Categories
Other Sports

Game 7

Game 7 of the NBA finals!  The ultimate test of mental and physical strength played out on a 94’x50′ hardwood floor.  A chess match between 24 of the finest athletes on the planet where the winner will be crowned champion and the loser will have a long summer of soul searching.  A game where a superstar can solidify a hall of fame resume or a virtual unknown can rise to the challenge and provide inspiration for every kid shooting a basketball the world over.  Larry has prevailed.  Magic has prevailed.  Kobe has prevailed.  Tonight the stage is set to see if LeBron can continue his ascent to greatness or will Tim Duncan join Magic and Kobe with 5 titles?

No team has yet to win two games in a row.  The Spurs put forth a phenomenal effort in Game 6 to come so tantalizingly close that the Heat security were readying the trophy presentation until two missed foul shots, a LeBron 3 and a Ray Allen dagger miraculously sent the game to overtime and ultimately saved the Heat’s season.

And saved LeBron’s legacy for another day.  Let’s face it, the heir apparent to Air Jordan has been struggling with the defensive sets the Spurs are showing him.  His hesitancy to shoot the pull up jumper with confidence and his limited repertoire of post moves have been on display for all to see.  Another finals loss would be catastrophic for his reputation because fair or not, he’s held to the MJ standard.

Even with his shooting deficiencies, LeBron still plays a brilliant floor game every night out.  His defense of Parker (6-23 shooting) was nothing short of sensational and his ability to find the open man rivals any elite point guard in the game.  One can only imagine what LeBron would look like playing with a guard that could get into the lane and draw doubles to free him up to slash without the ball.   It’s just that we have grown accustomed to witnessing his athletic superiority on a nightly basis so when this Spurs team, similar to Dallas in 2011, have exploited his weaknesses and taken him out of attack mode it’s baffling to see.

Credit Pop.  Credit Duncan.  The Spurs are a perfectly balanced team, but to be seconds away from hoisting a trophy only to watch it slip away due to a series of mistakes, missed calls and perfect execution on the Heat’s part may be too much to overcome.  Duncan left it all on the floor and may not have enough in reserve to duplicate the effort.  Ginobili looks like he may have made his final stand in helping win Game 5.  How the Spurs stars at their advanced age summon the energy to win a Game 7 on the road with only one day of rest remains to be seen.

In the other locker room D. Wade is clearly playing injured and with the exception of his insane performance in Game 4, he tends to vanish in the 2nd half.  Bosh was instrumental in bailing out the Heat in the final minutes of Game 6, but he’s essentially been reduced to a sub 50% spot up shooter who is struggling with the defensive assignment of guarding Duncan straight up.

As is the case with most NBA Finals, it’s going to come down to an X-factor.  Think John Paxton, Robert Horry or even Mike Miller last year in game 5 when he hit 7 three’s to help the Heat clinch.  The Big 3’s will likely offset each other so it’s going to boil down to which role players get hot.  Look at the game as Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, Gary Neal, Boris Diaw and Tiago Splitter vs Mario Chalmers, Mike Miller, Ray Allen, Shane Battier and Birdman.  The side who wins that battle will likely be the side spraying champagne and shaking David Sterns hand.

It’s going to be a one for the ages, one for the record books and the perfect way to say goodbye to basketball until next October!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Ask a Pro

Jon Fogarty on Night Racing

In honor of the upcoming 81st running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans this week, I thought it would be appropriate to kick off the brand new “Ask a Pro” category with a few questions about driving in a 24 hour race and in particular, the art of night driving.

I, for one, find it challenging these days just to slow my Subaru from 70mph down to 45mph to negotiate a freeway off-ramp in the dark so to be able to hit your marks at 2:00am from 185+mph lap after lap requires a certain skill set that most folks aren’t equipped with.

When I think 24 hour endurance racing it’s fun to reminisce over the insanity of British driver Eddie Hall driving solo and finishing 8th at the 1950 French classic or the intestinal fortitude displayed by Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt in 1967 for piloting the winning Ford GT40 7.0 Liter V8 that was capable of hitting 220mph down the 3.7 mile Mulsanne straight.  For two men to tame a beast like that Ford for 24 hours and beat the nearest rival by 4 laps is still one of the all time great feats in motorsport.

So to get a great insight into the mind of a contemporary endurance ace who better to turn to than two time Formula Atlantic and two time Daytona Prototype champion Jon Fogarty?  Jon has been chasing that elusive Rolex watch for 10 years running at the Daytona 24 and has established a reputation of being a night driving specialist for Bob Stallings Gainsco squad.  Bulseyeview was thrilled that Jon took a little time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions.

