Sports quirks in 2019: Golf balls, oddballs, watches, pants

Sports quirks in 2019: Golf balls, oddballs, watches, pants - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Sports quirks in 2019: Golf balls, oddballs, watches, pants - Minneapolis Star Tribune
9 Best Heated Pants: Compare & Save (2020) - Heavy.com
There's Much Ado About Going Out Tops... But What About Going Out Pants? - VICE

Sports quirks in 2019: Golf balls, oddballs, watches, pants - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Posted: 30 Dec 2019 09:21 AM PST

Sometimes the general managers and player personnel directors on Mount Olympus look down on some lucky soul and declare: This is your moment.

Consider Dale Cohen, a 62-year-old shift worker at a plastics company and a golfer from Findlay, Ohio. He made two holes-in-one in the same round. The Courier newspaper reports he used an 8-iron both times on a rainy, windy day. The odds of two aces in the same round are estimated at 67 million to 1.

"I hit the lottery but didn't get paid," he said. "That's OK. I'll take it."

Then again, the executives on Mount Olympus are a fickle bunch. Houston Astros shortstop Carlos Correa was having a massage in his home and wound up with a fractured rib. The massage New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft was having in a Florida shopping mall also didn't work out so well, although his ribs remained intact.

Sports in 2019 took us to unexpected venues: The Vatican formed a track team, complete with nuns and Swiss Guards, although Scripture reminds that the race is not to the swift; the world's No. 1 bridge player was suspended for failing a drug test; and a French basketball player in China was fined not for taking a knee during the Chinese anthem but for not casting his eyes on the flag.

By turns, it was a year that could be baffling, enriching and icily satisfying.

At the Tour de France, world time trial champion Rohan Dennis simply vanished during the first stage in the Pyrenees. Afterward, near his team bus, he didn't want to talk about it. Said team director Gorazd Stangelj: "We are also confused."

Roger Federer has been the gold standard in tennis. Now this is more than metaphor. His face is to be minted on Swiss currency. He will be featured on one side of a 20 franc silver coin hitting a one-handed backhand.

In 2001, a Canadian Football League fan vowed to wear only shorts until his Blue Bombers won the championship. Mind you, this team is from Winnipeg. Chris Matthew withstood the prospect of frost bite for nearly two decades. His team finally won it all this season, and his wife is pleased. "Now," he told CTV News, "if we need to go somewhere where pants are required, we can actually go there."

There were other scrums and scrambles:

FROM RUSSIA, WITH SHOVE: It's not easy being a referee, especially in Russia. The soccer club Akhmat Grozny used its public address system to insult the referee with an expletive, drawing cheers from the crowd. … The coach of the hockey team Amur Khabarovsk was furious over a penalty-kick call and threatened to set fire to the referee's car. Coach Alexander Gulyavtsev was puzzled by the response to his comment. "I just said car. It's not as if I said apartment."

RICH MAN, POOR MAN: The scoreboard clock was not enough for Odell Beckham Jr. In the Cleveland Browns' opener against Tennessee, the star receiver played while wearing a watch that retails for a cool $250,000. A day later, the league took issue with his accessorizing, citing a policy "prohibiting hard objects." Beckham's watch would more than pay the rent for Chicago Cubs minor leaguer Trevor Clifton. He lived this season in a 104-square-foot home he and his father built from a $200 camper bought online. But it's got a couch, a fridge and a mattress, and it's quiet. "I just like to be on my own," he told The Des Moines Register. FRENCH PROJECTION: Clearly, the Seine wouldn't do. Organizers of the 2024 Paris Olympics hope to hold the surfing competition more than 9,000 miles away in Tahiti. The French also want breakdancing on the Olympic roster, looking to entice a younger audience. Is breakdancing a "sport"? It sure is, says top breakdancer Mounir Biba. "I defy Cristiano Ronaldo to do just one of my movements," he said.

WORD(IM)PERFECT: Words were a most dangerous game in 2019. Baseball traded its "disabled list" for the "injured list," saying it doesn't want to support the "misconception that people with disabilities are injured and therefore are not able to participate or compete." … Canadian hockey authorities, intent on being an "inclusive brand," dropped its longtime "midget" division in favor of age designations. … New York Jets cornerback Janoris Jenkins called a fan a "retard" on Twitter, insisting the expression was part of his "culture." Two days later, he was part of another culture —- unemployed.

WAITER, HATER: An English Premier League goalkeeper was cleared of wrongdoing but cited for "lamentable" ignorance by supposedly giving a Nazi salute during a team dinner. Wayne Hennessey contended he does not even know what a Nazi salute is, and he was merely extending his arm to get the attention of a waiter. … Australian rugby star Israel Folau certainly knew what he was doing. His contract was terminated after his Instagram post in which he consigned to hell "homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists, idolaters." The governing body of Australian rugby condemned Folau for his anti-gay remarks but offered no opinion on drunks and fornicators.

Maybe the most eye-opening news came out of the University of Virginia. Tony Bennett, coach of the NCAA basketball champions, declined a pay raise. He told the school to give the money to his staff and other departments. He said he has more than enough money. It was as if he were speaking in tongues. Athletic director Carla Williams said this "just does not happen in our industry."

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Contributing to this report were AP sports writers Steve Douglas, Hank Kurz Jr., John Leicester, Dennis Passa, Samuel Petrequin, Tom Withers.

