Who is to Blame?

Gerard Kemkers is not exactly a household name, perhaps even in his own home. I'm not sure many of the speed-skating fanatics in the Netherlands knew too mach about Kemkers, the coach of superstar Sven Kramer...at least how much they knew of him prior to Tuesday (2/23) afternoon in Vancouver.

While Sven Kramer glided his way to gold in the 5000m race last week, we got a glimpse of just how much the Netherlands love their speed skating. We learned that a power company offered a 50 euro discount on quarterly bills if Kramer won a gold medal. That makes America's love of football look like a mere childhood crush. Going into Tuesday's 10,000m race, it was clear the country would be glued to their TVs close to midnight in Amsterdam, to watch Kramer in the race he hasn't lost since 2007 (yes, there are places that show the Olympics live all day; come to think of it, that's basically everywhere but the US).

This distance once again looked like it should be named the "Sven Kramer Challenge" as the only real competition was for 2nd place. Kramer was skating in the last pair and had a solid 6 second lead with only a few laps left, when he came to the transition area where the skaters switch between the inside and outside lane on each lap. Kramer was heading for outside lane when he hesitated and suddenly jumped over the orange cone to the inside lane.

He proceeded to keep cruising around the ice, finishing 7.57 seconds ahead of his closest competitor. As the crowd went nuts, he flashed his winning smile and pumped his fist, until Coach Kemkers came up next to him to say something, and suddenly Sven was throwing his glasses, yelling & looking nothing like a man who had just claimed his 2nd gold medal of the Vancouver games.

The voice of the arena announcer began to explain some sort of issue, which the NBC commentators passed along to confused viewers like me. In a 25 lap race, the skater should not end in the same lane where he began, yet Kramer had started and ended on the inside lane. This means he missed a lane change and was automatically disqualified. Speed skating analyst (and former athlete bringing us heartbreak and then triumph) Dan Jansen said he had seen this happen before, but never by the top skaters, and never in the Olympics. I just sat on the couch wondering how a skater of his caliber could forget to make a lane change. I got my answer during NBC's primetime broadcast (I could've looked it up earlier online, but that would've lead to finding out who won the Men's Giant Slalom race that NBC wasn't showing until later, so I yet again avoided the Internet).

Video shows that as Sven Kramer was prepared to move to the outside lane, his coach Gerard Kemkers emphatically pointed toward the inside lane. Kramer had to decide in a split-second whether to go with his gut, or listen to his coach. Unfortunately, he made the wrong decision (and ultimately a costly decision, literally, with that medal being worth nearly $500,000 US dollars from his sponsors).

So whose fault is it? Some of the media and other athletes say the blame lies squarely on Sven Kramer's shoulders, since he is the world-class athlete, solely responsible for his performance on the ice. While this is technically true, I'd have to put the majority of the blame on the coach (who, as Bob Costas mentioned, might want to look into witness protection).

By this point in the race, Sven Kramer had been skating about as fast as I drive my car, for about 10 minutes. He thought he knew where he was supposed to go, but his coach, the man entrusted with making sure he did everything possible the last 4 years to prepare for these races, was telling him something different. Kramer is an amazing athlete, but even bionic men get tired, which can make the mind tired. Coach Kemkers had been on the sidelines watching, just skating back and forth a few times. Surely he wouldn't have a mental lapse in a moment as important as this, would he? As he watches Kramer move toward the outside lane, he wouldn't adamantly point inside unless he was 100% sure he was right, would he?

As both a former coach and athlete (albeit at the somewhat smaller stage of the high school level), I'd have to place the majority of the blame on Gerard Kemkers. The coach can't mislead his athlete like that, even if it is obviously unintentional. Certainly, he wasn't trying to sabotage Kramer's top event, and Kemkers definitely looked rather inconsolable later, but he was the one pointing his athlete toward the wrong lane.

Of course everybody makes mistakes, but regardless of magnitude and regret, they are still responsible. Yes, Kramer could've continued in the direction he was heading, and yes, he does have to take some responsibility as well, but every athlete is taught from day one to listen to their coaches and to follow their directions (which Kramer did quite literally in this case). Dan Jansen later added that while he had seen skaters forget to change lanes, he had never before seen a coach point his skater in the wrong direction, so it would've seemed improbable to Kramer that Kemkers could be giving him bad advice.

