“If you’ve been injured in an auto accident, Emerson Jones can get you the money you deserve…”
Emerson Jones is actually a Aussie tennis player. I watched some of her match in the qualifying rounds of the Cincinnati Open last Tuesday.
She’s one of the top 140 players in the WTA. And there she was, on a random Tuesday, in a random city, trying to beat a random opponent, on a random court at the Cincinnati Open complex. Not Center Court. Not the Grandstand Court. Not the Champions Court. Not the Tony Trabert Court. Just one of the many outlier courts, each with a few rows of seats.
At #131 in the rankings, she’s right on the cusp of the draw (128 players each, give or take, in both men’s and women’s).
The match was close, but “Emmo” (as her coaches called her) lost in straight sets. 7-5, 7-5.
She lost to Lanlana Tararudee… great name! Lanlana is slightly higher on the WTA food chain, but still in the “qualifier” group.
FWIW, She’s the highest ranked player from Thailand, too.
As fate would have it, Emerson and Lanlana also had squared off in the previous tournament, in Canada.
Two kids, half a world away from home, trying to make it in a cutthroat sport.
If you look at the prize money totals for both players, you might be thinking that’s some pretty good coin for an 18-year-old and a 22-year-old. And it is. But there’s a price that comes with the prizes.
That prize money has to be split up among coaches, agents, trainers… all the cogs that feed the machine. And then there’s airfare, hotel rooms, meals, equipment…
Not to mention that there’s not much of an off-season for the sport, so you’re on the road constantly. Home is wherever you lay your head on the hotel pillow. And heaven forbid if you skip a tourney – it’ll drop you down in the all-important rankings.
If you want to “go pro” this is your life. Tennis seems like such a glamorous sport. And it is, at the top. But for every woman holding up the winner’s trophy, there are literally hundreds of others that are nearly as good, just trying to make a go of it, on a random court in a random city on a random weekday, trying to beat their opponent so they can do it all again the next day, and the next week.
It’s a lot more grind and grit, and a lot less glamour. Kudos to Emerson, and Lanlana, and all the other “also rans” who are still out there running.
While I was on my “Big Sky Country” trip a couple of weeks ago (see this recent post for more), I simply had to make a pilgrimage to the site of Evel Knievel’s ill-fated Snake River Canyon “Sky Cycle” jump. Or attempted jump, more accurately.
Evel’s name probably doesn’t mean much to this generation, raised on “Dude Perfect” videos. But to men of a certain age — Boomers and Gen X fellas — his name and exploits are etched into our memory banks. He was a daredevil hero to us wee lads. Jumping the fountain at Caesar’s Palace. Jumping cars. Jumping trucks. Jumping buses. Eventually jumping the shark. (Literally – he was supposed to jump 13 sharks in Chicago, but crashed during his practice jump. That wound up being his final stunt attempt.)
He was on ABC’s Wide World of Sports all the time. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat all rolled up into one star-spangled jumpsuit.
You probably can’t read it on the sign in the photo above, but it list “70 stunts and a world record 433 broken bones…” Watch this clip and you’ll understand the latter part of that equation.
He broke a lot of bones, but he sold a ton of toys sold too!
Even Marvel Comics got in on the action.
Evel’s most successful stunt (133 feet) happened just up the road from me, at Kings Island amusement park, in October of ’75.
But his most famous attempt was more than a year earlier, jumping the Snake River Canyon. 1600 feet. And he originally planned to try it in a motorcycle! His engineer, Bob Truax, talked him out of that. Thus the “Sky Cycle” was born. But the parachute deployed early (some suspect Evel pulled it himself), and Evel crashed into the rocks below.
There’s not much left at the launch site now – just the dirt pile and a couple of concrete footers that once held the ramp.
But it was weirdly moving… maybe even semi-spiritual… when I got to see it. Maybe because every kid wants to fly. Every kid likes to test the limits. And Evel showed us the way.
This YouTube comment sums it up for guys like me:
This song is pure 70s soft rock schmaltz, but somehow it works.
He can climb a mountain
Jump across a winding river
Once he’s made his mind up, there’s nothing he won’t try
There’s something deep inside him
Lusting for the thrills that drive him
Yet he knows someday, he’s gonna have to face, that canyon in the sky…
I’m not into motorsports of any sort. I blame that time in high school when my friends and I were doing our own late night time trials on my friend Jon’s younger sister’s moped. Complete a loop from his house – down the street, up a hill, another straightaway, then back down the hill.
