Debuting the official LucidSportsFan Rio 2016 Olympics logo

The Olympics are just a week away, so it's about time to reveal the official Rio 2016 LucidSportsFan logo.  If you're wondering why that's even a thing, I don't blame you.

It's ESPN's fault.  At the 2014 winter Olympics the network made up its own very unimpressive Sochi logo, so I decided to take a crack at it as well.  Now it's back again:

My logo uses the colors of all five rings, is shaped like the sun for summer time and emphasizes green and yellow in homage to Brazil.  Your move, ESPN.


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Lottery tickets make convenience stores very inconvenient

When I go into convenience stores, I'm usually in a bit of a hurry.  More often than not, it's just a quick stop while I'm on the way to somewhere else.  That's what they're designed for, hence the name.  However, one aspect of them is decidedly inconvenient--the person who somehow always seems to be standing in front of me at the counter buying lottery tickets.

I honestly believe that roughly 50 percent of the total time I spend in 7-Eleven, Cumberland Farms, Tedeschi's, etc. is just waiting in line behind somebody getting lotto tickets.  Why do there have to be so many different kinds of scratch tickets anyways?  And why do the people purchasing them care so much about which ones they get?  The conversation with the store clerk usually goes something like this:

"I'll take two of those, on the top.  No, no, those--to the left.  Yeah.  And four of those, down at the bottom.  Not there, there.  Yeah, OK.  No, four of them.  OK, also two of that one over there.  No, there.  Yeah.  How much is that?  But I thought this one was $3?  It's $5?  OK, never mind, put those two back and get me one of that one in the middle instead.  No that one.  Yeah."

By now I've already drank the coffee I made for my trip to work and am debating just leaving without paying for it.


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Marcus Smart just needs to not be one of the worst NBA shooters ever

This is from CBS Sports' Zach Harper:

Since the NBA started caring about players shooting quality shots and not just chucking anything and everything like they did in the 1950s, Marcus Smart is the worst shooter in NBA history through his first two seasons. He has the lowest field-goal percentage (35.7) ever for a player in his first two seasons (with at least 3,000 total minutes) and he has the lowest true shooting percentage (47.6), as well.

Yikes.  Out of 218 players with at least 400 attempts last season (roughly five per game), Smart finished dead last in field-goal percentage at .348 (184-529).  He actually regressed from his rookie season, during which he shot .367 (175-477).

Overall Smart's numbers were very similar from his first year in the league to his second, which is why he cracks Harper's list (the article linked above) of guys poised to break out in their third season--the Celtics "just need him to no longer be historically bad at making shots."

I wrote this for CelticsLife in March, making the case that his shooting should improve:
How worried are you about Marcus Smart's terrible shooting lately?

A year ago Smart dislocated two fingers on his right hand while playing in summer league, which cost him a chance to spend the offseason working on his jumper.  No excuses this time around.


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What if the party conventions swapped audiences? Democrats speaking to Republicans and visa versa

I don't pay too much attention to politics, but after watching a bit of both the Republican and Democratic conventions I've come to the conclusion that there is something fundamentally silly about both of them.  In each case, the speakers are "preaching to the choir" for the most part.

They don't need to sell the audiences on what they're saying--the people listening already agree with them.  I feel like the goal of the speakers should be to try to convince the undecided's to swing their way and target the opposites party's less supportive members, not appeal to the masses of their own party.

So even though I thought this video was kind of cool (I love the song, and the Pitch Perfect style of it), I doubt it's going to win over many Republicans who aren't that enamored with their candidate:



Try filling the Democratic convention with a Republican audience and visa versa.  I'd love to hear the kind of speeches we'd get then...


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I'd like to see a genetically engineered strawberry with mint flavored leaves

I had this idea while prepping the bar the other day for strawberry mojitos.  First, I was ripping the useful mint leaves off the stalk, then I was slicing the useless strawberry leaves off the fruit.  Bingo.

Once somebody genetically engineers a strawberry with mint-flavored leaves, bartenders will be able to just throw the whole thing in the glass and start muddling.  And that's just option one--we've got a blackberry-basil margarita on the menu that could be easier to make as well...

If they can already put any flavor in the world in soda water (or jelly beans), this sort of technology can't be that far away, right?


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Awesome Old Song of the Week: "Push" by Matchbox 20

My favorite Matchbox 20 song is actually Unwell, but it didn't come out until 2003, and that's just not old enough.  Push is a close second, off of their 1996 album Yourself or Someone Like You.

I have nothing even the slightest bit interesting to say about Matchbox 20, other than I enjoyed some of their music.  I mean really, nothing--they have maybe the most boring Wikipedia page I've ever seen for a rock band.




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12 years ago today: The brawl that changed MLB history

Saturday, July 24, 2004:

A night earlier, Curt Schilling blew a 4-1 lead in the sixth inning at Fenway and the Red Sox fell 9.5 games behind the Yankees in the AL East.

Boston trailed New York 3-0 in the third inning when Jason Varitek decided enough was enough:



In the fourth the Sox pulled ahead 4-3, but the Yanks put up six runs in the sixth to take a 9-4 lead.  Boston immediately cut it to 9-8 in the bottom half of the inning, then a two-run shot by Bill Mueller in the ninth off Mariano Rivera gave the Sox an 11-10 walk-off win:



Three months later, the Red Sox were World Series champions for the first time in 86 years.  If Boston hadn't won that game, I'm guessing the greatest sports story of my lifetime (read that, I promise it's worth it) would never have happened.


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