Drake Diener makes his Italian debut

Drake Diener scored 24 points and had six rebounds and five steals but his Ignis Castelletto team fell short to Wisconsin, 83-74, in an exhibition game in Italy.

The Badgers are touring Italy, playing five games against professional teams and seeing the sights. Alando Tucker scored 20 points for Wisconsin.

For more on the game, visit http://www.basketcastelletto.it/. Unless you are fluent in Italian, you'll need a translator.

jl's sports shorts

Being the weekend and all, I choose to lay off the social/politcal rants and ponder matters sporting.

MARCHING ON – It was yet another good week for Irish clubs in Europe. On Wednesday night, Cork City fans have to be proud of their team’s performance, for despite being without several key players, they only lost to The Team Formerly Known As Red Star by an unfortunate own goal in the first half. I reckon the next round may be beyond them, but there’s nothing stopping them putting up a good show in the 2nd Leg. Then of course our boys in the UEFA Cup, Derry and Drogheda both progressed with relative ease. The draw for the next round was made Friday, and both did well, securing home 2nd Leg ties. Derry get to play Scottish 1st division side Gretna, who qualified by reaching their Cup final. Drogheda, whom I hope to progress so they may play my Spurs in the next round, face Norwegian outfit IK Start, who are currently third from bottom of their league. Remember - the better our sides do in Europe, the more sides the eircom League can put forward in the years to come. Having said that, I'm not implying I want Drogheda to beat Spurs...

THE HEADING HORSEMAN - Am I the only one that feels this guy Paul O’Neill should never be paid to ride a horse again in his life? Do we not set examples by our punishments anymore? If he gives a headbutt when he knows there are cameras on him, who knows what he does in private. The horseracing industry, which as we all know is worth billions, has a duty of care to the animals, and this behaviour cannot be tolerated. Unless of course, the horse called his mum a terrorist whore…

TOUR DE FARCE – Let me tell you why I think Floyd Landis is guilty as charged. It was this statement that did it for me as he pleaded his case to the court of public opinion : "I would like to be presumed innocent until proven guilty - since that's the way we do things in America." Playing the red white and blue card tells me he has something to hide and what better place to find shelter than behind the Stars and Stripes? The yanks will back him all the way, especially against the French. Reading about the unfolding drama I see several similarities to the Lance Armstrong situation, about which I wrote last year. One more irony – have you seen Landis being interviewed? How gay is HE? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I know, but I find it ironic that he was “accused” of having excessive amounts of testosterone in his system!

PRAYING FOR GREEN-PEACE - Without knowing too much about the specifics, I still say fair play to the K Club greenkeepers for standing up to their employers on the subject of pay. From what I can make out, all they are asking for is a few more quid in line with the National Pay Deal. Considering everyone within a good fairway drive of the K Club has upped their prices in anticipation of September’s showpiece event, I don’t see why greenkeepers can’t have a piece of the pie as well. The whole thing reeks of the elitism for which the sport in general is renowned. I must defer to my fellow blogger Omani for in depth coverage of the saga – he was writing about it even before it was big news.

A’S UPDATE – My Oakland Athletics have had yet another average week. On a key homestand, we only took one out of three from the Red Sox and so far we have split the first two of a weekend series with Toronto. This has allowed our arch rivals the LA Angels to sneak into first place, which really puts the pressure on us since we play them in a three game series starting next Monday. Our key players over the past week have been Frank Thomas who hit 3 homers, and pitcher Joe Blanton with two victories out of two.

AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST (as of Sat morn)
1st LA Angels W 53 L 49
2nd Athletics 53-50 ½ GB
3rd Texas 51-52, 2½ GB
4th Seattle 49-53, 4 GB

[GB = games behind]

JARGON BUSTER : This week’s baseball jargon letters are G and H

GROUND BALL : (aka "grounder") Quite simply, when a batter hits a pitch into fair territory, but it bounces in the infield, ie before it leaves the actual diamond area between the bases. If he hits it directly at or either side of the infielders, he will more than likely be thrown out…

HIT : (continued from ground ball definition) …but if a grounder finds a gap between two infielders, the batter will probably make it safely to first base or beyond, which is recorded in his stats as a “hit” or a “base hit”. A batter’s average is determined by working out how many hits he gets per appearances at the plate. When they get a free walk to first base after being thrown four “balls”, it is not counted as a plate appearance.