9 Best Heated Pants: Compare & Save (2020) - Heavy.com

Posted: 30 Dec 2019 02:53 PM PST

When temperatures get truly cold, your bottom half is often overlooked. For those braving the winter elements in need of some truly toasty apparel, a pair of heated pants or underwear is a game-changer!

Our top list of heated pants will steer you in the right direction whatever your cold-weather under or outerwear needs are!

There's Much Ado About Going Out Tops... But What About Going Out Pants? - VICE

Posted: 30 Dec 2019 07:00 AM PST

Close your eyes, think going out top in your mind, and your brain will create an image. It's velvet, or maybe it's sequined; there is some element of flowiness or, alternatively, sexy structure. It allows a hint of cleavage and/or belly button, perhaps because it is "strappy." It's inappropriate, in some way or another, for the office. It's for going out; it's a going out top.

Yet try to do the same thing with the phrase "going out pants," and your brain will be like, "???!?!?!??," because, currently, there is no such thing as Going Out Pants. Even though it's uncouth to leave the home in only a shirt and no bottoms, all we ever talk about is the top. What do you wear on the bottom? What pairs with a going out top? Surely the answer is going out pants, but searching for this phrase is fruitless; there is no dedicated subsection of a retailer's website like there is for going out tops, no literature on this subject. Why, pray tell, the fuck not??? Arguably, pants are swayed more by the rapid tide of trends than tops. Just look at the current battle between low-rise and high-rise waistlines, the way skinny jeans replaced "mom jeans" only to be defeated once again by the sort of pants Jerry Seinfeld sported in the 1990s. Also, all pants are just now inexplicably culottes? Pants are in chaos, pants are crying for help. And still, we remain distracted and consumed by going out tops.

"Enough!!!!," I say. It's time for Going Out Pants to get the respect and attention they deserve. I am sick of looking upon a closet filled with going out tops, utterly confused about what to pair them with. In 2020, my hope is to acknowledge that Going Out Pants exist, and move toward a shared definition of them. They could be anything—we have the power to decide—but a few things to consider:

They must be somewhat comfortable, and not the sort of pants I've heard described as "standing room only," or, so tight around the thighs/butt that one cannot sit when wearing them.
They must be easy(ish) to remove, because Going Out typically involves drinking, which typically involves a lot of peeing.
They must be flirty, or somewhere on the spectrum between "cute" and "hot."

With these tenets in mind, let's consider the best contenders:

High-waisted, straight-leg jeans (blue or black)

Jackson Lee / Contributor via Getty

I'm lobbying for these first because they have been my go-to Going Out Pants for several years, after I donated my final pair of skinny jeans in 2017. The straight-leg silhouette is just better for my tushie and my thighs, which prefer having space to roam around. To me, this is the Platonic ideal for Going Out Pants, because they are widely available, almost uniformly flattering, and are plain enough to partner well with the most audacious going out top you own.

Leather/pleather leggings

gotpap/Bauer-Griffin / Contributor via Getty

I don't go to "clubs" but I imagine people who wear these pants do, as I mostly see them walking toward bars I don't think I'd be allowed into. I only ever have one question about this pants choice: Are you very sweaty under there??? OK, maybe two questions: How do you pee?? I am reminded of the episode of Friends where Ross gets stuck in his leather pants, and then gets covered in various substances to try and remove them. Still, black leather-ish leggings remain a worthy contender, if only because they are dressy, but also so plain. Anything can be worn with them.

Dickies

gotpap/Bauer-Griffin / Contributor via Getty

A certain type of woman who goes out in downtown Manhattan and shops at Urban Outfitters and Reformation almost definitely wears some form of Dickies as her Going Out Pants. This is fine, and even sort of a flex. "I am simply so hot, I can wear pants meant for labor to the bar, and I look great," is what these pants communicate. I like this as a Going Out Pant; they are comfortable, and it's cool to wear slacks with an unexpectedly "flirty" top (like a going out top).

Trousers

Raymond Hall / Contributor via Getty

Something I see supermodels doing a lot is wearing suits. Supermodels are hot, and so now my brain thinks trousers = hot??? It's Pavlovian, maybe, but so what? There is true virtue in trousers as a Going Out Pant: they're comfortable (plenty of leg/thigh room), they are multipurpose (can easily be worn to, say, a big meeting), and many trousers flow nicely and therefore look cool when you're moving around in them. Also, wearing really big pants feels powerful, and feeling powerful is good when Going Out.

Joggers/Sweatpants

ECP / Contributor via Getty

Sweatpants?!? you might be thinking. They're for lounging, not going out!!! Yes, precisely. Which means these are perhaps the most comfortable contender for Going Out Pants. Sweatsuits are cool now, and this is a gift to legs everywhere. Much like the aforementioned Dickies, sweats look especially cool when paired with a slinky going out top; a true business-on-the-bottom, party-on-top situation. But they also look cool when styled with a matching sweatshirt, which is perhaps the most powerful outfit to wear out in public, at nighttime.

A jumpsuit

Aside from the obvious issues a jumpsuit presents in the bathroom, it is perhaps the best going out option: A jumpsuit defies this psychological experiment, as it is simultaneously going out top and going out pants. Jumpsuits are somehow inherently sexy—like, Yeah, this outfit makes it look like I don't have a crotch, but I do. The economics of a jumpsuit can't be beat, as it's one of the rare, singular pieces of clothing that's actually an entire outfit. Also, because these are half top, there is already a whole world of going out jumpsuits, ripe for the picking.

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