Saturday, September 19, 2009

Desperation and a faint silver lining

Any time Greece and Turkey play each other - Constantinople in 1453, 1821, Second Balkan War, Anatolian Disaster 1923 - it's a big event (after all, how many countries claim they won their independence from each other?). But yesterday's win by Ellas over Turkey in the quarter finals of the European Championship was big without any historic build up or perspective.

One, the win puts Greece in the Final Four, where they play reigning world champs Spain this afternoon. And two, finishing in the top six automatically qualifies Greece for the 2010 World Basketball Championship in Turkey. The U.S. has already qualified by virtue of being Olympic champs and should win next year in Constantinople but with Krzyzewski at the helm of Team USA you never know.

It seems like every Carolina football game is big, but today's game against ECU really is. The Heels got their act together in the fourth quarter to defeat a good UConnn team on the road last week.

The come from behind win obscured the fact that the offense was listless for 45 minutes. Against the Pirates it will be interesting to see if Carolina's offense plays well early, especially the patched together offensive line. Carolina's defense, on the other hand, looked great against the Huskies. But offensively the Heels have not done anything of note against a Division 1-A team this season.

Finally a few baseball notes.

One, Evan plays his first Major League Little League game today. He moved up a league to play with 10 to 13 year olds, so we'll see how he fares against older kids who can pitch.

And two, I thought this paragraph from today's story about the Nats, by Chico Harlan, captured the season well:

Deep into what will soon be a 100-loss season, Martin has come to represent -- perhaps better than anybody -- both its desperation and its faint silver lining. He is not a star. He probably never will be. He is part of what General Manager Mike Rizzo calls "the inventory," and if that conveys an industrial arms-as-widgets mind-set, it's only because so many arms have already been cast aside.

Desperation and perhaps a faint silver lining. That's what it's like as a Nats fan, and fandom in general.


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