Seeping Matter

Today during lunch I listened to the press conference at BYU where they formally announced their plans to unaffiliate themselves from the Mountain West Conference.  Tom Holmoe, BYU athletic director, did most of the talking.

Since I realize there are hundreds of thousands of you loyal readers who probably did not catch the press conference, I will summarize it for you.  Understand, sometimes Tom didn’t do a very good job of saying what he really meant to say, so I might paraphrase a bit.

Holmoe:  “Let me cut to the chase.  With the University of Utah leaving the Mountain West for the PAC 10, or 12, whatever, we were pretty stoked because we thought that finally now we would have a chance at being second in the conference.  Then Boise State came into the Mountain West, and frankly, they scare the poo-poos right out of us.  So we are announcing today that, starting in 2011, BYU football will be independent.  I mean, it’s worked well for Notre Dame, so it should work for us too.”

Press:  “What about TV coverage?”

Holmoe:  “Since USC totally hosed themselves ESPN has looking for another overrated football team to make a really big deal out of.  They’ve chosen BYU, and we are really excited about that.  Really excited and happy.  Happily excited.”

Press:  “What motivated you to make this decision?”

Holmoe:  “The primary reason for us to do this is exposure.  For some reason we agreed to an exclusivity deal with The Mtn network a few years ago and hardly anyone can see our games on TV even if they live in Utah.  Now we will have all our home games broadcast on ESPN and will have rights to rebroadcast all of our games on BYU TV.  Since our games will be seen by a much larger audience, the broadcasting rights will be worth a fortune and we’ll be able to attract big-name schools to play us because of the revenue they can get.  And we won’t have to share the revenue with our conference either.  So, each game will be televised, to a larger nationwide audience, with big-name schools playing us, so that’s a lot more money, tons of money.”

Press:  “Uh, I thought the primary reason was for exposure, not money.”

Holmoe:  “That’s correct.”

Press:  “But it seems quite clear that you are excited about all the money.”

Holmoe:  “Well, as you know, being a private faith-based institution we hold our students to a much higher honor code standard than most other universities.  And, as you might also know, our football players are pretty much the same as they are at any other school.  That means we have a high incidence of honor code violations here.  Having all of that money should, uh, help to alleviate that situation, if you know what I mean.”

Press:  “We don’t know what you mean.”

Holmoe:  “Well, let’s just say that sometimes, a person might feel like a football player has violated the honor code in a way that is negative towards that person, whereas if that person was a bit better off financially, they might be able to better understand that, no, that really wasn’t an honor code violation per se.  I’m just speaking hypothetically here, but I think you understand where I’m coming from.”

Press:  “What about your other sports?”

Holmoe:  “Our other sports will be playing in the West Coast Conference.  They have several advantages for us.  They are nearby.  Their schools are all faith-based institutions like ours.  They are so small and desperate that they would accommodate our playing schedule which excludes Sundays and General Conference weekends.  And USU is not in that conference.”

Press:  “But, couldn’t USU be invited into that conference?  I mean, being faith-based isn’t a strict requirement for the WCC.”

Holmoe:  “Based on, er, conversations we’ve had with the WCC, I don’t foresee that happening.  Ever.  Or at least as long as BYU is in the WCC.  We plan to hold them down, I mean, play in a different conference from them, as long as possible.”

Press:  “How long has this deal been in the works?”

Holmoe:  “We’ve been working on this for several years now, at least the past five years we’ve been working on it, trying to figure out how to get BYU into a BCS game through some other means than raw merit.  This deal should help with the money, or exposure, we need to do that.  You know, the way USC did all those years.”

Press:  “But, we thought this was primarily a reaction to Utah leaving the MWC, Boise State being invited into the MWC, and BYU not getting invited to the PAC-10 or the Big XII.”

Holmoe:  “That’s correct.”

Press:  “But you just now said you’ve been working on this for several years.  What gives?”

Holmoe:  “We have ways of, uh, knowing what the future holds.”