Bulseyeview:  Do you devise a driver schedule with the engineers before the race so you have an approximation of what time slots you will be driving based on a 24hr period?
JF: We do and there are a number of factors that go into the schedule.  A big one of course is how many drivers, 3 or 4.  Alex has poor night vision, and mine is very good so we try not to have him in much at night.  I always push to keep the schedule very rigid for the first 18-20 hours, not to change the driver rotation around changing conditions, yellow flags, etc…  Makes it much easier to save yourself for the final stints.
Bulseyeview:  So knowing that you will be driving from, for example 2:00am – 4:00am est, will you do personal training in the weeks leading up to the race to be functional during those times?  I’m almost envisioning waking up to go running in the middle of the night just to get the body and mind prepped for what is coming?  Any special training techniques?
JF: I have given a lot of thought to how to best prep for an all nighter, so in the weeks leading up I regularly don my old silky Simpson “Future Suit”  and go clubbing non stop fueled on red bull and cocaine.  Actually, I try to get as much sleep in a regular pattern as possible.  My personal circadian clock is very difficult to alter so instead of trying to change it I play to it knowing that for the 24hr race I will have a monster zeitgeber in the form of a 650hp 5.0 V8 that will wake me up when necessary.  The last several years I have also run a 25 hr race in December.  Having the opportunity to do endurance events allows me to fine tune how my body best reacts to food intake and such.  I am considering a 24hr mountain bike race this fall with a 4 man team as well.  Another thing, I eliminate caffeine from my diet a few weeks prior to the event.  All in all it improves my sleep and I know that if I need it during the race it is really going to have an impact.
Bulseyeview:  How many hours of sleep do you attempt and can you actually sleep knowing the race is going on?
JF: Seems to vary year to year, again depends on many factors.  Our old engineer was “jumpy” and would have the drivers up at least an hour before you were scheduled to get in.  And of course during that hour while you were waiting there would be a yellow, prolonging the wait to get in.  He also liked to put me in if it was wet, so I would get yanked out of bed to go drive around at night in a car with zero driver aids in the wet.  But all in all I would say I get 4-5 hours of fitful rest.
Bulseyeview:  Are you operating on autopilot out there or are you constantly looking for braking, shifting, apex reference points and telling yourself to push?  Are you aiming to just drive at a target lap time of say 8/10’s or are you trying to constantly better your lap times?
JF: Well for us it has usually been 24 hours of qualifying laps.  We (Chevrolet) have been outfoxed by Ford/BMW/Porsche just about every year at Daytona.  We bring a motor that has been approved by the competition department, and to be honest it’s just slow compared to what the other manufacturers are showing up with.  I can only imagine how much easier it is on the driver and equipment to have a car that can keep pace driving 8 or 9 tenths of maximum.  Then in the last 3-4 hours you have a something to work with.  We have been ringing our cars neck from the drop of the green, and as tough as these cars are these days it is not how you want to go 24hr racing.
Bulseyeview:  While you are out there in the dark do you ever get a song in your head or start thinking about life in general?  How much chatter do you have with the team and spotters?
JF: Yep, one thing I think a lot about is how awesome a job I have.  It usually comes into my head if I am in the car late at night or when the sun is coming up over the East grandstands.  Its just cool to be out there ripping around at the limit, surrounded for the most part by other like minded folks who just like to go for it.  We also have two awesome spotters who rotate through the 24 hours, Jimmie Johnson’s dad and “Hammer”.   They are super good at seeing whats going on out there and they are really entertaining.  Our engineer John Ward and team owner Bob Stallings also stay up for the entire event and chime in as well.  It gets quiet sometimes but that’s when the driver can chime in with a smart ass remark, usually about a GT car.
Bulseyeview:  Does it feel as hairy in the car as it does watching when you are lapping backmarkers on the high bank engaged in their own battle?
JF: Sometimes.  The banking has so much grip that you are not really at the limit, so if you need to take action you have the ability.  But going into turn 1 is sketchy at times, you just need to know when to be patient.
Bulseyeview:  With the merger of Grand-Am and ALMS, do you ever envision cruising down the Mulsanne straight at LeMans in the middle of the night at 200mph?
JF: Yes, wish I was there right now- Jim France is, and that bodes well for the future.

