Summer of Sports: Know the Aussie Rules

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

The Summer of Sports continues as Americans follow the offseason comings and goings of two of the four major sports, the third entering the business end of the season with its trade deadline passing and the fourth now beginning training camp. Meanwhile, fans in Europe are anticipating the beginning of the domestic league soccer season, and those in the British Commonwealth countries are following the game of cricket and the fierce rivalry between England and Australia for the Ashes. But down in Australia, it is in its winter, and it's the best time of year for sports there with two of their national winter sports rolling on with their seasons, while many are losing sleep to watch overseas action including their world champion cricket team. It also means one thing... Aussie Rules Football.

It's a sport that, like most others, is full of history, yet it is one that's unique in so many ways. It's a game that's played primarily in one country, but the thrills and sights of it are breathtaking and captivates fans & viewers around the world. And in a country that views sport as a much greater part of the national culture than the U.S., this is a game that is its contribution to world sports. The game enthralls fans everywhere with its unique brand of blistering speed, great skill and incredible courage exhibited by great athletes, in front of passionate and dedicated fans.

   This post on Australia's only natively-made sport is the first in our Summer of Sports series to focus on a sport or event that isn't as well known as those that we regularly follow here in America. However, thanks to both TV and technology, I've been watching AFL, or "footy" as it's referred to by fans, frequently over the years and have become amazed by the sights of a sport that is unique in so many ways. And it's more spectacular and more action-packed on a more breakneck pace than the stop-and-go nature of its American counterparts. That's the way it is in the Aussie Rules.

Summer of Sports: Poker's Biggest Bash

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

The Summer of Sports is when many of sports' biggest events take place during the three months when the weather is at its warmest. Every four years, it's the Summer Olympics, and between that quadrennium it's the FIFA World Cup...both events that stop the world. For tennis fans, the year's last three Grand Slams take place, with the biggest one Wimbledon taking place between the French and U.S. Opens. It's also the case for golf, with the U.S. Open, The Open Championship in Britain and the PGA Championship all taking place over the summer. The biggest annual race in cycling and arguably sports' toughest and most-enduring test, the Tour de France, takes place in Europe. And in America, there's the climax of the NBA and NHL seasons and horse racing's Triple Crown.

   It's also during the hottest season of the year that the biggest event in the world of card sports and gaming take place, and fittingly enough it takes place in that desert oasis & adult playground known as Las Vegas, NV. While fans were busy following the NBA and NHL playoffs, the World Series of Poker commenced its month & a half-long festival of tournaments as it marks its 45th anniversary this year. Even with events that have happened to the sport in recent years after the game's boom in the early & mid 2000's, the WSOP is bigger than ever with more events and prize money at stake.
   And just wrapped up last week is the bulk of what is the biggest in the slate of 68 events of various types of what is referred to as "poker's version of Woodstock"...the $10,000 No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em World Championship. The November Nine final table was determined in the early hours of Wednesday morning, July 15th, and when those players reconvene, a financial windfall awaits the player who emerges victorious when all the cards are dealt and the chips fall in one man's hands.

   In 1970, gambling icon and mob boss Benny Binion gathered together seven of poker's best-known players to his Horseshoe Casino along Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas for a single invitational tournament. But little did Binion & those players know at the time that their little get together would ultimately rise to becoming one of the year's biggest pop culture events and an event that has brought a relatively obscure sport into becoming one of America's favorite leisure activities.

Summer of Sports: The Most Epic Race of Them All

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

In this Summer of Sports, we have crowned champions in the NBA, NHL and European club soccer, saw our first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, saw a young golfer from Dallas win his 2nd straight major, and have just seen the U.S. win the FIFA Women's World Cup, among others. Now, with more trophies and medals still to be awarded in the next two months, an event unlike any other in a time-honored summer tradition is underway in Europe.

   For those who live for those sports where endurance is paramount, this is a favorite event for endurance sports fans. For those who take for granted the feeling of riding a bicycle, then this is the race those who love cycling look forward to more than other every year. And for those in a country that's as vast & as beautiful as France, the Tour de France is a national treasure. And in a time where U.S. sports fans' attention is on baseball, NBA free agency and NFL training camp, one of sports' most enduring events is taking place right now across the Atlantic.
   For 21 days of cycling spread out over the entire month of July, the Tour de France is perhaps the ultimate test in all of sports, testing will, strength, endurance and stamina against the backdrop of the beauty of France and its surrounding countries. From the streets and towns throughout the country, through fields of sunflowers and vineyards, into the majestic mountains of the Alps and Pyrenees, and culminating with a ride into one of the world's greatest cities, it's one of sports' most-compelling events and arguably the toughest test in all of sports.
   First organized by a local sports daily as a way to help increase sales in 1903, 101 editions later the event has become the grandest event in cycling. It reaches a worldwide television audience that, for three weeks, becomes gripped by the human drama of the sport's best all competing for their greatest prize: possession of the yellow jersey as the winner of the Tour when its last act plays out on one of the world's greatest streets in one of the world's greatest cities: the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Summer of Sports: A British Summer Tradition - Wimbledon

