OLYMPICS: SWEET THURSDAY // MLB: MID-SEASON, 2012
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“SPORTS NOTEBOOK” posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.
OLYMPICS --- When crossing a finish line at the London Olympics on Thursday, Jamaica’s six-foot-five Usain Bolt became the first track athlete to win Gold in both the 100M heat and the 200M during two Olympics in a row, finishing the former at 9.63 (a record) and the latter, 19.32, making him the fastest Olympian ever.
Also on Thursday, America’s Ashton Eaton won the Decathlon, which many students of the Olympics claim is emblematic of being “the world’s best ‘all-around’ athlete,” a labeling that began 100 years ago at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, when leading host, King Gustav of Sweden, told U.S. Decathlon winner, Jim Thorpe, “Sir, you are the world’s greatest athlete,” arguably a truth today.
The Decathlon consists of 10 events experienced across two days, day one including, in succession, a 100 meter heat, the long jump, shot put, high jump, and a 400M run; second day, a 110M hurdles competition, the discus throw, pole vaulting, the javelin throw, and a 1500M race.
Moreover, on Thursday the U.S. women’s soccer team dominated rival Japan
And so the medal count has shifted.
As of Thursday at midnight, the U.S. China is second with 80, 37 of them Gold , Great Britain U.S. became first regarding Silver---25, China second with 24, Russia
The U.S. took the lead in Bronze, too, with 26, Russia following with 23, China
To date, of the more than 200 countries participating in the 2012 Olympics, only six have won Gold in double digits---the U.S., China, Great Britain, Russia, South Korea and Germany, the least Gold won being Germany’s 10.
Of the 30 countries that have won medals including Gold, the least taken before today has been by Croatia
Obvious from the 2012 Olympic medals count is that no nations are invincible when it comes to sports, yet some can field teams and individual athletes that are better than others, indicated by the top 12 among those that have double digit medals in either Gold, Silver or Bronze. Noted is that of these are the U.S. + eight European countries, the remaining countries being China , Japan , South Korea and Australia
Underscoring Western dominance in the Olympic sports is the fact that of the top 12 all-time medal winning countries since the modern games began in 1896, only three are from outside the U.S. and Europe (China, Japan and Australia, the latter an English-speaking nation and Western in its culture and its political leanings).
Yet while the U.S. has reigned as the country winning more medals than any other (2,307), among the top 15 all-time individual athletes winning Olympic medals there are but five Americans, Michael Phelps being the leader with 22 medals, swimmers Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi, each with 11, and track stars Ray Ewry and Carl Lewis, each with 10.
Only two athletes on the list are from Asia , both gymnasts.
A glaring fact is that the extremely sports-conscious and sports-active Latin American nations appear to finish below the margin re. Olympic medal winners, occasional exceptions being Argentina , Brazil and Cuba (this year, Brazil Argentina ’s formidable basketball team, which put Team USA Russia or Spain
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MLB: AS of today, with less than 110 games to go for most of its teams, professional baseball is again filled with surprises, including American League and National League teams that in April were expected to hold sway over others by now but are at the bottom of the pile, while several franchises that were expected to be feeding sub-basement are now teams that are top of the heap.
An MLB fan returning from a stay at the Arctic Circle without having had TV, a radio or newspapers would now be saying, “It can’t be that the Washington Nationals are the only team above .600 and that they are leading both leagues, and that the Philadelphia Phillies are in last place in the NL-East, when in 2011 they led the NL-East with 102 games, and the NL in number of games though they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals for the NL title. You’ve got to be kidding me, right?”
“Well, Joe Fan, it gets even stranger!”
The NL Central’s Cincinnati Reds are second behind the Nationals in the NL by just three games, when last year they finished third in their division, 17 games behind, 10th in the NL.
Furthermore, the St. Louis Cardinals, 2011’s NL champions, are surprisingly third in the NL-Central today, five games behind the Reds.
And, the three clubs that are leading NL division teams (Nat’s, Reds and the San Francisco Giants) are leading the AL’s three division leading teams (Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox, the New York Yankees), with 196 wins over 190 (no small matter, in that such is two more wins than it takes to win a World Series).
Did we really list the White Sox? Last year, the White Sox finished third in the AL-Central, 16 games behind, 10th in the AL
But at the low end this year are the Colorado Rockies, second from the bottom in the NL-West, holding a less than a .400 average from only 40 wins and 69 losses, second worst within both leagues (the Rockies were expected to do a lot better than this after reaching .500 at the end of April).
Yet no team has been worse re. either league than the Houston Astros---.319 average, from 36 wins, 77 losses, as of today. This isn’t a surprise---in 2011, the Astros were last in the NL-Central, last in the NL, last in both leagues---56 wins, 106 losses.
END/ml
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