There was no better natural, TV wrestling villain than the late @R_Roddy_Piper. He was #elite. #RIPRoddyPiper

— Jim Ross (@JRsBBQ) August 1, 2015

RIP legend. I first met this wrestling icon when I was 12yrs old when he was wrestling my pops the WWE. For weeks and weeks after that meeting I would have my mom set up a video camera in the kitchen as I would “become” Hot Rod and mimmic and emulate his every word, style, swag, heat, cool cockiness and all delivered with his classic smile (and my awful 12yr old afro).He was a huge influence on me as a kid and an even bigger one when I became The Rock in the WWE. Thank you Roddy for all the talks, all the stories (especially the crazy ones about my grandfather and grandmother?) all the advice and most importantly.. all the memories of you entertaining us fans. You’re missed my friend. Heaven just got a lil’ rowdier… Rest in love ~ DJ #JustWhenTheyThinkTheyHaveAllTheAnswers #HotRodChangesTheQuestions

A photo posted by therock (@therock) on Jul 31, 2015 at 4:36pm PDT

Sad to hear about Roddy Piper.He once worked 91 nights w/out a day off.WWE wouldn’t be what it is today w/out him.Wonderful athlete & friend

— Jesse Ventura (@GovJVentura) July 31, 2015

I’m devastated by the passing of my friend Roddy Piper. Great wrestler, underrated actor, dear friend. Rest in peace, Rod.

— John Carpenter (@TheHorrorMaster) July 31, 2015

I STAND BEHIND THE RODDY PIPER WHEN WE BOTH MAKE IT TO HALL OF FAME. FOREVER HE MY BROTHER. pic.twitter.com/Q8S8OtR6XT

— The Iron Sheik (@the_ironsheik) July 31, 2015

2:42

The International Olympic Committee will decide Friday whether to accept the bid by Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, to stage the 2022 Winter Games, or instead offer it to rival contender Beijing.

Transcript

CORY FLINTOFF, BYLINE: This is Cory Flintoff in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Supporters of Almaty’s Olympic bid are touting the legacy for the future too, promising that the games will put this nation on the world tourist map and jumpstart an industry based on the country’s natural attractions. Some Americans may think of Kazakhstan only as the made up homeland of “Borat” in the 2006 movie comedy by Sacha Baron Cohen. In fact, Kazakhstan is a very real place – an oil-rich stretch of mountains and steppes in the heart of Central Asia. Its 17 million people are famous for their hospitality, one of the qualities that’s featured in this slickly produced promotional video.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Surrounded by snowy peaks that almost reach down to the city streets, Almaty provides a metropolitan haven amidst a real winter wonderland.

FLINTOFF: The slogan for the country’s Olympic bid is, keeping it real, a reference to the fact that Almaty gets plenty of real snow in contrast to China’s proposed winter venues which might have to rely on man-made white stuff for the Alpine events. Almaty’s supporters say that all the Olympic events could be held at a compact area with no venue more than about 12 miles from the city center. And when the games are over, they say, the city will benefit from new housing, new recreational opportunities and new infrastructure.

Not so fast, say the proposal’s detractors, such as Dosym Satpayev, head of the Kazakhstan Risk Assessment Group. Satpayev says the Olympic bid has support from the country’s political elite, but a lot of ordinary people are worried about the cost of such an expensive project.

DOSYM SATPAYEV: Because a lot of ordinary people in Kazakhstan – they asked why we should organize for expensive Olympic Games because in Kazakhstan now we have a lot of local problems.

FLINTOFF: Those problems, he says, include Kazakhstan’s deteriorating education and healthcare systems. Satpayev says many people see the Olympic Games as an opportunity for greedy public officials to skim more of the country’s oil wealth. It’s not just the costs, says Sergei Kuratov, a founder of the local environmental group Green Salvation.

SERGEI KURATOV: Another problem is that this is area where some very rare so-called endangered species, and the most famous animal is Snow Leopard.

FLINTOFF: Kuratov says Olympic development would encroach on a wildlife refuge and threaten the leopard’s habitat. The winner of the bid – Almaty or Beijing – will be announced tomorrow. Corey Flintoff, NPR News, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

You can’t help but be happy for him when you see someone celebrating like this… http://t.co/anV35snUM9 #MiguelHerrera #NEDMEX #WorldCup

— Sabine Lisicki (@sabinelisicki) June 29, 2014

4:34

The big question in sports this week has been: Will Zack Greinke pitch for the Dodgers on Saturday night? And the U.S. men’s soccer team competes for third place in the Gold Cup.

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

I look forward all week to saying it’s time for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: This week, two expectant fathers were on the mound; reach for the Pampers. Also a new coach makes her mark in the NBA, and why can’t the U.S. men play more like women? We’re joined now by NPR’s special sports correspondent, Tom Goldman. Tom, thanks so much for being with us.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: My pleasure.