HOME RUN/HOMER : Probably a term that needs no explanation – it’s what the vast majority of fans come to the ballpark to see. All it means is that the batter hits the ball between the foul lines and over the fence in the outfield. It means he can go all the way round the bases and score a run, plus any runners already on base can score. It can count for as many as four runs if there is a runner at every base, ie the bases are “loaded”, and this is known as a “grand slam” home run.

Azalina will built the sports centre irrespective

Malaysian Sports Minister said she don't care whether London approve the sports centre or not, they are going ahead to have it.

To Azalina, she doesn't care a damn. She wants it and she will bulldoze her way to have it, approve or reject.

If London don't approve the construction of a new building, she will convert the rubber research center into swimming pool and football stadium.

Malaysians are damn fierce and hardheaded. Fortunately, Azalina didn't threaten to sent suicide bombers to London. Otherwise, haha... London will have to be scared!!!

Don't play play eh! You must take notice of Malaysian Ministers... they are ... "Al kiada x@*k"... sorry spelling error: they are "Al Tiada Otak".

Prime Minister Pak Lah said London authorities response to Malaysia's proposal are not positive and would not allow any extension to the present building because London wants to preserve the area as green lungs.

To Azalina, she is also building a golf course, which is green green grass of home for the international ministerial players. The Ministers wants to train in London for the Ministerial world cup golf tournament to be held in ????? Don't know when lah but Malaysia wants to prepare early in case there is such tournament. Even if none, they can still practice mah!

KR Trail rocks!!!

A word of thanks to NParks (sent via email)...(below, photo of one of my favourite spots - the mossy green rocks, taken by eaglet)

Dear NParks,
C/o Alvin Lok


"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it"
To Kill a Mockingbird

To understand what a mountain biking trail means to a mountain biker, I think it best to see it from the viewpoint of a mountain biker. I am a keen mountain biker who has been mountain biking for over 8 years, and have dedicated 5 years of my life as a volunteer for the Singapore Amateur Cycling Association (SACA).

I will try my best to tell it like it is, based on my experience thus far.

Biking is one of the top 5 sports in Singapore attracting more than 10,000 cyclists; I believe the numbers are growing by the minute. Cyclists who cycle on the roads either do so to commute, to get from point A to point B, as part of their training programme or for the pure enjoyment of cycling. Many "leisure cyclists" prefer congregating at the crowded East Coast and Pasir Ris Parks, or riding along park connectors. Anywhere which is relatively flat, concrete, not remotely close to the hazardous bike-unfriendly roads, you will find these bikers. These paths require very little off-road skills, albeit a decent amount of road savvyness.

The above just about describes the bikers that most of us are familiar with. Many people are not aware that there is more to cycling than meets the eye. There is a creature called the "Mountain Biker". They are generally nature lovers who bike so that they can be close to nature. They take the opportunity to socialise with other like-minded mountain bikers while on the trails. In the process, they get a good work-out bursting their lungs on the uphill, and then feel a sense of satisfaction in negotiating a challenging downhill! It makes them physically and mentally stronger, allows them to bond with other bikers, and promotes a healthy lifestyle!

Many mountain bikers start off on their BMX bikes from as young as 4 years old, and then pick up the sport later when they can afford to buy a mountain bike. We have kids as young as 4 years old joining our youth races! Some start out riding on the Tampines BMX and MTB trail - a good introductory trail to basic off-road cycling. Next, they will attempt Pulau Ubin - which offers a variety of off-road trails to suit beginner to advanced level bikers. As their skills improve, they are ready to take on Track 15 and Chestnut, and then eventually graduate to the mother of all MTB trails in Singapore - the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve Mountain Biking Trail, touted to be Singapore's most technical trail. They will continue riding BT every weekend until they master it. So, what's next?

