Letters to the Editor

Phelps, Phelps, Phelps The American phenom has been annoyingly omnipresent. That's too bad, because there are other things happening, and because he's not annoying. King Kaufman [2008-08-14]

• Beach Volleyball

  I find it excruciatingly boring, and the only reason we see it so much is because an American duo composed of two passably attractive women are the best in the world. Okay, one more reason is that it is probably pretty tv friendly in that the games are short and simple and the space is small, requiring few cameras.

  As an experiment of sorts, during a men's match of America v. Germany, I counted points starting early in the first set to see how many times the point was finished by the end of one "possession" (that is, the point was over without the serving team doing anything more than blocking a shot or failing to return the receiving team's shot). Of the next 50 points, 45 (give or take) met this criterion. There were two actual rallies of any note, and two or three blocks that were kept alive for one more possession. That makes an average possession not much more than 4 hits (including the serve, but not counting blocks).

  This match may not be typical, but the announcers never mentioned as much.

  -- J M F Q
  [Read J M F Q's other letters]
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