SIMON: Let’s hit baseball first. Two great pitchers – I’ve been savoring this phrase for a few days now – two great pitchers are on California rolls. Ha. Get it? Sorry.

GOLDMAN: Good one.

SIMON: Thank you.

GOLDMAN: Really good. And not to one up you, but may I add that L.A. Dodgers Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw are wasabi hot.

SIMON: (Laughter) OK. You win. Yes, two great rolls of scoreless- two great streaks of scoreless innings, right?

GOLDMAN: But before we talk about Zack Greinke and the 43 in two-thirds straight scoreless innings he has pitched, we need to talk about Zack Greinke the new father. He was scheduled to pitch last night versus the Mets. He missed the start so he could be with his wife for the birth of his first child. Now, amazingly, the Mets scheduled starter, Jon Niese, also was about to become a papa for the second time. He chose to pitch, watched the birth on FaceTime. You think Greinke’s kid will hold it over Niese’s someday?

SIMON: The two of them will meet in spring training a few years from now and say, well, my dad was there. What about yours? Well, my dad won the game. Yeah.

GOLDMAN: And happy to say, both mothers delivered healthy baby boys. Now, I’m not going to put a value judgment on what either pitcher did or didn’t do, Scott, but the Dodgers did crush the Mets 7-2.

SIMON: Well, all right. God bless both families. That’s best. And Zack will be on the mound against the Mets, right?

GOLDMAN: Tomorrow. And try to keep that streak going. He’s chasing another Dodger great, Orel Hershiser. He holds the record for consecutive innings pitched without giving up a run – 59 straights in 1988 – Greinke, with 43 and two-thirds straight. He’s been fantastic. He was – you know, he has an impossibly low earned run average of 1.30. Although, some opposing batters have grumbled that umpires are giving him a really big strike zone by umpires. Now, amazingly, Clayton Kershaw is kind of a secondary story on the Dodgers, something to say, considering…

SIMON: Winner, yeah.

GOLDMAN: Yeah, three of the last four national league Cy Young Awards. With his shutout win versus the Mets Thursday, Kershaw – in his last three games – has thrown 38 strikeouts, has not given up a walk. And now he’s at 29 straight scoreless innings. So the talk in L.A. is about the second coming of Koufax and Drysdale.

SIMON: Yeah. Basketball – Becky Hammond of the San Antonio Spurs, the NBA’s first assistant coach who happens to be female is really making a mark in the summer leagues, isn’t she?

GOLDMAN: Yeah. She led the Spurs to the summer league title, which is only the summer league title. Your top players aren’t playing. But, you know, someone’s got to win it, and Hammond was impressive – the way she handled her team. She was in the huddles talking tough to the men, chewing them out when they got a bit too cavalier in their approach. Kudos to the Spurs, you know, another feather in the cap of head coach Gregg Popovich for hiring Hammond as an assistant, giving her the head-coaching opportunity with the summer league. She made the most of it.

SIMON: And is that the kind of record teams look for when they look for – begin to look for a head coach in a couple years?

GOLDMAN: Well, you know, again it is just the summer league. But you know, Adam – NBA Commissioner Adam Silver did talk about the real likelihood that a woman could coach at some point in the NBA. Remember, the league has blazed gender trails before. In the late 1990s, Violet Palmer became the first official – female official – to officiate at the highest level of any major pro sport.

SIMON: Just last summer, U.S. men’s national soccer coach Jurgen Klinsmann was being applauded for what his team did in the World Cup. This summer – big loss against Jamaica – what’s changed?

GOLDMAN: Yeah, in the Gold Cup this week – against Jamaica ranked 76th in the world – major upset. Yeah, there are rumblings about Klinsmann. He was applauded for last summer’s World Cup, although he was also criticized for what some believe are his tactical deficiencies as a coach. You know, there’s concern that the U.S. men’s team hasn’t grown, hasn’t had consistent success that was promised when Klinsmann took over in 2011. So we’ll watch that. The U.S. men still trying to catch up with the success and popularity of the women’s team.

SIMON: God bless. NPR’s Tom Goldman. Thanks so much.

GOLDMAN: You’re welcome, Scott.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

3:36

NPR’s Melissa Block talks to tournament director Karen Kimaki about the inaugural Quidditch European Games, taking place this weekend in Sarteano, Italy.

3:46

NPR’s Melissa Block speaks with Andrew Hood, the European correspondent for VeloNews, for an update on the Tour de France.

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

The lead rider in this year’s Tour de France had a cup of urine tossed on him during the race by a spectator shouting, doper. His teammates have been spat upon, punched and yelled at. British cyclist Amy says that upon and yelled it. British cyclist Chris Froome is dominating this year’s tour, and at the same time, he’s dogged by speculation that he must be juiced. Cycling correspondent Andrew Hood is covering the race for VeloNews. He joins me now from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in the French Alps. Andrew, welcome to the program.

ANDREW HOOD: Hello. Thanks for having us.

