Sports

Sports April 24, 2016

Astronaut Completes London Marathon From The International Space Station

Runners make their way across Tower Bridge during the Virgin Money London Marathon on Saturday in London. Ben Hoskins/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Ben Hoskins/Getty Images

About 38,000 runners competed in the London Marathon today – and one of them ran it in orbit 200 miles above Earth.

British astronaut Tim Peake completed the 26.2 mile course at the International Space Station with an estimated time of 3:35.21 , the European Space Agency tweeted.

.@astro_timpeake has finished his #LondonMarathon in space! Estimated time 3:35:21. @Astro_Jeff comes to applaud Tim pic.twitter.com/0AT4EgRUNK

— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) April 24, 2016

He was also the official starter of the race in a video message played at the starting line. “I’m really excited to be able to join the runners on earth from right here on board the Space Station. Good luck to everybody running, and I hope to see you all at the finish line,” Peake told his fellow competitors.

.@astro_timpeake starts his #londonmarathon all the way from space!https://t.co/29UKkcAoeU

— BBC Get Inspired (@bbcgetinspired) April 24, 2016

Of course, running in space poses serious challenges. Peake told reporters earlier this week that it’s been difficult to get comfortable with the harness system, which he says is like running with a “clumsy rucksack on.” The system keeps him from floating off the treadmill. He explains how it works:

“These chains connect to a bungee system, and that keeps me on the treadmill and gives me the weight bearing that I need on my legs to stimulate those muscles and to make sure we don’t lose too much muscle mass, that we don’t lose too much bone density.”

As The Guardian reports, “weightlessness is not kind to astronauts. The perceived lack of gravity deconditions the body in a number of ways.”

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But Peake says the microgravity conditions are actually a “perfect environment” for post-race recovery:

“The moment you stop running and the moment you get off that bungee system, your muscles are in a completely relaxed state. And I do think we recover faster up here from any kind of aches or sprains.”

He spoke about how inspiring the crowds and the atmosphere were when he ran the London Marathon in 1999. To give a digital sense of the atmosphere down below, Peake made use of the RunSocial app: “so I’ll actually be looking at the route that I’m running, and I’ll be running alongside everyone else who’s running the digital version of the London Marathon.”

RunSocial tweeted out moments during Peake’s race, like this one where he crosses the Tower Bridge:

A few miles earlier @astro_timpeake over Tower Bridge Digital #LondonMarathon pic.twitter.com/vXGcFSiFQQ

— RunSocial (@runsocial) April 24, 2016

When Peake spoke to reporters, he hadn’t yet decided on his plans for a pre-race breakfast. He was considering baked beans, sausage and eggs, but added that food in microgravity doesn’t “settle very well” and that he’d need to eat well before the race.

As for tunes, Peake has been tweeting out a playlist using the hashtag #spacerocks.

Peake is the second astronaut to run a marathon from the International Space Station. Sunita Williams completed the Boston Marathon while in orbit in 2007.

Larry Williams tells our Newscast unit that in London today, Kenyans dominated:

“Defending men’s champion Eliud Kipchoge completed the 26.2 mile course just 8 seconds off the world record,breaking the tape in front of Buckingham Palace in 2 hours, 3 minutes and 5 seconds.

“Kipshoge, looking fresh at the end, was 46 seconds ahead of fellow Kenyan Stanley Biwott, who won last year’s New York marathon.

“In the woman’s race, 31 year old Kenyan Jemima Sumgong took the marathon for the first time. Recovering from a hard tumble to the ground with around 4 miles remaining, Sumgong quickly got up rubbed her head and made up for lost time to win with 5 seconds to spare. Her time was 2 hours, 22 minutes, 58 seconds.”

Hello #London! Fancy a run? 🙂 #LondonMarathon https://t.co/CvaUjUo7IU pic.twitter.com/SLckqOp8Gk

— Tim Peake (@astro_timpeake) April 24, 2016

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Sports April 23, 2016

This Week In Sports

The NBA playoffs are underway, and in Major League Baseball, the Chicago Cubs and Washington Nationals have come out swinging. Howard Bryant of ESPN.com joins NPR’s Scott Simon to discuss sports.