I was clearly on track for the fastest lap — at least in my head — until I wiped out in turn 4, going down the hill. I still have a scar on my knee from it. Jon’s sister’s moped was none the worse for wear though. Which was a good thing, since she wasn’t home and had no idea that her brother and his friends had commandeered it.
But this past weekend, I had the chance to go to the Indy 500. I’d been to “Carburetion Day” before, but never the actual 500. It was a bucket list thing, and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. Especially the pageantry leading up to the race. They had Indy legends like AJ Foyt, Al Unser Jr., and my personal fave, Mario Andretti, taking a lap around the track, only this time in the back of pickups, not behind the wheel. Then they brought out classic Indy cars from all eras of the race. The National Anthem and “Back Home Again in Indiana.” Navy flyovers. The Purdue marching band. Caitlin Clark as the honorary grand marshal. Brendan Fraser as the honorary starter. “Racers, start your engines.”
I was there with 3 other “rookies” so we did our best to take it all in. The pure chaos of the infield, and especially the “Snake Pit.” Imagine the largest football tailgate party you’ve ever attended, then take that times a thousand. You can bring in your own coolers – where else can you do that?
350,000 people – the largest single-day sporting event in the world. What are the chances that a former co-worker would be seated in the same section?
Actually, in addition to Rob (above), another former co-worker of ours also was in our section, a few rows in front of us, with her dad, husband, and two kids.
It’s not lost on the tree hugger in me that hundreds of thousands of cars were stuck in traffic while waiting to get into the track so they could see 33 drivers waste a lot more gas… when the Strait of Hormuz is closed and gas is $5 a gallon. The concept seems anachronistic. Maybe 10 years from now the race will feature battery pack changes instead of refueling. A boy can dream, can’t he?
And yes, it’s “four left turns” as Indy/NASCAR disparagers like to point out. But there were 70 lead changes (a record) and it also was the closest finish in Indy 500 history. Not bad for a bucket list bonus.
I can honestly say I have zero desire to see a race at any other track. But I’d go back to Indy for sure.
UConn and Michigan face off tonight for the NCAA D-1 Championship in men’s hoops. But in the NIL era, it’s really tough for alums to thump their chest if “their” team wins, because most of the players are just stopping by for “one shining moment” or two.
Michigan’s starting five features only one player who was with the program last year. In fact, Nimari Burnett has been with the program for a whopping 3 years… after playing a year each at Texas Tech and Alabama. The other starters did stints at Illinois, UCLA, UNC, UAB, and even Michigan’s dreaded archrival Ohio State. (Money talks a lot louder than some “O-H” chant, apparently.)
Starter Yaxel Lendeborg left UAB after last season, and it was less about Michigan’s “maize and blue” colors and more about good old gold.
UConn’s starting squad fares a bit better in the loyalty department. Solo Ball is solo on schools – he’s been at UConn for 3 years. Braylon Mullins is a freshman, so he’s a “lifer” too – because he’ll likely depart for the NBA at the end of the season. Their starting center, Tarris Reed Jr., spent 2 years at Michigan before heading to greener pastures. (And I’m not talking about the dairy farm next to UConn’s campus.)
Alex Karaban is the outlier – he’s been with the Huskies his entire four-year career.
He’s not just an outlier on his school’s roster, he’s an outlier on ANY major college basketball roster:
Players are getting paid. Good for them. At least in the short run. But what happens when they run out of eligibility and the money train doesn’t stop at their house anymore?
The entire current system is horrible for “college” basketball. (I have to put “college” in quotation marks because how much time are these kids spending in the classroom? And how hard is it to get a degree when you change schools every year?) As a fan, you can’t get too attached to particular players, because every single one of them is a free agent, available to the highest bidder.
Michigan’s investment in their players has paid off. The Wolverines are favored to bring home the hardware this evening. But as soon as the confetti hits the hardwood, other schools will be trying to lure their best players away, with the siren song of cold, hard cash.
The Miami Redhawks men’s basketball team takes on Tennessee in the NCAA tourney this afternoon. A #11 seed vs. a #6 seed. Miami has already won – literally and figuratively. They won their “play-in” game Wednesday night in Dayton against SMU. I was there. It felt like a Miami home game with most of the crowd cheering for the school that’s a mere 46 miles from Dayton.