BLOCK: And Chris Froome is wearing the yellow jersey, which means he is in the lead. He’s a little bit over three minutes ahead of his closest competitor in the standings. Three days to go before the race raps up in Paris, do you think anybody can catch him?

HOOD: That does not seem to be the case right now. The Colombian climber Nairo Quintana is kind of nipping at his heels, but Froome has this tremendous power, this tremendous cadence, his style of racing that’s really hard to get any time on him – two more hard mountain stages and then the final stage in the Champs-Elysees. It’s going to take a major disaster for Froome to lose this tour.

BLOCK: Now, it does seem that Froome doesn’t have to just win this race. He also has to prove himself in the court of public opinion about whether he’s racing clean. Is there something in particular about his performance that’s drawing scrutiny, or is this just overall general distrust and disgust with cycling?

HOOD: That’s true. That’s a good point. He’s almost fighting a battle on two fronts, on the road and then after the stage when he has to answer questions from the media and from social media where there’s a whole kind of core group of very vocal people on things like Twitter that are just convinced that Chris Froome cannot do what he does clean. Part of it is the way he races. He has this explosive kind of unique style and also just kind of the hangover of the Lance Armstrong doping scandals and really doping scandals that have haunted the sport for almost 20 years.

BLOCK: I was struck by a line in a commentary in VeloNews which says the only way to avoid suspicion is not to win. And I wonder if cycling is ever going to escape that taint of doping. What would it take?

HOOD: I think it’s going to take a few more years of these credible performances, a few more years of tours without major doping scandals. Since 2008, they introduced what’s called a biological passport, and it’s the way of measuring kind of blood indicators in an athlete, seeing if they are manipulating their blood. And there hasn’t been a major scandal since, really, about 2007, 2008. We’ve had individual cases, of course. Riders are going to cheat like people cheat on taxes. But the overall (unintelligible) is a much cleaner, credible place than it’s really ever been in the sport’s history.

BLOCK: Andrew, you’ve covered every Tour de France since 1996. How is racing, for you, different without the pull of Lance Armstrong? Despite all the scandals, he did make cycling hugely popular with a mass audience for a very long time.

HOOD: Yeah. It’s been interesting. We were talking about that over the dinner table the other night. The United States Press Corps’s very small these days. I think we have two or three Americans covering the race this year, whereas back in the Lance Armstrong days, we had correspondents from all the major newspapers, all the wires, all the magazines. And now, we’re seeing that replicated almost with the boom we’re seeing in the United Kingdom with Team Sky, Bradley Wiggins winning 2012 in (unintelligible) on his way to his second win. The tour is way more international than it used to be back in the day. It was still very much of a French, Italian, Belgian affair. And now the winners are all coming from Anglo countries, from Australia, from the United States, from the U.K. It really drives the French crazy (laughter).

BLOCK: Well, Andrew, thanks for talking with us. Enjoy the rest of the tour.

HOOD: Thank you.

BLOCK: Andrew Hood is covering the tour for VeloNews. He spoke with us from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in the French Alps.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

3:19

In the famous Disney movie, a carpenter named Geppetto longed to have a son. He carved a puppet of a boy, and, wouldn’t you know it, the wooden Pinocchio magically became a real child. Fantasy games are the Pinocchio of sport, for all who play them become Geppettos. Isn’t it the dream of every fan to construct his or her own team, as Geppetto wanted to carve out a son?

And fantasy sports allows you to do that. You draft your own players for your make-believe team, and then you bet based on how your real players perform in real games. But then, we call that fantasy. According to federal law, it’s legal for you to bet on your make-believe team when it plays other make-believe teams, but you cannot bet on real teams when they play other real teams.

The rationale is that in selecting players for your team— let’s say the San Francisco Giants— your analysis of baseball qualifies the activity as a game of skill. But you can’t legally bet on the actual San Francisco Giants as an entity, even though you would be applying the same skills to evaluate your wager. It isn’t just fantasy sports, it’s fantasy jurisprudence.

But it is hardly any dreamland. Fantasy sports are now estimated to be a $2 billion business in the U.S., with 57 million players. Each year the numbers explode, with more serious investors happy to broker the action.

Just this month, Yahoo threw in big-time to fantasy sports, booking games every day. It’s no fantasy that Yahoo will bank 10 percent of what they take in. To make it even more bizarre, while professional sports leagues all have taken hysterical stands against changing the federal law — which prohibits gambling on actual games — the sanctimonious leagues also have partnerships with various fantasy sites.

The word fan was originally carved out of “fanatic” but now it would more properly be identified with “fantasy.” You have to wonder, with a lot of fans, if fantasy hasn’t already begun to trump reality. A fan may root for an actual team, but it’s only an emotional attachment. With his fantasy team, he’s put cash on the barrelhead. Ah, for love, or money?

Pinocchio eventually became a real boy. Geppetto’s fantasy beat reality. If the popularity of fantasy sports keeps growing, someday we may play real games just to support our fantasy habit.