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

And time for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: The Major League Baseball season is in full swing. Guess who’s looking good so far – the teams who were supposed to. That’s why sportswriters are so much wiser than political pundits. And some unexpected, unpredicted drama in the NBA playoffs.

We’re joined now by Howard Bryant of ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. Howard,

thanks so much for being with us.

HOWARD BRYANT: Oh, good morning, Scott. Stop sounding so happy. You sound so good right now.

SIMON: I’m always happy to talk to you, my friend.

BRYANT: It’s when those Cubs are playing so well. I can hear it in your voice.

SIMON: I’m barely restraining myself from that question. But let’s first ask about the Golden State Warriors. Steph Curry has missed a couple of – two straight games. Ankle injury – how worried should they be?

BRYANT: Well, I – I think that they shouldn’t be overly worried because he said that he is going to play in tomorrow’s game. But the stakes are so high for the Golden State Warriors. They’re not just playing this season. They’re playing for history.

And as you know as a sports person, the – when you’re playing for history – you win 73 games, the most games ever by an NBA team – when you are defending champions, you’re playing to be one of the greatest…

SIMON: Yeah.

BRYANT: …Teams of all time. You cannot lose any anything. You can’t lose this season. Otherwise, people are going to forget you. Let’s not forget that the 1995-96 Bulls won 72 games and then ended up winning the championship. So you can be the 1973 Boston Celtics where you go out and you win 68 games. And then John Havlicek gets hurt, and the Celtics end up losing to the Knicks and don’t even make the finals. You can be the 2001 Seattle Mariners. Remember that team. They went out. They won 116 games and then the Yankees beat them and they – you know, you’ve forgotten.

So the question is that if you have any hiccups whatsoever, you can be one of those teams that can be the greatest of all time and people talk about you, or you can be that team that gets forgotten in the postseason. And Steph Curry’s injury is so important to that team’s success. I think they’re going to win tomorrow. And I think this is going to be a nonissue because they’re that good. But boy, if that injury is real, then suddenly the entire script of the NBA postseason changes.

SIMON: And the Cavs have a chance then (laughter).

BRYANT: The Cavs have a chance. But I – once again, the Warriors – no one’s beaten them twice.

SIMON: Yeah.

BRYANT: The last time any team has beaten them twice in a row was in the playoffs last year against Cleveland, so they’re that good.

SIMON: All right. I’ve held myself back long enough.

BRYANT: (Laughter).

SIMON: The Cubs are on a blistering pace. And I was so worried with all the preseason predictions. But boy, they’ve come out of the – out of the blocks well – haven’t they? – 13-4.

BRYANT: Well, once again, anybody can have a bad century, right? But this team was loaded from the start. Everyone said this team was going to be the team to beat, and they have started the season exactly as hot as everyone thought they were going to be.

Jake Arrieta, best pitcher in the league last year, throws a no-hitter in a 16-to-nothing victory the other day. They’re 13-4.

They can hit. They can pitch. They’ve got that sort of swagger. They are doing everything they’re supposed to be doing. And I think that’s going to be really fun for Chicago because I really enjoy it in sports when teams take the pressure coming out of spring training, and then they go out and they back it up. Let’s see what they do going the whole way.

I love the national league, though, because the Mets are defending pennant winners. The Nationals with Dusty Baker are playing really well. It’s a stacked, stacked league. And we’ll see if the Cubs can handle their business if we’re having this conversation in September.

SIMON: Howard Bryant, thanks so much.

BRYANT: Thank you.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Sports April 22, 2016

40-Year-Old Female Gymnast Qualifies For 7th Olympics

Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina became the first female gymnast to qualify for her seventh Olympics.

Transcript

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Gymnastics is a young-person sport. Most of the women competing at the Summer Olympics in Brazil this year will be teenagers. One of them is old enough to be their mother. Forty-year-old Oksana Chusovitina will represent Uzbekistan in the vault competition. It will be her seventh Olympics.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR: Oksana Chusovitina, now, from the Soviet Union is up next.

