Olympics Withdrawal

So, what are we supposed to do now? After 2 weeks of playing around with the Peacock channel and being able to pick and choose what you want to watch, are we back to watching the Yankees on Amazon or Apple TV? No longer able to flip around for a few hours? That cannot be fair!

The folks at NBC have to be thrilled with their huge Olympics investment for the 2024 Summer games. Maybe it was the time zone difference (vs. China or Japan) but the games this year just seemed easier to follow. SU favorites: table tennis (they are so good); track and field was crazy with the number of world records set and the close finishes; beach volleyball (they never get tired); tennis (SU enjoyed the Djokovic success there); and soccer. LA28 cannot get here soon enough but we have to wait 4 long years. It will be interesting to see how they schedule the night time events as fans in the East will not want to watch games starting at 11 pm.

While the US Men’s and Women’s basketball teams won the gold, they really did not shine in those final games. I mean France was featuring Evan Fournier who could not even get into a Knick game for almost an entire season! Steph Curry is all-World of course but that game should have been a blowout. For SU, what was striking on the US team was their inability to defend and rebound. You could not argue with the roster – all were deserving – but this team was bailed out by the old guys: LeBron; Curry; and Durant. And one more thing: stop complaining on every foul or non-foul call. Play the game and move on.

SU did not see that much of the women’s gold medal game but that team could not rebound and had so many turnovers. Again, a star studded roster and SU was not a supporter of adding Caitlin Clark to this year’s team. But adding her and Paige Bueckers among others in 2028 will be a super team with much better outside shooting. Play more up tempo and have some shooters out there.

The Yankees are tied for first place and that is a good thing for mid-August. No complaints there. And there are no super teams in the AL – this is a winnable pennant year for the Yankees. But the bullpen is absolutely terrifying – no-one is a sure thing. Clay Holmes for a 4-out, 50-pitch save yesterday? The key may be to get Clarke Schmidt healthy and then put one of the starters into the bullpen for the rest of the year and the post-season. SU feels the offense will be good enough – especially if they bring up Jasson Dominguez now. They should be able to score enough runs although the team is still up and down. No-one is that much better but they will need to win playoff games by 5 runs to feel comfortable for the fans.

2 thoughts on “Olympics Withdrawal”

  1. Howard, Olympic Withdrawal hit it right on the spot. I had the same feeling, so it must be right.Track and field was the best. I have never understood why Track is so big in Europe (Diamond League) but not in USA.

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  2. Exactly. I watched that series on Netflix, Sprint, and was amazed at how popular track and field was in Europe also vs. what we see in the US. No doubt there are more sports in the US competing for attention than in Europe like the NFL and MLB, but it is quite a marked difference.

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