Go ahead and copyright this song, I don't have time......
Well the south side of Los Angeles is the baddest part of town, and if you go down to Staples Center you better just beware of a man named Jake Brown. Now Jake got in trouble, you see he stands about 5 feet 4, he nailed the first-ever 720 on a mega ramp, then decided to go for more.
Now Jake is a gambler, and likes to wear his baggy clothes. And he likes to get the highest air, but this time he should have bailed. His got squirrely heading up the quarterpipe, so he tried to get under control. He flailed his limbs as he soared in the air, then looked to see what was below.
And its bad, bad Jake Brown, the baddest skater in the whole [darn] town, badder than an old Bob Burnquist, but nicer than Bucky Lasek.
He wears pads all over his body and a helmet on his head, but when you fall from 45 feet, you usually end up dead. But Jake knows how to fall, he's been doing it since he first began to walk, so he picked out a spot and you better just beward, he didn't end up outlined with chalk.
And its bad, bad Jake Brown, the baddest skater in the whole [darn] town, badder than an old Bob Burnquist, but nicer than Danny Way
The crowd went silent, as Jake slammed into the floor. He looked like a rag doll, and the squeemish headed for the door. Then he did something remarkable, he rolled over and stood up. The crowd slowly started to applaud, the began to erupt.
And its bad, bad Jake Brown, the baddest skater in the whole [darn] town, badder than an old Bob Burnquist, but nicer than Danny Way.
So Barry Bonds hit No. 755 on the same night Simon Tabron did back-to-back 900s. I'd say Bonds' achievement is better, but that's debatable for, well, several reasons.
Anyway, we had a great day here on the Moto X courses inside the soccer stadium and outside with the BMX vert and freestyle park competitions. The guys looked like they wanted to impress, and I think they did. Having Ricky Carmichael win was nice, but it was also good to see guys like Scotty Cranmer and Kevin Robinson and Daniel Dhers and Dave Mirra perform so well.
Jaime just told me that he saw a kid rip an exit sign from the wall in the hallway on the VIP lounge level. Cool, I guess.
The outcome looked secure from the start, and we did indeed have a repeat winner in Kevin Robinson.
Here's how the final run played out: Mat Hoffman once again saved himself on the gap landing but bailed over the quarterpipe and came down hard, but safely, on the quarterpipe's deck. He took a bow and then slid down the ramp, much to the amusement of the crowd.
Anthony Napolitan went nuts on a double tailwhip back flip ("the helicopter") over the gap and finished it off with an 11 foot 8 inch no-hand air. He was in fourth going into the final run but jumped to a tie for second with 92.66 points. So the youngest kid (21) in the contest jumped into a medal place.
Steve McCann, simply hoping to be sure that Napolitan's medal would not be a share of the silver, waited to go until he found out how the tiebreaker would work out for second place. In fact, he waited so long that ESPN went to a commercial break. Yeah, that's cool. Let's play for second place. In fact, let's be so unconcerned about first place that a second-place tie can bother you. Seriously! If he's playing for second, why is he so worried about second versus first? Either go for it all or take the tie and be happy with how it works out. Sure, he's thinking he could get knocked out of the medals all together if Morgan Wade or Alan Cooke pass McCann and Napolitan, but McCann gets an F for his delay of game.
Anyway, when ESPN came back, McCann kept on waiting and we found out that if all tiebreakers were even, the decision goes to the head judge. McCann did get jobbed in his last run, but this is getting ridiculous. When McCann finally did go, he pulled off a very, very nice back flip tailwhip and got 12 feet 2 inches over the coping, and moved up from 92.66 to 93.00, thus ending the threat of a tiebreaker. Morgan Wade had to bail while still on the quarterpipe because he couldn't stay under control after a tremendous Superman, so he failed to place. Alan Cooke had the same problem after a back flip, and he smartly avoided trying a more-than-risky launch on the quarterpipe, thus guaranteeing Kevin Robinson the title.
So Robinson defended his crown and rewarded the crowd with a back flip over the 70 foot gap and an 18-foot launch. That means that even though Mat Hoffman lost, his team won -- again. -- Ken Fowler
I can only imagine what Steve McCann was thinking when he pulled off his fourth run.
McCannwas absolutely brilliant on a back flip tailwhip over the 50-foot gap and went into a double tailwhip 10 feet 7 inches above the quarterpipe coping. The judges gave him a 92.66 points, which was only enough for second place.
Mat Hoffman started the round and had to slam on the brakes in order to save himself while landing the gap, so he once again failed to challenge the leaders.