Press:  “You mentioned the deal with ESPN.”

Holmoe:  “We’re really happy and excited about that.”

Press:  “Yes, you said that.  But ESPN has lots of channels in their network; is it contracted which of the ESPN network channels you will be on?”

Holmoe:  (silence)

Press:  “So, do you know which ESPN channels you will be playing on?”

Holmoe:  “Well, which channels do they have?”

Press:  “Well, ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN U, ESPN 3, ESPN ‘El Ocho’, for example.”

Holmoe:  “Well, I would imagine ABC, pretty much all the time…”

(looks at the ESPN guy who is shaking his head)

Holmoe:  “Well, maybe not ALL the time…”

(ESPN guy is still shaking his head)

Holmoe:  “Well, I think ‘El Ocho’ is guaranteed, and the other channels based on merit, you know, if we are playing really well, and there aren’t any other games to show then…”

(ESPN guy nods head)

Holmoe:  “Yeah, something like that.  But probably mostly ABC or ESPN.  Or SpeedTV.”

Press:  “So, now that you are independent and Utah is in the PAC-10, who is your big rival?  USU?”

Holmoe:  “No.  Not USU.  Absolutely not that despicable USU.  Probably Notre Dame, they are our big rival now.”

Press:  “But they don’t really consider you a big rival.”

Holmoe:  “Oh, they are.  You will see.”

_{Note:  Holmoe did not actually say any of these things, in case anyone is wondering. In particular, if Holmoe’s attorney is wondering.}

matt Sports College Football, Humor

Apparently LeBron James announced the other day that he will leave the Cleveland Cavaliers to play for the Miami Heat.  Apparently this is a big deal.

I guess I can understand it.  It’s kind of like a person being a part of one street gang, and then going to join a different street gang.  NBA teams are pretty much the same as street gangs as far as I can tell.  You can think of them as advanced street gangs.  When you are a young man growing up in the inner city, the gangs recruit you this way:  “Sure, for now you will have to wear Oakland Raiders clothing and hold this handgun sideways when you kill people.  But, you know we are like the farm league for the Indiana Pacers.  Someday you could be an NBA star if you just work your way up the ladder.”

Anyway, one of the leaders of the Cleveland gang had his feelings really and truly hurt by all of this so he wrote a letter to make himself feel better.  Now everyone is making fun of his letter because it uses the Comic Sans font.  I never use Comic Sans, but I guess I missed the memo that says, “Do not use this font.  Ever.”

So I’m not going to make fun of that dude for using Comic Sans.  I’m also not going to make fun of him for an entire letter comprised of paragraphs which almost without exception have only a single sentence in them.  I’m also not going to make fun of him for not knowing how to use capitalization or punctuation or quotation marks.  No sir.  I am not that kind of person.  Instead, I’m going to make fun of him for a completely different reason.

Here is a direct quote from his letter.  Note that, since this is one of the places he (ab)used quotation marks, I also have to quote the quotation marks, so this will seem a little weird.

““I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE”“

Hmm.  Interesting.  And also, how exactly does he plan to do this?  I mean, since he doesn’t actually play the games.  And also, he says he personally guarantees it; or what?  What happens if a team LeBron plays for actually wins a championship before Cleveland?  Usually, a guarantee comes with an “or” clause, e.g. “or your money back,” “or I will eat my hat”, “or I will write another letter in Comic Sans with poor punctuation and post it on the internet.”

I also don’t understand the “self-titled former ‘king’” phrasing.  Is he saying that LeBron himself refers to his own self as “the former king”?  Because otherwise, doesn’t it seem weird to claim that LeBron gave himself the “king” title, and yet this guy is going to claim that he doesn’t have that title anymore?  Or maybe he doesn’t understand what “self-titled” means.

Of course, if you read further in the letter, you will see this:

Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there.

Sorry, but that’s simply not how it works.

