It seems Wayne Rooney had a convincing start in his Man. Utd. debut against Fenerbahce. Let's see whether his form continues in the Premiership, and whether Man. Utd. can match the consistency of Arsenal this season. A good win for Newcastle at the weekend has helped them continue up to sixth in the table under Souness's management.
Went out with Andy last night to watch Monday night football, in the Time Out bar on Amsterdam at 76th. The Redskins lost out to the Cowboys 21-18, missing the chance to even things up with a field-goal at the last, as the clock beat them to it. We didn't really see much of the match, as we were busy catching up. Also, it is quite difficult to get into a match with the constant interruptions for adverts. Good to see Eddie George keeping himself busy following his retirement from the Bank of England.
There was another sport underway throughout the night in the bar itself. Tables slightly longer than a pool table were each laden with 20 plastic pint cups, ten at each end of the table in the shape of an equilateral triangle (with sides four cups in length). Each cup contained about an inch of beer. Two teams of two took it in turns to throw (without a bounce) a ping-pong ball into the opposing team's cups ("win a goldfish at the fair" style). Success results in the opposition downing the cup. The team that clears the opposing team's cups first is declared the winner.
The beauty of the game is the degradation in performance suffered by the losing team due to the increased alcohol intake. It's also a nice touch that the American obsession with cleanliness doesn't go away, even in the throes of drunkenness, a dip-cup being used to clean the balls after they've been on the floor. Some of the players we saw could easily have won scholarships on the back of their performances.
Tonight's Yankees game in the Bronx has been cancelled due to the remnants of Jeanne hitting New York tonight. Flood warnings are interrupting Law and Order, Special Victims Unit as we speak. The Yankees also had a night off last night, during which, Boston won their game in hand, taking them within three games. Boston are at Tampa tonight and have just gone into extra innings tied at eight apiece. A win would put the pressure on the Yankees in their double-header tomorrow night. A loss would probably leave the Yankees free to win their division.
