For reasons both salutary and pecuniary, I missed out on two of the most hyped events of the year: the NFL Draft and the Fight of the Century. The former was a tediously speculative exercise; the latter, by most accounts, was a disappointingly impotent encounter between the aging yet extravagantly rewarded boxers Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
Who would have thought that the L.A. Clippers would provide the most stirring action of the weekend, their Game 7 triumph against the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs? Then there was the Kentucky Derby, a classic in which decrepitude is never an issue — all the contestants are 3 years old — which had three California-based horses, led by American Pharoah, battling down the homestretch.
The Derby is billed as “the most exciting two minutes in sports,” which brings me to track and field, a favorite sport of mine that also has an oval as its setting. A very exciting two minutes transpired last month when San Marcos High sophomore Erica Schroeder competed in the girls’ 800-meter run at the prestigious Arcadia Invitational.