 

Categories
Buzzard Tales

The Mind of a Buzzard

I have to admit that sometimes even I’m awed by this magnetic draw that I have towards motorsports.  I’ve always had it.  No matter where I am in the world or what state of mind I’m in, if a GP is being televised live I will naturally wake up and go to great lengths to view it.  A few of my favorite junkie recollections are:

  •  Faking sick on a Tahoe vacation with my friends family so I could watch the ’84 German GP.  I had scouted out that they had the cable set-up and knew the broadcast time so when it was announced that we were leaving for the the beach, I suddenly became ill and the moment they left I pounced on the TV with a feeling of sheer ecstasy.
  • After flying all the way to France to attend a wedding, I (and three other buzzards) announced to our newly wedded buddy that we would not be attending the Sunday countryside picnic activities because we had to watch the ’97 Austrian GP in a pub.
  • Being on a family trip at a remote lake only accessible by boat or 4 wheel drive and discovering that the resort owner had a working TV set.  Armed with the knowledge that the British GP was a network broadcast on a same day tape delay, my dad and I slipped away to politely ask the proprietor if we could borrow his living room for two hours.  He seemed reluctant at first but relented after noticing that we were both glaring at him with clenched jaws and balled up fists.  With one hurdle down we quietly walked through the willows to his cabin only to find his wife and kids enjoying a movie.  There were a few awkward smiles and pleasantries as we joined them on their couch and sat in silence watching the film until my dad essentially demanded the remote and told them all to get lost pronto.

Priorities!

I can remember sitting in a 5th grade classroom in a Gilles Villeneuve t-shirt drawing track maps on my binder paper oblivious to the

Always the Joker
Always the Joker

lesson on the board.  I was performing so poorly that parent/teacher conferences were held to discuss my complete lack of interest.  Little did they know that while I may not have been able to recite the capital of Kansas, I could rattle off the name of every driver, team, circuit and country on the F1 calendar.  When I didn’t show improvements I was sent to the school psychiatrist for further evaluations.  If I remember correctly our first session went something like:

 

Psychiatrist: “Ok look at this shape and tell me what comes to mind”

Me: “Silverstone?”

Psychiatrist: “Good how about this one?”

Me: “Spa? Or wait maybe Zolder”

Psychiatrist: “Great!”

Essentially I was home-schooled by Grand Prix International and On Track magazines.  The excitement I would get racing home from school to check the mailbox for my British F1 bible still gets the juices flowing.  Side note – It’s still fun to get a great magazine in the mail!  These publications opened up my world and taught me valuable lessons about courage, competition, love (Sylvia Piquet), business (Bernie’s empire), politics (Jean-Maria Belestre and the FIA), mathematics (lap charts and point tabulations), science (ground effects) and fun (any picture of Jacques Laffitte).

I’m reflective because even as a married, middle-age man, the pull is still strong.  This past weekend I taped the Saturday night Indycar race and waited calmly for my dear wife to pass out while we watched a boring movie.  The second she hit the land of nod, I had the green flag flying in mere seconds and a big smile on my face.

And yesterday I had social obligations while Montreal was televised live so I had to keep my composure over breakfast and lunch while a part of my mind couldn’t stop wondering if it was a rain race or how Valteri Bottas was faring from the second row.  When I finally made it back to my

beloved TV, I had a surge of adrenaline and let out a “Yeah!!” just over the thought of witnessing another GP.

Buzzardry is a funny thing.

The Piquet's
The Piquet’s

 

 

Categories
Other Sports

Athletes in Glasses

While enjoying the A’s-Giants Bay Bridge series this past week I noticed that the A’s second baseman, Eric Sogard, was wearing a regular pair of designer glasses while batting and playing the field.  In this age of 15 minute lasik surgery procedures and soft disposable contact coloured lenses being readily available, a bespectacled ball player sighting is almost as rare as spotting a wolf roaming freely in the wilds of the Golden State.   Immediately my mind set about trying to recall ocularly challenged athletes of the past who competed at the highest level with a pair of frames nestled on their face.

I can relate.  In my early 20’s I suddenly needed the aid of glasses to see past 3 feet and quickly learned the challenges of playing basketball as a 4-eyed small forward.  All attempts at a Kevin McHale “Up and Under” would usually be halted prematurely after the “Up” portion of the fake due to the Law of Physics ejecting my peepers 5 feet into the air.

When I began kart racing I tried to emulate Jacques Villeneuve by fitting the specs into the helmet.  This worked for a short period of time until a “friend” took the liberty to rub my glasses in a Taco Bell burrito supreme before handing them to me as I sat at the pit exit eagerly awaiting the first session of the Pismo Beach GP.  Needless to say, trying to get up to speed on a treacherous track while squinting through beef shades was a recipe for a high speed bonk into a haybale.

