Sportsman of the Week Ending 5/31/2020

In a limited sports environment, the sports that are running for real have the advantage.  And running multiple times a week helps.  NASCAR put together an aggressive "return from COVID" schedule that resulted in two Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) races per week through the end of May, with lower series races on the other days to boot.  And the TV viewership has been high.  Enter one of their young stars, Chase Elliott.  Chase can be a polarizing figure.  Son of a champion racer Bill Elliott, some think he's too entitled.  Others are craving a new generation of drivers to challenge ones they don't like.  Like Kyle Busch.  Either you love Kyle or hate him.  The saga started with a major wreck to cost Chase a win in the Toyota 500 on Wednesday 5/20 in Darlington (Busch wrecked Chase so bad he actually apologized) and it was revenge time.  Chase first exerted it in the Gander RV and Outdoor Truck Series which is raced predominantly by aspiring, younger drivers.  But Kyle Busch has always flexes his muscle by racing and usually winning, what being a champion driver against much less experience.  To the point that Kevin Harvick put together a fun bounty for any MENCS series driver willing to race Kyle and win, he'd pay them $100K.  Then Chase did it (money went to charity).  Chase avenged the 5/20 wreck to beat Kyle at the North Carolina Education 200 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Truck race on Tuesday 5/26.  Then he went on to win the MENCS race two days later on Thursday 5/28 at the Alsco Uniforms 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (securing his playoff spot).  All in all, had he won the wreck race (5/20), another race in which he had an ill advised pit strategy (5/24), and even the Sunday race this week in which he was running top 2 before a wreck (5/31), could have had 4 MENCS in a row not counting the Truck Series.  As it was, he got his MENCS win, beat Kyle, and is our Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 5/24/2020

Sports continues to expand post pandemic, especially football in Europe.  Where the Bundesliga (Highest League in Germany) storms on, albeit to empty stadiums.  But the goals still count.  Especially this week, where phenom Kai Havertz scored four of them in two decisive victories for Bayer Leverkusen.  The first two came in a relatively easy go of it disposing of bottom dweller Werder Bremen in Bremen, but followed it up with a big win over Borussia Monchengladbach on the road to pull them into fourth place in the league.  In each case, he scored the initial goal to take the lead, then followed an opposing goal against with a tiebreaker for which his team never looked back.  The 20 year-old wunderkind is a name you're going to see surging in the national renown and is already being pursued for elite leagues throughout Europe and will be able to write his own way.  For now, he's a worthy Sportsman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 5/17/2020

Sports in the United States and the world continues it's comeback.  The second half of 2020 will be awesome.  This week, it was NASCAR that returned to live events.  Sure, no fans in person, but over 6 million tuned in to the Real Heroes 400, recognizing front line heroes in the medical field who have helped us through this pandemic.  And the race was fun.  Nobody had even a practice lap in Darlington, but once the engines roared, it was on.  The ultimate winner was one of the best drivers and teams of this generation.  Kevin Harvick from Stewart-Haas racing took the checkered flag for the 50th time in his career.  As he edged Alex Bowman off of the last yellow flag restart, it wasn't close.  Before that though, the race was fraught with strategy and adjustments as teams adjusted their car to the conditions.  But Harvick prevailed and it was a small step to normalcy.  Even if no fans were there to cheer.

Sportsman of the Week Ending 5/10/2020

Our society is inching closer and closer every week back to live sports at least on television.  A preview was on Saturday night, as the Ultimate Fighting Championship staged a fan-less event and it worked.  In the lightweight event, Underdog (+160) Justin Gaethje punished Champion Tony Ferguson through five rounds for a TKO that would have thrilled a crowd had it been in attendance.  After a couple of rounds that were pretty close including big blows by both combatants, Gaethje really turned the tide in the third round and a battered Ferguson never seemed to recover.  By the 5th round he was done, with just 82 seconds left before the final bell it was all but over and the ref stopped the fight justifiably.  A new champion emerged.  And more importantly, it showed sports will go on and sooner than later.  Justin Gaethje is the Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 5/3/2020

World records in weightlifting have a physical limit of how much the body can endure, but this week a new record was broken.  Hafþór Björnsson / Hafthor Bjornsson deadlifted 501 kg; over 1100 lbs on his way to breaking the prior world record.  By 1 kg.  The 6'9", 425 behemoth Bjornsson is known in pop culture for playing Ser Gregor Clegane aka The Mountain on the Home Box Office (HBO) captivating series Game of Thrones but has been an elite power lifter for years having won the World's Strongest Man Competition in 2018.  The 31-year old Icelandic hulk felt like he could have gone for more, but scoffed at the notion at this point.  With the world and his country locked down due to the social restrictions, it's a gift he gave his country and the world.  Bjornsson is the epitome of Sportsman, and this is his Week.