MCEVERS: Chusovitina first broke out during the 1991 World Championships. Her career includes two Olympic medals – one gold and one silver. U.S. gymnast Dominique Dawes won gold in 1996. And she has a theory about how the Uzbek gymnast has lasted so long.

DOMINIQUE DAWES: She’s probably a smart athlete. Her muscles have memory, so she probably doesn’t have to worry about having to do many repetitions, as many younger athletes may have to. And then, also, mentally, she’s competed in six other Olympic Games and many world championships, so I’m sure she knows how to handle the pressure.

MCEVERS: Dawes has been retired for years, and she’s not quite 40 herself. So could Chusovitina’s story inspire her to rethink?

DAWES: No (laughter). I don’t even – I don’t even need to let you finish that sentence. There’s no way. Three Olympics was more than enough for me. I love the sport of gymnastics. I actually just came from my coach Kelley Hill’s gym in Maryland just now with my two daughters. And we love open gym. And we love that it’s all about play. And mommy is completely done.

MCEVERS: So when will Oksana Chusovitina be done? It’s probably a bad idea to guess.

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Sports April 21, 2016

World Anti-Doping Agency Suspends Credential For Chinese Lab

The World Anti-Doping Agency has suspended the accreditation of the National Anti-Doping Laboratory in Beijing for up to four months.

The suspension, which is effective immediately, means the lab can’t perform any “WADA-related anti-doping activities including all analyses of urine and blood samples,” the agency said in a statement, specifying that athletes’ samples would have to be tested at other accredited labs.

NPR’s Tom Goldman reports that agency investigators concluded that the lab “wasn’t meeting international anti-doping standards,” though WADA declined to specify where the lab fell short. Tom says the suspension could be due to “problems with personnel or equipment, or urine and blood samples being analyzed the wrong way.” He adds:

“An agency spokesman says Thursday’s action doesn’t by itself indicate widespread doping, but the timing isn’t ideal considering the summer Olympics are just a few months away.”

WADA’s statement says the lab must take “five remedial steps” recommended by the agency and also address “non-conformities” identified in the investigation. “If the Beijing laboratory satisfies the Disciplinary Committee in meeting these requirements, the laboratory may apply for reinstatement prior to the expiry of the four month suspension period,” the statement said.

Last week, WADA suspended the accreditation of an anti-doping lab in Moscow under similar circumstances. Reuters reported that the Russian lab failed “to comply with international standards.”

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Sports April 20, 2016

ESPN Fires Curt Schilling For 'Unacceptable' Conduct

On Wednesday, ESPN fired former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling from his job as a baseball analyst. Tony Gutierrez/AP hide caption

toggle caption Tony Gutierrez/AP

Curt Schilling, the MLB pitcher-turned-analyst for ESPN, was fired by the network after sharing a post on Facebook that appeared to comment on North Carolina’s law that bars transgender people from using the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

In a now-deleted Facebook post (captured by Out Sports) he wrote: “A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic.”

Schilling also shared a a photo of a man wearing a blonde wig, a skirt and a t-shirt with holes cut in it to show his nipples. The words accompanying the image say: “LET HIM IN! to the restroom with your daughter or else you’re a narrow-minded, judgmental, unloving racist bigot who needs to die.”

The backlash to the posts was immediate, and Schilling took to his personal blog on Tuesday to defend his actions, writing, “Let’s make one thing clear right up front. If you get offended by ANYTHING in this post, that’s your fault, all yours.” He also wrote: “This latest brew ha ha is beyond hilarious. I didn’t post that ugly looking picture. I made a comment about the basic functionality of mens and womens restrooms, period.”

ESPN released a statement Wednesday announcing Schilling had been fired.

“ESPN is an inclusive company. Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated,” the statement read in its entirety.

This was not the first time Schilling had gotten into trouble on social media. Last year he was suspended by ESPN for sharing an image that made a comparison between Muslims and Nazis.

And as The New York Times adds:

“Last month, [Schilling] waded into politics on a Kansas City radio station when he suggested that Hillary Clinton ‘should be buried under a jail somewhere’ if she gave ‘classified information on hundreds if not thousands of emails on a public server, after what happened to General Petraeus.’

Last year, former CIA Director and retired Gen. David Petraeus, was accused of providing classified data to his mistress.

