We were at the hospital this morning for a non-stress test and a sonogram, and all is well with the as-yet-unborn neo-McClusky. The kid's moving around a ton in there, and all the tests were just perfect. Our midwife said something fun to us today. "This is the last weekend you won't be parents," she told us. That is, assuming, we aren't parents this weekend.
My latest column for Wired News is live. I start off by discussing the rumors surround Lance Armstrong, and the story published by L'Equipe earlier this month.
The opinion you form after digesting all this information is more a Rorschach test than anything else. If you're inclined to believe that Armstrong doped, these test results can serve as confirmation. If you're inclined to believe his denials, they're further proof of a vendetta against Armstrong by the French.
But what the situation really points out is the futility of the drug-testing regime in place today. New drugs appear all the time, leaving testers playing a never-ending game of catch-up. Athletes find themselves smeared by innuendo. Rumor and recrimination are the order of the day.
One thing we can be sure of: The technology of athletes who want to cheat will always outpace that of those people charged with catching them. Is there another way?
I ended up arguing, at least guardedly, that maybe we should just give up on trying to win this arms race. I was surprised to find myself coming around to this position--it was one of those pieces that as you write it, you end up in a very different place than you expected.
Unsurprisingly, not everyone who has read it has agreed, or been convinced. I'm not even sure I am, 100%. But I am sure of one thing; it's how I ended the column:
Athletes will always do what they can to find an edge, even if it endangers their health. And people will always thrill to the performance of these elite athletes. Until one of those things changes, the debate, and the uncertainty, will continue.
The due date has come and gone, and there's no action as of yet. We're trying really hard to stay patient -- our doula has told us that we should wrap our heads around being another week perhaps. It's especially frustrating for me as Kristen starts to get more and more uncomfortable. We've been really lucky with everything in this pregnancy. Kristen has generally felt really good, no morning sickness, no food aversions, her energy level has been great. But as we get down to it, and the kid is just so big, it's got to be hard. It's hard to understand where all the stuff that usually occupies the belly even goes, frankly.
The limbo of this is weird. We're going to have a kid here in the next 10 days or so, one way or another. But we're just going to have to wait and see exactly when that happens, and for two planners like Kristen and I, that's a little hard.
We're just three days from the due date now, so we could be ready to go at any moment. We're ready to meet our son or daughter any time.
It's interesting to me that my excitement has taken on a very specific cast -- I just can't wait to meet him or her, after watching the baby grow for so long.
First, the U.S. men lose to Italy, now they need a last-second shot to beat Germany. This is really good news for the Olympics. Americans might like watching Dream Teams stomp the world, but as a sport, competition is a very good thing.
Japan's owners aren't happy about the plan to hold the first baseball World Cup in the United States next year. In fact, they don't want MLB in charge of the event at all. There's still been no date announced for a World Cup; things are looking less and less likely.
In other news, there's a great story over at OJR about ESPN.com. It's required reading for anyone interested in the process and business of online sports.
CNET covers the launch of a co-branded Fox Sports/MSN site.
"It's a strategic play," said Ross Levinsohn, general manager of Fox Sports Interactive Media. "We should double traffic" after the co-branded site is launched, he added."
The site will launch on Thursday, knocking ESPN off the MSN service. Fox Sports hopes to gain ground in the race for eyeballs, but there's one problem--their site just isn't very good.
Lance Armstrong's former personal assistant claims that she helped him dispose of a bag of used syringes, and gave him makeup to cover needle marks on his arms. Armstrong is denying the allegations, and is starting libel proceedings against the book's authors.
This could be the start of something interesting: Boston.com, the site of the Boston Globe has purchased Boston Dirt Dogs, the popular Red Sox news/community site. Just goes to show, there is a value to community.
I'm not making this up: the government of Thailand is looking to buy a stake in the legendary English soccer club Liverpool. This is just weird--imagine the U.S. government buying a stake in a Japanese baseball team, for instance.
Hey, if you're in the Bay Area, try and check me out on the radio! I'll be on KALW, 91.7 FM, from 7:30-8:30 tonight. I'm on a panel discussing the possible Baseball World Cup, and the internationalization of the game. Try and catch it!
Sorry for the layoff--been cranked at work, and over at all-baseball.com. Come check it out, if you haven't been. Anyway, this story on ESPN is going to rock the baseball world. Seem that the player's union rolled over and gave the Feds the results of all the steroid testing done last year.
If I'm a player, I'm out of my mind over this, even if I'm clean. My freaking union gives the government results of what are supposed to be anonymous tests? Holy crap, that's bad. First of all, why were those results still around, if the tests were to just be for statistics, and secondly, why the hell didn't the union fight it?
As if Lance Armstrong didn't have enough going for him -- his sponsors have started working together to provide him with better technology. Nike's developed a new skin suit that will help his aerodynamics, and there's been a lot of wind tunnel testing done as well. Smart of the US Postal Service team to get their sponsors working together in this way.
Tiger Woods is spending some time training at Fort Bragg, N.C., where his father was trained as a solider in the Vietnam era. I wonder if the drill sergeants there can help him with his long irons.
They paid billions, but the ratings for the NCAA Men's Basketball final were very low, half what they were 10 years ago.
Well, there's one side effect of having a big telecommunications company as the naming sponsor of your ballpark. The Giants will offer free wireless internet access at SBC Park. I'm trying hard to imagine how I'd ever use this, but there are probably some stats folks who will love to be able to surf and watch the game, not to mention the business guys who will now be able to safely check their mail from their luxury box.
This in from Tokyo: the player's union's #2 guy, Gene Orza, is talking like the union will be willing to submit to more rigorous drug testing, perhaps paving the way for a Baseball World Cup. It's important to note that submitting to tougher testing in a World Cup wouldn't change baseball's current testing policies and procedures during the regular MLB season.
Yes, you can watch a fantasy draft, live, on a webcast.
CNET is reporting that Major League Baseball has signed deals with Microsoft and America Online to distribute content through them. The MSN deal will allow Microsoft to see subscriptions to MLB content, while the AOL deal seems to be one where AOL will give their broadband account holders access to audio streams. I wrote about MLB's aggressive stand on gamecasts for Wired News back in November. These most recent deals are more indication that MLB is maybe the most effective of the four major sports when it comes to presenting their content online. Any deal where a league is getting decent money from a place like MSFT is doing something right.
As a Sports Illustrated alum, I was sad to hear that Sid James died yesterday. James was the first editor of SI, although the magazine didn't reach its stride until Andre Leguerre took over after James. Contrary to the Times obit, the magazine wasn't an immediate success.
That said, it's still sad to lose a link to history like this. If you're looking to learn more about the early days at SI, there's a pretty good history, The Franchise, that you should pick up.