I fail to see what this has to do with anything.  But it definitely discredits the entire letter.  As everyone knows, Moses was taken directly into heaven without dying first.  So apparently, sometimes it actually does work that way.

matt Sports Humor

This is a very painful and sad post, so by definition it should be hilarious.

It looks like my 1998 Kawasaki KX 250 will belong to someone else tomorrow.  I bought that bike, worn and beaten, six years ago.  I brought it into my garage, took it apart, cleaned it, painted it, put new graphics and a new seat cover on it, gave it a new rear race tire, had the forks rebuilt by Pro-Action, and gave it a new Renthal rear sprocket.

This, my friends, is how you show your motorcycle just how much you love it.

I’ve loved every minute I’ve ridden it.  I love that rush of adrenaline I feel when you kick the engine to life and you feel the motor revving beneath you.  I love the awesome power as you launch off the line and the pull you feel in your arms as you climb through the gears and that amazing 250cc two-stroke powerband.  I love that feeling of soaring high above the ground (where “high” means “a multitude of inches”).  I even forgive my bike for that time I was trying to learn to double-jump and instead I broke my collarbone.

If any girls read my blog they probably think this is so dumb.  And to that, I say this:  I had a fair number of girlfriends when I was single, but when I found one that I felt this strongly about, I married her.  And if that doesn’t show you up, well, I don’t even know what I meant by that.

Seriously, I really wish I could keep it.  Maybe someday, when my career doesn’t require every spare minute of my time and investments of large sums of money in laptops, maybe then I can have another one.

Until then, there’s a part of me that will be dead.  There’s a part of me that will ache every time I watch motocross or supercross racing live or on TV.  There’s a part of me that will feel like I sold my soul in order to try to move my career forward, and that part will let me know how disappointed it is with me for the rest of my life, especially if I fail.

It will definitely be a bittersweet memory.  Like the CRX, I’ll love it forever.  And I don’t care if you think that is stupid.

So, for posterity’s sake, here’s some pictures to remember my baby by:

Catching tons of air at Bunker Hill Raceway in Delta, 2004-ish.

I love this picture.

matt Hobbies, Sports Career, CRX, Hobbies, Motocross

World Superbike USA weekend is nearly here and I can hardly wait.  (Since I can barely concentrate I figure I may as well blog about it.)  Derrick and I will be in attendance.  This year we’re sitting in the Paddock Grandstand at Miller Motorsports Park, which should be a very interesting and awesome change from where we have always been up to this year, down by the Tooele turn.

By the way, there is still time for you to get here, if you hurry.

Anyway, the last couple of years Derrick hasn’t been up for autograph hunting.  But since we’re going multiple days this year maybe I can talk him into it.  Here’s some of the autographs I’d like to collect:

• Sterilgarda Yamaha’s James Toseland, two-time World Superbike Champion
• Alitalia Aprilia’s Max Biaggi, former 250cc World Champion
• BMW Motorrad Motorsport’s Troy Corser, former Australian and AMA Superbike Champion
• Xerox Ducati’s Michel Fabrizio
• Alstare Suzuki’s Leon Haslam

As long as I’m dreaming, we might as well throw in Troy Bayliss (three-time World Superbike Champion), Nicky Hayden (former AMA Superbike and MotoGP Champion), and Ben Spies (three-time AMA Superbike and current World Superbike Champion).  Maybe they’ll be there, you know, to visit, and meet me and all that.

Forecast is for rain on Saturday, which should make practice a bit difficult, but it looks like Sunday and Monday will be great days.  Can’t think of anything more awesome to do on Memorial Day than watch World Superbike racing, and also think of my grandma who passed away a few years ago, and hates racing.

matt Sports AMA Superbike, Racing, World Superbike

Since World Superbike at Miller Motorsports Park is coming up, I thought it appropriate to make a list of the ten motorcycles I need to be happy.  World Superbike is May 29-31 at MMSP.  Of course you already knew that, because you already have your tickets.

You do have your tickets, right?  RIGHT?