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Sports April 19, 2016

Court Upholds Snowboarding Ban At Utah Ski Resort

A skier gets ready to plunge down Alta Ski Area’s extreme run, Eddie’s High Nowhere. The resort has banned snowboarding since the sport was invented. Kirk Siegler hide caption

toggle caption Kirk Siegler

In Utah, the Alta Ski Area gets to keep its slogan “Alta is for Skiers.”

A federal appeals court has upheld the resort’s long-standing snowboarding ban in a legal challenge brought by a group of local snowboarders.

The case touched on a sensitive topic in the ski industry and especially in the West, where most resorts depend on leasing land from the U.S. Forest Service for their operations. Does a ski area have the right to prohibit or single out a certain type of user’s access to federal public land that’s supposed to be open to everyone?

A nonprofit organization calling itself Wasatch Equality argued it didn’t. The group, which includes professional snowboarder Bjorn Leines, filed suit in 2014 alleging the ban violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

But the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, in upholding a lower court ruling, concluded that Alta had a right to enforce its policy because the U.S. Forest Service didn’t influence the decision and therefore it wasn’t a blanket “state action” that could have amounted to discrimination.

There’s long been friction between skiers and snowboarders. And Alta, east of Salt Lake City, has prided — and marketed — itself as a snowboarder-free destination. Slogans boast this all over the mountain, including at lift ticket windows and near an entrance gate that connects Alta with the adjacent Snowbird Resort, where snowboarding is allowed.

The case was closely watched because a ruling in favor of the snowboarders could have called into question the legality of the few remaining snowboarding bans at ski resorts in the U.S.

Only Alta, Deer Valley in Utah, and Vermont’s Mad River Glen still ban snowboarders. Taos Ski Valley Resort in New Mexico lifted its ban several years ago.

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Sports April 18, 2016

Boston Marathon Results: Ethiopian Runners Shut Kenyans Out Of Top Spots

Boston Marathon women’s winner Atsede Baysa and men’s winner Lemi Berhanu Hayle, led a dominant group of Ethiopian runners in Monday’s race. Boston Globe via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Boston Globe via Getty Images

Two Ethiopian runners wore the golden laurels denoting winners of the Boston Marathon Monday, marking the first time in the race’s 120 years that Ethiopian racers won both the men’s and women’s divisions.

For the men, it was newcomer Lemi Berhanu Hayle, 21; for the women, it was Atsede Baysa, 29, whose career includes wins in Paris and Chicago.

Runners from Kenya, who had for years been considered the best of the best in the world, were nearly shut out of the podium entirely. As the AP reports, “Joyce Chepkirui was third in the women’s race, the lone Kenyan to medal in a race that had been dominated by her countrymen for decades.”

From Boston, NPR’s Tovia Smith reports for our Newscast unit:

“21-year-old Lemi Berhanu Hayle did a little skip-jump as he took the men’s race at 2 hours, 12 minutes, 45 seconds. He beat defending champion Lelisa Desisa.

“On the women’s side, Atsede Baysa, 29, crossed the finish line in an unofficial time of 2:29:19. She got a hug from her coach on the other side and sent up a quick prayer of thanks. Baysa had been almost 40 seconds behind just a few miles back, but she made up the time to take the lead, and then some. Defending women’s champion Caroline Rotich dropped out in the first 5 miles.

“Also running in the race this year: two survivors of the 2013 bombing who each lost a leg in the blast, Adriana Haslett and Patrick Downes.”

The men’s wheelchair race provided the closest finish of the day, with Marcel Hug of Switzerland breaking the tape at the 1:24:06 mark – just ahead of Ernst Van Dyk of South Africa (second) and Kurt Fearnley of Australia, who were nose-and-nose in Hug’s wake.

Tatyana McFadden of the U.S. won the women’s wheelchair race, earning her fourth consecutive victory in Boston with a time of 1:42:16.

Like many runners in today’s race, McFadden competed in honor of Martin Richard, who was eight years old when he was killed in the 2013 attacks. On social media and at the race, runners showed their support for the Martin Richard Foundation (goal: to invest in education, athletics, and community) by using the hashtag MR8 — the boy’s initials and his sports number. Dozens of athletes wore jerseys featuring MR8 today.

