Multitasking While Watching the 2014 US Open

I've always dreamed that for a year I would follow the tennis tour, go to all four major and write about tennis. If anyone would like to fund this venture, hit me up, but for now, just a few thoughts as I watch Djokovic v. Murray after a long day (we took 215 students to a Dodger game).

It's the second set. It's been back and forth, but Murray is looking strong in this second set. Cut to: Amelie Mauresmo in the stands with an emphatic fist-pump after a Murray winner. She's coaching Murray? That's all kinds of awesome. Which got me wondering about some other women's tennis players. So, Gabriella Sabatini, according to www.wearetennis.com, has a perfume line and cycles to stay in shape. She's a few years older than me and looks amazing. Jennifer Capriati is on twitter @JenCapriati, and Monica Seles still reminds me of Celine Dion.

And how are the men holding up? Well, Mats Wilander, Stephan Edberg and Bjorn Borg look so much older than I expected but in a dignified kind of way.

Now, back to the match: another tiebreaker!

Escape to Brazil for World Cup

After losing my mom a few weeks ago, sports has provided a wonderful escape. My Dodgers pitched a no-hitter (thanks for the edit, Matt Rose), the French Open ended, Wimbledon started, and the World Cup is in full swing. David and I visited Rio a few years ago and it is a beautiful place for this beautiful game. Thank you to all of these athletes for the much needed distraction, but to Luis Suarez, come on. Even The Boss says there's no biting in sports.

  Bruce Springsteen -- Hey Suarez, There's No Biting In Sports!!!

Farewell to March...

For a sports fan March is a glorious time of year and this past weekend was the perfect example of this.

A few weeks ago perfect brackets awaited the chaos, but now, with tattered brackets in hand, we had the Elite Eight games for the men's NCAA tournament as well as the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games for the women's tournament to enjoy. Two weeks into the tournament, every team has a story and with close games and continued upsets, every game held heartbreak and triumph. This is what win or go home is all about. This is what happens when every possession and every shot counts.

And then, on this last day of March, Major League Baseball opened its season. After an overseas opening day for the Dodgers and Diamondbacks, top pitchers took to the mound in ballparks all over the league. Overlooking gorgeous outfields of green and flawless infield of dirt, every team started their season with the possibility of winning it all.

And now it is April. The Final Four games will close out the college basketball season, and soon stories will emerge from Major League Baseball of teams over and underachieving, of aging ball players like Jeter and new stars like Trout and Puig. This Dodgers fan will remain optimistic, but I know it's a long time before October.

March ends, and spring and summer stretch out before us. Filled with possibility I will embrace this one shining moment while I can.

Free Throws

After Oklahoma State hoops player, Marcus Smart, went into the stands a couple of weeks ago I've been thinking about crowds, and fans, and all the indiscretions that people get away with at sporting events. And since I'm working on a high school memoir, I went back to the early nineties, to this moment in the Crook County High School gym: my least favorite place to play in all of Central Oregon.

Free Throws

I stand at the line, find the center and press the toe of my high top to the edge. I take my three dribbles and lift the heels of my feet in little steps like I always do. I spin the ball to my fingertips, set, shoot, and drain the first of two free throws.

I step away from the line.

That’s when I hear someone from the crowd yell, “Connie Chung.”

I freeze. The sweat chills on my skin. I forget the score. I want to peer over my shoulder, to rewind the audio and listen again to make sure I really just heard that. With my ears piqued, I hear laughter from the crowd, and then silence. Then I hear it again. “Connie Chung” in that sing-songy way that crowds chant names. But it’s not a crowd. It’s just one voice. Then the giggles again.

I step to back up to the line and the referee bounces me the ball. I line up my toe and on that first dribble I wonder if someone is really saying that to me. I’m not sure. All I do know is that I’m the only one with an Asian name on the court. I’m the only Asian in the gym since Dad isn’t here. I shake my head. I dribble again.

