3:46.91 American Record

Alan Webb breaks the American record for the mile, running 3:46.91 to eclipse Steve Scott's 25-year-old mark. Webb becomes the 8th fastest miler of all-time. His 3:46.91 is the fastest mile run since 2001. In a post-race interview, Webb stated that this brought him "one step closer" to the 3:43 world record of Hicham El Guerrouj.

5 weeks till World Championships.

No television coverage.
This is a Sandy, Baby exclusive.
Nothing on espn.com. Nothing on washpost.com. Too busy covering Kobe's whining or Vick's legal trouble.

The race itself is on flocast/track at http://www.flocasts.com/flotrack/coverage.php?c=69&id=4440

Kiss My Cowher!

Noooooo!!!!
Minor Thread recently posted a synopsis of the Redskins, saying they are as broken and lame as Michael Vick's legal defense (dogs, what dogs?!?). He even suggested that a new coach, Bill Cowher, be brought in to right this ship.
So, I repeat: Nooooooo!!
This is our year! Gibbs forever! All nonbelievers to the back of the Wagon, all true believers front and center. Super Bowl bound, baby! Kneel before Zod, Minor Thread!

Now, I also believe in the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and Peace in the Middle East so judge accordingly.

Let's Play Some Nats Mix and Match!

Count me among those who think Dmitri Young should be traded. Not because I don't like him or what he's done for the team, nor because I'm a vegan who's offended by his nickname, but because the Nats have a younger, better player at his position and the Nats, unbeknown to most who want to bring Dmitri back and keep Nick Johnson, are in the NL; they don't have a DH in the lineup, which is the only spot that would make sense for him, unless Jim Bowden chains him up in John Basedow's basement a la White Possum Scream. This way, along with the "South East Diet" of no Skittles, Meat Hook could lose 50 pounds and do a Manny Ramirez impression in left field. Only, as people forget, at a much less Filene's Basement price than the minor league contract he's playing for this season ($500K). It took me a while to actually think up a scenario of Nick Johnson and Dmitri Young playing in the field together. (Note: The Following is Not Realistic Nor Optimal...Which Means Jom Bowden will Probably Try It.) Dmitri Young plays first, Nick Johnson moves to third, Ryan Zimmerman plays short and Cristian Guzman plays 2nd, with Lopez getting traded for some (this is the part that "Stim Bowsten"(c) loves) PROSPECTS!!!!! Ladies and gentleman, this marvelous outside-the-box thinking is brought to you by severe boredom and some July heat, along with the Senate all-nighter two nights ago, which, as Senator Lindsey Graham so eloquently asked me at 6:50 in the morning (4-5 hours without caffeine, at which point the great deal of enthusiasm I had started the previous night with had worn off) while I was sitting in the spiderhole of a workspace that my employer was provided with, "Who'd you piss off to get in there?".

Disfunksion

The latest Sporting News reported that Joe Gibbs and offensive coordinator Al Saunders DIDN'T REALIZE THEY HAD MAJOR PHILOSOPHICAL DIFFERENCES ABOUT RUNNING OFFENSES PRIOR TO SAUNDERS BEING HIRED. Joe G., as we all know, is run-first, while Al likes mix it up so the defense doesn't know what to expect. On many levels this represents how low the Skins have fallen:

1. Why didn't the coach research his prospective offensive coordinator? Someone should, I don't know, film NFL games or something.
2. Why didn't it come up in the offensive coordinator interview process? "It" being, you know, how the guy would run the offense.
3. Wasn't the idea that Gibbs' schemes weren't as effective as needed? Weren't we trying to get away from being predictable?

So now we are implementing Saunders' schemes, but playcalling as Gibbs would.

All is not right at Danny's house, and that's why I won't be wasting any more pixels on Skins till they show they've righted the ship. And it may take someone else... Bill Cowher and Rich McKay?

Blogging on Gil's Blog

I don't want to spend the next hour at the computer, so I'm making this hort but sweet. Gilbert Arenas has a new blog post (well, as of 7/13) and I haven't seen it mentioned by anyone yet. He doesn't do the whole permalink thing, so I'll just refer to the link we have to his blog on the top right of this site. It's a nice, bite-sized entry, but deserves, like most things about Agent Zero, to be discussed in more detail. The entire thing is golden, but my favorite excerpt is here:

0-10 Doesn't Cut It, Guys
I’ve been watching the summer league here and there. Dominic McGuire looks very good. Nick Young is coming around, he looks good too. That second game he really came into his own. I like Aaron Miles a little bit, he did a great job running the team. I like Chase, the back-up guard. You know, they just got to get some wins. The last two years, they’re 0-10.