That being said, it would be honorable if Kramer would publicly put the blame on himself and apologize for his (understandable) tantrum after the race. Kemkers would still know he made a huge mistake, as would everyone else watching, but it would be a classy move by Kramer nonetheless, and show that he is also a champion off the ice, which could end up being meaning more to both of them in the long run.

Bipolar Twins & other Random Thoughts

I have been absolutely pathetic about blogging lately, and even if I have good reasons/excuses, I don't like it. So, I am just going to put some random thoughts together here, to make myself feel better, even if no one reads them!


Is there any sort of bipolar medication available for baseball teams? The Twins are about to head out on the road for a 10 game road trip. They have a league leading 21 wins at home (with 12 losses), but also have the basement all to themselves for road games, winning only 6 & losing 16. Only the NL Washington Nationals are worse on the road, but they are just as bad when they play at home. For people who like numbers, the Twins have won 64% of their games at home, and just 27% on the road. I thought perhaps they are just scared of playing outside (which they'd need to get over by next year), but they only claimed 1 of the 3 indoor games at Tampa Bay last weekend, so that's not it either.

I dug a little deeper into the stats (but only about as deep as I could dig in my old sandbox...which wasn't too deep), and still remain confused. Twins pitchers have a 4.59 ERA at home and a 5.16 ERA on the road. That half a run or so is not a huge disparity considering the staggering difference in the final results. Twins pitchers do give up many more walks on the road than at home (3.3/gm on the road, 2.4/gm at the Dome), but that hasn't translated into more earned runs. Opponents hit .275 against Twins pitchers at the Dome, and .272 in their own parks. Huh? No issue there. As for the Twins hitters, they bat .278 under the white baggy roof, and .263 when exposed to the outdoor elements (or the St. Pete catwalks & sting rays in the outfield).

So how can the team essentially have the same overall hitting no matter where they play, but have seemingly no clutch hitting when away from the friendly confines of home? (No, I don't actually expect that anyone will have the answer, but if you think you do, feel free to share!)

And now for the random thoughts:

• First thought is something I shared on Twitter a few days back, but I wanted more than 140 characters to elaborate. When it comes to the actual flavor of the food, I have always preferred Burger King to McDonald's, for burgers or breakfast options (although not for the fries). However, I so deeply despise their last few years worth of ads, that I might just decide to never eat there again. Guys dressed up as a burger & a chicken sandwich going after McDonald's, Wendy's & Subway? And while Ronald McDonald inspires smiles & thoughts of "his" charity work and the Ronald McDonald Houses, the Burger King King is, well, creepy at best!

• How does Serena Williams keep matching up with "cheaters" on the red clay of Roland Garros (otherwise known as the French Open, but they want to be cool like Wimbledon, which is not known as the British or English Open). In most sports, players will try to get away with whatever they can. NBA players act as if they have never fouled anyone...ever, when they know it was their elbow in someone else's gut. NFL offensive lineman try to hold their defensive match without the refs noticing. MLB fielders are happy to act as if they caught the ball on the fly, when they know it has grass stains on it from the short-hop it took before finding their glove. Golf & Tennis are different. In golf, players keep their own scorecard and have to be honest. In tennis, if the ball hits your arm rather than your racquet, and ends up being a winner, and the ump doesn't notice, you admit it, you don't turn away, smirk, and claim the point. Sort of like what Serena ran into with Justine Henin a few back, when Justine asked for "time" and Serena saw this and held up on her serving motion hitting the ball out. The Ump did not see this, and ruled it as being out, and Justine never said a word, even though replay clearly showed her hand asking Serena to wait (which Serena did not need to do, as the game is supposed to move at the server's pace, but she was being the good sport that tennis players are supposed to be on the court). The worst example may have been in men's tennis though, in last year's Olympics, the event built on good sportsmanship, when James Blake hit a shot to Fernando Gonzalez, which nicked the top of his racquet before flying past the baseline, which should've made it Blake's point. Once again, the ump didn't see it, and Gonzo just kept his mouth shut, which disturbed Blake, one of the nicest guys in sports - it takes a lot to irritate him!
  

