Sweet Caroline’s New High Tech Glasses

I wasn’t in Boston over the weekend, so I wasn’t there to see Neil Diamond sing “Sweet Caroline” live and in person at Fenway Park.

But I was introduced to the tradition during my own first visit to Fenway a year ago this May, and I can’t think of a more fitting way to kick away the dust of fear and horror last week than something as American as having Neil Diamond show up at the ball park to sing “Sweet Caroline”!

If you’ve never experienced it firsthand, basically here’s how it goes: In the middle of the eighth inning, since 2002, “Sweet Caroline” is played over the loudspeakers at Fenway, and the great citizens of Bostons (and Red Sox fans everywhere) do a little audience participation. It’s not quite a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” level of audience participation, but then again, this is baseball and we’re between innings people!

Go find some of the video recaps to see for yourself, but if you did see Diamond out there on the diamond doing it live this weekend, amd if that didn’t send a couple of tears to your eyes, you’d better check to make sure the drones from Tom Cruise’s new movie “Oblivion” (and which I saw this weekeend…two thumbs up!) haven’t taken over.

Of course, I guess if you didn’t want anyone to see you cry you could invest in some of these new techno glasses, Google’s or otherwise.

According to The New York Times, Oakley’s also getting into the act, working to introduce goggles that can display incoming text messages, have embedded GPS, Bluetooth, and video cameras.

Skiers, please, keep your eyes on the slopes at all times!

That goes for you cyclists looking to check your heartbeat in your newfangled high tech cycling glasses every five seconds.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for having performance biometrics, even in real-time, but I think we have to think very carefully about how that information is presented back to athletes, especially those mid-mountain or mid-peloton.

If you’ve ever nearly been run over by someone who was texting while driving, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

I texted while driving for a time. But about the fourth time I nearly rear-ended someone, it dawned on me that texting while driving was a bad idea. Very bad. And this was well before any of those anti-texting public ad campaigns had emerged.

These days, I find myself constantly scanning my rear-view mirror in fear of some other idiot not having come around to a similar conclusion, which is its own kind of dangerous distraction.

So what’s going to happen on the ski mountains across the globe when folks are too busy checking their optimum heart rate to see those trees racing up towards their performance glasses?

There will be an inordinate demand for well trained ski patrol professionals, that’s what!

The Distance Between Your Ears

If you’re an avid golf fan, you’re probably experiencing a combination of elation and depression this particular Monday, following the dramatic finish of the 2012 U.S. Open held at the Olympic Club Lakes Course in San Francisco these past four days.

First, let me send out my hearty congratulations to first time major victor and 2012 U.S. Open Champion, Webb Simpson.

Though Webb has certainly had a strong showing these past couple of years on the PGA, his was not a name widely circulated as being a likely victor for this year’s championship.

And though he wasn’t widely featured on the telecast coverage through the first three days of the tournament, he slowly crawled his way up the leader board and yesterday cemented his +1 victory over fellow golfers, Jim Furyk and Graeme McDowell.

McDowell, who won his first U.S. Open at Pebble Beach two years ago, held fast to the bitter end, but his final putt wandered just a little too much to the left to earn a playoff with Simpson.

And Furyk, the grinder’s grinder, played steady and firm until that wayward hooked drive on hole 16 at Olympic, also sending his second U.S. Open Championship hopes into the rough along with his uncooperative Srixon ball.

But boy, what drama. If Shakespeare had the occasion to write about golf, he would have gotten at least a sonnet or two out of these past four days of play.

First, there was Tiger Woods’ return to rare form on day one and two, only to see him fade away into the pack with his early six over par on the first several holes yesterday.

Then there was this year’s Cinderella story, committed University of Texas (the new NCAA men’s golf champions, after a forty-year drought) golf aspiree and 17-year-old wunderkind, Beau Hossler, whose grace-under-pressure and whimsical but lethally accurate iron play left everyone wanting more. Standing ovations abounded for “the kid” by the crowds at Olympic, a kid from whom we will certainly hear a lot more and (I hope), soon.

But for my money, the real victor of this year’s U.S. Open was the Olympic Club course, and, of course, the fans.

Olympic played like a great U.S. Open course should — it seemingly brought the best players in the world to their knees, and forced them to play smart and steady golf in order to arrive on top.

That’s the kind of golf Webb Simpson (and a few others) played, and it’s the kind of golf that keeps golf fans coming back for more.

And, after Rory McIlroy’s pummeling of Congressional at last year’s U.S. Open, it was time for the U.S.G.A. to return to the essence of what makes a great U.S. Open — the matching of the best players in the world with the most challenging, but fair, golf course and playing conditions imaginable.

This year, they delivered in spades, and so did Webb Simpson.

Congrats to them both — it was a victory well deserved!

Turbo Sports Update

I’ve been so consumed with technology these past few weeks that I’ve all but forgotten to mention what really counts in life, and that’s sports.

First, and my first love, golf.

What in the world got into Padraig Harrington yesterday at Transitions?  Harrington comes out roaring with a 10-under 61 in the first round, and is already -1 for the day today, still leading the pack.

Meanwhile, Tiger Woods says no Achilles heel, or in this case, tendon, will keep him from the Masters.  I just hope his game keeps him in through the Masters weekend.

And Rory McIlroy continues leading the FedExCup points, not to mention the official world golf ranking. Oh, yeah, AND the money rankings.

I’m keeping my eye on a few golfers for the Masters, we golfers’ SuperBowl of Golf. Yes, Rory should be in the running this year, but I also have my eye on Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Lee Westwood, and Keegan Bradley. We’re only a couple of weeks away, so we’ll see how they stack up the next two weeks.

Turbo is 12 for 16 thus far in his brackets for the 2012 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

Then, there’s the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. I went to ESPN and picked my brackets the other day, and so far, I’ve had four bad picks and twelve good ones.  Pretty good for not having really handicapped the teams this year. Although my Texas Longhorns had better get it together — they currently trail Cincinnatti by 3 in the 2nd.

Way over in another part of the world, congratulations go out to Sachin Tendulkar, cricket “god,” who finally scored his 100th international ton in a match against Bangaladesh earlier today (a match which, in a theme not unfamiliar to Indian cricket fans, India lost!).

And my Premiere League fave, Manchester United, lost 2-1 to Athletic Bilbao in the Europa League, exiting them from this year’s tourney.  This will be the first time since the 2001-02 season they won’t contest a cup final.

And alas, for you fans of the new HBO David Milch series about horse-racing, “Luck,” well, you won’t have much of it. The series’ filming has been stopped due to some horse-racing deaths (three so far) during production.  Once again, a Milch series won’t make it to the HBO finish line, leaving the series’ denoeument to its viewers’ imagination (the same thing happened to “Deadwood,” some of the most brilliant TV I’d seen in years).

Too bad, the characters’ complexity were just coming more clearly into view, with stellar performances by Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte, among others, and the cinematography some of the most gorgeous I’d seen on TV in eons.