Of course I hooked Nick Young up with the Gil Zeros. I’m trying to make him an adidas guy. I called him right before he left for Las Vegas and told him to play like we used to play back in Cali. Then, when he was playing their second game out there I was watching it on TV and I saw the Wizards security guard, Jackie Miles, he was digging in his ear and I called him and I was like, “Yo, we can see you on TV digging in your ear.” And Nick Young was sitting in front of him and I told Jackie, “Tell Nick that he needs to go ahead and show me something. I didn’t see nothing last game, I need to see something this game.” And that’s when he got like three dunks in a row. I’m like, “Three dunks? OK, here we go!”

Gil is such a charismatic man of the people, he's even friends with the security guard! How cool is that? He's the anti-thesis of the Gheroge Muresan, who once sent out an internal memo saying:

"Gheroge the Giant must not be tuohced! Gheorge the Ginat must not be made eye contact with by puny men, expecially old man who seyz owns Gheorge! No man owns Gheorge the Giant, who r00lez with fists of stone and Billy of Crystal! Gypsie curses on all!" (Apologies to Wizznutzz)

No, Gil is a man of the people, a veritable Juan Peron, only with Awvee Storey as his Evita! Besides, who better to snub him before every game to get him pissed off?

Stuff You Won't See on ESPN: Track Action!

Track is so poorly marketed, presented and covered in America. In Europe and Asia interest is significantly greater because people have been taught how to understand, and hence appreciate, what they are watching. Have a true fan give me a 15-minute primer on sport I'm unfamiliar with and I'll be hooked. That's why I've greatly appreciated Ollie's and soccer-savvy intern Shadow's takes on DC United and the US national team. ESPN just finds it so much easier to package and sell 4 main sports -- football, basketball, baseball and NASCAR -- while virtually ignoring everything else. When an important news story breaks outside of this little orbit of ballsports, with golf and tennis thrown in there for good measure, it's comical to watch all the talking heads and beat reporters try to muster some iota of appreciation. And I think one such moment is coming up.

Alan Webb, local DC-area runner who broke the high school mile record several years ago, running 3:53 against the big boys at the Prefontaine Invitational, has had a rocky professional career thus far. Heralded as the new Golden Boy of track, one who could compete against the two-decade dominance of Ethiopian, Kenyan, Morrocan, Algerian, and European distance runners. America, despite all its sports success, despite having more kids in high school participating in cross country than any other sport, has not medaled in the Olympic mile since Jim Ryun in 1968, nor in a World Championships, held in Olympic off-years, since Jim Spivey in 1987. Webb was going to change all that.

But after dropping out of Michigan after only one year in the program to sign with Nike and train full-time for the mile with his high school coach Scott Raczko, Webb has been mercurial, showing great promise in one race only to make questionable strategic decisions in the next. Now 24, Webb has shown considerable strength, an ability to run the whole race at a fast pace, but dubious last lap speed, the difference between first and 8th.

Two seasons ago he seemed to make a breakthrough, making it through two challenging rounds of preliminaries to earn a spot in the World Champs final. The consensus among us track folks was that Webb couldn't wait around till the last lap or runners with better kicks would fly by him -- he had to try to break the race open much earlier. The result was a brave, impressive failure that showed tremendous guts, reminiscent of Steve Prefontaine. See it here.

After a down season last year, Webb has emerged with new confidence and power.
First he won the US Championships against uber-talented Kenyan emigre Bernard Lagat.
Then, there was this race in Paris where Webb defeated some of the best international competition, including home favorite Baala.

Webb's new personal best of 3:30 for 1500 meters translates into roughly a 3:46 mile. The American mile record is 3:47.69, set by Steve Scott way back in 1982.

Webb runs the mile at a meet in Belgium on July 21st. With the right pacing, he breaks 3:47.
In August, Webb will compete at World Champs, right in the mix of contenders.
Like soccer, Americans have just been out of the picture internationally for the past 15 years or so. Webb leads a troop of young talent, Dathan Ritzenheim, marathoner Ryan Hall, Matt Tegenkamp (who just ran a 8:04(!) two-mile American record) that seems to be able to compete against the best in the world because they believe they can.

See the things ESPN misses out on?

Clean version

Before anyone under 18 or other sensitive souls (say, uh, future-in-laws) read Ollie's post below, let's give the abbreviated, clean version.
U.S. beat Uruguay in soccer.
Done. The rest was foul language.