Sportsman of the Week Ending 4/26/2020

I would have lost a bet that I would have had an eSports entry into my Blog as Sportsman of the Week, but not all bets are sure things.  And this week's winner is a legitimate athlete when they let him play.  Or drive.  A car that is.  Alex Bowman is one of the younger favorite drivers in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and pulled a big upset on Sunday in winning at Talladaga.  Or at least, virtual Talladega.  In a spectacular 70 lap race on the fastest track in NASCAR, Bowman survived several late wrecks and outdueled Corey Lajoie in overtime for his first iRacing win.  Bowman is a fan favorite and finally scored a reality win at Chicagoland in 2019 and now becomes only the second driver to win both a real and virtual event on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit.  The eNASCAR/iRacing events are a fun way to spend a Sunday and our Sportsman of the Week is a big reason why! 

Sportsman of the Week Ending 4/19/2020

It's time to get back to American soil and sports.  And that means H-O-R-S-E.  Yes, the favorite kid's game in the driveway.  Except played by professionals.  And who came out on top?  Utah Jazz guard Michael Conley.  The 4th overall pick in 2007 schooled Tennessee hoops star and Women's Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Tamika Catchings, NBA 5-time All-Star Chauncey Billups, then current NBA star and two-time All-Star dunk contest champion Zack LaVine.  He did it with outside shots on one leg shots, and trick shots.  Just like that bully on the hard court.  In this case, everyone won because $200K was donated to charity.  But Conley will have his etch in history, and is the Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 4/12/2020

Belarus is carrying the sports world right now and this Blog is here for it.  This week, we focus on the Belarus Premier soccer league (a.k.a.Vyšejšaja Liha) which in Week 4 is starting to sort itself out with favorites.  One of the stronger teams is Torpedo BelAZ which has emerged as the top team in the league at 3-1-0 with only two goals against.  Brazilian Gabriel Ramos notched his second goal in four weeks in a crucial victory over previously unbeaten Energetyk-BGU in a match of heavyweights.  Unfortunately, only 287 fans attended  The goal tied him for second overall in the league.  The 24-year old midfielder's aggressive style has netted 2 yellows in four games which probably means he's in trouble or has to sit out the next game (I tried to read the rules of the league but they were in Belarusian).  Anyway, Ramos is good and he's our Sportsman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 4/5/2020

The hottest league going is the Belarus Extraleague hockey.  You read that right.  It's finals time, and bragging rights for all of Belarus.  And it was Yunost Minsk's time.  In dramatic fashion in the final three games they won all.  Two in overtime.  It was the Yunost's second title in a row and 3 out of 5.  Think San Francisco Giants 2010 - 2014.  It was Maxim Parfeyevets overtime shot in Game 5 that sealed the deal against Shakhter Soligorsk.  He also tallied an assist earlier in Game 5 and a key goal in Game 4 exerting the dominance of Minsk.  The real winners are fan who are still getting hockey.  Congrats to Parfeyevets for the Sportsman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 3/29/2020

The Kentucky Derby may be delayed, but that doesn't stop the qualification races and a big winner was determined this week.  Tiz the Law, trained by Barclay Tagg, scorched the Gulfstream park 9 furlongs in 1:50, healthy for the upper echelon of the Triple Crown events.  But was jockey Manny Franco that rode the colt to victory.  The 25 year old Puerto Rico native has yet to surge onto the national stage, but may be poised to do so, even with the Kentucky Derby delayed to Labor Day weekend.  Will Tiz the Law be the horse to beat this summer?  We shall see.  But Franco is the Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week!!