Second dribble. I barely even look Asian since I'm only half, and don’t they know Connie Chung, the news anchor, is Chinese American and I’m Japanese? And my name’s in the program. Nori Nakada. Clearly Japanese, not Chinese. Why can’t people even be racist right?

My third dribble echoes in the silence of the gym. At least no one is joining in.

I take a deep breath and it’s there again, “Connie Chung.” The laughter again.

I take a second deep breath. I never do that. I never break my free-throw shooting routine, the one I took on in middle school and haven’t changed since. The one I’ve used to shoot over 90% from the line all through high school.

I stare through the net at the back of the rim and suddenly want to cry. I study the orange metal, feel the ball heavy in my palm, bend my knees and shoot. Don’t think. Just shoot. Rely on all that muscle memory.

I shoot, watch the ball arch through the silence, and I swishes right through. Figures. Another stereotype. The model minority. 

Some Favorite Sports Moments

I am really glad there isn't much video evidence of my basketball playing days. I'm sure some AV kid could dig through the archives at Mountain View to find tapes from the glory years when the Lady Cougars' varsity squad won two, maybe three games a season, but I think it's pretty safe to say no one will do that.

If they posted said videos on Youtube, you'd catch me rolling my eyes at referees, complaining about calls, maybe giving an occasional extra shove after a foul... and I was playing basketball in a small town for a team that rarely won. My stakes were so incredibly low that I can't imagine how my emotions could have gotten away from me on a larger stage.

So when I see athletes react in the heat of competition, in a big college game or playing in a playoff game at the professional level, I love it. I love seeing the raw emotion of competition on display. I understand Marcus Smart pushing a fan in the stands this past weekend, and Richard Sherman's impassioned post-game smack talking. I doubt either of them see this as one of their finest moments, but I can relate to their responses.

But as women's basketball rolls back around, this emotional moment by Shoni Schimmel upsetting Baylor in the Sweet 16 is one of my favorites.



She says after that shot she got up and asked Brittney Griner about the weather. I've written about Shoni before. Girl can ball and, Mountain View AV students, you can just toss those videos.

Buh bye, BCS!

Hey! Look, folks, another college football bowl season has ended and I'm back here at Throwing Cookies to talk some smack about sports. It's been a while, but not as long as the break I took for all of 2012 when I didn't post anything between the Ducks' Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl wins because of that darn baby. And look at that, Oregon won their bowl game again. What bowl did they play in again?

I have no excuses for my lack of sports writing. There was no torn Achilles' tendon, no newborn baby, no book tour. I just haven't written about sports aside from the occasional tweet or Facebook, or instagram post even though there was plenty to write about. We made our first trip to Dodgers Spring Training this

The family at spring training...

year and to a handful of Dodgers games. Our Emerson girls and boys flag football teams both brought home city titles. It was a great year in sports, but I didn't write about it. So, for 2014 I vow to post at least once a month, maybe even more. Yep. I know all of my 10 readers just gave me a virtual high five.

So, tonight I watched the final BCS championship game between Florida State and Auburn. If both could have lost, that would have been awesome, but at least it was an entertaining game. No SEC field-goal contest like in 2011. But Oregon's last loss in a bowl was to Auburn. I don't like Auburn and I don't like the SEC. So, yeah, how does it feel, Auburn. War damn eagle, family all in.

But what a great game to finish on: SEC loses in a great FSU comeback. But 2010 Auburn team that beat us and this FSU team were both led by Heisman winning quarterbacks who made and make me cringe. I'll take some Marcus Mariota for another year. Oh, and that Seminole chant is terrible. It was terrible when the Dodgers were beating the Braves in the playoffs and it was painful to hear it through the whole game tonight.

So long BCS. I can't wait for 2015 to see how this playoff thing works...

And until then, go Dodgers! Go Ducks basketball, baseball, and softball. And go Niners! Yep, I'm still on the Kaepernick bandwagon which I wrote about last January when all that Manti Te'o drama was unfolding and the college hoops season was just underway. I even got that Oregon run in the tourney that I hoped for.

So, here's to another great year in sports. 

March Madness! Go Ducks!