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Sports April 16, 2016

Not My Job: NASCAR Driver Matt Kenseth Gets Quizzed On Golf Carts

Driver Matt Kenseth poses for a portrait during NASCAR Media Day at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 16, 2016 in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

We’re recording in Milwaukee this week, so we’ve invited champion NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth — a Wisconsin native — to the show. Since he specializes in driving things that go very, very fast, we’ve invited him to play a game called “Get a move on, pal!” Three questions about golf carts.

Transcript

PETER SAGAL, HOST:

And it’s now the game where we ask interesting people about uninteresting things. It’s called Not My Job. So NASCAR champion driver Matt Kenseth, whose name autocorrect constantly corrects to Kenneth – was born in Cambridge, Wis., where his first job was sizing mink furs at a mink farm. He became a racer when he said to himself how fast do I have to drive to get out of here? Matt Kenseth joins us now from North Carolina. Matt Kenseth, welcome to WAIT WAIT… DON’T TELL ME.

MATT KENSETH: Great, thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Now, Matt, first up, I did not associate Wisconsin with stock-car racing. But it turns out I am wrong, right, that you grew up racing here?

KENSETH: Yeah, there’s actually a lot of stock-car racing up in Wisconsin. When I grew up racing around the area, there was probably five nights a week, six nights a week I guess you could race. So yeah, a lot of good racing around there. I had a lot of fun.

SAGAL: Right. And how young were you when you knew that’s what you wanted to do, to race cars?

KENSETH: (Laughter) Well, I’ve always been interested in racing and mechanics. And I think the thing that really opened my eyes to racing was probably the first day that I drove somebody else’s car and me and my dad didn’t have to pay for the tires and the pit passes…

SAGAL: Oh, that’s great.

(LAUGHTER)

KENSETH: I actually got paid a little bit to drive a race car. I thought that was the greatest thing ever. So once that happened once, I was like I’ve got to figure how to do this more.

SAGAL: Right. So now you’re on the NASCAR circuit. You’re a sponsored and very successful driver. You’ve won a bunch of championships. In fact, you won – I read this – you won the Daytona 500 in 2009 because it was cut short by rain?

KENSETH: Well, we didn’t win it because it was cut short by rain.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: I want you to know – just in case it wasn’t clear, I don’t know what I’m talking about. I…

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: I don’t know enough to insult you. I’m just dumb, so…

(Laughter)

MO ROCCA: But doesn’t your car have windshield wipers?

(LAUGHTER)

KENSETH: No windshield wipers, and we don’t have any tread on our tires, so I think it’d make a big mess.

LUKE BURBANK: That sounds dangerous. You guys should get them tread.

ROXANNE ROBERTS: Yeah, going like a…

SAGAL: Very fast.

ROBERTS: …Fast – high speeds…

ROCCA: I know – I know about the fourth turn at Charlotte. I know all about it.

SAGAL: I’ve heard that driving a NASCAR – a race car – even though you’re technically sitting still is actually one of the most physically-difficult things that athletes do. Would you agree with that?

KENSETH: No, that’s a lie.

(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)

BURBANK: Wonderful.

SAGAL: Oh (laughter). I’ve heard stories of, like, you know, trained athletes getting into a NASCAR car, doing a few laughs with a driver driving and staggering out because their body can’t take it. And you’re like nah, we’re just sitting there, listening to the radio? Is that…

(LAUGHTER)

KENSETH: (Laughter) Well, I will say it’s different, you know? It takes – you know, it’s really hot in the car. You’re in there for a really long time. It obviously takes a lot of mental focus. But I wouldn’t say that it’s nearly as physically demanding as most other sports.

ROCCA: Have you ever taken a right turn?

(LAUGHTER)

KENSETH: As a matter of fact, I have.

SAGAL: Really?

ROCCA: Well, but when you’re – I’m serious though, when you’re going around, you’re turning left and you’re turning left, does that mean that – is your body, like, everything shoved to the right?

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Do you have to spin around in left-handed circles to unwind…

ROCCA: Yeah.

