had the shadow of The Big Three (Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic) lurking over it, though only Djokovic remains. Indeed, Djokovic made it all the way to a semifinal, before succumbing to his opponent, and an injury sustained in the previous round. The manner of his dismissal suggests the future of men’s tennis is now.
A friend was preparing for a visit to Japan. He would be spending a few days in Osaka and wondered about things to do in Japan’s second-biggest city. I said that I’d seen that the Grand Sumo championship would be underway there during his trip. It might provide an interesting cultural experience.
Life in 2023 feels like it is a constant flood of anger and problems, doesn’t it? What a refreshing break last night to simply celebrate Cardinals great Adam Wainwright winning his 199th game.
No, you don’t understand. I love him. Results don’t matter to me, at this point. OK, they do, but the point is that he’s my favorite pitcher, no matter what. He’s absolutely earned the right to pitch poorly in his final season, and the only thing any halfway decent Cardinals fan should say is, “Oh, well, I guess Waino didn’t have it today.”
We’ve gotten weird as each successive round of the Culture Wars seems further proof. In this week’s edition, we learn that mocking someone else’s religion is apparently inclusive while defending other people’s beliefs is far-right. Got that?
I’m from St. Louis, so I have thoughts on baseball. It’s the duty of every St. Louisian. Some of those opinions have been on the rollercoaster of a St. Louis Cardinals team we have this year, which has been historically depressing until suddenly it became exciting a couple of weeks ago. Today, though, my thoughts are on the game itself.
February 28, 2001. A lovely Sunday, and a great day for a Daytona 500. That is, until we lost Dale Earnhardt (Sr). The racing legend began his dominance at the precise time that television and advertising was beginning to make NASCAR—-the pre-eminent stock car racing series here in the US—-visible to a mainstream audience. Earnhardt won 7 season championships in NASCAR’s top series, between 1980 and 1994, and was most likely its most beloved driver by fans. (His son, Dale, Jr., was far and away NASCAR’s most popular driver his entire career.)
Rafael Nadal has now won the French Open—-one of tennis’s major championships—-a mind-boggling 14 times. No other man has won an individual major more than 9 times. In this era of the “Big Three” —- Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic —- the trio have captured an absurd 62 major championships. Recall that there are 4 major championship tournaments in a calendar year. Nadal is now two majors clear of both rivals for the most career majors among men.