Soccer Samurai

It's World Cup time. Something this good just has to be shared.

Stanley Cup Kings

All Hail the LA Kings for winning the Stanley Cup in a thrilling 2OT game against the NY Rangers tonight! For the second time in the last 3 years the Kings get to skate the cup. Congratulations also to the LA Kings forward Justin Williams for winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

If you like the custom team logo shown here and want to see what your favorite team (mostly hockey as of this writing) logo looks like with a Simpson's flavor, go visit the AK47 Studio Instagram site for many more. You'll find some really cool stuff there.

Friday Night Movie

The installment this week is something you'd probably expect from Hawaii. Spending time in and around the surf is pretty close to a lot of hearts out here. It takes a special breed to get in it when it's this big! Enjoy!

Slaber Nackle from Turkeymelt on Vimeo.

Frozen Tundra

The places we call home are all different. But this happens to be mine. Wisconsin. And like all... there's no place like home.

Frozen Tundra from Oliver Würffell on Vimeo.

Wordless Wednesday

Something from right here close to home... Enjoy!

Speed Riding Mont Blanc

Stunning. Beautiful. Adventurous.

I lived on Maui in the early 1970's when the first few guys flew hang gliders off the top of Haleakala (10,400 ft - 3,170 m MSL) to the sandy beaches of Makena. But all of those flights paled in comparison to what these six guys have done. I'm not even sure what to call this... paraskiing maybe?!

If you like flying, skiing, or just great views of nature's beauty, this is for you.

Enjoy!

Brick by Brick - Olympic Beach Volleyball

So, your recorder failed the other day and you missed the XXX Summer Olympics final match of women's beach volleyball, eh? No worries, mate. We've got the replay for you right here! Enjoy!

Skating the Cup

The season is over.  Tonite the Los Angeles Kings hockey club won an improbable Stanley Cup championship for the first time in their 45-yr history.  Improbable because they came into the playoffs as an 8th seed, yet on their way to the finals they easily disposed of a #1 seed (Vancouver) in 5 games, a #2 seed (St Louis) in 4 games, and a #3 seed (Phoenix) in 5 games.  They won the cup with a 16-4 record including an amazing 10 of 11 games on the road.

It looked like it would be an easy run to the cup when the Kings won the first 3 games in a race of the best out of 7 against New Jersey, but the Devils were not done when they won Game 4 in LA and again in NJ in Game 5 to force a Game 6 back in LA today.  Game 7 became unnecessary when the Kings blew NJ out of the house with a 6-1 win today.

Skating the Cup is tradition in hockey, and a goal of anyone who plays the game seriously.  It's that rare opportunity to raise the most hallowed trophy in sport above your head and take it for a spin around the rink.  It's 35# of precious sterling silver engraved with the names of the greatest players to ever strap on a pair of ice skates and risk their body for the fastest sport played.

Congratulations to the LA Kings!  Congratulations also to Jonathan Quick, this year's Conn Smyth winner as most valuable player in the playoffs.  For all of you, enjoy the summer, and enjoy your upcoming day with the cup... another tradition unique to this professional sport.  You deserved it.

Hockey Mouth

Surgical suture on a needle holder w/ packaging

When you think of hockey players what is one of the first images that comes to mind?  Missing front teeth?  Sure.  Split lips?  Check.  Black eyes?  Natch.  Gashes on the forehead?  Bingo.  Stitches?  Yeah, that last one.  Me too.

This year for the Stanley Cup Playoffs I went all out and had a nice set of stitches (surgical sutures to be entirely accurate) installed in my own mouth!  I'm not sure of the exact number, but it's many more than one and marks the first time in Cup history I've had stitches myself during the playoffs.  Too cool, right?!  To be fair, mine weren't installed in a locker room or were the aftermath of a collision, hockey puck, or stick.   These are the result of a procedure done last December that didn't work ... so the dentist had to do a "retreat" operation this morning.  And, like the last time, it ended with stitches (sutures).

Next week they'll get snipped out.  Between now and then I hope they don't itch too much.

None of this dental stuff bothers me in the least anymore.  At least no more than it would  Gordy Howe.  :)

H is for Hockey

I grew up where White Christmas *meant* a white, cold Christmas.  And winter meant frozen ice.  And frozen ice meant ice skating and hockey!  The local mill pond wasn't more than a couple of blocks from my house and I have the scars on my legs and feet to prove I played hockey.  Not well, but I played.

Ironman Kona 2011 Update



Helping hands.


As a reminder for those viewers interested in the recent Kona Ironman World Championship triathlon race, I've completed updating my photo gallery at PBase now. You can find much of the emotion and excitement of the day here:

Ironman Kona 2011

Enjoy!



He ain't heavy.



Ironman Kona 2011

Craig Alexander, Ironman Kona 2011 Winner.

It was a day of heat, of course record times, of drama, and certainly all the spirit that embodies Ironman. Anyone who finishes this race anywhere, but especially here on the desolate lava fields of Kona, deserves to be called an Ironman. They earn it!

Craig Alexander won the Kona race on Saturday and added his name to an elite list of four guys who have won the world championship event at least three times. He now joins Dave Scott, Mark Allen, and Peter Reid with that accomplishment. And not only did he improve his 4th place 2010 finish but he also set a new Kona course record time of 8:03:56. It's been a good year for him - he's also the first to win world championships at Kona and in the Ironman 70.3 race in the same year.

Ironman Eve

Miranda Carfrae, Ironman Kona 2010 Women's Winner.

It's that time of year here again, the annual migration of about 1,800 of the best conditioned triathletes in the world to Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, and their World Championship Iroman event. It's a day like no other around here. All other activity litterally shuts down for the race.

I will be working with NBC Sports once again and will have my camera along to document what I can, when I can.

Tonite I'll meet with the cameraman and producer I'll be with all day, pick up my credentials, and hear what our assignment will be for tomorrow. Then I'll be back home to bed for as much rest as I can get. This is a a day that always starts very early (5:00 a.m.) and goes very late (the last official finisher must cross the line at midnight).

Chris McCormack, Ironman Kona 2010 Men's, and overall race Winner.

I'll blog after-action notes next week, but until then more photos of last year's race can be found here: Ironman Kona 2010.

4-6-3-2 Triple Play

The triple play is a rare enough event in baseball, but the other night here at home with Mom (the ultimate baseball fan) we witnesse our "home team" Milwaukee Brewers pull off an even more rare form of one... a 4-6-3-2 triple play against the LA Dodgers.

I stumbled across this ESPN analysis and multi-camera replay video of it tonite. Good fun.