Another Ryder Cup Another Loss

The United States added to their legacy of not being able to win international events as we lost another Ryder Cup. It really doesn’t shock me when the guys we bring over just don’t have the drive we ned. We need to start to bring guys that are hungry for wins. Alot of times we […]

The 2010 World Cup is Over

And it seems such a long time ago I was watching and rooting for Japan to progress beyond the Quarter Finals when they were beat One-Nil (1-0) in a bitterly disheartening Sudden-death Shootout. After having played Paraguay to a scoreless 90 minutes, then a further 30mins of Overtime, Japan would lose on the basis of one missed shot, defeated 5-4 in penalty kicks…




And thus the round of Sixteen became Eight, with one Team looking nearly unbeatable? As Germany simply rolled over first England 4-1, albeit a controversial Goal that would have seen the match tied at 2-2 just before Halftime’s call was blown by the Referees! Germany next crushed Wildman Diego Maradona’s Argentina squad 4-1, although German Striker Thomas Muller seemingly received a bogus Yellow-card for an inadvertent Handball, thus giving him a second Yellow-card and eliminating him from playing in the all important Semi-final against Spain.



Meanwhile the other side’s bracket saw the Netherlands shockingly defeat the Tournament’s favourites Brazil 2-1, having come back in the second half after trailing 1-0, as this unexpected loss saw Brazil’s Coach fired upon the Team’s arrival back home from South Africa. Then the Orange Crush, Err Holland defeated Uruguay 3-1 in its Semi-final, becoming the first Team to clinch its birth in the World Cup Finals, as Uruguay was forced to await the outcome of Germany vs. Spain to determine who it would play for the less coveted title of Third-place.



Yet once again, Spain played its methodical game of mesmerizing footwork and fancy passing to defeat Germany One-nil and advance to their inaugural World Cup Finals berth, facing the Netherlands, who were making their third appearance, having lost twice previously in 1974 and 1978, thus ensuring a first time winner of the Finals.



And after playing a scoreless 90mins, a further 15mins was played to a draw, before Spain’s Andres Iniesta scored the winning Goal in the 112th minute of this exceedingly tense 120 minute Football match held at soccer City, seeing Espana hang-on to its somewhat precarious lead to notch its Country’s very first ever World Cup victory, becoming only the eighth Nation to achieve this feat.



And having added insult-to-injury, a German Octopus named Paul had previously predicted that Spain would defeat Germany, causing Death Threats on the Octopus, demanding it be cooked after choosing Spain! Yet Paul-the-Octopus gained some respect by correctly choosing his Home team over Uruguay, in what was a thriller, seeing Germany narrowly defeat Uruguay 3-2…

front pagearchivesaboutRSS Mariners tell Wakamatsu: You’re Out!

So apparently the King of the Tour’s reign is now officially over… As Lance Armstrong, riding in his final Tour de France, the only rider to ever have won the storied event a record Seven times, has seen his Swansong go from bad to worse. Having previously fallen on some Slippery liquids to puncturing a tyre on the Cobblestones, the Texan has now uncharacteristically faltered in what was once his Domain, known as the arduous Mountains portion of the Tour…




Thus it was on Stage 8 that the Austin native fell an amazing three times and unceremoniously finished a dismal 61st, putting him some eleven minutes behind the Tour’s leader. Yet Armstrong’s demise wasn’t his alone, as the Tuesday’s Stage 9 Tour leader Cattle Evans of Australia grimaced his way to the finish with a previously undisclosed shattered elbow, after Monday’s Rest-day, leaving Luxemburg’s Andy Schleck to seemingly battle reigning and Two time tour winner Alberto Contador for the overall victory. As the two riders will continue to go head-to-head thru the grueling Pyrenees Mountains, while Armstrong rebounded to 18th place overall, but fell further back, some 13+ minutes adrift of the Tour’s new Yellow Jersey (leader) rider Schleck, after the completion of Stage 9.



Yet perhaps Lance’s luck has turned the corner? As it was Team RadioShack claiming its Tour’s first Stage win on nine other then Bastille Day, when Team rider Sergio Paulinho of Portugal ccaptured victory in Stage 10 on Wednesday, July 14th.



But will it be Schleck claiming his first Tour or will Spaniard Contador Join the select company of Three-time Tour de France winners, giving Espana a World Cup and Tour Double? And will Armstrong’s RadioShack Team rider Levi Leipheimer manage to claim the tour’s final Podium step by finishing in Third-place? We’ll soon know when the Tour wraps-up this year’s daunting grind in Paris on July 25th…

Contador wins third Tour de France

August 10th, 2010 · No Comments


Somewhere in the Pyrenees Mountains, on Stage 15, Spaniard Alberto Contador seemingly left Luxemburg’s Andy Schleck in his dust and then held on all the way to Paris to capture his second consecutive Tour and third overall Tour de France victory, (2007, 2009-10) by the narrow margin of 39 seconds, as Schleck was to learn the errors of his ways, having been earlier Trash-Talking Contador, before once again finishing runner-up to the Spaniard, while Russia’s Denis Menchov finished on the final podium step in third place. Menchov began the penultimate stage in fourth place, a scant 21 seconds behind Spain’s Samuel Sanchez, before finishing ahead of him in the final Time Trials.