Many mountain bikers are content just riding these same trails for the rest of their lives. Some turn to other trails not sanctioned by the authorities. Others will no longer find these trails challenging and will venture to our neighbouring countries in search of new trails. Some will cross over to road cycling. Some will stop cycling completely. With the few mountain biking trails Singapore has to offer, one would naturally ask : is the sport of mountain biking dying? Well, statistics show that it is very much alive in Singapore!

A few hundred hardcore bikers have ventured into competitive mountain biking and most participate in the SACA races and races in the region. To compensate for the lack of mountain biking trails meeting worldwide competitive standards in Singapore, these bikers will look to regional trails to train and to compete. The Subaru Mountain Biking Championships held in Sentosa attacted 600 participants and 5000 participants over a weekend! That trail was touted to be even more difficult than BT, but unfortunately, part of it has been destroyed to make way for a more lucrative "luge" track! The up and coming sport of adventure racing, such as the Action Asia Challenge, will see more worldwide participants coming to Singapore to take on the multi-sport discipline. This sport will almost always include a mountain biking leg, and the usual biking venues will include the BT, Sentosa or Ubin trails.

It is amazing that our national athletes are able to remain competitive when their skills are pit against the region's best cyclists, given the limited trails on which to practice on; in particular, there are no "mountains" in Singapore. In order to be a world class cyclist, one needs to have the facilities to train on. Some countries rank their trails on a scale of 1 to 6, 6 being the most difficult. None of our trails even come close to reaching 6 or even 5 for that matter! Wouldn't it be great if we had a technical trail in our own backyard where our national atheletes could improve their bike handling skills? They could in turn pass on these skills to our youths who may wish to take on the challenge of winning honours for their school, their club, or maybe even in the long run, our country?

The bikers who have been assisting and consulting with NParks on the Kent Ridge trail are a passionate lot! They all have had extensive experience riding in overseas mountain biking tracks and are more than ready to share their knowledge and give back to Singapore in terms of trail creation! They have been busy gathering information, surfing the net, consulting with other trailbuilders such as IMBA on how best to create biking trails while taking all necessary anti-erosion and safety measures suited for our climate and weather conditions. And they all unanimously gave the KR trail three thumbs up!!! You can almost see the pride in their eyes and hear the lilt in their voices when they speak about the new KR MTB trail!

This infectious disease has spread to the mountain biking community of Singapore, who can't get enough of this new trail! Many are discovering their newfound biking skills, while others are summoning the courage to experience it! About 3 videos have been produced about this trail, the trail has been discussed ad nauseum in biking forums, and bikers are coming in droves to check out what this new trail has to offer!

So, what's my interest in the KR Trail? My fascination with trail creation and maintenance started off in Malaysia when I took part in a biking event at Bukit Kiara located just off KL City. To read more about how that trail was created, you may wish to go to :-http://lingthemerciless.blogspot.com/2005/11/evolution-of-biketrail.html

I then helped to organise the BT Trail Maintenance event 2 years ago, a community project run by mountain bikers! It gave bikers a sense of ownership in the trails on which they ride on, while understanding that a trail is only worth riding on if maintained properly.

I have also been attending the Penang Mountain Bike Jamboree held in Penang since 2002. It is an annual event organised by a Penang bike group where the Penangites get to boast about their awesome mountain biking trails ...and their food! The ride includes a food and heritage ride on a Saturday, followed by a super challenging ride on Sunday! This ride originally attracted 270 participants, and has grown to over 500 bikers from all over Malaysia and even Singapore! It is easily one of the biggest events held in Penang, supported by the government!

To find out more, you may wish to visit these urls :-http://lingthemerciless.blogspot.com/2005/12/penang-jamboree-2002-1-hill-ride.htmlhttp://lingthemerciless.blogspot.com/2005/12/penang-jamboree-2003-expect-unexpected.htmlhttp://lingthemerciless.blogspot.com/2006/01/penang-jamboree-2004-see-u-dare.htmlhttp://lingthemerciless.blogspot.com/2006/01/penang-jamboree-2005-ready-for-more_23.html

I thought to myself : wouldn't it be great if we could organise our very own Singapore MTB Jamboree? Then I thought about the mountain biking trails that we had to offer and decided that the only way we are able to make this work is to create more challenging trails and string all the existing trails together (even the ones which are off-limits to bikers) so that it would be worth the while of overseas bikers to come to Singapore for this event!

