Crooks and Nannies

Charles Barkley was probably my favorite basketball player, as much for his honesty and his humor and his good nature off the court as for the will and desire that enabled him to perform beyond the limits of his physical abilities.  He's endorsed Barack Obama for President, and the video of it can be seen here.  This is a surprising endorsement, coming from a person whose previous expression of political views was that he was a Republican, because he was rich, and he was all for anyone who would cut his taxes.  Now whether Sir Charles, the Round Mound of Rebound, can round up votes for Senator Obama is an open question.

...Okay, probably not.  But no one ever doubted that Barkley gives good television, and he might be able to give the Senator some new sound bites.

One of the cool things about having a blog is that it gives you a place to put your predictions, recorded for posterity in digital 1s and 0s.  Anyway, Roger Federer announced before the French Open that he was firing his coach.  Now, I know Federer is an excellent tennis player. 

Some say Federer is the greatest of all time, but there’s actually no way to know that.  The tennis racquets they use now allow players to hit balls significantly faster and harder than players in the past.  That means that most aces served in tennis these days simply would not have been twenty or thirty years ago, and has given the big server a far greater advantage than he already held in the past.  (There’s no other sport that has changed its basic elements so radically, and so much to the detriment of its fans.)  And Federer is a complete player, but, yes, he has a big serve.

But this isn’t about that.  Federer thinks he doesn’t need a coach.  As soon as I heard that, I suspected Federer was going to start to go downhill, at least for a while, because athletes have already gone a little nuts when they believe they’re bigger than the game they play.  I predicted Federer would lose the French Open, and, no surprise, Nadal beat him there.  But I also predicted Federer would lose Wimbledon , which is the reason I mention this.  Federer is favored to win Wimbledon , and I just want it on the record that I say it’s not going to happen.