Meanwhile Lance Armstrong, who once used to simply crush opponents in the Time Trials – finished a lowly 67th and will end his tour de France career with a substandard 23rd place Overall finish; 39:20 behind Contador, although Armstrong’s RadioShack Team looks set to claim the Team title in Paris…



Then a few days after claiming his third overall victory, albeit without having won a single stage, Contador surprised some by announcing his decision to leave his current Espana Team in order to ride for rival Team SunGard-Saxo Bank, having signed a two-year contract. Look for Contador and to resume their duel for tour supremacy in 2011

The Football splendor rolls on

While Diehard Football, Err Soccer enthusiasts wait to see if the USA National Team will retain current coach Bob Bradley for a further four years in order to make another run in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, ironically Bradley & Co. were playing an exhibition match in the Meadowlands recently, being Billed as a “Friendly” vs. Brazil Tuesday night. (August 10th) As Team USA lost 2-0 in front of 77,000+ adoring Fans, while speculation surrounds Bradley’s future, who claimed he’d resume talks with the US Soccer Federation after the Brazilian match, albeit his named has been mentioned and linked as a possible candidate for Aston Villa’s vacant Manager Position for the English Premiere League.Meanwhile in the rush to snap-up National Team members, the Seattle Sounders FC have just acquired two new players, Switzerland National Team member Blaise Nkufo. And Uruguayan National Team Midfielder Alvaro Fernandez, as the MLS squad’s second and third Designated (Franchise) Players (DP’s) before trading away its first Designated Player, Swedish Star Freddie Ljungberg to the Chicago Fire for a future MLS Draft pick, as it appears the Sounders took on the younger Fernandez as his possible replacement.

Mariners tell Wakamatsu: You’re Out!

Most likely, you know that the Seattle Mariners with the third worst record in Major League Baseball recently fired Manager Don Wakamatsu, who seemingly faltered from fallout in the Locker Room and with a show of No-confidence from the very Management that had previously hired him.

Wakamatsu, MLB’s first Asian Manager led the Mariners to an impressive winning season in his first season, last year, yet Wakamatsu who apparently never emerged from the shadow of perennial All Star Ken Griffey Jr. who unexpectedly retired Mid-season this year, seems to have been the Mariners Manager’s unraveling, as the Team now seems set to incur its second 100-loss season in the past three years…


And it seemingly was coincidence that I caught a part of a game broadcast earlier this summer where Rick Riz and the voice of the Mariners Dave Niehaus, were joined by ex-Mariner standout Jay Buhner, who once was the catalyst for Buhner BuzzCut nights, who dipped into the Wayback machine, fondly recalling his playing time for the legendary Lou Piniella, who’s just announced his retirement from MLB after nearly a half century.

Arguably the Mariners best-ever Manager, Piniella (1993-2002) led the team to four 90 win seasons, along with an electrifying 116 win season with such players as Buhner, Griffey Junior, Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez and Alex Rodriguez, as “Sweet Lou” is the only Manager to ever lead the Mariners to the Playoffs along with being responsible for seven of it’s eleven winning seasons.


Meanwhile it seemed pretty funny that Barry Bonds, the all time Home Runs “leader*” would call and congratulate A-ROD to the 600 Home Run club… As with Piniella’s and Griffey’s retirement this year, is possibly the final ex-Mariner still playing from those Mariner Glory years…

Products That Are Earth-and-Profit Friendly

As the world’s greatest soccer players take to the fields at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, many are wearing jerseys made almost entirely from plastic bottles rescued from landfills in Japan and Taiwan.

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Nike, via Business Wire

The Nike shirts modeled by World Cup players are made from recycled plastic bottles.



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It is, if nothing else, good publicity for Nike, the maker of the jerseys and the official sponsor of nine teams, including the United States, Brazil and Portugal.



Yet what many might view as a gimmick is also part of a broadening effort by the company to incorporate sustainability, or environmentally responsible practices, into its product design. Around the globe, a growing number of manufacturers are including more recyclable or biodegradable components into products.



Companies making changes run the gamut — there are furniture makers, carpet manufacturers, clothing retailers and makers of shampoos and household cleaners. And with big-box retailers like Wal-Mart joining in, industry analysts say the sustainable philosophy is no longer viewed as the province of high-end sellers like Nike or Herman Miller, the furniture maker.



In 2008 alone, American consumers doubled their spending on sustainable products and services to an estimated $500 billion, according to a survey that polled more than a 1,000 people by Penn Schoen Berland Associates, a market research firm that studies the green economy.