Now that we have a new KR MTB trail, I could proudly tell my fellow Malaysian riders that we have a reason to entice them to cross the border to ride in Singapore for a change! I would also advise our local bikers to hone their technical skills at this new trail so that they can at least remain competitive with our friends in the region!

And I am able to do so because NParks has made this happen by giving us another trail that we can be proud of! On behalf of all mountain bikers that I know, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

I will end off with a quote from a famous bike visionary :-

"I live for the moments when the bike just blots itself out, and every little element is singing the same note - me, the bike, the trail, the sky, the dirt. Yes, yes, yes.

Maybe what I'm trying to say is this : ride more.
Get on a bike.
Fall off a bike.
Leave something of yourself in it.

Does a bike have a soul? Only if you do."

I say, does a mountain biker have a soul? Only if a good trail is in the equation!

Avid Mountain Biker (hopefully with a soul)

ADAM WITH BILLY WEST, CHIEF THUNDERBEAR, THE METH HEADS, MEMPHIS ...

ADAM WITH BILLY WEST, CHIEF THUNDERBEAR, THE METH HEADS, MEMPHIS MONROE AND SPORTS GUY BILL SIMMONS -- 5am to 10am PST, July 17, 2006

Dial 866-901-ADAM(2326) to call into The Adam Carolla Show!

6:00 AN AVERAGE NIGHT

On Friday, Adam had to shoot part of his movie over at the La Brea Tar Pits. It’s just down the street, so instead of driving, he just walked over there. He managed to get back to the station at around 9pm that night. He kept hoping he’d walk out of the station and run into a drunken Jack Silver, who would think he was just now leaving. “ACE MAN! BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL!”

On his way back home, though, he had to slowly come to the realization that his night wasn’t going to be normal. “Oh, I wonder why there’s so much traffic?” He keeps driving. “Hmm, the traffic light is out.” He gets to his neighborhood. “Wow, nobody has their porch lights on?” The power was out in his neighborhood. So of course, he couldn’t get up to his house. They told him to just go drive around, and when he came back, it was the same deal. Finally, he just had to park his car at the bottom of the hill.

This morning, he took his wife’s car. He considered telling her, but eh -- he paid for it.

6:10 MONKS

Over the weekend, Teresa decided that she’d go to a monastery down by San Diego, where you meditate and you can’t talk for two days. Dave can’t possibly fathom why anybody would ever do that? Do you really need to pay someone to tell you to shut up?

6:25 THE PERILS OF OZZIE

Adam and Ozzie have been shooting a movie together for a month now, and it’s convinced Adam that Ozzie can never actually pronounce any word correctly.

6:25 OZZIE’S MOVIE REVIEWS

Oswaldo is in the studio to review the movie You, Me and Dupree.

6:46 NEWS

Teresa covers the morning news.

6:48 STEVE ON THE LINE

Steve, childhood friend of Brusca’s, and the electrician from The Adam Carolla Project, comes on the line to tell everybody HIS solution to the crisis in the Middle East -- a big wall around the whole country that’s under siege. And maybe they can send Brusca over there with his fists of fury.

What about Adam’s plan to move everybody in Israel to Baja California? These guys took their land from other countries, why not give it back and move everyone there to Baja? Steve shouts him down -- we took California from the Mexicans, and we’re not giving it back to them, are we? Well, we sortof are.

7:02 SPORTS

Dave covers the sports news.

7:07 THE BREAKFAST MEAT RANKINGS

The latest rankings are in for breakfast meat.

At number five, canadian bacon.
Number four, sausage links. NOT the patty, the link.
Number three, bone-in ham.
Number two, thick-cut bacon.
And, number one... polish kielbasa.