Anyway, I’m not sure if all of these will make me happy, but they sure won’t hurt.  Definitely, I can’t be happy without them.  I believe that requires no explanation.

Ducati 1098 R Bayliss Edition (source: cbbtrader.com)

Aprilia RSV4 Factory (source: sportrider.com)

MV Agusta F4 Senna (source: hayabusa.org)

BMW S 1000 RR (source: mcnews.com.au)

Triumph Daytona 675 (source: motortopia.com)

Suzuki GSXR 750 (source: centre-sports.com)

Ducati Monster 1100S (source: totalmotorcycle.com)

Harley-Davidson V-Rod (source: totalmotorcycle.com)

Honda VTX1800F (source: totalmotorcycle.com)

Suzuki RM-Z 450 (source: dirtbikebitz.com)

matt Sports Motocross, World Superbike

Like you, I also am really stressed out and concerned about USF1.

Here we are, one month away from the first Grand Prix of the year in Bahrain.  It should be a really awesome season, with four new teams and Michael Schumacher back on the grid.  And I’ve been waiting for the past two years for this year because of the announced USF1 team.

But I’m worried now.  Worried, because we’re only a month away from the season opener, and USF1 still only has one driver.  The only other team in this position is Campos F1; everyone else has both drivers in place.  And seemingly every other team has unveiled their 2010 car, but USF1 has not.

It makes me wonder if they are having trouble finding sponsors.  This should not be a problem.  I can think of some great American companies with a global presence that could be great sponsors.  My employer, Microsoft, immediately comes to mind (Steve, that’s your cue).  But hey, if not Microsoft, what about Google?  Or Budweiser?  Or Wells Fargo?  Or Novell?

Haha!  Just kinda got carried away there!

Anyway, having provided an obviously excellent solution to the financial problem (Microsoft), I’ll now suggest a solution to the driver problem:

Me.

I volunteer.  I will do it.

In fact, USF1, give me the job and I’ll drop everything and be in Charlotte within 24 hours.  I’d happily take a one-year contract for, say $1M.  This is probably a lot less than you would have to pay anyone else.  I have lots of driving experience; for example, I drive to work and back every day.  And I also have played lots of racing games, like Need For Speed and Project Gotham.

Don’t thank me.  This is what I’m good at:  solving problems.  Just say the word and consider it done.

matt Sports Formula One, Microsoft, Racing

At round four of this year’s Supercross season, James Stewart was really upset that so many people were dissing on him for making such a big deal out of his sore wrist.  So much so that he dropped out of the series and had surgery on it just to save face.  Oh, the avarice!

So without Stewart and Reed in the series anymore, this makes it a wide open championship chase.

Despite my disappointment that Reed is out, this should make for a really outstanding series.  Awesome!

This also means that Ryan Dungey and Kevin Windham suddenly realized that, instead of just going out there and racing for fun, they now have a good chance to win the championship.  So of course this means that they had to tighten up and not race well.

If I had one Supercross-related wish, it would be for Kevin Windham to find his 2004-season speed and win a Supercross title.  Or if not, then Ryan Dungey can take it.  But both seem to race better when they aren’t feeling the pressure.  And it was more of the same in San Francisco; Dungey crashed while leading the main event and ended up fourth, and I think K-Dub ended up like 11th (!).

Dungey’s crash left it open for someone else to win, and Ryan Villopoto stepped up to take the victory, finally showing the speed we’ve been waiting for all year.  Josh Hill and Andrew Short rounded out the podium.  See what I mean?  We could have different winners every week!

In Lites, Jake Weimer lost his first race of the season when Trey Canard took the Lites main event win by not crashing.  Trey seems like a nice guy, but I just don’t think his podium speeches are sincere.

But the award for the all-time lamest podium speech now goes to Villopoto, who quite openly and stupidly promoted a jar of Mandingo Pickles.  Dude, please do not do this again.

matt Sports Supercross

Round three of the AMA Supercross season just ended almost a week ago.  So I’d better hurry and write my review before round four takes place tomorrow evening.

