Sports

The latest in McGill and world sports.

THIRD MAN IN: Sportsophobia

Sports are boring. Let’s talk about baseball – I don’t care if it is “America’s pastime,” but when a game only becomes exciting after two and a half hours and consists of waiting to find out whether a player will hit the ball – or if it’s really heated, whether a player will catch it – then I believe it’s time to find a better way to spend the afternoon.

THIRD MAN IN: No style points for soccer

Soccer, football, the beautiful game; whatever you want to call it, it’s a sport suffering from a debilitating illness. One symptom of this illness is players flying through the air whenever they are so much as grazed by an opposing player in a pathetic, yet all too often fruitful, attempt to draw the referee’s attention.

Seeing red: Hockey Redmen bounced from Nationals early

The CIS University Cup tournament is no place for the faint of heart. Two games can catapult a team to the doorstep of national glory, or just as easily dash their dreams of a historic season. The Redmen discovered this painful truth last week at Nationals, after losing 4-2 to the Atlantic University Sport Champion St.

THIRD MAN IN: Hail to the true home run king

I hate this article. I hate the necessity of this debate. It disgusts me, as it disgusts many, that baseball has become a witch-hunt; a magnet for cynics. Baseball is a beautiful, unappreciated sport. It is exciting, deeply cerebral and rich with history.

SOCCER PREVIEW: Reinventing the Redmen

Sports are a transcendent element in today’s turbulent society. To use a cliché, any team can win on any given day. It is not always the supremely skilled squads that capture championships; rather, spirited, passionate and hard-working often trump the talented.

ON DECK

Martlets Soccer-McGill vs. Sherbrooke; Friday, 6p.m. The Quebec champion Martlets open the season in the friendly confines of Molson Stadium against Sherbrooke. In what should be a challenging game against an always fiesty Vert et Or side, McGill will have the chance to show the home fans why they are a top contender for the ultimate prize at the end of the season-the National Championship.

SPORTS BRIEFS

Martlets chalk up another win McGill’s rugby women got the regular season off on the right foot on Sunday, crushing Bishop’s 55-0. Centre Laura Belvedere led the team with four tries, while prop Valerie Evans and fullback Julianne Zussman each scoring twice.

PROFILE-MEN’S ROWING: From flyers to a flying finish

While very few university students can say that they are on their country’s national rowing team, even fewer can say that they have won a medal at the World Rowing Championships. However, Derek O’Farrell can lay claim to both. Over the summer, the U4 physiology student finished third in the Men’s Coxed Pair at the under-23 World Rowing Championship in Eton, UK, becoming the first McGill rower to ever reach the podium at a World Championship.

Atlantic

Boston Celtics: The reigning champs lost a lot of their toughness when they let go of SF James Posey, but the Celtics are still the favourites to win the East. Their rookies, C Semih Erden and guards Bill Walker and J.R. Giddens, have seen little action this preseason and figure to play minor roles, if any, this year.

Central

* Detroit Pistons: The team that won it all in 2004 has kept their starting line-up virtually intact since, losing only C Ben Wallace in 2006. But after six straight trips to the Eastern Conference Finals, changes are afoot-new Head Coach Michael Curry replaces the polarizing Flip Saunders.

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