So in honor of Sogard carrying on the tradition of Athletes in Glasses, I felt compelled to come out with my personal top 10 list of visually impaired pros.

My one stipulation is I wanted the athlete to be wearing a pair of glasses that you or I could pick up at Lens Crafters rather than a sports specific goggle.  In other words, only frames covered in my HMO plan are eligible for inclusion.

And somebody sporting Google Glass is immediately removed from consideration.

Finally, I consider race drivers athletes so they are eligible for inclusion.

 

10. Martina Navratilova – I will admit that I had a boyhood crush on Chris Evert Lloyd so when Martina arrived with her brute power game and snatched the crown from Chrissy, I was a little traumatized.  But looking back at that era I have to give Martina kudos for keeping those lenses so clean and balancing those frames perfectly on the bridge of her nose.

 

Focus through the Frames
Focus through the Frames

 

9. Paul Tracy – When Tracy burst on to the Indycar scene as a pudgy bespectacled family man known as “The Thrill from West Hill”, he had a look of innocence about him that belied his ferociousness behind the wheel.  Who knew that the likable young man below sitting in the ’94 Benetton F1 car would evolve into such a wild-man?

 

Inventor of the Chrome Horn
Inventor of the Chrome Horn

 

8. Reggie Jackson – There are few sports figures that have reached the iconic stature of Reggie Jackson.  Any kid playing little league and collecting baseball cards in the 70’s and early 80’s knew all about the exploits of Mr October.  He was our hero as we swung at Whiffle balls all summer long.  And who knows, maybe that tint had something to do with seeing the ball better?

Love the tint
Love the tint

 

7. Chuck Muncie – I was infatuated with the Chargers “Air Coryell” era as a kid and Chuck Muncie was a bull of a man spearheading their running game.  How he did it wearing a pair of wayfarer glasses makes him even more intriguing in my book.  It’s like one of the bop jazz cats put down the bass to score a TD.  Salt peanuts, salt peanuts!

Cool Cat
Cool Cat

 

6. Tom Kite- Tom didn’t have the charisma of Watson, Norman or Ballesteros, but he had a steely determination that won many a gallery over.  It must have been rough for the Shark to look up on the leaderboard and see that little pesky Kite snapping at his heels.

Oh just another inch
Oh just another inch

 

5.  Darrell Porter – I think there was a period in the 80’s when I received a Darrell Porter card in every single pack of Topps, Fleer or Donruss that I purchased.  I used to have a pile o’ Porter cards sitting around my room and they usually made it into my binder of stars.  It’s obvious now, that look is phenomenal!!

 

Handsome Man
Handsome Man

 

4. Bobby Rahal – The Ohio native may have looked like your local State Farm agent, but he was a crafty operator who gave the Andretti’s and Unser’s fits during the heyday of CART.  He was like the North American version of “The Professor” Alain Prost and even wore the geeky glasses to prove it.

 

Keep that visor cracked so the peeps don't fog up
Keep that visor cracked so the peeps don’t fog up

 

3. Kent Tekulve – When I think sidearm pitching, Tekulve is still the first person who comes to mind.  There are probably thousands of kids who tore elbow ligaments trying to copy the wacko below.  And look at the man!  I hate to say it but he looks like the type of character that my mother told me to avoid as a kid.

 

Incredible on multiple levels
Incredible on multiple levels

 

2. Kurt Rambis – Local boy makes good!  Kurt Rambis is the most decorated player in San Francisco South Bay history.  Oakland may have Bill Russell, Gary Payton and Jason Kidd, but Rambis belongs to the old (408)!  Every successful team needs a guy to do the dirty work and Rambis played his role on the Showtime LA Lakers to perfection.  I just wonder what went through Magic’s mind when he made eye contact with Rambis through those funky peepers?

 

Rugged
Rugged

 

1. Bob Griese – How Griese didn’t break a lens every time he took a hit is a miracle?  Griese was the starter on the ’72 undefeated Dolphins club and those frames are the undisputed champs of the Athletes in Glasses discussion!

 

QB Perfection
QB Perfection

 

If Goggles were permitted into this contest, which they aren’t, my top two selections would be:

2. Eric Dickerson – What a thoroughbred!  A young Dickerson was the best back I’ve ever seen.

 

Stud!
Stud!

 

1. Elliot Perry – I was a big fan of Elliot “Frogman” Perry from his collegiate days at Memphis St. where he demonstrated his quicks in goggles and knee high socks.  He never really made it big in “The Association” but the records show that he did score 3,449 points.  In goggles!!

 

Frog Man
Frog Man