The movement can be confusing to navigate and goes by many monikers — ”cradle to cradle,” eco-efficiency, life cycle improvement, closed-loop production. In its most utopian form, it envisions a world in which all products are made from natural materials and are 100 percent reusable, recyclable or biodegradable, never ending up in landfill.



At its most pragmatic, it is mainly about cutting costs — by reducing waste, selling recyclable components and reusing byproducts like rubber or plastic to create a new product. For a large company, this can mean millions of dollars in annual savings.



“When sustainability burst onto the scene, it was in the responsibility category, something that a company should do because it was the right thing to do,” said Beth Lester, a vice president at Penn Schoen Berland Associates. But now it is equally about saving money, she said.



For example, Wal-Mart attributed more than $100 million of its 2009 revenue to a decision to switch to a recyclable variety of cardboard in shipments to its 4,300-plus stories in the United States. Now it sells the cardboard to a recycler rather than paying to ship the waste to a landfill.



The company also sells photo frames made from its polystyrene waste and recycles plastic scraps leftover from producing Wal-Mart-brand diapers into material used in building new Wal-Mart stores.



“It’s coming from economics,” said Marc Stoiber, vice president for green innovation at the Chicago-based business consultancy Maddock Douglas. “If you look at the big guys like Wal-Mart, they embrace green because it’s all about efficiency.”



Matt Kistler, the senior vice president of sustainability at Wal-Mart, agreed. “If this was not financially viable, a company such as ours would not be doing it,” he said.



In its most ambitious project, Wal-Mart, after surveying more than 100,000 suppliers worldwide, has embarked on a yearlong effort to tag every product it sells with information about its production and life cycle.



Nike first dipped its toe into sustainability in 1993, when it began grinding up old shoes and donating the material and other manufacturing scraps to builders of sports surfaces, like tracks and basketball courts. That program continues, but the company has shifted gradually from one-of-a-kind initiatives to a long-term plan to “minimize or eliminate all substances known to be harmful to the health of biological or ecological systems.”



In the last four years, the company’s sustainable design group, known as Nike Considered Design, has brought shoes and athletic clothing to market that incorporate waste from the factory floor and a less toxic type of rubber. Some of Nike’s clothing incorporates zippers and cords made from old shoes.



The company has also reduced its use of solvents, the toxic glue used to cement soles to the bottom of shoes.



”Our customers expect this from us,” said Lorrie Vogel, general manager of Nike’s Considered group. “It’s not about two or three green shoes — it’s about changing the way our company does things in general.”



As companies move to reduce waste and analyze the components of their products, many are turning to outside consultants for help. Among the most prominent is William McDonough, co-author of a 2002 book called “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.”



He runs a consultancy that evaluates companies’ policies in areas like toxicity, renewable energy, water stewardship and sustainability and awards corporations Cradle to Cradle Certification if they make the necessary changes.



His firm, McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, has worked with Nike, Herman Miller and Shaw, the world’s largest carpet maker. Herman Miller says that 50 percent of its revenue now comes from products that are Cradle to Cradle-compliant, and it is aiming for 100 percent.



Shaw has collected 300 million pounds of used carpet in the last three years and reused 85 percent of it.



“I’ve never met one C.E.O. who said ‘Give me a toxic product,’ ” Mr. McDonough said. “But they need business models that are effective for them.”



Still, companies can be reluctant to make trade-offs when performance or aesthetics suffers.



Method, a maker of household cleaning products, shuns chemicals like ammonia, bleach and phthalates and maintains a list of earth-friendly ones. But when it came to the design of its bottles, the company stood firm, declining to reduce the plastic content beyond a certain point because it believed that it would make them less visually attractive, according to a recent report in The McKinsey Quarterly, an online business management journal.



Companies may also have to weigh a product’s toxicity level against its longevity. The retailer Patagonia is viewed as environmentally conscious — 75 percent of the clothing it sells is recyclable — but it has had difficulty finding nontoxic dyes. For now, Patagonia prefers to stick with colorfast dyes, although not all are harmless to the earth.



“It’s super-easy to find an environmentally friendly dye that will fade in three washes,” said Jenn Rapp, a spokeswoman. “But a garment that lasts 20 years is much more friendly than one that lasts five months.”



Even champions of sustainability say that consumers should be wary of giving companies too much credit or accepting all of their claims. Makers of cleaning agents in particular may offer an expensive “green line” of offerings but leave the rest of their products untouched, some say.



“I think the cradle-to-cradle concept is great,” said Wood Turner, executive director of Climate Counts, a nonprofit group that scores manufacturers of consumer products makers on their track records. “The problem is that most companies are not as inclined to push that into all their products and all their brands.



“I have to ask, is this really just an example of green tokenism, or does it reflect deep thinking on a company’s part?”