Category Archives: Sports

NCAA March Madness in Tulsa 2017

Sunday evening I went downtown and watch the the second round of games of the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament, aka March Madness, at the BOK Center. There were lots of people with me. I saw the kind of accessories I saw in that site.

Lots of people there, most of them wearing the blue of the University of Kansas Jayhawks. I am not sure if there is an actual bird named a jayhawk but it doesn’t matter.

The Jayhawks of Kansas were playing the Spartans of Michigan State University. Their mascots had a little mock battle that was amusing.

Sorry for the fuzzy photos. I was sitting in the cheap seats way up high so I was doing the best I could. The game was very competitive for the first 30 minutes or so. Kansas couldn’t quite put Michigan State away until then but then they broke loose and ended up beating the the Spartans 90-70. It was a good game. Both teams were were well coached and played well.

I like how the college game has evolved from the dreadful boringness of the 70’s with the four corner offense and the excrutiating final minutes of a game where the teams fouled each other. The shot clock and other rule changes have really breathed live into the college game again. Also, I was impressed with how well coached the teams were and the discipline displayed by the players. They seem less upset with questionable fouls now. They just deal with it.

The second game was another good one between two fine teams. The University of Southern California Trojans and the Baylor Bears of Texas.

The two teams were evenly matched. I’ve always loved the color scheme of USC. The Bears on the other hand. It looks like they went for road safety yellow for their color scheme. Baylor fans assure me that it is green. Judge for yourself. I say it is yellow. I think they wanted to make sure that nobody would steal the uniforms. (I am just having fun. I know several Baylor fans and they need to be made fun of, if you know what I mean.)

The game went down to the wire and Baylor won 82-78.

USC brought 12 fans to Tulsa to cheer the team on. Go ahead count’em, let me know what you come up with.

They also brought some cheer leaders. They had the smallest pom-poms I’ve ever seen.

All the cheerleaders were very nice looking and energetic. I would say the Baylor women were the best dancers, followed by the Michigan State ladies, and the USC cheerleaders.

The Kansas cheerleaders did a great job but didn’t appear to be into dancing that much. (I know some overbearing Kansas fans also, and I need to give them some grief also.) Actually all the cheerleaders from all the teams did a great job. I had a great time and I’ll be back again when March Madness rolls back into Tulsa.

Signs – Mickey Mantle’s

One of the most famous Yankees is Mickey Mantle who grew up in Oklahoma. The Bricktown area of Oklahoma honors his memory with a restaurant and a sculpture near the AAA Bricktown Ballpark

Signs, Signs

Seattle Signs

Seattle Washington is a place of great natural beauty. It is also a fairly old town by western US standards and that makes for a wealth of old signs.

These old mission signs are wonderful. Talk about down and out. The mission above still seems to be operating. The sign below was displayed on the wonderful “Seattle Underground” tour.

Many of the buildings have kept their original signs like the one above.

Steam Baths have a not very nice ring to them. This is another sign you can see on the Seattle Underground Tour.

The more modern signs are wonderful. Seattle has a lot going on I loved the J&M Cafe sign above embedded in a matrix.

We didn’t eat at Cutters Crabhouse but I love the sleek modern look of it.

We saw a few of these signs around town. I love Seattle and it is a great sports town but they need to quit being whiny babies!

Oklahoma City will never give up their Thunder. Uh, at least until the next Oil Bust.

Signs, Signs

Professional Bull Riding – Express Classic

Friday night SuperPizzaBoy and I attended the Professional Bull Riders Express Classic here in Tulsa at the BOK Center.

I had never been to one before. It was a cross between a fireworks show, rock concert, and a rodeo. Their was fire, flame, and loud music.

The United States Air Force swore in a whole load of recruits. The crowd cheered the “Young Warriors.”

There was a mouthy, hip hop, sarcastic clown with his own mike. He was giving the crowd, the contestants, and the announcers a lot of lip. Apparently, he is famous. He is going to be at Bass Pro in Broken Arrow if you would like to go see him.

And of course, they had pretty girls who apparently were wearing theirlittle sister’s clothes because they didn’t quite fit or cover everything.

We had demonstrations on the latest on lawn mowing technology.

But mainly we had bulls and bull riders, lots of them. I grew up in small towns all over the west and attended lots of rodeos. The bull riding event was the favorite but it wasn’t like this.

These bulls are big and powerful. In the contest between cowboy and bull, the bulls won. Not very many riders were able to go the eight seconds.

Cowboys were flying left and right. One landed on his head, one got kicked in the face, and another got pushed down in the back. Professional Bull Riding was the original extreme sport and is considered the most dangerous event in sports.

Many of the cowboys are from Brazil. They are very tough looking guys.

We rate the event at five smiles out of five.

Check out the PBR web site, lots of good information there. There is an extensive section on their policies and procedures on animal welfare. Included is a lot of information on injury rates.

The Olympics are Here!

I love the Olympics. Summer, Winter. I love them both.

So far I’ve seen lots of beach volleyball, synchronized diving, fencing, swimming, gymnastics, and rowing.

I can’t stand to see most of the sports any other time. Thats pretty shallow don’t you think?

What fascinates me is that for many of the events the athletes train intensively for years and then they have only a minute or so to perform. They either nail it or they lose. If they slip up, they are gone. Its brutal. I feel that I have to watch them. I owe them that much. Regardless of what country they are from.

I like watching the Americans of course. I like watching athletes from all the countries. I especially like watching the Chinese during this Olympics. They actually seem to have personalities. They always seemed to be part of a borg before with no individual characteristics. I like looking at the city of Beijing. It is quite the city. I love the architecture. The Bird’s Nest stadium is magnificent. There is also a hotel that is seen on television. It is pretty cool.

It seems that the 21st Century is the era of the Chinese. Their economy is growing quickly. I don’t really know where our economy is going. “W” doesn’t seem to worry about it too much. I don’t know where this prosperity is going for the Chinese. I wonder how much more freedom they will be given as time goes on. Perhaps we will meet them in the middle somewhere. It seems that since 9-11 we have voluntarily given up our freedom Some people seem proud of not having as much freedom as they used to have. What’s the deal.

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