7:18 CHIEF THUNDERBEAR

Chief Thunderbear enters the studio to take a few calls and give a little relationship advice. Since he only speaks Choctaw, Teresa Strasser will be translating for him.

7:39 BILLY WEST IN THE STUDIO

Billy West, voice of many cartoon characters such as “Ren”, “Stimpy”, and a wide variety of voices on Futurama, joins the program. He’s done lots of voices, Adam says, but he’s always been a huge fan of when Billy was on the Howard Stern show.

When did Billy realize he could do all these voices, and make a living out of it, Adam wonders? He has no idea, he says. He remembers his mother would alternate between handing him AA pamphlets, and telling him that the telephone company was hiring.

Billy riffs as Tom Leykis and Howard Stern, and they get him to read a bit of the Star Jones diary as well.

8:18 METH HEADS CHECKING IN

Sarah and Carolyn, the meth heads who the show arranged to go into rehab, call up to the show to check in. They went to rehab in San Bernadino over the weekend, but unfortunately, they flunked out of the detox, and were sent home.

Carolyn couldn’t handle it because she can’t stand anything where she’s confined and unable to leave, she says. Adam feels like it’s because she just wants to get high.

Ultimately, he feels like they did what they could, and they tried their best, but the crew just couldn’t help out. Roger, the man who offered them a “rehab scholarship”, comes on the line. He says that he’ll be waiting for the next potential recipient.

8:40 MEMPHIS MONROE IN THE STUDIO

Memphis Monroe, adult film star, joins the program. Ozzie actually went out to the set of a movie she was filming last week, so he’ll be doing a review of that.

Adam discusses how much she might get for a film. She’s not one of those one-off players where she gets $5,000 for doing this, or $1,200 for doing that -- she signs a contract where she’ll do maybe 12 movies for about $200,000.

One of the more bizarre things to happen to her so far was shortly after her first Hustler spread. She was talking on the phone with her step-father, and in the middle of the conversation, he suddenly blurts out “I saw your Hustler spread, by the way.”

Ozzie and Memphis re-enact a scene from an adult film that, ironically, Memphis was not actually in.

9:16 BILL SIMMONS IN THE STUDIO

Bill Simmons, ESPN sports guy, joins the program. Last time he was on, he talked to Adam about doing a critique of the movie Face/Off. Now, he’s back to actually work through it, with Dave chiming in.

One big problem Dave has with this movie -- after they’ve already made the switch between Nick Cage and John Travolta, and the audience already believes the premise can work, Nick Cage’s character, who is really Travolta’s character, starts a conversation with his brother. And within 8 seconds, the brother has figured out what’s going on. Why is he allowed to realize that, but nobody else in the movie can?

9:36 NEWS AND SPORTS RECAP

Teresa, Dave and Bill Simmons recap the news and sports.

This is a sport?

Here comes golf at us again, riding the crest of Michelle Wie and Annika Sorenstam again. It's no suprise that the media love the female side of the sport, because the male side of the sport tends to resemble John Daly (above).

Sport? Why call it a sport when you can look like this and still perform at a peak level? Isn't this guy a disgrace to golf, or professional athletics in general?

I hate writing about sports, but I love bile.

Pasadena voters to decide Rose Bowl-NFL initiative

PASADENA, Calif. Pasadena voters in November could help decide whether L-A gets a pro-football team.

Pasadena City Council voted unanimously to place a measure on the ballot aimed at luring a team to the Rose Bowl.

It proposes giving the league rights to play at the stadium for 25 years in exchange for a 500-(m) million dollar stadium renovation, 500-thousand dollars a year in rent, and other considerations.

City Councilman Chris Holden says passing the measure would relieve Pasadena of paying 200-(m) million dollars for renovations he said are needed at the Rose Bowl.

But the initiative is opposed by West Pasadena residents, preservationists, and other city leaders, including Mayor Bill Bogaard.

Meanwhile, a committee of N-F-L owners heard stadium presentations last week from Los Angeles, Anaheim and Pasadena.

They could decide later this month whether to approve a Southern California franchise.