Monzanator

I can only wonder how much the media hype McIlroy to win the Masters to complete the Grand Slam. I suppose the hype is even bigger this year since he's stayed on the PGA side

The renovated Trampolino Dal Ben ski jumping complex is projected to have HS 143 which would make it the second biggest large hill in operation (after Willingen HS 147). I assume they want to push the 150 meter jumps if possible. Normal hill will be HS 109.

LH record on the current/soon old HS 134 is 138.5 meters by Eric Frenzel (nordic combined).

Laguta and Sayfutdinov had Polish citizenship for a while now and there was a debate last year whether we should treat them as Poles anyway. Obviously speedway is a niche sport nobody cares about in the big picture

Zelensky & his wife with an official state visit to Poland today

Horrendous idea. Van der Leyen really is that much power-thirsty?

@Vektor@BiathlonfanYeah, the World Cup in Poznań has been cancelled. Apparently FIE send a message to the organizers that "Polish authorities can't decide which Russians should take part in the event or not and that is FIE's decision". After that the Polish organizers cancelled the event.

If FIE is sending such a message to everyone else opposing the Russians then I'm no longer surprised why everything gets cancelled. This is quite a hideous blackmail for lack of better words.

Sandy Alcantara had to pitch a CG shutout to deny the Twins and Marlins escaped with 1-0 victory.

Meanwhile Brewers beat Mets 9-0 which included Max Scherzer giving up 3 HR in one inning

After Lakers got rid of Westbrook they predictably got better. The Kyrie Irving experiment in Dallas is a complete dumpster fire (also predictable) and Mavericks could even miss the play-in Three games to go and they can only finish 40-42 IF they win all three...

Sacramento Kings made the playoffs to snap the longest post-season drought in all US major pro leagues (since 2006). The new masters of futility are NY Jets of NFL (last playoffs in 2010).

A landlocked country bidding to host an event named after a sea?

Paris bans the e-scooter rentals after 90% people voted for the ban. This e-scooter crap is truly heading the same path as Segway. Totally unneccessary crap that people don't want to buy in the big picture. How shocking

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/02/parisians-vote-on-banning-e-scooters-from-french-capital

Carlos Carrasco season debut is down the tank, pulled in the 5th down 0-3, then reliever Hunter pours gasoline giving up a Grand Slam to rookie Turang and it's 10-0 Brewers Mets learn there are better teams in the league than Marlins the hard way...

Yeah, it was the post-Olympics year and some expected top performers started slow and never found turbo (mainly Kobayashi who still showed up to win a medal at World Champs though and Geiger who really had a poor season overall). Lindvik also had a very disappointing season IMO. On the flip side Wellinger has found life almost out of nowhere when may people thought he was done as serious competitor after his injuries (i.e. Severin Freund deja vu).

Yeah, there are only a handful of SP who really sustain top level for several years in a row. I do have a feeling there's a biger group of guys who have one or two great seasons and then tail off yet carry a reputation of being great for a while (without me looking at this WAR stats or whatever the analytics say). Betting on deGrom at this stage is 50/50...

1 hour ago, Olympian1010 said:

She came across as very relatable and quite genuine (at least to me). It was nice to have youthful, progressive leader on the world stage. 
 

It looks like pretty damn close battle to form a government for either of the three major parties.

 

Not for the first time a politician popular on the international scene stumbles when faced with some less than flashy real-life problems. Given Finland's NATO U-turn, alleged economy problems (nobody wants to hear about the COVID excuses anymore) and obviously the next chapter of Russian imperial wars it's not that surprising the Finnish society voted for someone else tbh.

14 hours ago, hckošice said:

Important parliamentary elections today in &

 

Good luck guys, choose carefully

Looks like the party's over for Sanna Marin. Probably needed more of those party clips after all

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65157357

Maybe @phelpspicked the wrong Japanese transfer?  Kodai Senga had a shaky first inning in MLB but settled for 8 K after that in Mets' 5-1 win over Marlins.

Marco Bezzecchi wins his first MotoGP race in Argentina! In the wet no less! After Bastianini he's like my favorite rider so good to see him getting that first win so early in the season!

Zarco in 2nd - 16 podiums and still no MotoGP wins. Bagnaia dropped it out of 3rd and finished 16th.

Russian Fencing Federation confirmed they will NOT send any athletes for the Poznań World Cup.

https://www.polsatsport.pl/wiadomosc/2023-04-02/rosjanki-nie-wystartuja-w-zawodach-w-polsce-federacja-mowi-o-warunkach-nie-do-zaakceptowania/

Meanwhile Ryan McKenna dropped a game-ending flyout and Adam Duvall walked it off for Red Sox two pitches later. Orioles led 7-1 but lost 8-9

This is a complete clown show. Michael Masi is LAUGHING over this crap. They put red flag to avoid finishing under yellows and the race will finish under yellow anyway

Phillies pitching off to a historically bad start.... against the Rangers of all teams! 11 runs on Thursday, 16 runs today!

Angels, yes, those anemic Angels score 11(!) runs in the third inning en route to 13-1 victory over Athletics! Talk about a rough MLB debut for SP Shintaro Fujinami

This is WTA title #30 for Kvitova which ties the mark held by Tracy Austin and Caroline Wozniacki. Next up is Conchita Martinez (33 titles).

If we consider Venus Williams part-time player at this stage then Kvitova has the most titles among active full-time players.

Petra Kvitova beat Sorana Cirstea 7-5 6-4 in the second Miami SF. Cirstea led 5-2 in the first set but couldn't close it out.

41 minutes ago, phelps said:

 

wow! they had to wait 52 years, but now they have won back-to-back titles.

 

congrats to GKS Katowice.

Well, there are some factors that contributed to their demise

a) in the 1960s they had a HC from Soviet Union who left after 1971

b) another club from Katowice - Naprzód Janów - became the top team in the city and produced better results between 1970s-1990s.

c) the football section of GKS Katowice grew stronger and come the late 70s replaced Polonia Bytom as one of the "Top 3" of Upper Silesian clubs in the football league (the other two being Ruch Chorzów and Górnik Zabrze). Polonia was still a power house in the 60s but then fell off in the next decade.

Mind you back in the 1970s there were four clubs from Katowice in the Polish ekstraklasa plus the nearby Zagłębie Sosnowiec. However the 1970 was the rise of Podhale Nowy Targ (champions in 1966 and 1969 before winning NINE straight titles 1971-1979). Funnily enough Polonia Bytom who lost relevance in football became a powerhouse in hockey winning six titles in late 80s/early 90s.

Then communism state sponsorship ended after 1989 and all the clubs linked to mines & steel mills fell on hard times which paved the way for Podhale Nowy Targ & Unia Oświęcim dominance in the 90s/2000s. GKS Katowice stumbled around in the 90s and early 00s (also under the name Hockey Club Katowice for a while), was relegated in 2005 and then only promoted in 2012. They have found relevance in the last 6-7 years again.

Okay, so much for Polish hockey league history