SAGAL: …After a race? Is that what you’re asking?

KENSETH: Yeah. I mean, – I mean, right now I’m trying to figure out if any of those questions is really serious or not.

(LAUGHTER)

ROBERTS: All right…

SAGAL: Yeah, so are the listeners.

ROBERTS: OK, I have…

KENSETH: But I will say…

SAGAL: Yeah.

KENSETH: …I was working out of about a month ago with my trainer over here. And, like, my left side of, like, my abs and my core is, like, twice as strong as my right side. So there is a little bit there, actually…

ROCCA: That’s what I meant. That’s what I meant.

KENSETH: Believe it or not.

ROBERTS: What kind of driver are you when you’re not working?

KENSETH: (Laughter) You know, I’m a – I am fairly – fairly cautious. I don’t like getting pulled over. I don’t like speeding tickets. I don’t really drive that fast on the road. I’m usually, honestly, on the highway I’m a set-your-cruise guy. That’s about it; I’m fairly cautious.

SAGAL: I have – I wonder if – again, about this skill thing. Let’s say you were in a Prius and I was in a Porsche…

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: …And stipulating that I don’t know what I’m doing, who would win?

KENSETH: Well, since I – since Toyota is one of our biggest sponsors and you’re putting me (unintelligible) I’m going to win.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Well done, sir.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Well, Matt Kenseth, it is a pleasure to talk to you from your home state. But we have asked you here to play game we’re calling…

BILL KURTIS: Get A Move On, Pal.

SAGAL: Since you drive very fast for a living, we thought we’d ask you about vehicles that go very slowly, namely golf carts. Answer three of these questions about golf carts correctly, you’ll win our prize for one of our listeners – Carl Kasell’s voice on their voicemail. Bill, who is NASCAR champion Matt Kenseth playing for?

KURTIS: Thomas Paul from Milwaukee, Wis.

SAGAL: All right.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: So you ready to play here, Matt?

KENSETH: I – not really but I’ll try.

SAGAL: OK.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: First question, lawbreaking in golf carts is pretty common, as you might imagine. Which of these really happened? A, a midnight golf cart drag racing club in the Villages retirement complex was broken up when a cop car easily caught up with the fleeing racers…

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: …B, a Florida golf club member was thrown off the course for mistaking her Chrysler LeBaron convertible for a golf cart and driving it up the fairway, or C, a bank robber in LA got out with $75,000, jumped into a waiting golf cart and was arrested 400 feet later.

(LAUGHTER)

KENSETH: Yeah, you know, I’m going to go with B. I could see some old lady drinking too much on the golf course and getting in her car and driving down the fairway. I could totally see it.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: It is frightening how accurate you are ’cause that’s exactly what happened.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

ROCCA: Oh, really? Wow.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Notice – I want to you notice…

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: …That I did not mention the drinking part, but Matt here figured that out that that had to play a role. And it did – she likes to drink, this particular golf club member and she – especially before a round of golf. And she just mistook her Chrysler for the golf cart and went tearing up the fairway. All right, two more questions. You did pretty well with that one. Golf carts are getting passe. Hip golfers are using new alternatives to the golf cart, such as which of these? A, the golf horse cart, which is environmentally friendly and it fertilizers the grass…

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: …B, golf drones, which use four motorized drones to carry your clubs as you walk, or C, the GolfBoard, a motorized surfboard that lets you carve the hills and fairways as you play?

KENSETH: Oh, it’s got to be the surfboard.

SAGAL: Yes, it is, Matt. You’re right again.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL, APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: The only – it is the GolfBoard – it’s the only way science has yet found to make golfers look even sillier.

(LAUGHTER)

KENSETH: So do you guys want me to get this last one wrong so you don’t actually have to call that guy’s voicemail?

SAGAL: No, no…

(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: You are…

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: You are a master of race strategy. It’s amazing.

BURBANK: I find it unsettling, Matt, how quickly you’ll throw a competition. It’s a little…

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Oh, look, it’s starting to rain. Let’s call it. You’ve won.

(LAUGHTER)

KENSETH: That’s right.

SAGAL: No, no, no, no, no, no, we’re excited.

