Baseball: Triple play Yankees

A triple play is a rare and crazy sight in baseball, and the New York Yankees pulled one off against the Baltimore Orioles a couple of nights ago (courtesy of Deadspin).

Football: The Kit Man and Mourinho

Jose Mourinho may not be the most popular man in football, but the man with the giant ego does turn out to have a softer side, as revealed in this remarkable story from Sports Illustrated about the volunteer kit man from Los Angeles who Mourinho took on the trip of a lifetime.

"Abel Rodríguez is a 41-year-old Mexican-American who waxes floors in Los Angeles for Metro Transportation. Real Madrid's José Mourinho is one of the world's most famous managers...

How did Rodríguez become Mourinho's American good luck charm and end up meeting Sir Alex Ferguson, Cristiano Ronaldo, Diego Maradona, Mesut Özil, Kaká and Javier (Chicharito) Hernández?"

It's a great read, in a time when the gulf between football's elite and their fans has never been greater, it is the sort of story that makes one realise that they can engage with their public in an endearing and human way in the right circumstances.

Rugby: After Cardiff Wales and England can look at the positives

Wales' Six Nations triumph restored clarity to the northern hemisphere after confusing season. The Welsh have re-established themselves Europe's best team, as they were a year ago, England are much improved but not contenders yet, and the rest are in various states of rebuilding. Yet in many quarters the result has been reported as a disaster for the English, a grand slam choke akin to 1999, 2000 and 2001, yet this does a disservice to both teams.

For the Welsh, reducing the result to an English failure undersells the team that won a grand slam a year ago and was the best in this year's tournament. A disastrous first half in the opening game against Ireland was all that kept them from a repeat. From half-time in that match onwards, they were the best side, scoring the most tries and points, and conceding the least. However, due to their terrible summer and autumn series, the media narrative was that Rob Howley's tenure as interim head coach was failing and the team had lost its way.

This analysis was grounded in truth. The summer 3-0 defeat by middling Australia side, who seemed ripe for defeat on home soil, was a huge disappointment. The resulting confidence blow cast a shadow over the autumn, when the side looked listless and uninspired, most notably in the defeat by Samoa.

They had not become a bad team overnight though, once the confidence returned in the second half against Ireland, they were back. But they had been written off by the this point, and with England unbeaten through four games, few pundits noticed that the Welsh were clearly the better team, because that did not fit the narrative of a team in crisis and of England marching to a grand slam.

For England, painting it as a disaster does not accurately reflect their position. They were never the grand slam team they were hyped up to be, but in a little over a year they have made huge strides. Disappointment that they failed to meet unrealistically high expectations should not be laid at the feet of the team.

That is not to say that there are not problems, but they can be ironed out. Stuart Lancaster and Andy Farrell's comments after the game were humble and reflected a staff that knows what needs to be done, although this was later undermined by the public criticism of referee Steve Walsh. Asking the IRB about Walsh's decision-making is legitimate, but should be done behind closed doors. The scrum was a serious problem for England in the game, selecting Joe Marler ahead of the stronger scrummager Mako Vunipola was a mistake and Wales' focus on scrummaging instead of the refereeing paid dividends. Adam Jones' strong performance has probably won him the Lions' tighthead spot, especially after Dan Cole's unusually poor showing.

England's other problems were easily identified. Their lack of a pure ball-winning openside was one, as Justin Tipuric and Sam Warburton dominated the breakdown. Chris Robshaw has been a revelation as an international player and a captain, but is not a conventional openside in that sense. If he is going to be England's number seven, he needs support from the rest of the back row, the balance of which is something that will need further scrutiny.

Lancaster and his staff also need to create a greater threat in the backline, one try in four games is not enough, and though none of the starting backs are bad players, they lack cutting edge. Manu Tuilagi is a wrecking ball, capable of great performances, such as against New Zealand last year, but needs to use this threat to make space for his team mates and pass the ball to those outside him. Improving the quality of his handling skills would be a start. Further wide, the damage done by Alex Cuthbert for Wales highlighted the lack of quality wingers in white. Chris Ashton has not played well for England in 18 months and should be dropped until he finds some consistent form and confidence, he does not have enough of an all-round game to stay in the side when not scoring tries. Mike Brown has impressed as a rugby player, and was unlucky to lose his full-back spot to the rapidly maturing Alex Goode, but now that he has, he is out of position on the wing. There is an exciting crop of athletic wingers currently in the Premiership, it would be good to see Christian Wade, Tom Varndell, Charlie Sharples and Jonny May given opportunities in Argentina.

