The Useless Tree

Sports

  • Friday Yi Jing Blogging: Predicting a Williams College Football Victory

    It's been a long time since my last Friday Yi Jing blogging.  I return to it today with a local focus.  In my tutorial on ancient Chinese philosophy today I was referring to the Yi Jing and decided to consult… Continue reading

  • Confucius and Zhuangzi on the Georgetown-Bayi Basketball Fight

    It was pretty ugly.   One of the things that struck me was that this was a professional Chinese team.  And they were being schooled by a US college team.  You would think their professional pride would have led them to… Continue reading

  • Thoughts on the Yankees’ Loss

    The New York Yankees lost the Americal League Championship series to the Texas Rangers last night.  An old high school friend (Hi Richard!) facebooked me and asked for any solace that might be gained from ancient Chinese philosophy.  As a… Continue reading

  • Derek Jeter is a Sunzi Warrior, not a Confucian Gentleman

    Captain of the New York Yankees, shortstop Derek Jeter, last week feigned that he had been hit by a pitch and was awarded first base.  He hammed it up a bit but, as replays clearly demonstrated, he had not been… Continue reading

  • Daoist Advice for the New York Yankees

    It's been an eventful week for Daoist Yankee fans. Lost two out of three to the lowly Orioles, swept by the Rangers, and dropped another two out of three to Tampa Bay.  We've slipped to a half game out in… Continue reading

  • Sun Tzu and the World Cup

    I’ve watched a couple of World Cup matches (US/England; Brazil/NK; some of Spain/Switzerland) and Sun Tzu has come to mind…. On first thought, it is a bit difficult to apply Sun Tzu to soccer (football…).  The battle situations that he… Continue reading

  • Reflections on an English Goalkeeper

    Wow.  A day after I post about the World Cup, the vagaries of Tao are revealed to the fullest.  The English clearly outplayed the US on Saturday but Robert Green the English goalkeeper let through an improbable score that allowed… Continue reading

  • World Cup Tao

    I haven’t blogged on sports lately but the just-begun World Cup has brought athletic competition to mind… As I have noted in the past, I am a Taoist NY Yankees fan.  Some might find that paradoxical (how could a Taoist… Continue reading

  • Regression toward the Tao

    I find Taoist hints in all sorts of places.  This morning, during my usual perusal of the Sunday NYT, I hit upon this story in the Sports section: "To hang In, a World Series winner Must Learn to Let Go." … Continue reading

  • Taoist Thoughts on the Yankees 27th World Series Title

    Passage 2 of the Daodejing: All beneath heaven knows beauty is beauty only because there's ugliness, and knows good is good, only because there's evil. Being and nonbeing give birth to one another, difficult and easy complete one another, long… Continue reading