Robert Tuchman is not a name that will mean much to most of you but he has been getting plenty of press this year.
Tuchman is the sort of swarthy-looking American businessman you might see at a motivational speaking conference or late at night on television hawking a new set of knives.
He's actually in the sports entertainment and tourism business (shudder) and has written a book - The 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live.
As an American, he struggles to see far beyond his own borders, so his top 10 includes lesser-known (to a global audience) events like Army-Navy football and North Carolina-Duke basketball.
Tuchman's top 10 was: Masters golf, World Cup football, Super Bowl, Summer Olympics, Army-Navy, New York Marathon, World Series baseball, Winter Olympics, Red Sox-Yankees baseball at Yankee Stadium, North Carolina-Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Other events in his top 100 included the running of the bulls (sport?), the hot dog eating contest (sport?), the Iditarod (sled dog race), pipeline surfing, the Westminster dog show and, down at No 59, an All Black test.
• . . . what would you go see?
My top 10 would be: FA Cup final, Super Bowl, Wimbledon, the Masters, Liverpool v Manchester United at Anfield, NBA finals, college basketball's Final Four, the Waitaki Boys-St Kevins blood match, an American football game involving the Permian Panthers under the Friday night lights in Odessa, and World Series baseball at Fenway Park.
My reserves would be: World Cup final (football), State of Origin game at Suncorp Stadium, British Open at St Andrews, Ashes cricket test, Boxing Day test at MCG, the Ryder Cup, a Manny Pacquiao fight, the Indy 500, the Olympic Games 100m final, and the annual Oxford-Cambridge rugby game.
• Rugby is a four-letter word
At a recent stag night (congratulations Matt Sides and Julia Healey, who get married in Auckland today), a local sports nut posed this:Name an All Black XV containing only players with four-letter surnames.
I got 13 on the night. Have a think about it, and next week I'll provide my team.
• Club rugby idea
A rare note of congratulations to the NZRU for following through on the proposal to cut the Air New Zealand Cup back to 10 teams. (Though I will believe it when I see it - there could be legal challenges to come.)
It should mean the club rugby window can be entrenched, avoiding situations like this year when Dunedin clubs University A and Harbour were badly affected by representative commitments.
After much public discussion of the issue last week, club rugby coach Geoff Simons sent "The Last Word" his proposal for a Highlanders-wide club competition, which he believes would give clubs some variation and lift the standard of the game.
He would have regular club competitions being played from March to mid-June, followed by five weeks of a Highlanders competition.
Teams would be ranked based on their place in their own region and placed into divisions accordingly. So, division 1 (split into two pools) could have the four top Dunedin teams plus the best teams from Southland, North Otago, Central Otago and South Otago.
Over three weeks, the pools play a round robin. Then in the fourth week there are semifinals in both top and bottom fours, followed by finals.
There are already elements of this idea in place, with North Otago clubs playing premier division two teams at the start of the season, and the top two country teams playing the bottom four town teams at the end. Further investigation into cross-border club rugby could be worthwhile.
• The magic of school rugby
Pity about the result (didn't take me long to declare my hand) but Wednesday's game at Littlebourne was another reminder of the purity and passion of First XV rugby.
Great haka performances, a dazzling first 25 minutes by Otago Boys and a gutsy fightback from Waitaki Boys made for a most pleasant afternoon.
I also offer the following observations:
1. The ratstail is back.
2. Mud does one thing for rugby - it ruins it.
3. If schoolboy rugby teams had to sing the national anthem, they'd grip each other's shoulders and belt it out. I know it.
4. Apart from my son, nothing makes me prouder than seeing a Waitaki Boys rugby team leaving everything on the field.
5. Neil Hill, Tyron Davies, Brad McKenzie and Matt Duff. Good players, all.
• Avoid running at all times
I had to include Satchel Paige, who played in Major League Baseball aged 59, in Tuesday's list of ageing sports stars.
According to Wikipedia, Paige had pitches known as the Hesitation Pitch, the Bat Dodger, the Hurry-Up Ball, the Midnight Rider, the Four-Day Creeper, the Nothin' Ball, the Bee Ball, the Jump Ball, the Trouble Ball, the Two-Hump Blooper, Long Tom, the Barber, Little Tom, the Midnight Creeper, the Smokeball and the Aspirin.
Among his "Rules For Staying Young" were.-
1. Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood.
2. Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move.
3. Go very light on the vices, such as carrying on in society. The social ramble ain't restful.
4. Avoid running at all times.
Sounds like my kind of guy. Except for avoiding the fried meats.
• Give it a break, Freddie
What a great performance by Andrew Flintoff on the last day of the second Ashes test. Just a pity it was overshadowed by his excessive, look-at-me-I-am-Jesus celebrations.
For a supposedly world-class all-rounder, Flintoff's test bowling statistics are poor. He now has a measly three five-wicket bags in tests. That's only one more than Murphy Su'a, and two fewer than Jacques Kallis.
