The Republic of Sport

Bigalke

Bigalke's Comments

Posted Saturday November 15, 2008, About: Sports Submissions

The book was "The Miracle of Castel di Sangro" by Joe McGinniss... we'll definitely be detailing that book and/or moving over & bulking up that piece from earlier...

Here are a couple of the other books I've been considering so far:

"When Pride Still Mattered" by David Maraniss
"Hey Rube" by Hunter S. Thompson
"Inside the Postal Bus" by Michael Barry

Posted Saturday November 15, 2008, About: Submissions...

Yeah... nice work on that! I hadn't even thought of that fact...

Posted Saturday November 15, 2008, About: Submissions...

Hold on... I'm going to break this up into two subsets: Sports Submissions and Non-Sports Submissions... I'm thinking of doing a 2/1 ratio of sports to non-sports literature to stay close to both missioins: promoting literature in general and promoting good sports writing...

Posted Sunday September 14, 2008, About: Lance Armstong's Comeback

The ultimate thing to realize is that the sport is bigger than any one athlete. Cadel Evans, granted, has never been an exciting rider in my book either... and too often cycling comes down to pure tactics, the race being dictated through the radios by the team directors and the legs being of peripheral concern despite their preeminence. Armstrong only perpetuates this philosophy, and thus I must regard his comeback with some skepticism from the standpoint of how it will affect the path of cycling back toward such draconian tactics... this has nothing to do with doping and everything to do with entertainment value...

Posted Sunday September 14, 2008, About: Lance Armstong's Comeback

I guess the question, then, must be begged -- WHY would Astana want Armstrong? Even if Armstrong wants to go work with Bruyneel again, Johan's grooming another champion in Contador who is starting younger and could do even more than Lance...

Posted Sunday September 14, 2008, About: Lance Armstong's Comeback

But at the heart of the matter is the fact that few seem to ask this question: Is the comeback of Lance Armstrong really a good thing for cycling? The sport has seemed to move on from the Armstrong era, albeit with growing pains, as it has matured into the realities of a media-driven world. Armstrong was always effusive with reporters, and while he has vowed to change his ways this time around the past ill will engendered will still resonate with some reporters. Americans are apt to get a rosy view of all his work toward cancer awareness and his ascetic dedication to a laudable goal... but the international press will not be as forgiving...

And besides, how can the sport of cycling grow if one man continues to dominate its press despite participating in so few actual RACES?...

Posted Sunday September 14, 2008, About: Lance Armstong's Comeback

I wouldn't necessarily call Astana the most dirty team on the market, though the team's fractious history -- its long fall from grace was being catalogued and suspicions harbored even in the team's ONCE days, through its Liberty Seguros era that ended with the revelations of Operacion Puerto, and then in the eleventh-hour salvation of Astana before the actions of its figurehead, Alexandre Vinokourov, almost paralyzed THAT sponsorship -- does belie some relevant skepticism. However, its current incarnation IS indeed dedicated to building an internal anti-doping program... something which, one must admit, would be bolstered greatly by an Armstrong arrival if only because the suspicions surrounding him would force the issue. He has already himself stated a dedication to stringent internal testing and full disclosure, so here's to hoping that's what happens regardless of the team he joins...

Posted Saturday September 13, 2008, About: Lance Armstong's Comeback

Point conceded... ;-)

Posted Saturday September 13, 2008, About: Lance Armstong's Comeback

Are you really telling me that the nail-biting penultimate time trials the past several years HAVEN'T kept you riveted to your seat moreso than Armstrong obliterating the competition in a methodical and multiple-minute manner? You must favor the hegemon, too... underdogs really must not be your thing. The Rasmussen/Contador battles in 2007 were awesome, the Pereiro/Landis attacks (dope notwithstanding) inspired millions around the globe in real time, and last year saw any number of people line up with legitimate chances of success. By the end of Armstrong's reign it almost seemed as though the entirety of the peloton was resigned to Discovery dominating the race... LOTS OF FUN TO WATCH, if you ask me...

(I'm laying down the sarcasm pretty thick here... sorry about that...)

Posted Saturday September 13, 2008, About: Lance Armstong's Comeback

He's done it before. Merely coming in, racing the Dauphine and then lining up at the start hardly engenders support from teammates. Remember, this isn't the team of which he was part owner with Bart Knaggs and the rest of the Tailwind crew... Astana is owned by a Kazakh consortium and as such should not be treated as the plaything of Armstrong merely because Bruyneel came on board...

Posted Saturday September 13, 2008, About: Lance Armstong's Comeback

The difference here is that Heras was only a factor ONCE in the Tour de France -- and that came solely because he was always beside Lance. The big difference here is that Contador is ALREADY a Tour winner, and doesn't NEED Armstrong to help validate his career. Lance will only serve to hold him and the other leaders of this team back. His move, under the guise of spreading the news about cancer (and let's face it, Lance, EVERYONE already knows about your fight against cancer... so what more good can come in that fight from you pedaling around "Le Grande Boucle"?), really seems as self-serving as Favre's comeback...

Posted Friday September 12, 2008, About: Lance Armstong's Comeback

To refute your claims, SodaPop:

First, Lance would not be coming back to race again if he thought even for one second that he would have to be working in the Tour de France for another rider... even if that rider is also a former winner himself. The problem with Lance has always been that he races an abbreviated schedule and has trained so reclusively that even most of the members of his team roster hardly know the man. Bruyneel can say what he wants, but if Armstrong is accepted back into the fold he is inevitably going to carry more clout than might be good considering three other guys on the team are also former Tour podium finishers.

