Count

2/02/2009

Missing sports... badly

Sigh. I missed the Australian Open final. I also watched Superbowl without the Wing Squad. And I still can't believe I missed an unbelievable game and my share of 30 ginormous wings. (See 2008, 2007, and no 2006)

What a match between Roger Federer and Rafeal Nadal! I saw the highlights on ESPN.com (thank god for Internet) and it was truly amazing. Well, the highlights always are. Rarely do you see such amazing shots throughout the match though. Congrats to Nadal. Dude's a machine on the court. He never gets tired and never gives up on any shot.

Waking up at 9am to watch the SuperBowl is quite the debacle, as Desi has reflected on before. Here's how my morning transpired (All times are approximate):

0730: alarm
0735-0755: snooze 4 times
0800: PNGF wake up call, snooze
0805-0825: snooze another 4 times
0830: PNGF wake up call 2, dismiss (that's what the phone calls it... dismiss)
0831: Ah-ha, SuperBowl on CCTV5, China's sports channel. Hm... what's this? The lady commentator is just confessing that she doesn't understand the sport at all. Thankfully, the guy takes charge and quickly fumbles on explaining what a false start is. All in Chinese, no less. This is going to be great.
0843: Superbowl without commercials pains me. Luckily, it's a pretty good game so far. Oh, and I just realized I'm on the fast track 1st half and it's a recorded sequence!
0904: I think CCTV5 just caught up to real time game at the end of the 2nd quarter.
0908: Oh my god that was a huge momentum swing. Why wouldn't you pound the ball into the end zone with 1 time out is beyond me.
0910: Time for some mutated chicken wings... oh wait... I'm in China. Down to the Le Meridien executive lounge for breakfast.
0920: I tell you, Chinese commentators are dreadful. DREADFUL! Although Larry Fitzgerald's Chinese translation is quite cool.
0925: Oh, they're showing scantily dressed cheerleaders! I think the Chinese commentators are too stunned to comment.
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.
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1030: Fast forward to 4th quarter. Remember, I don't get to see ANY commercials. Not even Chinese ones. At any break, they show the season statistics of either Ben Rothilsburger, Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, Hines Ward, Willie Parker, or (insert Cardinal RB name). Seriously, this is the 4th time they're telling me that Kurt Warner has a 90.6 QB rating during the regular season.
1031: I'm officially rooting for Arizona to come back and wipe the smiles off those Steelers players. Where's my beer?Oh, it's Apple Juice instead. Sigh.
1039: Excellent. Touchdown, Cardinals! 20-14... (they're down by 6, the commentators tell me... somethings never change: commentators are always the first to notice the score and then tell you about it and help you calculate the difference)
1048: Wow. The Cardinals forced a safety! 20-16 Steelers!
1052: Wow. The Cardinals scored a touchdown! The man can run. 20-23 Cardinals!
1100: Wow. Wow. Wow. Steelers march right back down.
1115: Wow. The Steelers scored a touch down! 27-23 Steelers!
1120: Wow. Warner fumbles... the play is under review.

Now this is what we call a critical moment in a game. If ruled a fumble, game is over. If not, the Cardinals get one more chance to hit the end zone. You dig?

1121: And of course, BEFORE THE RESULTS OF THE REVIEW, our commentators tell us the game is over. And the live feed is cut off.
1121-1124: WHAT THE FUCK!?

Was the fumble upheld? Did Kurt Warner perform his magic on one last last play? Has Ben Rothilsburger proved to be a big time quarter back? Did Holmes get the MVP? Did Larry Fitzgerald get another touchdown? Who won the Superbowl!!!!???

Sadly, I will never know. (just kidding... PNGF tells me within minutes that the fumble was upheld and the Steelers won their sixth Superbowl)

I need Wing Squad in 2010. Wings. Beers. Frolicking. For sure. Either that, or I'm applying for the CCTV5 commentator job next year. Now, what's a tight end in Chinese?

(QB = 四分卫; WR = 外接手; TD = 达阵; FG = 射门; Rush = 冲something; no names, as far as I can tell, for RB, FB, TE, OL, DL, safety, holding, personal foul, and false start...)

2 comments:

Justin said...

I skipped the Superbowl (and most of the football season). Normally, I would have enjoyed a Pat-less Superbowl anyways, but I was really scarred by SB 2008. Hopefully, I will recover in time for the 09 season.

Josekin said...

Oh, I was scarred too. And I recovered just in time for Tom Brady to have surgery. Sigh. You missed an amazing game though.