Here’s the rundown (no pun intended, Ryan Morais):

• Ryan Morais had a really brutal-looking crash in his heat race where he landed on the top of a whoop directly on his lower back at a high rate of speed.  I worried that he’d broken his back (it certainly doesn’t require nearly so vicious an accident for me to break mine), but it ends up he’s just really, really, really sore.  No major injuries, but he’s out indefinitely at this point.
• Jake Weimer won again.  Woot.  Go, sort-of-local boy.
• James Stewart announced at the beginning of the races, “I got a boo-boo on my little handie,” you know, in case he needed an excuse later for losing.
• Josh Hill was looking like he used to a couple of years ago, before he started hanging out with J-Law.  He showed Stewart how it was in their heat by tracking him down and beating him.
  • I know, right?  You’re thinking, “I thought the only thing Stewart’s teammate was supposed to do is take Chad Reed out, not win!”  Well, Larry Brooks explained that since Stewart did such a stellar job of taking Chad Reed out last week, now Hill is actually free to try to win.  Sweet!
  • By the way, isn’t it odd that Jason Lawrence would have the nickname “J-Law,” considering all the legal trouble he’s been having lately?
• The main event was an instant classic.  Stewart led early, followed very closely by Hill and Ryan Dungey.  After seven or eight laps, Hill finally made a move for the lead and was able to hold Stewart off for a while, but you could’ve easily thrown a blanket over all three of them at any point, the racing was so close and awesome.  Finally Dungey passed Stewart, and shortly thereafter he passed Hill for the lead, checked out, and took the win.
• After the race, when they interviewed Stewart, he wiped a tear from his eye as he said, “My wrist.  It has an owie.  I couldn’t win because of my owie.  Remember, I told you about this earlier.”  Of course, we remembered.  It was all Ralph Sheheen could talk about the entire race.

As a side note, this Stewart crap is really getting old.  Every time he loses he has an excuse.  It is never his fault.  He always wins unless the entire universe conspires against him.  Right?

Dude, shut up.  Two years ago Chad Reed raced with a broken shoulder blade and still did better than you did with your tender wrist.  Shut up and race already.

matt Sports Supercross

You know, the bad thing about being passionate about sports mostly rednecks follow is this:  Most of the people that follow it are rednecks.

I realize that sounds like I’m just repeating myself.  Seriously, though, most Supercross “fans” are complete idiots.  They haven’t followed the sport long enough to even know who Jeremy McGrath is, let alone people like Rick Johnson, Jeff Ward, David Bailey, or Bob Hannah.  They attend races, but they are so drunk by the time the main event starts that they don’t even know who is winning, much less notice when someone is suddenly taking a different line through that rhythm section.

Even worse, some of these people apparently become the heads of the sanctioning body, and they end up running the show, even though they obviously don’t have a freaking clue what is going on.

Let’s consider James Stewart here, self-entitled crybaby extraordinaire.

First off, let me be the first to say it:  Stewart is way fast.  The fastest guy on the track, without question.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, and we’ve already addressed the whiny crybaby aspect, let’s talk about another aspect of his legacy:  Crashing.  In particular, crashing into other people.

I can’t think of anyone in recent memory that has done this more often.  Off the top of my head, here’s the ones I can remember:

• James lands on top of Ivan Tedesco in Supercross practice, breaking his hand and ruining his season.
• James crashes at the bottom of the finish-line double, then remounts his bike and pulls directly onto the track at the foot of the jump directly into oncoming traffic without looking first, taking Travis Preston out of the race.
  • Interesting sidenote:  James finishes the race, but then collapses in “pain” at the end to avoid getting his tail whipped by Preston, who was waiting around to have a word.
• James jumps and lands on top of Ricky Carmichael.
• James crashes off the track in a whoops section, then pulls back onto the track (again without looking) right into Kevin Windham, crashing them both.

