August 16, 2008 9:53 AM
Steinberg Wins Blog Pop-a-Shot
At 8 p.m. last night, the opening rounds of the 100m dash were underway at the Bird's Nest. The U.S. women's basketball team was tipping off against Spain. China's Super Dan Lin was playing countryman Jin Chen in a badminton semifinal.Meanwhile, two Beijing bloggers competed in what surely must be a record-setting attempt in Olympic irrelevance.
I'm talking, of course, about the blog-vs.-blog pop-a-shot showdown between myself and The Washington Post's Dan Steinberg, he of the fine D.C. Sports Bog.
We met last night down in the Wangfujing District, underneath the oversized statue of Yao Ming for a best-of-three competition.
The rules had changed since my last visit to the pop-a-shot grounds. The new rules: one token gets you 60 seconds of pop-a-shot play. Score more than 60 points in that opening minute and you earn a second minute of play. After the second minute, you need to amass 160 points to win a third minute of pop-a-shot action.
As for the scoring system: there appeared to be none in play. A made shot earned between 1 and 4 points, awarded basically at random.The first game went well for the Rocky. Steinberg took an early 72-71 lead, but I hit a good rhythm in the second minute and took down the Bog with a 142-139 victory.
I was feeling pretty confident. I wasn't getting great extension on my shot, but I felt that if I could put two more comparable rounds on the board, I'd have a chance to win this best-of-three.
We took a quick break to allow a few Chinese kids to play a round. We were both sweating. Steinberg started stretching.
In the second game, Steinberg caught fire early, putting 90+ points on the board in the first minute. I finished with a respectable 144, but Steinberg topped the 160 mark, earning him another 60 seconds of action. He finished with an absurd score of 274.(By comparison, my previous high, with two players shooting on one hoop, was 261.)
So it all came down to the third game. Steinberg got serious and took off the non-fedora hat he had on.
I started entirely too slow, needing two buckets in the final 10 seconds of the opening round just to top 60. I hit my final five shots in the second minute, but in the end, it wasn't enough. Steinberg finished a basket or two above 160, earned the additional bonus minute and scored a 241. I came up short, at 139.
So congratulations to Dan Steinberg, winner of first ever Washington Post-Rocky Mountain News blog-vs-blog competition. I suppose he takes the title of Mr. Basketball Irrelevant, or 无关的 篮球 (wúguān de lánqiú).
I'm expecting the Rocky's DNC blog to avenge my defeat at the Pepsi Center later this month, ideally with a blog-vs.-blog mini golf-off or the like.
[One brief post-match tableau that I'll take entirely out of context:
Dan is walking by the Night Market, doing the obligatory scorpion-on-a-stick story for his blog. He's found an Irish guy to eat some random meats on camera for him. While the Irish guy is debating what to try, his friends start calling out suggestions.
"Penis! Penis! Penis!" they chant. Goat penis is a specialty at the Night Market.
The Irish guy gives it some thought. "There's always testicles," he says.
"Sounds okay to me," Steinberg replies.
And who says journalism is dead?]
[In case you're having trouble finding us in that above photo: we're the guys who you look like they weren't born with the natural ability to handle chopsticks.]
August 17, 2008
5:42 PM
matthew maury writes:
You should have played more WAMBA.
Matthew Maury