Pay Some Respect, Damn It!

Yellow Ball: Men's Final last night was excellent. Bag-that-ass played genuinely excellent tennis (without freaky luck) and still took a set off Federer, so it was good to watch.

Even better was the absolutely clinical demolition in the 3rd and 4th sets. Fed showed him up for the also-ran he is.

DISCLAIMER: I'm still dirty that Bag-that-ass knocked A-Rod out and lost me my 10 bucks. However...

This f**king bandwagon-jumping drove me insane! I should expect it from our meeja, given that there were no Aussies left, and the Melbourne Greek community will dry hump anyone successful who has one eyebrow, but how about recognising the fact that we are truly blessed to be able to watch a supreme athlete like Federer run around the court.

Tiger Woods has played down here about as many times as I've got par (and not even Greg Norman plays here anymore). We'll never see a top 1% soccer player kick a ball in anger here. We had the best athletes turn up here once in 1954 and once in 2000, but we won't see 'em for a while.

So, when we see him, we spend the whole time saying how he's not at his best, and how he might slip up here etc etc.

Let's play hypotheticals. Federer wins, and everyone says they expected that, but what a performance from Bag-that-ass to get this far! Federer loses, and all of a sudden there is a new world champion.

No wonder the poor bastard couldn't help but cry after winning. He goes on to explain here that

"Being such a huge favourite had put so much pressure on me. And if I had lost it would have been the biggest upset since I don't know when. I can't remember when I had last been that nervous going into a match. And waiting all day for the night session, that was even more nerve-racking on top of it."

He's by far the best racquet-swinger running around at the moment. He's not a complete lunatic on the court (I'm looking at you Little). He's gracious in victory AND defeat (on the odd occasion that occurs). He gives so much more to the media than any others (read here).

How about next year we give him some more credit, eh?

Summer's Not Dead Yet

White Ball: I've gotta be careful what I wish for, but it was kinda good to see the Saffy's win last night, at least to keep some interest in the series (sh*t, I'd never thought I'd say a South African win would be good to see).

To appease the media, Punter's come out and said that the "aggressive" batting would be reviewed. Don't hold your breath. With our fairly leaky bowling attack (M.C. Grath aside) and genuine batting depth, I reckon we'll always be better off batting first and bullying to a big total.

Two things came out of the game:
(1) Even Brett Lee is a better all-rounder than Watto (that now places Watto about 15th in the rankings of Aussie ODI all-rounders, somewhere behind Hussey, Clarke, Katich and Warne).

(2) I know they have a vested interest in holding on to viewers to the end of the game (apparently, there's idiots out there that can't change the channel at the end of a game to avoid watching News and a Crime Show - btw, I think that's Nine's new tagline for the year). Howevs, it really needs to be said that anything less than 100 runs off the last 10 overs with more than around 5 or 6 wickets in hand will ALMOST ALWAYS be chased successfully.

Sorry Tubby and Heals, ODI cricket has actually changed in the decade since you two buggered off. If anyone can remember multiple recent occasions where 70 or 80 runs weren't able to be chased in the last 10, comment me.

Yellow Ball: Ausopen starts today. Good article about that dude who married that Home and Away whore. My pick: A-Rod (I'll be putting $10 down today, spewing I didn't last Friday when he was paying about $8.00).

Nine's Cricket Coverage

I assume most of my reader (not a typo) watched the slog-fest the other night on TV.

Nine have released a presser to The Age with some interesting promo of upcoming coverage gimmicks advances.

I thought the on-field interviews were great in that we finally got the idea that Graeme Smith isn't a total f**kwit, but I was better off not knowing what Roy Symonds sounded like (surprisingly ocker!).

And I'm convinced that Mark Nicholas, whilst never possibly being as good as, is an able replacement for Richie when he dies (which is surely only days away... have you seen him!).

Finally, I was glad to hear Slats commentating. I don't know if I share this viewpoint with many others, but I thought he was great on the Foxtel/Sky coverage of the Ashes, and his ABC radio work was just as good. In fact, if digital TV didn't have the half-second delay I'd have ABC on all the time.

Better still, we should be able to pick an "all-star" team of commentators. Mine (in no particular order):

• Richie Benaud
• Jim Maxwell and Kerry O'Keefe (must be on together)
• Hashan Nahasapemapitilon (or whatever his name is)
• Michael Slater
• Peter Roebuck (short bursts only)
• Mark Nicholas
• Darren Lehmann
• Glenn Mitchell

My to-be-taken-out-and-shot list (except that they would probably try and describe the shooting in obvious detail to you):

• Ian Chappell
• Tony Greig
• Bill Lawry
• Mark Taylor
• Ian Healy

Have I missed anyone? Comment me!