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

As the Summer of Sports turns the page to its second full month of July, this week the sports world's attention turns to a suburb of one of the world's greatest cities for one of its greatest events - Wimbledon. It is, quite simply, the most prestigious championship in all of tennis, as well as the sport's oldest tournament, and one that's full of history and rich in tradition. It's also a British institution that brings about sights of not just of the world's best tennis being played on its original surface of grass, but also queues outside the All-England Club, the always-present threat of rain hampering with the best-laid plans of the best players, the favorite dish of strawberries & cream and many traditions unique in a sport as modern as tennis and a country with old-school values as Great Britain.

   The Championships have grown from beginning as a small gathering in 1877, to now being the toast of tennis with nearly 500,000 people attending the two weeks of play at the complex, and reaching hundreds of millions worldwide via television and extensive media coverage. An additional 6,000 people are on site during the fortnight to perform jobs that have something to do with the tournament either as full-time, year-round Club employees or just for the tournament. And players from 60 countries join with the world's top-ranked players to play for a prize acknowledged as the universal symbol of excellence in their sport...one that's cherished by anyone who picks up a tennis racket.

   Every summer going back to when I was a kid, I look forward to watching Wimbledon and where tennis steps to the forefront of the sports scene. It's an event that is at the heart of a sport that was once the domain of the rich & wealthy, and for which every trip to it brings fans and viewers back to simpler times. The appeal of it brings an affection for the event that I have, and is something that never gets old.

Summer of Sports: What's This Soccer Speak?!

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

The Summer of Sports rolls on, and after both a compelling NBA Finals and Stanley Cup, the focus shifts to baseball, major championship golf, Wimbledon which begins next week, the wheeling and dealing of free agency, and most especially the sport that's referred to worldwide as football, but commonly called in this country, soccer. The FIFA Women's World Cup begins its quarterfinal phase this weekend, while the COMEBOL Copa America tournament continues down in Chile, and the young men from Serbia bask in their FIFA U-20 World Cup upset win over Brazil.

   Soccer has grown leaps and bounds in mainstream exposure here in the United States, and of course, it was last year's FIFA World Cup in Brazil that had something to do with that. The sport is more popular than ever in anglophone America, in addition to the traditional hotbed of Hispanics and those migrants who brought this game to our shores. Those who avidly follow the beautiful game know that there's a dictionary all it's own when it comes to following the sport that, outside of the U.S., Canada and Australia, is referred to worldwide as football.

   For sports fans like me, there's a lot of words, lingo and jargon we use in following, covering and watching the sports we love. We use it everyday when we talk about the players, teams and events, and often it sticks out so much it even applies to everyday life as well. It might be a bit complicated for those outside of the hardcore soccer fanbase to find out what the lingo of a game growing in interest in this country at first, but when you get the hang of it, you'll catch on to the unique glossary of the world game. After the jump, DCBLOG brings you a sampling of the words that's used in the world of soccer.

Summer of Sports: It's Major - Golf's Biggest Stage

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

As two sports step aside, this week sees the world's top golfers converge for the first time on the Pacific Northwest for golf's 2nd major championship of the year, the U.S. Open. Out for the four tournaments that mean the most in the game, this is the most rigorous test of its kind. This is part of a journey that takes golf fans from that great Spring tradition of Augusta in April and all the way to August to determine the best players in golf when the spotlight is shone the brightest on their sport.

   Being someone who watches a good amount of the Golf Channel and weekend PGA TOUR coverage on the networks, as well as my bro in law being an occasional golfer, I've gained a great appreciation for golf over time. And much like every other event in the sports world, I look forward to the time when it becomes the big sport during a particular weekend and where there's more attention paid to the game than in a given week on Tour.

In American sports, the number "16" is a significant one: the Summer and Winter Olympics both take place over 16 full days of competition, a fortnight spanning three weekends. It takes 16 wins for a team to win the NBA championship or hoist the Stanley Cup. There's 16 games in an NFL regular season, and we give the Regional Semifinal round of NCAA March Madness the nickname Sweet 16. The knockout stage of the FIFA World Cup and most other continental soccer tournaments begins with 16 teams, and each of the four Grand Slam events in tennis take place over two weeks.

