5 Things I thought while Roger Federer was Ending Rafael Nadal's 81-match clay court winning streak
1. It's amazing how the two players are able to play up to the stereotypes of their respective countries. Rafael Nadal plays up to the fiery, energetic reputation you would expect of a Spaniard while Roger Federer is swiss cool personified. I wonder if this match-the-trait-to-their-country thing works for every tennis player. Let's see: Andy Roddick is an American, Americans are known for winning at everything, and Andy Roddick wins...sometimes...um...well, maybe this idea doesn't work out as perfectly as I expected.
2. Just ONE day after I posted an article about Nadal's invincibility on Clay and predicting his streak would reach the 120's (http://invisibleline.blogspot.com/), Federer beats him and I look like an absolute fool Great job there, Nadal. You couldn't even give me the courtesy of a week's grace period before proving me wrong.
However, this unfortunate incident got me thinking: Could I have cursed Nadal with my article? Hey, you never know. Maybe like the Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx and the Madden Cover Jinx, we should add the "James Li lavishes praise on you in his blog" Jinx, except my particular jinx would only work on streaks I honor. Further tests will be needed though in order to prove if this jinx is geniuine, so expect articles coming up soon where I will pay tribute to Clemson football's 15-year streak of not winning the ACC title followed by another article applauding Clemson basketball's 52-game losing streak in Chapel Hill to North Carolina.
3. While Nadal's winning streak came to an end in Hamburg, another streak was extended last weekend, albeit not a good one. With Curling's photo finish victory over Street Sense in the Preakness, it's now been 29 years since a horse has won the Triple Crown. Is it too much to ask for just one Triple Crown winner in my lifetime? In any sport? Besides Kobayashi's "Triple Crown" win last year in eating contests?
And if Nadal's and Street Sense's failures weren't enough, the Braves lost their series to the Red Sox. So, yeah, last weekend wasn't the greatest of sports weekends for me. It's a good thing my life doesn't revolve soley around sports or else I'd be suffering a mental breakdown. As it is, I am merely 95% unhappy.
4. Interesting fact: Hamburg is the birthplace of hamburgers. That explains why there's no ham in hamburgers. Another interesting fact: Rafael Nadal was not named after the red-masked Ninja Turtle. That explains why he doesn't walk around sporting a pair of sai.
5. This is totally unrelated, but wouldn't it be great if Bud Selig's excuse for being absent for Barry Bond's 756th home run was because Selig had to attend jury duty? And then the press finds out that "jury duty" consisted of Selig testifying on behalf of Floyd Landis, followed by Jesse Jackson publicy denouncing Selig as a racist hypocrite and Skip Bayless's head literally exploding while talking about the subject on ESPN's First and 10 segment? To top it all off, this leads to a chain of events which ultimately climaxes with David Stern revealing that he and Bud Selig have had an ongoing bet to see which guy could do a worse job as commissioner. Wouldn't this be a perfect hollywood script? And if not, do I have way too much time on my hands?
2. Just ONE day after I posted an article about Nadal's invincibility on Clay and predicting his streak would reach the 120's (http://invisibleline.blogspot.com/), Federer beats him and I look like an absolute fool Great job there, Nadal. You couldn't even give me the courtesy of a week's grace period before proving me wrong.
However, this unfortunate incident got me thinking: Could I have cursed Nadal with my article? Hey, you never know. Maybe like the Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx and the Madden Cover Jinx, we should add the "James Li lavishes praise on you in his blog" Jinx, except my particular jinx would only work on streaks I honor. Further tests will be needed though in order to prove if this jinx is geniuine, so expect articles coming up soon where I will pay tribute to Clemson football's 15-year streak of not winning the ACC title followed by another article applauding Clemson basketball's 52-game losing streak in Chapel Hill to North Carolina.
3. While Nadal's winning streak came to an end in Hamburg, another streak was extended last weekend, albeit not a good one. With Curling's photo finish victory over Street Sense in the Preakness, it's now been 29 years since a horse has won the Triple Crown. Is it too much to ask for just one Triple Crown winner in my lifetime? In any sport? Besides Kobayashi's "Triple Crown" win last year in eating contests?
And if Nadal's and Street Sense's failures weren't enough, the Braves lost their series to the Red Sox. So, yeah, last weekend wasn't the greatest of sports weekends for me. It's a good thing my life doesn't revolve soley around sports or else I'd be suffering a mental breakdown. As it is, I am merely 95% unhappy.
4. Interesting fact: Hamburg is the birthplace of hamburgers. That explains why there's no ham in hamburgers. Another interesting fact: Rafael Nadal was not named after the red-masked Ninja Turtle. That explains why he doesn't walk around sporting a pair of sai.
5. This is totally unrelated, but wouldn't it be great if Bud Selig's excuse for being absent for Barry Bond's 756th home run was because Selig had to attend jury duty? And then the press finds out that "jury duty" consisted of Selig testifying on behalf of Floyd Landis, followed by Jesse Jackson publicy denouncing Selig as a racist hypocrite and Skip Bayless's head literally exploding while talking about the subject on ESPN's First and 10 segment? To top it all off, this leads to a chain of events which ultimately climaxes with David Stern revealing that he and Bud Selig have had an ongoing bet to see which guy could do a worse job as commissioner. Wouldn't this be a perfect hollywood script? And if not, do I have way too much time on my hands?
posted by James Li at
11:15 AM
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