That doesn’t include all the times Stewart and Reed crashed into each other, nor all the times Stewart intentionally tried to take Reed out (for example, the time Stewart crossed lines in mid-air over a triple jump, trying to take Reed out about 20 feet above the ground).  And I’d also include the times where James and his team got his teammate to try to intentionally take Reed out in Salt Lake City last year.

So Phoenix was more of the same.  It started out in the heat, where James got a mediocre start, then crosses from the middle of the track to the edge (sound familiar?) in the first triple jump, and ends up right underneath Kyle Partridge.  Partridge was unhurt but did not finish the race or qualify for the main event.  Stewart stood up, made sure the camera was looking right at him, then limped around grimacing to make sure everyone knew he was really hurt.  Then came out and raced the LCQ like nothing happened.

Then the main event comes along.  Reed is riding behind Stewart, is riding faster than him, and is obviously carefully looking for the right place to pass.  Finally he gets a small window of opportunity and makes a block pass in the turn, taking away Stewart’s line.

This is a completely legal and legitimate move.  It happens in Supercross racing ALL THE TIME, in every race, in every event.  It is not considered a dirty move if you clearly take the line from the other rider.  Reed did not initiate contact with Stewart; he took the position.

Stewart, meanwhile, cut down early into Reed and crashed into him.

This part, while unfortunate, I can understand.  Things happen quickly in a race.  But, if you have this recorded in high-def, like my brother does, you should replay it.  As I’m told, if you watch the replay you can clearly see that Reed is going to get out of the turn until Stewart reaches out and grabs Reed, pulling him to the ground along with Stewart.

Well, Reed breaks his hand in the crash.  He’s lying there on the ground with Stewart and Stewart’s bike sitting there on his broken hand.  Reed pushes Stewart off of the top of him, mounts his bike, and rides directly into the pits (we found out much later; more on this in a minute).

Stewart, meanwhile, gets up and finishes the race in 15th.  Then, after the race, he storms over to Chad Reed’s pit and pushes Reed’s bike over.  I assume he wanted to have “a word” with Reed, and that Reed wasn’t there because he was at the hospital.

Meanwhile, throughout most of the racing evening all we’ve heard on TV is Ralph Sheheen going on and on and on and on and on and on and on about Stewart.  Some samples:

• “James Stewart is so fast.  So fast!  I mean, he’s so fast!”
• “James Stewart is incredible.  I mean, he is just incredible.  Incredible!”
• “James Stewart looks so hot in those tight pants.  Hot!  I mean, really, really hot!”

(Okay, maybe he didn’t actually say that last one.)

Post-race, here is the immediate fallout:  Chad Reed is suspended by the AMA and fined $5000.  James Stewart is given a warning.

Wait.  This can’t be right!  Let me restate:

• James Stewart:
  • Crossed the track in mid-air over a triple jump in mid-pack at the start of a race, directly into the path of another rider.  IN MID-AIR.  Causing a very dangerous collision.  Taking another rider out for the remainder of the evening.
  • Later, he cuts down into another rider that has already taken a spot away from him, grabs on to that rider and pulls him to the ground.  In doing so, he breaks that other rider’s hand.  This other rider just happens to be Stewart’s primary contender for the title, who is now out for half of the season.  So Stewart not only took yet another rider out of the race, he took this one out of title contention.
  • Later, he storms across the pits to have a word with this guy who had the nerve to pass James cleanly.  He enters Reed’s pit area and pushes over his factory Kawasaki Supercross bike.
  • For all of this, the AMA says, “Aw, James.  We know you feel sad.  You shouldn’t treat other people like that, okay?  There there.”
  • And Ralph Sheheen says, “Poor James.  He sure looks hot when he’s angry!”
• Chad Reed:
  • Passed Stewart cleanly, but was then crashed into by Stewart and apparently tackled to the ground.
  • He breaks his hand in the process, ruining his season.
  • He pushes Stewart off of his broken hand so he can get up and go to the hospital.
  • For this, Reed is fined and suspended.
  • And Ralph Sheheen says, “Serves old what’s-his-name right for hurting my sweetie-pie like that!”