As for Leadville, here's the quote that Armstrong told VeloNews reporter Steve Frothingham after the Leadville race (as found on page 33 of Vol. 37/No. 16 [25 Aug 2008]), "I told him, 'you gotta go man, I can't go anymore.' He said, 'come on' and I said, 'no, I'm done, you go.'" Don't forget, Wiens was an elite mountain biker, the peak of his career coming around the same time as the peak for money and sponsorship within the sport. He isn't hurting for dollars, and to assert that Lance ALLOWED him to win @ Leadville as a monetary favor both belies a naivety about and an insulting tone toward both Armstrong AND Wiens. Wiens won fair and square...

And finally, the Tour de France has been doing just fine post-Armstrong. With much more exciting action in recent years than the six- and seven-minute victories (save 2003) which defined the Armstrong era of the Tour de France. The issue isn't only transparency; ASO will be even more wary of Astana, which already had put an internal testing program in place BEFORE being snubbed by ASO from the 2007 Tour, due to their already-rampant skepticism of all things Lance. If they were willing to reject, this year, a healthy and willing defending champion for the first time in the race's history, what guarantees Armstrong a spot in the starting gate when the 2009 Tour starts with its prologue in Monaco?

Posted Thursday September 11, 2008, About: Lance Armstong's Comeback

As a long-time freelance cycling journalist, the biggest issues I see with Armstrong's comeback are threefold:

First, even if Astana does welcome Armstrong into the fold -- which it increasingly looks is bound to happen -- there runs the possibility of having too many generals and not enough grunts. Leipheimer is still hungry for his first Tour victory, and Contador is anxious to prove that his win wasn't only as a result of Rasmussen's ouster in 2007. Armstrong carries a certain cachet to his name, but despite this reality the Astana team already has proven winners who are younger than the more seasoned Armstrong.

Second, Armstrong couldn't even win the Leadville 100 this year against Dave Wiens. Granted, mountain biking requires vastly different skills than road racing; however, the fact that a RETIRED racer can beat Armstrong on any terrain sends up red flags. The risk of tarnishing one of the greatest legacies in all of sports is a real dilemma with which Armstrong must come to grips if he is to make this comeback.

And thirdly, should he join Astana and come back to the sport, the sticky issue of Amaury Sport Organization still looms on the horizon. Never really enamored with the brash Texan, ASO has also proven to hold Astana in a skeptical light. Disallowed from participation in the 2007 Tour due to the indiscretions of its previous incarnation, Astana could easily miss out again on a bid -- especially with the polarizing force that is Lance on their roster...

So good luck, Lance... you've got a bumpy road ahead...

Posted Monday August 18, 2008, About: Blogging Rights

It's been SEVEN WHOLE MINUTES!!!

Posted Monday August 18, 2008, About: Blogging Rights

Hey now... I've joined, I've been asked by two founders to write for this group... but where's my rights?!

Posted Friday August 01, 2008, About: HOF Noms ***PLEASE READ***

Okay, here's my take on this as a guy who worked his way quickly up the ranks and now comes here today as a "newbie" HOF member...

When I evaluate ANYONE for Hall of Fame membership, it isn't the amount of time they've been on this site I look at, just as I don't take into account the color of his or her skin, his or her religious proclivities or sexual orientation or age or any other divisive artificial barrier...

I think that these past greats deserve recognition, certainly... but at the same time they have of their own free will made themselves less visible to other members. Absence CAN make the heart grow fonder... but only if it knows exactly what it is that is absent. Many people have never seen a word by these members -- though I personally have sought out writing by them all. They are good, yes, but there's a bunch of us that can pump out words in our best times more gracefully than Grantland Rice... and it is not the best of our times but our most subpar efforts and how we handle them which define our greatness...

Should these others be in the Hall of Fame? Certainly... but should others who are equally talented and are ensuring their place at the front of voters' minds due to greater current activity be denied a chance simply because they didn't discover this site sooner? Do you think I would've been here last summer had I known this existed? You bet your arse I would've... but I didn't find it until winter, and now by your definition I am not a duly-elected Hall of Famer but just another hack newbie rube that doesn't belong...

You have valid points but miss the real motive of any Hall of Fame... to find the members who best captivate the public with their talents, whether having been active one month or one year or more...

Posted Tuesday July 29, 2008, About: What next?

It looks like we are going to be doing the Olympics next...

Posted Tuesday July 29, 2008, About: What next?

Sorry, Buc... Bigalke Presents is devoted to sports less traditional to American audiences... but perhaps you might see some training camp posts by me elsewhere... and then maybe not...

Posted Wednesday July 02, 2008, About: Guess the Picture

It was looking from the front of the Capitol... can you guess WHERE on the Capitol building, though? It was a specific office balcony...

Posted Friday May 30, 2008, About: EURO 2008 Leagues: NOW SET!

What's up with this, Keeper? I'm interested... FM me to let me know if I can still get in on this...

Posted Sunday May 25, 2008, About: 1st Edition

Is there a specific minimum and/or maximum word count you are looking for the columns, Undefeated? I'm starting to write my first opinion column, and I'd really like to know...