Erlernen Sie Neue Wörter

So I'm booking some accommodation in Berlin for next year, right.

(Did I mention that I'm going to the World Cup Quarter Final?)

And I've gone to this website to fill out details, pay a deposit etc for the apartment I'll be staying in for a couple of nights when I'm in Berlin to watch the World Cup Quarter Final

(Did I mention that I'm going to the World Cup Quarter Final?)

And, after filling out the form, I get this:

Disponibility? Those crazy Germans...

Hottest 100

After just detoxing the liver from a week of drinking at Xmas/New Year, it's time to start warming up for the best BBQ of the year.

It basically consists of some poor bastard being gracious enough to invite me over for a Australia Day BBQ, me turning up and immediately hijacking the radio to JJJ to listen to Hottest 100, and then the other attendees repeatedly saying "Oh wow, I know this song! This is that new one they're playing on 92.9/96FM/Mix 94.5 etc etc".

By this stage, I've had about 8 Heinekens, and I'm telling them "Yeah right, f**knut! It's actually about 9 months old and they've been playing it on JJJ since then... blah blah..."

Quick Simpsons Quote:

While Marge collects the laundry, Bart asks if she saved Homer's love letters. She did, of course, although there's only one. And it's really a postcard from Duff Brewery. Bart reads it as Homer v.o.'s.
[sloppily scrawled]
Maybe it's the beer talking Marge but you got a butt that won't quit. They got those big chewy pretzels here merJanthfgrr five dollars??!!!? Get outta here [scrawl]

So, here's the list of songs you WILL hear on the day. Krisko's Top 30 Prediction:

30. Cog My Enemy
29. Mountain Goats This Year
28. Jack Johnson Sitting, Waiting, Wishing
27. Living End What's On Your Radio
26. Green Day Boulevarde Of Broken Dreams
25. Mattafix Big City Life
24. Josh Pyke Middle Of The Hill
23. Pegz Back Then
22. Wolfmother Apple Tree
21. Faker The Familiar
20. Bernard Fanning Songbird
19. Gorillaz Feel Good Inc.
18. Franz Ferdinand Do You Want To
17. Giants Of Science Here Is The Punishment
16. System Of A Down Radio/Video
15. Queens Of The Stone Age Little Sister
14. Foo Fighters Best Of You
13. Coldplay Speed Of Sound
12. White Stripes My Doorbell
11. End Of Fashion O Yeah
10. Wolfmother Dimension
9. Kisschasy Do-Do's And Whoa-Oh's
8. Datarock Computer Camp Love
7. White Stripes Blue Orchid
6. Wolfmother Mind's Eye
5. Gorillaz Dare
3. Bernard Fanning Wish You Well
2. Wolfmother Joker & The Thief
1. Kanye West Gold Digger

And my actual Top 25 (like you care):

25. Kisschasy Do-Do's And Whoa-Oh's
24. Cloud Room Hey Now Now
23. Datarock Computer Camp Love
22. Maximo Park Apply Some Pressure
21. Martha Wainwright Bloody Mother F***ing Asshole
20. Rilo Kiley Portions For Foxes
19. Queens Of The Stone Age Everybody Knows That You Are Insane
18. System Of A Down Radio/Video
17. Coldplay Speed Of Sound
16. End Of Fashion O Yeah
15. Franz Ferdinand The Fallen
14. Wolfmother Dimension
13. Hot Hot Heat Middle Of Nowhere
12. Bloc Party Positive Tension
11. Wolfmother Joker & The Thief
10. Knife Heartbeats
9. Jose Gonzalez Heartbeats
8. White Stripes The Denial Twist
7. White Stripes Blue Orchid
6. Gorillaz Feel Good Inc.
5. Gorillaz Dare
4. Kanye West Gold Digger
3. Kanye West Diamonds From Sierra Leone
2. Wolfmother Mind's Eye
1. Bernard Fanning Wish You Well

And the other thing I always end up doing on Hottest 100 Day is bitterly complaining about some of the songs getting there. This year, they will be:

Cog My Enemy - This mob are a classic example of the preferential treatment JJJ (and by default, it's many listeners like myself) give to Australian bands who really don't deserve it.
Gyroscope Fast Girl - Nope, this is an even better (or is that worse?) example of the preferential treatment.
Mattafix Big City Life - Now this I just don't get. Every time it's been played in the last couple of months, the DJ has back-announced about how good the song is and how it gets so many phone calls blah blah blah f**king blah. Why? It really is nothing special...

So, who's inviting me 'round this year???