(BOOING)

SAGAL: Oh, they are punishing me. We’re going to play this out. Here we go…

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: It turns out, golf carts – not just for playing golf, as in which of these instances? A, certain Saudi billionaires use them to travel the interior hallways of their mansions, B, the Indian army once bought 22 of them to use as, quote, “silent reconnaissance vehicles…”

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: …Or C, Donald Trump has a small golf cart done up to look like a car so he can sit in it and it makes his hands look bigger.

(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)

KENSETH: You know, as much as I’d like to go with C, we’re going to have to say A.

SAGAL: You’re going to go with A, the Saudi billionaires?

KENSETH: Yeah, they’ve got to be cruising down their halls.

SAGAL: They might be, but as far as we know we made that up. It was actually the Indian army – silent…

KENSETH: Yeah.

SAGAL: …Reconnaissance vehicles.

KENSETH: I knew that. I just didn’t want to have him make that phone call that…

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Bill, how did – how did Matt Kenseth do on our show?

KURTIS: He got 2 out of 3. And for that we say you’re a winner.

SAGAL: It’s true. You won anyway.

KENSETH: All right.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Matt Kenseth is one of NASCAR’s biggest stars. You can see him racing the number 20 car at the Food City 500 this Sunday. Matt Kenseth, thank you so much for joining us. It was lots of fun.

KENSETH: Thank you for having me.

SAGAL: Bye-bye.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “THE RACE IS ON”)

GEORGE JONES: (Singing) Now the race is on and here comes pride up the back stretch. Heartaches are going to the inside. My tears are holding back. They’re trying not to fall. My hearts out of the running. True love’s scratched for another’s sake. The race is on and it looks like heartaches, and the winner loses all.

SAGAL: In just a minute, Bill shows the shorties some love in the Listener Limerick Challenge. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to join us on the air. We’ll be back in a minute with more WAIT WAIT… DON’T TELL ME from NPR.

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Sports April 15, 2016

New York Legalizes Professional Mixed Martial Arts Fights

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (center) signed into law a measure that will allow professional mixed martial arts in New York. Behind him are UFC athletes Chris Weidman (left) and Ronda Rousey. Mark Lennihan/AP hide caption

toggle caption Mark Lennihan/AP

New York has ended its ban on professional mixed martial arts — the last state in the U.S. to do so — and the Ultimate Fighting Championship wasted no time in announcing a match at Madison Square Garden.

The league said it will host a major pay-per-view event at the storied venue on Nov. 12.

“Our commitment to bringing incredible live events to New York starts immediately,” UFC Chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta said at Thursday’s bill-signing event with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The governor echoed that sentiment.

“It’s time to bring mixed martial arts competitions to the New York stage. With venues like Madison Square Garden, New York truly is the international icon for great sporting events, and we’re excited to begin a new chapter of MMA in the Empire State,” Cuomo said in a statement.

Hey @TheGarden: Let’s do this ? pic.twitter.com/SnbB82PzqZ

— UFC (@ufc) April 14, 2016

Ending the 1997 ban on pro MMA fights will also “close a statutory loophole under which unregulated and unsupervised ‘amateur’ mixed martial arts competitions had been occurring in New York State,” the statement read.

With mixed martial arts contests newly under the purview of the New York State Athletic Commission, the governor’s office touts that the industry will bring in $137 million, once it is operating at “full programming capacity.”

The law also ensures the athletes’ safety — at least to the extent that a sport where competitors kick and punch each other into submission can be safe.

In New York’s semiregulated amateur MMA circuit, fighters were allowed to compete without being tested for blood-borne illnesses like HIV or hepatitis C, as Deadspin wrote when it reported on the MMA legalization bill in 2014.

In a sport where blood is nearly as inevitable as winning and losing, not testing athletes for such illnesses is a concern.

Deadspin wrote:

“The problem is that while these fights are nominally regulated by private organizations, some of them are, in practice, not regulated at all. That’s why fighters can compete in New York with HIV, hepatitis C, and other conditions that would prevent them from getting in a cage anywhere else in the United States.”