• Is it my imagination, or have the Minnesota Twins had an awful lot of great games on days they aren't televised? I am quite thankful for the FS North Squeeze Play, so I can at least see those hits & runs, and add them to my little highlight videos that I keep for myself (because I listen to Bert's announcement each game about what I can't disseminate), but in this day & age, I should be able to catch every game on TV. I have MLB Extra Innings. If the local station doesn't want to show it, then the Cleveland broadcast shouldn't be a blackout! I also technically live far away enough from the Dome that it shouldn't be a blackout anyway, but because parts of my city are close enough, I fall under that blanket. But I digress...my point was that they've had some great games not on TV! Kubel's two 3-run homers in the first 2 innings today, Twins big comeback after Scott Baker collapsed in the 6th vs. the Tigers, Game 1 of the absurdly high scoring doubleheader in Chicago 2 years ago (which didn't even have a Squeeze Play!!), and these are just the ones off the top of my head.
  

• On Wednesday (June 3), Cleveland Indians pitcher Cliff Lee yet again jawed at Carlos Gomez for bunting. I like what Jim Souhan said during the FS North broadcast; something along the lines of "Telling Carlos Gomez to not bunt is like telling Johan Santana not to throw a change-up." Why is there an appropriate & inappropriate time to bunt? Considering the Indians came back from a 10-run deficit earlier this season, they should know better than any team that no lead is safe, and when there is no clock, no team is ever out of a game. So why is there a time that bunting is not ok? (Well, other than with 2 strikes, when you haven't done it successfully ever, or almost ever). Then after the game, Lee says he doesn't want to discuss it with the media. If you don't want to talk about it after the game, how about not running your mouth about it during the game either? Just a thought...
  

• Last week, thanks to DirecTV, I could watch live French Open tennis matches from 6 different courts. As long as my favorite players were not relegated to an obscure court with no cameras, I could watch the match of my choice at any time. However, if I wanted to watch Rafael Nadal battling Robin Soderling in the 4th round, eventually losing for the first time ever on Paris' red clay, I had to wait until the match had been over a couple hours, before being allowed to watch it on NBC. Now, as I write this, it is just a few hours until the Men's semifinal matches begin, but they are not available to watch live either, because NBC couldn't possibly shorten or cancel the Today show for a day. If they don't think the tennis ratings will outweigh the Today show, then why don't they let the real tennis fans watch it live on the Tennis Channel, and then they can show the replay to people who don't care if they know the results before watching the match. In the age of the internet, text messages, twittering, etc., having the semifinal of one of the 4 Grand Slam tournaments available only on tape delay, is simply unacceptable. Imagine how football fans would revolt if the NFL did that with a Saturday playoff game. Don't buy the exclusive rights to the match if you don't intend to show it live. (Thank you to ESPN2 for pushing ESPN First Take back a few hours on Thursday, so the Women's semis could actually be seen live!) Of course, those of you on the Pacific Coast (and perhaps the Mountain time zone too) experienced this frustration last year with each and every Michael Phelps "live" race from China, as NBC couldn't be bothered with showing it before prime time...except that by the time his races started, it actually was prime time on the West Coast too. Also unacceptable...and also NBC...but I'm guessing they don't care about my opinion!
  

That's all for now. Hopefully I will not leave so much time between my random thought sharing in the future!

5 TV Shows Liz thinks you should watch!

Anyone who has interacted with me lately on Twitter or Facebook, knows that I am on a kick to save the NBC TV Show "Chuck" and that I watch a lot of MTV reality shows. I am, however, going to make a list here of shows to watch, that do not include either Chuck or MTV reality. These are my Top 5 shows that I'd love to see other people watch too; shows that are either currently in the middle of a season, or have already been renewed for a future season (hence, Chuck is eliminated under those guidelines as Season 2 just ended, and no word yet on Season 3. I still think you should buy Season 1's DVD and then pre-order Season 2 somewhere like Amazon...

I'm not going to give you the synopsis of the shows that you could get anywhere else on the internet. I originally started writing it that way back in April, but that's really boring. This is just what I love about them!

