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.