This is so ludicrous it is beyond belief.  What race were these guys watching?

Stewart was only given a warning because this was his “first offense,” according to the AMA officials.  Hello?!?  Have you guys ever seen another race?  Stewart does this kind of crap ALL THE TIME!

Stewart does this all the time because of his self-entitlement problem.  He thinks that everyone on the track should just get out of his way while he rides to victory.  He considers the entire track to be his personal track.  He can take any line he wants, whenever he wants it.  He belongs at the front and will run over or through anyone who gets in his way.

It makes me wonder how many other guys there would be that could compete with him if they all had absolutely no respect for anyone else they race with and no regard for the safety of the others on the track.  Since Stewart is pretty much the only one, we’ll never know, unless the AMA does something.

They won’t though, and it has to do with the bench-racing forum-posting crowd.

Reading some of the forum posts after the race is something I can’t recommend.  I think it is dangerous to do; I think it will actually make you stupider.  These guys go on and on about how Reed “took James out” of the race.  Nevermind the fact that Reed cleanly had the position.  Nevermind the fact that last year, when Stewart took the position from Reed at Anaheim 1, then cut across the front of Reed and missed a shift, causing them both to crash, that it was these same people claiming that Reed took Stewart out again, in a crash that seems to be almost an exact role-reversal from last year!  I’m willing to chalk them both up to pure racing incidents, but if anything Stewart was to blame in both cases, not Reed.

Anyway, the problem is, it is these people that eventually become the main dudes at the AMA.  I guess I should cut them some slack about Phoenix.  Heck, the AMA officials were probably slobbering drunk at the race also.  That would at least explain what otherwise looks like obvious favortism that can only be rivaled by the BCS.

AMA?  Sheheen?  It is time for this Stewart favortism to stop.  You need to see it for what it is:  He’s a selfish, whiny, crybaby brat with a self-entitlement and lack-of-humility problem.  He’s dangerous to every other rider on the track because he has no respect for them.  And he’s dangerous to the sport because he makes it look like the only way to compete is to compete dirty, and there’s a lot of riders (not Andrew Short or Eric Sorby, but most of the others) who aren’t willing to be thought of as dirty in order to win if they can help it.

Besides, Ralph, he’s just not that into you.

matt Sports Motocross, Supercross

The Phoenix round of the 2010 AMA Supercross season was certainly pivotal.  Here’s a summary:

• Jake Weimer won 250s again in convincing fashion.  Trey Canard rode like a madman to try to keep up, and then crashed.
• Ryan Morais looked pretty solid as he rode to second place in 250s.
• At the start of his heat, James Stewart jumped from the center of the track to the edge of the track in the first triple, in the middle of the pack, and was landed on by Kyle Partridge who, inexplicably to Stewart, just jumped in a straight line.  Stewart pretended to be very severely hurt in hopes to lure away Chad Reed fans, but we haven’t forgotten that Reed raced the same day he broke his shoulder blade two years ago.  Stewart, you have a long way to come to be the man Reed is.
• In the main event, Reed made a pass on Stewart and had the position when Stewart rode directly into Reed anyway, crashing them both out of contention and breaking Chad Reed’s hand.  More on this later.
• Meanwhile, Ryan Dungey showed that last week was no fluke as he proceeded to win the 450 main event.  It’s true that Reed and Stewart crashed, but it’s likely that Dungey would have won it anyway.

Reed was fined and suspended, presumably for first having the audacity to pass Stewart, and then for pushing Stewart off of the top of his broken hand as he tried to get back up.  Stewart, meanwhile, crashed at least two people out of their respective races by riding like a madman, then stormed across the pits after the race to Reed’s pit and pushed Reed’s bike over.  The AMA said, “Now now, James.  You don’t need to be so mean to your inferiors.”

Yeah, I’ll be talking about this later.

matt Sports Supercross