Liz's Top 5 Current TV Shows (in alphabetical order - I couldn't actually rank them!):

• Burn Notice - Thursdays on USA Network, Season 3 coming this June. This show is a fantastic mix of action, drama & comedy, and is sort of a MacGyver meets Magnum P.I. Lead character Michael Westen & his friends Fiona & Sam help people who are in need in the Miami area (the Magnum P.I. connection) while Michael comes up with the coolest devices created from household items (the MacGyver connection). I get hooked very easily on shows that really make you laugh without actually being comedies! After you watch it, you will be wondering why you don't have a friend like Sam & an ex-girlfriend/current friend like Fiona (you might also be happy that Sharon Gless' character isn't your mother!). If you haven't watched it yet, Seasons 1 & 2 are available on iTunes, Season 1 is on DVD and USA Network keeps playing little marathons of it too. (If you are wondering where you saw Jeffrey Donovan before, I actually decided to check out Burn Notice because of his recurring guest appearance on Crossing Jordan as the investigator that Jordan thought was digging stuff up on her).


• Friday Night Lights - DirecTV in the Fall, re-shown on NBC in the spring, with a deal through 2011. This show had all the love from critics, and a passionate fan base, but not high ratings, so NBC signed a deal with DirecTV to split costs, and DirecTV subscribers get first crack at watching the episodes in the fall, with no commercial breaks (there's a nice Vaseline ad before each episode, and every time I see that ad now I think of FNL). Then NBC & iTunes start over again in the late winter/early spring. Kyle Chandler (of Early Edition fame) plays the football coach Eric Taylor, and many people think this is a football show, but its really just about life. Story lines about Coach Taylor's wife & daughter, as well as other members of the community, are more prevalent than ones about football. The characters are all well written, and played very well, and seem more realistic than a lot of reality shows. The teens don't have all these witty, grown-up lines like on "The O.C." or "90210." They are like teenagers...except for the part that they're all played by people in their mid-20's. But they act more like normal teenagers than the real teens did on "Laguna Beach." (As a disclosure, I do watch 90210, and I did watch The O.C. & Laguna Beach, and enjoyed them, but did not find them to be "realistic."). If you watch this show, you will become attached to the characters in it, I promise. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.


• Lie To Me - Wednesdays on FOX. This show stars Tim Roth & Kelli Williams (The Practice) as part of a firm that uses the science of facial expressions to figure out when people are lying, and they are hired by different people, companies, etc., to establish who is telling the truth. I heard about the show before it came out, from some surveys that Fox sent about advertisements for it, but it honestly didn't appeal to me. My mom started watching it though, and told me how much she loved it, so I decided to check out the first couple episodes on iTunes. I was hooked! So much fun! Only caution is that I find myself analyzing people's facial expressions on everything else that I watch, even though I have no training in this field, and start coming to conclusions without any actual expertise. But it is fun!
  


• The Mentalist - Tuesdays on CBS. This show's season finale is Tue, May 19, so there's not much time left, but I feel like they'll be showing re-runs throughout the summer for anyone who hadn't checked it out. Hopefully, because unlike most CBS shows, its not available on iTunes! Aussie Simon Baker plays Patrick Jane, a former "psychic" who admitted he was a phony & just has great observational skills. He is a consultant to the California Bureau of Investigation (CBI). As a side note, without TV, if NCIS or perhaps MBI (I'm assuming Minnesota has a bureau of investigation too) came to my door, I would've had no idea they were real organizations...but I digress. This is also a fantastic mix of comedy & drama. Simon Baker has had a lot of shows in the US, and only The Guardian had any longevity, but he's a household name now thanks to the Mentalist (and also allegedly the only man to make Barbara Walters blush on The View). I originally saw the premise of the show & thought...doesn't Psych do that already? But its completely different from Psych (which I also enjoy). The cast all meshes really well together, so it's easy to understand why it is the #1 new show of the year, and toward the top of the rankings for any shows. If you've missed it, find a way to check it out. I promise you'll love it, or you get your money back for the purchase of this blog...
  


• Southland - Thursdays on NBC. This was a mid-season replacement, taking up ER's spot, and that is the perfect place for it. I'm not even going to bother explaining a lot about the show - just consider it to be the ER of a Cop show! It takes place in South LA (hence the title) and goes with the same large ensemble cast format like ER, and has the same quick moving action. Also available on iTunes.
  

So there you have it! The 5 TV shows that are still going now or already renewed for their next season that I think anyone with a TV & satellite dish/cable should check out!