Free Frank Warner

'Fly, Eagles, Fly' song for Philadelphia Super Bowl Parade

Fly, Eagles, Fly! Celebrate your victory!

(We saw you) fight, Eagles, fight,

Scoring touchdowns, 1, 2, 3 (4, 5)!

You hit 'em high, hit 'em low.

You won the Super Bowl!

Fly, Eagles Fly! Welcome home in victory!

World Cup thing is over

Someone won that game adults should never play. And they're actually giving men a trophy for it. For soccer! Ha! What are they going to put on TV next? Monkey in the Middle? Simon Says?

I saw about 30 seconds of today's last game of the year. (Or is it the last game for four years? Ask a European. A few of them follow it.) The adults looked silly and angry and embarrassed to be out there. No wonder. Soccer is a game for children.

The Philadelphia Phillies won a good game today. Now that's an adults' sport children play in hopes of grownup glory. No wonder baseball is on TV almost all the time.

Frank Warner

Commissioner Selig, give Armando Galarraga his perfect game

Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, would offend no one of he ruled all on his own today that Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga should be given back the perfect game that an umpire’s ninth-inning bad call stole from him last night.

Even Jim Joyce, the umpire, admits he blew the call, declaring Jason Donald safe at first base when Donald most certainly was the Cleveland Indians’ 27th and last out of the game. The video replay confirms it without a doubt.

Just do it, Commissioner Selig. Call perfection by its real name. Not even Jason Donald could object.

Frank Warner

* * *

Update: An anonymous source says Selig will not correct the record. He'll let the lie stand. What a jerk.

Chicago is out for 2016 Olympics

Talk about Olympic speed.

I think this means something, but I'm not sure what yet.

Here is CNN's coverage of the announcement.

Frank Warner

Dow below 7000

Those Detroit houses are starting to look expensive.

Frank Warner

For Olympics athletes from free Iraq, ‘deafening applause’ in Beijing

As the Iraqi athletes entered Beijing's National Stadium for the opening of the Olympics last night, the crowd gave them warm and loud reception.

As Chinaview news reports:

“The Iraqi delegation, a group of 10 including the flag bearer, strode into the stadium while the spectators paid tribute to the team by waving hands or flags, amid thunderous cheers and deafening applause.”

The high hurdle. Before the Olympics, others weren’t so kind to the Iraqi athletes. The International Olympics Committee, now controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, last month disqualified the team, alleging the Iraqi government interfered in the choice of athletes.

The Iraqi government had to take a role in naming some athletes because four of the 11 members of Iraq’s Olympic national body were kidnapped by terrorists, and have not been seen since 2006. With only seven members, Iraq’s Olympic body no longer had a quorum at its meetings. Several of the remaining members also had handled their duties poorly.

In late July, the IOC reversed its disqualification and allowed four Iraqi athletes to compete: Haidar Nozad and Hamzah Hussein Jebur in rowing, Haidar Nasir in the discus throw and Dana Hussein in sprinting.

Free to compete. The IOC was ready to penalize the Iraqis because of the kidnappings, and, if the truth be told, because their nation with U.S. assistance is battling to secure its first democracy.

That crowd in Beijing knew better. Those who understand sportsmanship and fairness are happy that Iraq is free, and happy that free Iraqis can compete in the Games.

Frank Warner

Dart the running sheep!

Take a look at this test of reaction time. It's a lot of fun.

I haven't reached cheetah speed yet.

Frank Warner

Great only at chess, Bobby Fischer is dead

I remember the summer of 1972 and Bobby Fischer’s historic chess match with Boris Spassky. Every day, the newspapers had extensive coverage from Reykjavik, Iceland.

At the time, this contest was bigger than Watergate, and the break-in had just happened in June. The chess match went from July to September.

I had played chess, but I had never heard of the Benoni Defense, the Sicilian Defense, the Poisoned Pawn and Queen’s Gambit Declined. I just knew which way the pieces moved. Now everyone was talking chess jargon.

American champion. Fischer lost the first two games to Spassky, the defending world champion from the Soviet Union. But then, after it appeared Fischer might quit and go home, the match resumed. Of the next 19 games, 11 were a draw. Fischer lost once more, but he also won seven, giving him the match.

An American had captured the world chess championship for the first time ever.

Fischer was fairly strange even then, always threatening to pull out of matches, and finally finishing that 1972 championship in a back room away from cameras. Later, he grew weirder, making many ugly comments laced with anti-Semitism, especially surprising from a man whose mother was Jewish.

He could play chess. He just couldn’t play nice.

Bobby Fischer is dead at age 64. He died yesterday in Reykjavik.

Frank Warner

How to juggle

Hey, try this!

Check out the 'Bush Shoot-Out'

Click here for the "Bush Shoot-Out" game.