   For golf, 16 is the total number of days (barring extra days due to weather and/or a playoff if necessary) that the year's four major championships are played, taking place from April to August. Along with the PGA Tour's flagship event - THE PLAYERS, the fall match play team competitions, World Golf Championships and events on other tours, it's The Masters, The U.S. Open, The Open Championship in Great Britain and the PGA Championship that are the tournaments that matter, both to the golfers and to the public. They are the most-prestigious annual tournaments in the sport and bring the casual sports fan & TV viewer to join the game's avid followers to the events that mean the most in a sport rich in tradition and history.

Summer of Sports: The Greatest Fighting Show on Earth

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

At our house, my family maintains an extensive library of VHS tapes and DVD's covering all sorts of genres, from movies to concerts, sports and more. For me inside a few red storage boxes, I have nearly 60 tapes that have about 300 hours' worth of Olympic coverage (mostly from since Beijing 2008), plus most every Super Bowl, Grammys and other events & shows I've recorded in the last 20 years. Sometimes I would always like to think of my VCR as sort of the poor man's TiVo.

   Somewhere deep in our collection is a tape that one of my dad's co-workers gave him back about 20 years ago in 1994, and it's of the 2nd & 3rd editions of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Back then, this tape might not have been as significant or as huge as any other sports event. But in the long term, it would be part of the beginning stages to what is now a billion-dollar industry that's now a big part of our sports landscape, something those pioneers back then could never have imagined.

Over the years, we have all wondered about which sport can step up to become the next big thing in the American sports landscape. The NBA came back from a dark decade of the '70s to become a worldwide phenomenon. NASCAR would overtake open-wheel racing to become the premier form of motor sports here. Golf has benefited from Tiger Woods' dominance to see enormous growth in the entire sport worldwide. After a devastating lockout 10 years ago, the NHL has recovered to see great growth on both sides of the border. And as the record interest & viewership of the 2014 World Cup proved, soccer has come of age in mainstream America.

   It's also the same thing when you talk UFC and mixed martial arts. It has done what no one ever thought would be possible when it began in 1993: overtake boxing to become the most popular combat sport among U.S. sports fans. What began as just a sport that intended on bringing together all forms of martial arts into the same octagon would then go through a dark period when a powerful Senator threatened to bring it all down. But thanks to a move towards the sport becoming more regulated, its purchase by new investors and a new TV show, the UFC would eventually experience a resurgence that would bring the sport full circle to the point where it's not just a niche sport, but now fully in the mainstream. Although my family still prefers the sweet science, I'm starting to appreciate mixed martial arts and the excitement & intensity of it.

Summer of Sports: These Are The Champions...

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

If Super Sports Saturday of May 2, 2015 was any indication, then we are in one of the best times of the year for sports fans. Postseason is ongoing in the NBA and NHL, baseball is starting to hit its stride, the NFL just had its Draft, horse racing's Triple Crown is once again taking shape, and boxing is bigger than ever. And on the horizon is the traditional Summer of Sports with not only those events, but also major golf and tennis, big UFC fights and the world championships & Grand Prix seasons in Olympic sports as preparations for Rio 2016 approach the "one year to go" marker.
   For fans of soccer - football or futbol outside anglophone North America, this is the best time of the year. The domestic European league seasons have reached their conclusion, and the annual international summer soccer tournaments have arrived. This year in the post-men's World Cup summer of 2015, the FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada and the Copa America in South America will take center stage starting this weekend, along with the FIFA Under-20 World Cup currently ongoing in New Zealand. And while playoff fever sets in for those in arenas in North America, it's Cup Fever that has spread throughout the continents, with the finals of the cup competitions to be played at the end of the season.

Outside of the FIFA World Cup, the English Premier League and Spain's La Liga, it has become the most followed football competition in the world. It has one of the most prestigious prizes in all of sports, and is the epitome of soccer at its very best. Elite clubs from all over the continent that is at the heart of the world game play every year over an entire season to find who is the best club in all of Europe. It culminates with the sport's equivalent of the Super Bowl: an event watched by more people than any other annual sporting event, exceeding that of America's biggest unofficial national holiday.

   The UEFA Champions League is the blue-riband event of European football, where the best clubs in Europe compete on a stage unlike any other in soccer. Organized by the governing body of the sport in Europe, the Union of European Football Associations, it's become a phenomenon that has seen the continent's greatest teams and many of the world's biggest players play under the lights. It brings together countries both big & small in a season-long competition mirroring that of national team competitions comprising of qualifying, group play and knockout matches, all leading up to a beginning of summer final match in Europe's greatest stadiums.
   And when you hear the operatic theme music play at the beginning of matches when the players walk onto the pitch, you know it is the best atmosphere in all of sports. And the ones who emerge as the one receive glory and a financial windfall, but most importantly, the title of being Europe's best.