Anthony Napolitan landed a backspin tailwhip, had to use his feet to control his landing, but still got nearly a dozen feet above the coping of the quarter. Nonetheless, he only managed a fourth-place score, which earned boos from the crowd at Staples Center. (My estimate tonight: 10,000. What the WWL will say: 18,000.)
Morgan Wade went Superman to 21-foot air and got up to 92.33, which put him in third. (Catfish: "I'm just waiting for the calls from LAX to report unidentified flying objects." What a lame-o.)
Alan Cooke soared to a Superman seat-grap back flip over the 70-foot gap, and the crowd had absolutely no idea why he was celebrating like crazy after the run. But once Paul Roberts explained the technical difficulty, they booed that he only jumped to 89.00 from 87.33.
Kevin Robinson once again went back flip to flair, getting 18 feet 2 inches over the coping. Though his earlier runs seemed better, the judges extended his top score to 95.33. Truth is, based on the judging of Cooke's run, Robinson probably can just hang out on the side and watch the other riders go as he wins.
Ricky Carmichael just did an interview, broadcast over the Staples Center replay screen, and earned a rousing ovation while offering a slew of compliments to the riders in the big air. Carmichael will be competing tomorrow, coming out of retirement to compete in the new one-on-one format the X Games will feature over at Home Depot Center.
Run 3 began with Mat Hoffman trying desperately to push his way to the top of the leaderboard. Hoffman, who went down hard in qualifying, couldn't get his front wheel down coming off the 15 foot launch over the quarterpipe and landed hard on his backside. After a short stint on the ground, he walked off the ramp and looked fine.
Anthony Napolitan came perilously close to disaster, just barely landing a front-wheel-grab front flip, but he looked good on the quarter and improved his score to 88.33, but remained in third.
Steve McCann's run included a superman over the gap, but his effort over the quarter was less-than-stellar, and he stayed put in second.
And he did come back! Morgan Wade's bike was fixed, his body OK, and he did one heck of a job. He cleared the 70-foot gap, hitting nearly 40 mph, went 19 feet over the coping and threw in a few tasty tricks to earn 90.00 points, good enough for third place. Following Wade, Alan Cooke had a rather mundane run. ...
... Which is something Kevin Robinson shows no sign of ever doing. Robinson's 70-foot gap clearance and 20 foot 11 inch launch would have earned him first place, except his second run score was two points better.
The legend of this event has got nothing going so far, but the defending champ looks like he's in peak form. Mat Hoffman had two mundane runs, and didn't even try anything original in his second run. But Kevin Robinson ... well, it looks like he's got this one in the bag.
Anthony Napolitan crashed on the quarterpipe landing after overshooting the curve and hitting the flat portion, though he appears to be OK. It remains to be seen whether he will continue in the competition. For reference, Mike Mancusco and Gary Young both withdrew and failed to qualify for the finals during the selection session.
Steve McCann, sitting in second place, finished a Superman seat grab on the quarterpipe jump, but he couldn't improve his score from the first run.
Morgan Wade managed a gnarly Superman seat grab going 40 mph over the 70-foot gap and then avoided serious injury when he crashed after launching 21 feet 4 inches above the coping of the quarterpipe.
Alan Cooke back flipped (no feet) but couldn't finish off on the quarterpipe.
The defending gold medalist, Kevin Robinson, went no-handed flip to no-handed flair and measured 15 feet 7 inches over the coping. That pushed him even further ahead in first place, to 94.33, 3 points ahead of McCann.
Andy Napolitan just did a front flip in his first run to get an 84.67. Steve McCann followed Napolitan's run with a no-handed back flip over the gap and a double tailwhip above the quarterpipe for a 91.33.
Mat Hoffman went first with a less-than-jaw-dropping attempt, and Morgan Wade followed Napolitan and McCann, recovering from a wobbly landing over the big gap and finishing off the run. Neither rider threatened McCann's first run.
Alan Cooke was the first one to take on the 70-foot gap, but he performed the same tricks as McCann and finished the round in fourth.
And then Kevin Robinson showed everyone up. He landed the back flip over the gap and then cleanly finished off the upside-down flair with a twist, 15 feet above the quarterpipe.
Once again, ESPN's claim that an event would start at 5 p.m. is complete and utter bull hockey. "We're just under 40 minutes away" from the BMX biug air finals, says our host, a man who goes by the pathetic nickname "Catfish." That means that ESPN is telling you to watch at 5 p.m. so it can suck you in for 40 minutes and you-know-what itself out for two-thirds of an hour. It's no wonder viewers can't stand the WWL for prolonged periods of time and watch ESPN an average of 39 minutes a day.
Get the sense I'm a little frustrated?
"Catfish" and Paul Roberts are your announcers tonight. Mr. Catfish is the one who sounds like a nasally challenged 8-year-old. He looks like he's 12.