It also noted that some of the amateur events did not have doctors on scene, instead relying “on paramedics, acupuncturists, or calls to 911 operators.”

After citing the number of jobs MMA will create and the revenue dollars it will draw, Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan said in the statement from the governor’s office: “More than that, this bill will help safeguard the health and welfare of these professional athletes.”

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Sports April 14, 2016

Golden State Warriors Celebrate Best Season In NBA History

The Golden State Warriors broke the NBA record for most wins in a season. Steve Inskeep talks to Diamond Leung, who covers the team for the San Jose Mercury News, and was there Wednesday night.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

All this season, NBA fans have heard plenty of calls like this.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Green, back to Curry – bang (ph).

INSKEEP: Another basket for Steph Curry. So many, in fact, that his Golden State Warriors last night set the record for the most wins in a single season – regular season, that is – in pro basketball history. Their 73 wins broke the mark set by Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls in 1996.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

That wasn’t the only big event on the last day of the NBA regular season. Here in Los Angeles, an era ended also with a bang.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Bryant on the move with the jumper…

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: …He got it.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Oh, my, 58 points.

MONTAGNE: Kobe Bryant ended his storied career with 60 points, and he set a personal record for the most shots he’s ever taken in a game.

INSKEEP: Let’s talk about all this with Diamond Leung. He covers the Warriors for the San Jose Mercury News. Good morning.

DIAMOND LEUNG: Good morning. How are you doing today?

INSKEEP: OK. And I know that you’ve come practically from the arena to talk with us after a long night working there. What was it like to be in the arena for that Warriors win?

LEUNG: Well, you could feel that it was a historic night. I think the fans were beside themselves. They went home with the memory of Steph Curry just having one of his best games. Steph Curry scored 46 points, made 10 three-point shots and did something that no one else has done. He’s surpassed the 400 mark for three-pointers this season.

INSKEEP: OK, so I want to stop you there because this is amazing. I didn’t even realize, but a few years ago this guy set the record for the most three-point shots, 272. And then he set another record for the most three-point shots, 286. And how he goes all the way to 400 – what is he doing?

LEUNG: Unbelievable. Just shattered his own record. You know, he’s just gotten better and better and better. And coming off an MVP season, sometimes you think well, the guy’s reached the mountaintop. There’s not a whole lot to go. This guy works harder than anybody else, whether it’s wearing impaired-vision goggles and taking all sorts of different shots. So he does so many different things that pushes his own limits. And now here we are with the 402 three-pointers.

INSKEEP: Four hundred-two – so he practices with goggles that are like a hand in his face, basically.

LEUNG: Yeah, they impair your vision. It’s just one of the many things he does. And all he does is he wears – is wear those glasses and tosses a tennis ball to himself and sees if he can catch it while his vision’s being blocked. Whatever he does, he’s always looking for the next edge.

INSKEEP: Now we could go through several Warriors players, but I want to ask about Steve Kerr, the coach. We’re at the end of his second season here. This team seems to have gone from pretty good to amazing instantly. What do you think this guy has?

LEUNG: You know, his leadership ability, the way communicates is really just off the charts. This is a very talented Warriors team that he inherited. He was able to take it to the next level just by putting in a new offensive system. And, you know, maybe lot of people saw hey, they won the championship. How much better can they get? Well, if you think about it, last year was Kerr’s first season. And in that first season, you can only kind of learn so much. Well, this year they took it to the next step. The way he put in his offensive system, the way they got better playing with each other in that system, I think, is just a testament to the whole thing that he’s set up.

INSKEEP: So one other thing. What’s it like for you to be a sports reporter in this era when Kobe Bryant’s career has come to a close as it did last night?

LEUNG: Yeah. You know, one thing I took from that was there was kind of a symmetry to that, where Steph Curry and the Warriors have this great night and they break the Bulls record. And on the other side, Kobe Bryant – the guy that used to just give the Warriors fits, dominated the West Coast, if not all of basketball – you know, he goes out in his last game, has a big night as well. And, you know, it’s almost in some ways a passing of the torch, maybe.

INSKEEP: Diamond Leung of the San Jose Mercury News, who joined us by Skype. Thanks very much.

LEUNG: Thanks for having me.

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