Commentary: Sports made the summer entertaining
Everyone said summer in Iowa is supposed to be a slow time for sports. They said football is still a month away (no, the Iowa Barnstormers don't count as football), the Cubs and Brewers are as bad as ever, and the national landscape has been reduced to ESPN's shameless love fests for LeBron James and Brett Favre.
Everyone was wrong.
Sure, there wasn't a whole lot of Hawkeye action to talk about, and the "Worldwide Leader in Sports" became unwatchable when it aired James' sellout-a-thon.
Look beyond the superficial layers, though, and there was plenty of sports to go around.
Iowa students kept themselves active by participating in RAGBRAI, the Bix 7, and various Ultimate Frisbee and softball leagues across the city. All the activity is made even more impressive when it's done in spite of 95-degree heat and 200 percent humidity. Take that, global warming.
The Game Time and Prime Time Leagues offered Iowans the chance to see the state's past, present, and future basketball stars up close. Hawkeye walk-on hopeful Andre Murphy was relentless, Morgan Johnson flexed her muscle in the paint, and ageless wonder Darryl Moore narrowly missed being named to The Daily Iowan's all-Prime Time team in his 12th summer season.
Anyone who watched the action at the North Liberty Community Center should be excited about this year's Hawkeye teams. The young core of the Franimals was impressive across the board, and Bluder's Bunch showed they have plenty of talent besides Kachine Alexander, who was injured for much of the summer. Just imagine how much better they'll be when Alexander — arguably the Big Ten's premier player — returns to full strength.
While we're on the topic of the Big Ten, this summer's addition of Nebraska gives the Hawkeyes another team to mercilessly beat down in Kinnick, Carver-Hawkeye, and the Recreation and Wellness Center. If nothing else, the Cornhuskers' entrance will spark debates over how much longer the Big Ten will remain mathematically incorrect.
Nationally, the Chicago Blackhawks gave a whole new generation of fair-weather fans reason to celebrate by winning the Stanley Cup. Maybe they were excited that an American team seems to be good at a sport nobody cares about.
Speaking of which, it's a sad day when the lasting image of a World Cup is of 50,000 fans blasting their vuvuzelas. Noisemakers are nothing new in soccer — the horns were readily available at a Barcelona-Chivas Guadalajara friendly in Los Angeles several years ago — so it makes no sense that people are complaining now.
Although, maybe it's a good thing. Maybe it means Americans are finally starting to watch the world's game, regardless of where the United States ranks among the world powers (tied with Serbia for 13th out of 202 nations, by the way). Go ahead and jump on the Landon Donovan bandwagon — there's plenty of room on his forehead for everybody.
As we peer down the barrel at the inevitable reboot of classes, it's possible to feel a wave of sadness at the end of an easygoing sports season. Soon, Hawkeye fans will have to once again deal with losing to Northwestern, and one of these days — this is a guarantee — we're going to long for the slow days of summer.
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