But they’ve also already won because they are, as my friend Joe says, “the best story in college basketball.” Undefeated in the regular season. 31-0. With a homegrown roster of mostly midwestern kids. And a coach (Travis Steele) seeking redemption after being fired by a school (Xavier) just down the road in Cincinnati.
Critics — and they are legion — sneered. “They haven’t played anybody.” “The MAC is a weak conference.”
But they beat everyone who was on their schedule.
Yes, they pay their players – all D1 schools do in the NIL era. But their “salary cap” (it feels weird typing that for college sports) is much smaller than the Floridas, the Dukes, the Tennessees. They’re not getting the blue chippers, they’re getting the blue collars. But they are a great team – offensively, defensively, shooting, passing — because their starters all played together at Miami last year. In the transfer portal era, that’s unheard of. And frankly, refreshing.
A lot of their regular season games were nail-biters. They won because they’d been there, done that. Muscle memory and belief in their teammates.
“Oh, we more than belong,” Steele said, with his entire team behind him. “We can advance deep into this tournament. Our group’s fully confident in that.”
Miami’s Cinderella season will end. Maybe this afternoon (although I think they can beat Tennessee – especially if it’s close in crunch time). But teams like the Redhawks are what make March Madness so much fun. The High Points are the high points. Yes, a “power conference” team will wind up hoisting the trophy. And then most of their roster will immediately seek a bigger payday. Good for them. But I miss the days when the players were less mercenary.
Miami University’s motto is “Love and Honor.”
Their basketball team embodies that. And we need more Miami U. in college sports.
The Indiana Hoosiers are national champs… in football!
(photo credit: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
They were so bad for so long. Historically bad.
Before November, Indiana had the most losses in college football history. Across 125 seasons before Curt Cignetti was hired in December 2023, none of its 23 coaches left the program with a winning conference record. Only twice had the Hoosiers claimed at least a share of the Big Ten title, most recently a three-way tie in 1967. Generations of administrative dysfunction, low football revenue, poor recruiting and a department premium on basketball turned Indiana football into a wasteland.
They changed the coach. And the coach changed the culture. He came across as overly cocky in his introductory press conference:
But, as the saying goes, “it ain’t bragging if you can back it up.” And “Coach Cig” did just that.
(BTW, he admitted later that some of his braggadocio was just trying to wake up the fanbase, and the team. See this clip for more.)
Our youngest goes to IU, so he’s thrilled, and our whole family is fully on board the bandwagon.
“Let me tell ya: We won the national championship at Indiana University. It can be done.”
But to me, the best part of the Cinderella story is that it’s not really a Cinderella story. It’s about how a leader can change the culture of an organization. That takes a lot of hard work.
“You’re rebuilding the house, so to speak, and you start with the foundation and build it up,” Cignetti said. “It’s more process oriented. It’s standards, expectations, consistency, performance and accountability.”
And yes, it also requires a leader who is so strong in his beliefs that others are willing to follow, despite evidence to the contrary.
“It starts with belief. Sometimes the belief has to be a little irrational, right?” said guard Pat Coogan, the Rose Bowl MVP who transferred from Notre Dame to Indiana this season.
“I love to tell you, two years ago, I thought this was going to happen. I’d be lying,” linebacker Aiden Fisher said. “Coach Cig 100 percent believed it, and this is just unbelievable.”
Standards. Expectations. Consistency. Performance. Accountability. And belief. You may not win a national championship with those attributes. But you’ll win at life.
“I think we sent a message, first of all, to society that if you keep your nose to the grindstone and work hard and you’ve got the right people, anything’s possible,” Cignetti said.
Kevin Sullivan on The full-brain workout: “Yep, keep writing .. in your voice. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/opinion/artificial-intelligence-ai-writing.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4VA.JFCf.Lr_UK5tlpBRR&smid=url-share” Aug 10, 10:57
Damian on The Future is forever: “It was a magical time for sure! Just don’t get any paint on that 97X sweatshirt, it’ll bring down the…” Jul 4, 20:44
Andrea J McKiernan on The Future is forever: “I still wear my 97X sweatshirt when I’m painting. I have some amazing memories of those times!” Jul 4, 14:46
You done said…