Totally Random
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An article in the current edition of Deuce Magazine chronicles Andy Murray’s rise to No. 4 men’s tennis player in the world, linking his success to a relatively new-found emphasis on fitness.
You can tell the writer is not a local guy when he recounts Murray meeting Mark Grabow, who is described as a “fitness guru who had worked for the Golden State Warriors, a famed basketball team from California.”
Murray’s current conditioning team includes Matt Little, “the upbeat strength and conditioning coach who supports the London [soccer] team Charlton Athletic with a passion, whose top tip is ‘smile’ and is in charge of Murray’s fitness training, stretching routines, massage and ‘providing stimulating banter’’.
No wonder Murray has climbed up the rankings so rapidly.
Trivia time
When did Murray turn professional?
It’s a stretch
A few facts about bungee jumping, courtesy of Telegraph.co.uk:
The first thing resembling a Bungee jump was carried out by hardy young men from Pentecost Island in the Vanuatu archipelago. They would throw themselves off wooden platforms with their legs attached to vines to prove their manhood. Eccentric Oxford students carried out the first bungee jump with modern materials off the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol on April Fool’s’ Day 1979. Using nylon braided rubber shock cords and dressed in top hats and tails, four members of the Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club jumped off. They survived and were immediately arrested. Prince William performed a tandem bungee jump with friend Guy Pelly over the River Nile while on holiday in Uganda in 2003.
What she meant to say
The Telegraph also reported that if the 2012 Summer Olympic Games were up for bidding now, in this economic climate, Tessa Jowell, minister in charge of those Games, says London would not have won them.
“Had we known what we know now, would we have bid for the Olympics? Almost certainly not,” Jowell recently told a group of leisure industry leaders.
Jowell later played down her remarks, saying, “I have often observed that we bid for 2012 in one economic climate and are now in another,” she said. “Had the scale of the downturn been anticipated, I am sure there would have been a view from some that this would not be the time to commit significant public expenditure to a project like the Olympics.
“But as I made clear in my speech, the reality is very different. This is precisely the time for the investment to be made. . . . It will regenerate one of the most deprived parts of east London and is already creating billions of pounds of work for British companies and jobs for thousands.”
Earth to Scott
The Chicago Sun-Times printed this quote from San Francisco Giants managing general partner Bill Neukom on how the economy is affecting free agency: ‘’Scott Boras said everything’s fine. He came down from Mars last week and, I guess, he’ll go back up and work on his stats.”
Trivia answer
In 2005.
Who’s counting?
Houston Texans quarterback Sage Rosenfels talks to the Houston Chronicle about those who doubt his ability: “I have been a backup for eight years. So if there’s 32 teams in the league times eight years, that’s 256 times that teams have said, `This guy is not a starter.’ So, yeah, I think there are some [naysayers] out there.”
-- Mike Penner