Kevin Robinson just told Catfish that having the big air indoors makes it "a lot safer" than having to deal with the wind at Home Depot. Wimp. As I type, Catfish nearly had a Merry Miller moment when asking Robinson about the crowd ... uh ... pouring in. That, perhaps, should be unsurprising since ESPN claimed an attendance of about 17,000 last night, even though the hockey capacity is listed at a questionable 18,500 and there are literally thousands of seats cordoned off because the ramps block the view of the action. Oh, and there were plenty of empty seats too. Come to think of it, the attendance figure reminded me of something I'd see at a Galaxy soccer game. Coincidence? Well, AEG owns the Galaxy, Home Depot Center and Staples Center. You do the math. AEG certainly can't.
And I expected the big bang to come in the Moto X best trick competition. Boy, was I wrong. I was thinking the mega-ramp is pretty sensational, but how hurt could somebody get when they hit the floor and slide for 40 feet?
Then I watched Jake Brown nail a 720-degree revolution for the first time in competition and then climb the quarterpipe wall as the crowd roared in delight.
When Brown got airborne over the quarterpipe, I thought he was pumping his fists in delight because he had landed the 720, but then he dropped, and dropped, and dropped, until he hit the hardwood floor with a thud that could be heard throughout the arena. Turns out he was cat-scratching in an attempt to land on his feet. It was at least a four-story fall.
I thought for sure I'd be spending the rest of the night in a hospital emergency room, waiting to hear the severity of Brown's injuries, but by the time I took the elevator down to the arena floor and walked to athlete exit area, Brown was already walking away.
I heard him say, "I don't want to go anywhere, just somebody get me some water."
Some fellow competitors and other backstage personnel were already looking at a replay of Brown's fall, and afterward several looked toward Brown in amazement, as if they couldn't believe he was still walking.
Something tells me that X Games 13 got lucky with this one.
Adding insult to injury, Bob Burnquist topped Jake Brown for the big air final moments after Brown ended five minutes of scary silence by getting off the ramp and walking to the athletes' area after a tremendous fall in his final run.
From the start to the end of the final run:
Rob Lorifice, only 19, attempted the 70-foot gap but couldn't manage the initial landing. As the announcers noted, however, he's 16 years younger than Buster Halterman, which means he could still be competing when El Ocho is the No. 1 cable channel in America.
Pierre-Luc Gagnon (PLG), clinging to the bronze medal went second (after a commercial break) and nearly landed the 70-foot jump with a backside grab. But he didn't. And he's done.
Buster Halterman, the old man, tried to alternate hands on a nose grab to a 360 over the gap but failed. Miserably.
Bucky Lasek, AKA "The Rock Star," landed a terrific nosegrab with a blind landing but bailed on the frontside rodeo 540 over the quarterpipe. Jake Brown, holding onto first place, went from the top drop, landed the big gap but lost his board on a tremendous jump over the quarterpipe and lay motionless for moments on the ramp as the Staples Center crowd went silent and medical personnel rushed to his side. After several minutes, he motioned to the crowd, which cheered in approval. After another two minutes, he walked off the mega-ramp with the assistance of X Games personnel.
In the afterthought, Bob Burnquist had a chance to unseat Brown from the gold medal position. He landed the switch ollie 180 over the 70-foot gap once again and then finished it off with an 18-foot 7-inch frontside 540. After that, before the judges gave their score, Burnquist just hung out on the pipe waiting for word on whether he topped Brown. He did.
Burnquist then walked with Jake as he was wheeled to an ambulance.
Dan Arritt (center), Times writer and O.C. native, has covered high school, college, the X Games and professional sports ranging from football to surfing in his two decades with The Times.
Jaime Cardenas (left), a Times intern and San Diego native who grew up in Tijuana with a passion for sports and writing, is a recent graduate of Cal State Fullerton. He has covered the World Baseball Classic, soccer's Gold Cup and junior college and high school sports.
Ken Fowler, a Times intern and Long Island, N.Y., native who attends the University of Notre Dame, has covered Notre Dame football since 2005 as well as women's basketball, college soccer, fencing and, most recently, the Galaxy (the soccer team, not our part of the universe).
Jaime Cardenas (left), a Times intern and San Diego native who grew up in Tijuana with a passion for sports and writing, is a recent graduate of Cal State Fullerton. He has covered the World Baseball Classic, soccer's Gold Cup and junior college and high school sports.
Ken Fowler, a Times intern and Long Island, N.Y., native who attends the University of Notre Dame, has covered Notre Dame football since 2005 as well as women's basketball, college soccer, fencing and, most recently, the Galaxy (the soccer team, not our part of the universe).