England should not be tricked by the media reaction into changing course. An inexperienced side has come a long way since Lancaster took over, and if the right lessons are learned and applied, there will be many more opportunities. For Wales, the win marked the end of a topsy-turvy twelve months and a return to their rightful place as kings of the north. This is a familiar cycle for them though, each recent grand slam, 2005, 2008, 2012, has been followed by disappointments and unfulfilled expectations. When they resume in the autumn, their challenge will be to take the next step and start challenging the southern hemisphere giants on a regular basis.

Cricket: Beyond a Boundary remembered fifty years on

Half a century after the publication of one of the great books about sport, C.L.R. James' Beyond a Boundary, his wife Selma, a respected author, has written a piece in The Guardian remembering the book's writing and its impact. Beyond a Boundary is not just about cricket, it is about culture, history and society and how they are inextricably entangled with the game. It is essential reading, not only for fans of cricket, but for anyone interested in the role that sport can play in national identity and culture.

Cricket: Australia's woes

As bad as England have been on their current tour of New Zealand, Australia have been worse on their tour of India. This does not mean that England have bragging rights, especially if they lose the test and the series in Auckland tonight. However as Greg Baum of The Age runs the rule over Australia's tour and analyses their problems, England are at least clear of many of the uncertainties that are plaguing their rivals. Nonetheless, both teams' struggles, in a double Ashes year, suggest that they will not be vintage series, at least as far as the standard of cricket goes, although that does preclude them from being exciting.

Kits: The Adidas archive

Adidas have lauched a project, opening up their archive of historic sporting equipment to be explored via their website. For fans of design and sport, it's well worth a look.

Olympics: Wrestling with the political game

For wrestling to get back into the Olympics, it must win the vote against new contenders: rollers sports, karate, wushu, baseball and softball, squash, climbing and wakeboarding. Some, such as roller sports, don't have the history that wrestling does, but others, such as wushu and karate, have extensive histories, and international appeal. It would therefore be a mistake to rely on sentimental arguments.

These are also sports that have been lobbying for years and are used to the campaigning involved. A failure to recognise the need for lobbying, was a factor in Wrestling being voted out, as shown by its defeat by modern pentathlon, a fair less popular sport, but one with a similar sentimental claim, and a powerful lobby behind it, led by Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, the son of the former IOC President.

The first item on the agenda should be finding powerful and persuasive figureheads to offset the lack of countries with a strong wrestling tradition on the executive committee. The IOC have a history of being won over by international leaders (see Tony Blair's influence on winning London the 2012 games), so public shows of support for wrestling from Vladimir Putin and Donald Rumsfeld should be used to open doors and persuade voters. Putin could be especially influential, as the IOC executive committee is meeting in St Petersburg in May, and Russia is a traditional Olympic powerhouse. Similarly, wrestling is a national pastime in a number of populous nations that may become future powerhouses, such as Turkey (a possible host in 2020), and Iran.

Next, FILA (wrestling's governing body) needs to recognise that gender equality is one of the driving forces in recent IOC decision making. The committee has been looking to equalise the number of sports and events open to each gender, hence the opening up of female boxing, and the inclusion of sports such as trampoline gymnastics and synchronised swimming can be seen as a part of the same movement. Although Olympic wrestling opened up to female competitors in 2004, it has four weight classes, as opposed to 14 for men. Were a female only sport, such as netball, added to the games, that might offset the imbalance, but none are up for inclusion at the moment. Instead, the rise of female competition in the United States and Japan offers a blueprint for the future. Reduce or eliminate the imbalance, and committee members will have one less reason to drop the sport. This is a move that FILA should be making regardless. As boxing and weightlifting have shown, the days of male-only disciplines are rightly dying out.

Finally, the wrestling campaigners need to tackle some of the IOC's views on their sport. Wrestling may be old, but has a great deal of participants, with more medal winners at London 2012, than the modern pentathlon had participants (29 and 26, respectively). If modern pentathlon, invented by the father of the modern games Pierre de Coubertin, is being retained for historical reasons, then wrestling has a stronger claim on those grounds. It has also improved its record on doping, and was popular in attendance and televisual terms in London.

Perhaps IOC's real intention is not to drop wrestling, but to fire a shot across its bows. FILA was warned in 2002 that the sport needed to change, and appears to have failed to heed those warnings. Early indications would suggest that there is plenty of introspection in wrestling circles at the moment, so perhaps the IOC has succeeded in persuading FILA to reform. Perhaps the committee will also be chastened enough by the bad publicity following their decision, that some members waver. Others may be willing to ride it out though.

There is a wider question about what should be an Olympic sport. A gold medal should be the pinnacle of each sport that is part of the games, and the record of the likes of tennis and football is poor in this regard. Many remain unconvinced that golfers will ever value a medal over winning a major. For wrestling, the Olympic Games is the pinnacle, and the battle is persuading the executive committee that both parties need each other. In truth though, wrestling needs the Olympics, far more than the Olympics need wrestling, at least for now.